Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

So, now, the House Republicans want to delay the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act for one year in exchange for avoiding a government shutdown. What, exactly, do they think will be different in a year?

Will they find a “nice” way to strip health-insurance coverage from almost 24 million previously uninsured people (mostly children and young adults)? Will they develop a plan to replace the ACA since the situation prior to the legislation was simply unsustainable? Mind you, we have yet to see a plan--or even any ideas--for an alternative after three and a half years. How will they deal with the increasing budget deficits because of out-of-control healthcare costs and the extra $29 billion lost in taxes on medical devices over the coming years?

And where do they get the insane idea that they‘re representing the “will of the American people?” Poll after poll shows that Americans like the provisions of the ACA (under whatever name you want to use). And even more people want Congress to stop messing around with a government shutdown and a debt-ceiling crisis. The people spoke in the last election; one tiny fraction of neo-conservatives doesn‘t get to hold the government or the American citizens hostage while they have a temper tantrum because they lost the election.

Maybe they are under the delusion that they‘re somehow going to win such large majorities in Congress in the 2014 elections that they can override the president‘s veto of their defunding of the ACA. <shrug>

Whatever they‘re smoking, I don‘t want to inhale the second-hand smoke.