Take that, John Boehner … (and Nikki Haley).
An effort by establishment “Republicans” in Washington, D.C. (and in the states) to fool GOP voters into thinking they had “defunded Obamacare” was defeated this week – forcing Boehner and his cronies to withdraw a budget resolution scheduled for a vote this week.
The “Republican” plan? To pass a “rider” to the upcoming budget resolution what would have defunded Obamacare – but permitted the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate to simply strike that language from the spending plan and send it straight to the desk of U.S. President Barack Obama. This would have allowed “Republicans” in the U.S. House to cast symbolic votes to defund Obamacare – without actually doing anything to defund it.
Naturally, we rebuked such a ploy.
“If the GOP is serious about defunding this abomination, then it needs to defund it,” we wrote yesterday. “Not pretend to defund it.”
Pro-free market groups rallied the troops in support of this very message.
“This is do or die,” Americans for Limited Government (ALG) president Nathan Mehrens said earlier this week.
In fact major props to groups like Americans for Limited Government, Club for Growth and FreedomWorks – which led the fight to shut down this latest “GOP” attempt to appease Obama.
Especially ALG … which was for defunding Obamacare long before defunding Obamacare was cool.
Also rare props to our longtime adversaries over at RedState.com for their efforts to help shut down this scam.
Here’s the curious thing though … RedState’s favorite “conservative” daughter, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, was one of the establishment “Republicans” willing to cave to Obama on this issue. In fact after ripping Obamacare to shreds at her 2014 reelection kickoff, Haley’s spokesman later slipped a “clarification” of her position to the Associated Press on the Friday before Labor Day, saying the governor didn’t support defunding Obamacare if it meant a possible government shutdown.
Oh well …
This is one of those rare instances in which fiscal conservatives in the Republican party took on their big-spending establishment leaders – and won. For now, at least. Let’s hope there are enough pro-free market, pro-liberty lawmakers in Washington to hold the line against this not-ready-for-prime-time monstrosity.
If there are, there’s a decent chance this thing might actually get shut down …
42 comments
YEAH :)
Can’t wait for Obamacare. Visited my doctor yesterday for 15 minutes and rang up a bill for $375. He made a blood test and sent it to a lab he owns.
Fuck the doctors. Don’t know a one who isn’t a millionaire.
You must not know too many docs, then. There are huge problems in our health care delivery system, but a bunch of millionaire MD’s isn’t one of ’em…
So Mike at the Beach exactly what are the “huge problems in our healthcare delivery system”? Please be more specific than just shooting from your hip. Perhaps one of the “huge problems” id the insurance industry has been screwing us????????
No, no, no! The free market NEVER screws ANYONE! It’s those burdensome government regulations! There is nothing a for-profit corporation wants more than to spend potential profits on making sure their suddenly expensive clients are well taken care of! They are completely selfless entities that really do have an interest in making sure health care is available for everyone!
Let’s have a little fun with your statement, I’ll make some small changes and let’s see how it looks:
“No, no, no! The *GOVT* NEVER screws ANYONE! It’s those burdensome government regulations! There is nothing a *GOVT* wants more than to spend *TAXES* on making sure their suddenly expensive clients are well taken care of! They are completely selfless entities that really do have an interest in making sure health care is available for everyone! NB: “No death panels needed as cost is no longer an issue.”
The difference between government and corporations is that government is actually answerable to the people via elections and corporations answer to no one but investors.
So when I hear all the anti-government rhetoric coming from the right I can only assume that they think we would all be better off if our society was run solely by corporate interests.
No thanks.
“The difference between government and corporations is that government is actually answerable to the people via elections and corporations answer to no one but investors.”
You have it completely WRONG.
How much more proof do you need that gov’t in general doesn’t give two shits about what the voters think? Do you think this two party paradigm means any actual “change”?
How often do you see incumbents actually lose their seat, and THEN their replacement come in and make major changes?
HOW ABOUT NEVER!
Seriously, you are living in a weird kind of fantasy land.
Corporations MIGHT get away with screwing someone once, maybe even twice, but if they consistently behaved in a manner of gov’t they would be OUT OF BUSINESS.
Their competitors would take over.
Also, there’s the little problem with interaction between corporations and cusomter being VOLUNTARY, not coerced. Corps can’t force you to hand your money over to them…gov’t can and does.
Suuuure. *IM* the one in Fantasyland. Corporate owned media have done a terrific job of ensuring that there are no repercussions for any corporate wrongdoing.
I am not gonna argue that American government is a responsive entity. But definitely the lesser of the two evils.
Of course listening to some on the right they would prefer we got rid of both and let the Church run everyone’s life just like Iran.
You are so full of shit, I can’t stop laughing!!! HAHAHAAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!
Charlie Darby, MUSC’s Director of Pediatric Research, secretly owns a blood-testing lab.
http://www.musckids.org/pediatrics/research/
When Darby hired a pediatric gastrointerologist friend of mine from a prestigious out-of-state residency program / hospital 25 plus years ago, he instructed my GI friend to “quietly” send all blood tests to Darby’s blood-testing company.
My friend objected, saying that (a) Darby has a conflict of interest that is at minimum unethical and (b) the rates at Darby’s lab were much higher than MUSC’s in-house lab (in the same hospital).
Other doctors told my friend to “shut up about unethical physician behavior at MUSC if you want keep your job.”
My friend has a conscience and within a year Darby had him terminated.
Takeaway from my GI doctor friend: “In South Carolina, it’s not what you know, how hard you work, or how much care you give to a patient. It’s who you know. And hundreds of millions in patients’ and insurerers’ and Medicaid money goes to people like Charlie Darby.”
Amen.
Mike, in 2009, I recall the CEO of Kaiser Permanente being interviewed on NPR. Kaiser sells insurance, owns hospitals and employs doctors. He flat out said the reason US healthcare was so expensive was the high fees.
He went on to compare some prices for office visits and other services he knew about between the US and Canada and said that the US fees were many times the Canadian.
The truth is that on the average MDs are the highest paid people in the country. The average doctor makes significantly more than the average engineer, architect, accountant, lawyer or retail banker. In addition, on an inflation adjusted basis they make significantly more than the average doctor made in the 1970s.
So the health care system has been quite good to doctors over the past 40 years, but not so good for everyone else. Since 1980 the average American has seen his inflation adjusted income go down, and his cost of health care go up dramatically.
SThey are in debt up to their ears. Darn, if I would want to be in that position.
Milton Friedman has some advice for those who believe that ‘government’ can deliver anything, in almost any form, better than free markets or capitalism. The Affordable Care Act will fail –
http://youtu.be/RWsx1X8PV_A
http://youtu.be/-6t-R3pWrRw
http://youtu.be/YLR3zGopz1Q
http://youtu.be/-P9Y4H2GyS4
Milton Friedman and other Hoover Institute economists also promoted “unobstructed markets” in the banking industry, including derivitives, mortgage-backed securities, and excessive leverage. With that policy, in 2007 our economy began its greatest recession since the Great Depression.
Even Alan Greenspan has admitted that he “had it all wrong” and that “markets, without some oversight, devolve.” [FRONTLINE, PBS]
Mike,
Can you detail the problems in the delivery system? Obummercare has not got one iota to do with health care delivery and everything to do with health care payment.
Study the Forbes piece. Shocking news! 85% of doctors over the age of 70 say its likely they will retire in the next 5 years.
I’m sorry, I dodn’t see that in the survey – mostly because it ain’t there.
Here’s the demographics of the that actual survey respondents: http://www.dpmafoundation.org/physician-attitudes-on-medicine.html
Years in practice?
Less than 5 years 3.1%
6-10 years 5.2%
11-20 years 22.8%
21-30 years 34.8%
31-40 years 24.3%
40+ years 9.7%
Doctors aren’t really the problem (at least in a vast majority of cases), it is the for-profit middlemen in between you and your doctor.
Then you don’t know many doctors. By the way how much did you invest in your education required for your job?
The reason you’re paying $375 is because the six leeches before you that he treated came in without insurance and he ate the cost of the appointments.
Most doctors I know are awful at business and finances in general. But aside from that– the $ 375 fee, if you had insurance with one of the major players about $ 200 is written off as an adjustment, leaving $ 175. Doctors are limited on the ancillary services they can contract outside of their office. BUT– fees and charges are generally established by the INSURANCE COMPANIES, which are based on a percentage of MEDICARE fees and charges (anywhere from 100% to 200% and higher). So if you paid $ 375, you are in the minority.
BTW– where is T?
—–to the right of the R on your keyboard
l believe there are laws preventing docs from ordering labs from facilities they own…at least in SC…some cardiac profiles are expensive, especially the genetic tests…BTW, how much do you spend per month for your cell phone/cable/internet services? I have read that the profit margin is staggering in these industries…not to mention soaring college and med school tuition costs which quite dramatically effects your health costs..
If your premise is correct why are so many foreigners becoming doctors in America and Americans are leaving the profession?
I also would like to remind all of the older folks and AARP member especially that voted for Obama and like Obamacare to hold on. I am retired,on a fixed income and not only has my dollar shrunk everything else has increase and much higher than you government admits. While government employees are the biggest group of tax cheats Obama is handing out big raises to them to keep them in camp.
When giving to a charity I am told if the expenses run over 25 % it is not such a good gift. You can bet between what it takes to run the government,fraud and all the other corruptness in government the working class in America is not getting a 10% return on its tax dollars. I would love to see independent research done on what it cost us Americans out of every tax dollar just for the talking heads in DC.
Drive down to old Mexico for cheap health care.
I just wish you people who want me to pay for everything would just say – thank you. Even the homeless will smile and say, “God bless you.”
Obamacare won’t be defunded, sorry! :)
“Obamacare won’t be defunded, sorry”
Yeah Smirks, so am I (along with 54% of the population – the other 46 percent are on Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps and Social Security and couldn’t care less either way…)
You should welcome the coming financial destruction Colonel…it was already inevitable, speeding it up will be a better thing for our kids and future generations.
Push Obamacare hard…it will bring everything to a head more quickly while everything is still somewhat fresh in everyone’s minds.
I’m sure there will be spin blaming/vilifying doctors, corporations, etc.
But at the end of the day the results will speak for themself.
Dipstick below – aka Can’t Wait for Obamacare, made the claim that the doctors are all millionaires. I have 6 friends who are doctors in six different specialties from Pediatrics to Neurosurgery. None are millionaires, the cardiologist is close but his wife is a lawyer. My GP is a friend and lives down the street from me – and I’m not even close to being a millionaire. His cars are as crappy as mine. Most of the money is in elective stuff not covered under any of these “Cares”. A plastic Surgeon acquaintance is a multimillionaire but he is also a cold hearted ruthless bastard who could care less about Obummercare cause he doesn’t accept any insurance.
What’s really going to happen is that we’ll lose 20-30 percent of our working physicians and med schools will pump out fewer and fewer physicians and we’ll be forced to ration what at one time was the greatest health care in the world.
I think you underestimate the destruction awaiting my friend…but I agree that doctors are not as well off as most people might think.
Sure, you’ve got some that over bill via Medicaid and other scoundrels doing shady things…but that’s the exception, not the rule.
The thing everyone should be asking though is this:
Since when did becoming successful in America suddenly become “bad”?
Are we going to start blaming dairy farmers when inflation drives the price of milk up to $10 a gallon? Will we then have to have gov’t run exchanges for milk?
How about bread? Are we going to have gov’t run bread exchanges, or simply bread lines for those getting gov’t bread subsidies like the old Soviet Union?
It’s amazing how the mentality of this country has changed in the last 10 years….frightening really.
We aren’t talking about small #’s of people that feel that gov’t is the “solution” either…it’s now a majority. The trend won’t reverse until the specter of socialist failure becomes so great that it will be undeniable to all but the most hardened progressives.
America as it’s structured today, like a stage 4 cancer patient, needs to die to end the suffering.
I have no doubt Obamacare will help speed that process along.
But don’t you get that free health care on post.
I get “free” health care when I’m on active duty, the other 1,095 days out of the last five years, I’ve written a check to pay for my health care – nice try though.
So ALG and Fits believes that dying for lack of healthcare is the purest form of liberty.
Give me liberty or give me death, hmmmm I understand.
Nobody has a right to steal. You have no right to healthcare. You can’t. Because if you do then it means its ok to steal.
So you agree there is no such thing as a right to life. There can’t be, because it would mean its ok to steal. If health care is necessary for life and you have a right to life, you have a right to health care.
What amazes me about regressives is they want the government to pay for what they like, but they don’t want the government to pay for what they don’t like.
Article is perfectly titled
Your head is bad.
Republicans are stupid it appears!
Props to my doctor with the uncut big one,and the extra time he spends…
Don’t you mean,John Boner?
http://thewashingtonfancy.com/2011/07/06/boehner-announces-new-shirtless-initiative/337
Our Congress is really into “symbolic” votes. They’re not really into principled stands or accomplishments, but they love “symbolic “votes.