Democrats Faced With Reality - The Unraveling of Obamacare

President Obama’s unpopular health care law has been under fire in recent weeks, but not just from Republicans. In fact, as the ARRA News noted yesterday,  Democrats have turned against several portions of the law.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal editors wrote, “The Affordable Care Act has been a running series of nasty non-surprises, with many more on the way — gird yourself for 116% insurance premium increases — but sometimes the surprises are real. Take the amazing bipartisan turn against the 2.3% tax on medical device makers, even among liberals who still evince no remorse for voting for the overall bill three years ago. . . . The vote was 79 to 20, well over the two-thirds supermajority required to override President Obama's threatened veto. More amazing still, the 33 Democratic and one independent defectors didn't merely come from device-making states like Massachusetts (Elizabeth Warren and Mo Cowan) or Minnesota (Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, the main cosponsor of the amendment with Utah's Orrin Hatch). They included the Senate Budget Chairman, Patty Murray of Washington, and Illinois's Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 leader. New York's Chuck Schumer—Majority Leader in waiting—climbed aboard, as did otherwise conventional progressives like Maryland's Barbara Mikulski and Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal.”

Politico adds, “Thirty-four Senate Democrats joined Republicans on Thursday night in a nonbinding but overwhelming vote to repeal a key tax in President Barack Obama's health reform law. . . . [I]t has huge political significance as momentum builds for bipartisan consensus to get rid of another piece of Obamacare. . . . Democrats have slowly started to support the measure in larger numbers. In December, 19 Democrats signed on to a letter asking Reid to delay the tax.”

In another piece, Politico writes, “Proving that the Obamacare wars are far from over, the health reform law was one of the favorite targets of amendments during Friday night's ‘vote-a-rama’ on the Senate floor. Dozens of amendments were filed to the budget resolution picking apart various elements of health care policy: whether employers should provide contraceptives in their insurance policies, whether a tax should be imposed on medical device-makers, whether Medicare can adjust payments based on the state. . . . Of the more than 100 amendments considered, more than 20 were related to health care, Medicare or the health reform law . . . . The biggest victory for the law's opponents came on Thursday, when 79 senators — including all Republicans and 34 Democrats — voted to strike the law's tax on medical device-makers. The Senate also passed by voice vote a measure to repeal the law's $2,500 cap on flexible spending accounts and eliminate the requirement that consumers get a doctor's prescription before using FSA or health savings account money on over-the-counter prescriptions.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told Politico, “It's the beginning of the unraveling of the Obama health care law. . . . Now that the Supreme Court has ruled and the president has been reelected, Democrats are being honest with the fact that this law is loaded with flaws.”

It’s worth remembering that these are not the only pieces of Obamacare where there was bipartisan support for repealing. In fact, two majorly problematic aspects of the law have already been repealed: the CLASS Act, which, after being demonstrated to be unworkable was finally repealed in the fiscal cliff legislation in January, and the onerous 1099 reporting provision that would have crushed small businesses with paperwork requirements.

Although Republicans have been eager to dismantle some of the worst parts of this law, many of us question if they - the republicans who have the majority in the House and the republicans in the senate, although in the minority, - are truly committed to the ending of this onerous and burdensome Federal Health Care act. Some members keep repeating their commitment. However, talk is cheap and 100% commitment is needed.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly said, "In my view, Obamacare is a colossal mistake for our country. There’s just no way to fix it. It needs to be pulled out by its roots and we need to start over. This bill needs to be repealed and replaced – not with another unreadable law or another 20,000 pages of regulations – but with common-sense reforms that actually lower health care costs. And anyone who thinks we’ve given up that fight is dead wrong.”

Where do your two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative stand on repealing Obamacare? Do they appear willing to duck behind some grand compromises and fail to protect the greatest private healthcare system in the world by getting our of the way?

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