The House of Representatives just passed a continuing resolution bill, one which provides funding for every aspect of Government, except Obamacare.
Media pundits have declared that the Republican majority is playing with fire by passing legislation which will face stiff opposition, if not die in the Democratically-controlled US Senate.
Then again, President Obama played with fire in forcing this legislation through Congress, where the final bill received no Republican support and even some Democratic opposition. Democrats and Republicans across the country turned out to townhall meetings in 2009, rejecting this bill. Some meetings became fierce and fearful, as US Senators attempted to instill some stability, shocked that voters would reject this massive restructuring of the health care industry with forced mandates, Medicare exchanges, plus the tens of thousands of pages of regulations (and growing).
Obamacare (officially yet insupportably referred to as the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act) is one unpopular piece of legislation. The American people to do not like it, and the polling has consistently demonstrated their continuing disgust with it. Businesses big and small are cutting hours and laying off staff rather than attempt to comply with this costly and complicated law. Members of Congress are scrambling to cull support and provide information, much of it distorted or unclear, to their constituents.
States which have enacted Medicare exchanges are losing insurance companies, who refuse to join, have left the state, or have ended their health insurance coverage altogether. The youth cohorts in this country still do not know that they must purchase health insurance or pay a fine. Doctors are leaving their medical practice because of the prolix demands of the law.
In addition to signing into law piecemeal repeals of the legislation, President Obama has unilaterally undone one key element of his signature legacy: the employer mandate, which he has illegally delayed until 2015. The law still faces legal resistance in the federal courts, and the timelines for key portions of the law have been skipped over or delayed.
Despite President Obama’s best efforts to prove that he cares, the damage of Obamacare has already been done. Part-time employment has become a full-time reality for American workers. Fast food employees are slowly waking up to the reality that stagnant wages and missing opportunities have everything to do with progressively bigger government taking away economic recovery.
While President Obama’s relentless campaigning has worn off on voters, the House of Representatives continues to represent the people, and the Senate Minority continues to remind voters, pollsters, and activists alike of the dangers of this law.
The House of Representatives features the fullest dislike of this law. Like a doctor feeling the pulse of a patient, the House delegation best represents the interests of the average voter, as the lower chamber follows from the direct election of the people. All appropriations legislation must begin the House of Representatives, per the United States Constitution, and there the fight for fiscal sanity, and political savvy, begins.
(For the record, President Obama has chosen to ignore the Constitution, while our nation’s enduring charter, on many occasions, like executive orders for gun control and promises to strike foreign countries without Congressional approval)
House Speaker John Boehner could not have announced the intentions of his caucus and the country any clearer with the passage of their fund-defund legislation: “The American people do not want a shut-down, and they do not want ObamaCare.”
The House passed a bill which averts a shut down, yet shuts down funding for one of the most controversial and convoluted pieces of legislation in modern America history
From President Obama’s election in 2008 until today, voters in this country wanted President Obama to care about them, to care about the rising costs of health care inflicted by his misguided, overwhelming, and inherently dysfunctional, hyperpartisan piece of legislation. He should prove his caring and support the House bill to continue funding for the government without spending one more dime on ill-conceived Obamacare.
During the 2012 election one woman repeated to the President during a town hall meeting: “I am exhausted. . .” of defending the president, his administration, the mantle of change that she had voted for.”
President Obama needs to show that she cares about her, and about every other American still struggling from day to day, still seeking work, trying to hold onto their health care, and striving to maintain a quality of life which they can leave for their children.
President Obama, show that you care: vote for the bill that will fund the government and defund Obamacare.