G.O.P. Eyes Hard Line Against Health Care Law
By JACKIE CALMES, NYT
WASHINGTON — The House Republican leadership signaled Tuesday that Republicans would support an essential increase in the nation’s debt limit in mid-October only if President Obama and Democrats agree to delay putting his health insurance program into full effect — a demand that sets the stage for another economically risky confrontation.
The strategy, which Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, outlined to a private caucus of Republicans, underscored the clout of the most militant conservatives, whose demands to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act have cleaved the party. While the tactic is fraught with risk for Republicans, some conservative lawmakers and groups objected that it did not go far enough in using the looming fiscal deadlines as leverage with Democrats.
The proposal for dealing with both fiscal fights of the fall — on a continuing resolution to keep financing federal operations after the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and a mid-October deadline for increasing the Treasury borrowing limit — seemed to reflect House leaders’ belief that Republicans’ bigger political risk is being blamed by voters for a government shutdown, as they were during the Clinton administration.
Many economists and analysts say the bigger economic risk, however, is a failure to lift the debt ceiling, which would leave the Treasury unable to pay creditors and bills that the government already is obligated for, harm the nation’s credit rating and ultimately could cause the first default. Yet that issue is where House leaders are making their more serious stand against the three-year-old health insurance law they call Obamacare. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio had already promised “a whale of a fight” with the administration over the debt limit, and Mr. Cantor shared more specifics of the strategy with his colleagues at the party meeting.
(More here.)
WASHINGTON — The House Republican leadership signaled Tuesday that Republicans would support an essential increase in the nation’s debt limit in mid-October only if President Obama and Democrats agree to delay putting his health insurance program into full effect — a demand that sets the stage for another economically risky confrontation.
The strategy, which Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, outlined to a private caucus of Republicans, underscored the clout of the most militant conservatives, whose demands to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act have cleaved the party. While the tactic is fraught with risk for Republicans, some conservative lawmakers and groups objected that it did not go far enough in using the looming fiscal deadlines as leverage with Democrats.
The proposal for dealing with both fiscal fights of the fall — on a continuing resolution to keep financing federal operations after the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and a mid-October deadline for increasing the Treasury borrowing limit — seemed to reflect House leaders’ belief that Republicans’ bigger political risk is being blamed by voters for a government shutdown, as they were during the Clinton administration.
Many economists and analysts say the bigger economic risk, however, is a failure to lift the debt ceiling, which would leave the Treasury unable to pay creditors and bills that the government already is obligated for, harm the nation’s credit rating and ultimately could cause the first default. Yet that issue is where House leaders are making their more serious stand against the three-year-old health insurance law they call Obamacare. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio had already promised “a whale of a fight” with the administration over the debt limit, and Mr. Cantor shared more specifics of the strategy with his colleagues at the party meeting.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
The focus should be on the Democrats ... just yesterday, Tim Walz joined a vast majority of Republicans (6 voted NO) in passing H.R. 1155 - To reform the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers, and for other purposes.
What's the reform ?
Actually it reforms the Medical Loss Ratio calculation ... the MLR requires insurance companies to spend a minimum of 80% on medical care and not marketing, bonuses, etc. for the insurance company.
H.R. 1155 allows the insurance agent to be treated the same as the doctor. So an agent who earns 7% for selling the policy is in the same category of expenses as the doctor who performs surgery. So not only does this move marketing expenses to the medical side of the equation, it still allows the insurance company to earn profit on the agent's compensation.
This is a bad bill ... pushed by the insurance industry that Congressman Walz has gone along with ... just as he has done with repealing the 2.3% Medical Device Excise Tax where the fear-mongered "job killing" losses have not materialized.
Defunding does not need to happen in one massive step, the Republicans are doing it in piecemeal fashion and Your Congressman is going along.
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