MikeLigalig.com

By DAVID ESPO | Associated Press – 3 hours ago


WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation's 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. They got the opposite, and now struggle to convince the public that responsibility for partial closure of the federal establishment lies with President Barack Obama and the Democrats.

There's ample evidence otherwise, beginning with Speaker John Boehner's refusal to permit the House to vote on Senate-passed legislation devoted solely to reopening the government.

In the days leading to the impasse, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he would do "everything and anything possible to defund Obamacare," including a filibuster against legislation to prevent a partial closure of the federal government.

In the House, Rep. Jack Kingston told reporters his Georgia constituents would rather have a shutdown than Obamacare, and Rep. Tim Huelskamp added recently that in his Kansas district, "If you say government is going to shut down, they say, 'OK, which part can we shut down?'"

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First, they passed legislation demanding the health care law be defunded in exchange for a bill providing essential government funding.

When the Senate rejected that, they scaled back.

Instead, they sought a one-year delay in the law, combined with the permanent repeal of a tax on medical devices and creation of new barriers to contraceptive coverage for women purchasing insurance.

That, too, was torpedoed in the Senate.

The next GOP demand was for a one-year delay in the requirement for individuals to purchase coverage, along with a provision that would oblige the president, vice president and members of Congress and their aides to purchase insurance under the same system as the rest of the country without receiving the customary employer contribution from the government, for which they work.

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All are politically popular, although rarely mentioned by Republican lawmakers who say the country clamors for a total repeal of the law.

Despite pledging in the 2010 campaign to "repeal and replace" the law known as Obamacare, Republicans have yet to offer a comprehensive alternative. Efforts to create one have been hampered by opposition from conservatives to some of the mandates they tacitly agreed last week to leave in effect.

Conceding as much, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said that as a conservative, he had often found during Obama's presidency that his choice was "between something bad or (something) horrible."

Republican unity, so valuable in pushing to reduce spending in the past three years, shows signs of fraying.

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Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said the current strategy was not a winning one. "Why? ... Because the government shut down yesterday and the Obamacare exchanges opened and continued anyway."

Ironically, Obama and Senate Democratic leaders have said repeatedly in recent days they are willing to negotiate changes in the health care law — on another day and another bill.

Even Democrats privately concede that a tax on medical devices isn't likely to survive long, given that 79 members of the Senate backed its repeal on a nonbinding test vote last spring.

What survives is the expansion of the health care law that was passed in 2010, the opportunity for uninsured Americans to obtain private insurance at a cost oftentimes subsidized by the government.




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