Rep. Waxman Releases Top Ten List of Republican Efforts to Undermine and Obstruct the Affordable Care Act
Aug 1, 2013 Issues: Health
WASHINGTON, DC— On the day before Republicans cast their 40th vote to repeal key protections against insurance company abuses in the Affordable Care Act, Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman released a memorandum prepared by Democratic Committee staff listing ten ways Republicans have undermined and obstructed implementation of the law.
The memo finds that Republican leaders at the state and federal levels have acted in an unprecedented fashion to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Nonpartisan analysts have accused Republicans of trying to “sabotage” the law.
The Republicans in Congress and throughout the country should receive a standing ovation for standing up to the overt encroachment of the unaffordable Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is not protecting patients, is proving to be unaffordable, and shows no care for the best interests of patients, practitioners, or any other law-abiding with any abiding sense of common sense.
“The law has become the Republicans’ great white whale. They will stop at nothing to kill it,” said Rep. Waxman. “Republican leaders’ obstructionist policies will prevent millions of their poorest constituents from receiving health insurance coverage.”
For the record, a growing faction of voters and even Democrats have opposed and continue to oppose this blue whale of a law, 2,500 pages and growing, with tens of thousands of pages of regulations. Congressman Henry Waxman is notorious for not reading the bills which he votes on. He did not even know the contents of his own Cap and Trade bill.
Republican leaders have acted to undermine the Affordable Care Act by:
•Casting 40 votes to repeal the law, futile efforts that have done nothing but create uncertainty and confusion in the mind of the public about the law’s implementation.
Obamacare by itself has created nothing but confusion and uncertainty for voters, as well as doctors and hospitals. It was a Democratic Senator who deemed the law “a train wreck”.
•Refusing to expand Medicaid coverage in over 20 states, preventing millions of Americans from receiving health insurance coverage.
This decision reflects the respect and savvy which Republican governors and state lawmakers commands for their constituents. While federal level Democrats like Congressman Henry Waxman and his climate change caucus have pursued inane legislative nullities, Republicans at the local and federal level have advanced legislation which will lower taxes, cut spending, and undo the red tape of bureaucratic regulations strangling businesses, obstacles which Obamacare has only worsened.
•Refusing to establish state-based health insurance marketplaces, complicating HHS efforts to implement the law and “increas[ing] federal involvement in … state affairs.”
California attempted to establish insurance exchanges, and of the ten which considered enrolling, eight have already pulled out, with one more ready to leave, as well. Only one insurance company will remain. Whatever hopes of creating competition that Waxman envisioned with this law, the results are quite disappointing.
•Undermining enrollment in health insurance marketplaces via a multimillion-dollar campaign to “dissuade uninsured Americans from obtaining health coverage.”
How can anyone enroll in health care coverage when the President himself has signed off on delays by executive order? The President has behaved in the most unconstitutional manner to date, arbitrarily delaying the employer mandate until 2015, for example.
•Refusing to provide funding requested by the Obama Administration to implement the law.
Republicans and Democrats have opposed funding this terrible legislation, and the House of Representatives as a legislative body has every right to withholding funding. For the record, only under the Obama Administration has this country witnessed a federal government which creates trillion dollar a year deficits without any compunction or conscience about the profligate spending, and Obamacare has not only added to the debt, but has deprived billions from Medicare.
•Attacking efforts to educate the public about the Affordable Care Act.
The President attempted to educate the public about this law with one speech after another, and the more that people learned about this law, the more that they hated it.
•Intimidating potential participants in public education efforts about the law.
Congressman Henry Waxman remains vague as usual about intimidation and discouragement. Frankly, he has no business castigating anyone about shutting out discussion on an issue. Just this past week, he prevented constituents in his own district from attending one of his advertised functions in Torrance, CA.
•Insisting that the Affordable Care Act be defunded as a condition of preventing a government shutdown.
The federal government is heading toward default every day that Congress spends money which it does not have. From the debt ceiling dance in 2011 to the fiscal cliff fallout in 2012, Republicans have demanded serious cuts and entitlement reforms to maintain a solvent government while abiding by the promises of previous legislative terms.
•Threatening to deny basic, Affordable Care Act-related constituent service requests from citizens who request help with understanding or signing up for health insurance benefits under the law.
•Misinforming citizens about the impact of health care reform on insurance premiums, leading many to believe that premiums will skyrocket by failing to provide accurate assessments of the true costs in 2014.
The assessments have been true and valid, but Waxman refuses to accept that his legislation is unacceptable. For all of his protests about Republicans and Obamacare opponents, his raging about the law's benefits have all backfired, with Republicans in the wings ready to take down any Democrats who supported this terrible law.
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