Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Obama Care and the Debt Ceiling

With my first post, I want to talk about the issue that inspired me to start this blog.  Very soon, Congress will have to vote to raise the federal government's statutory debt limit.  The limit is currently at $14.3 trillion.

At the end of 2010, the Republicans retook control of the U.S. House, in a sea change election based in large part on public disgust with the ballooning size of the federal government, with the bail outs, with the "stimulus", and with one piece of legislation in particular: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare.

But the anti-Obama Care party only controls one half of one of the three branches of government.  As has already been shown, and as was obvious anyway, Republicans in Congress have no ability to push through repeal by ordinary legislative means.  Obama Care simply will not be repealed at least until 2013 through the legislative process, and even 2013 is a stretch.

And what if we get to 2013, and despite all indications to the contrary Republicans control the House, 60 seats in the Senate, and the Presidency?  What always happens?  Something else will have the chattering class's attention, and the conservatives who got us to that point will be abandoned again.

I started this blog and I'm writing this post to ask conservatives who agree with me that repealing Obama Care, in its entirety, needs to be Policy Priority # 1, to let their GOP representatives know that a repeal of Obama Care should be tied to the debt ceiling vote and sent to the Senate as one piece of legislation.  Call them, talk about it, publish it, ask them about it in print.

I've called my representative, called one of my Senators (I didn't waste my time with Lindsey Graham), called the House budget committee, called the House majority leader's office, and emailed the National Review.  And I've gotten crickets.  Is there some procedural reason this isn't possible?  Maybe there is, but we deserve an explanation of what that is, and an explanation of what else is going to happen other than votes that no one expects to win.

So now I'm sending this out into space.

I'm not a cheerleader.  The chances of ever repealing ACA are slim.  Quick, name me all the entitlement programs that have ever been repealed?  If there's any chance Obama Care is going to be repealed, it needs to happen quick.  And the debt ceiling vote is the best leverage we're going to get.

In subsequent posts, I'll explain why I don't think the courts are going to help us, and talk about some other avenues we also need to pursue.

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