REPUBLICANS MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH THIS!
The bottom line on what is happening and what is potentially about to happen in Washington D.C. over the continued funding of the NORMAL functioning of the Federal Government of the United States of America by a small but vocal minority of the United States Congress is this: Members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, as well as the United States Senate, are attempting to achieve- by means that can only be described as “blackmail” or “extortion”- the defunding and/or repeal of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) a LAW passed by a democratically elected (and then-controlled) Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 and further upheld as constitutional by a majority on the United States Supreme Court in 2012.
They are using the “power of the purse” in one-half of one-third of the branches of the United States Federal Government to ensure that this law is (somehow) destroyed and is never fully implemented. Contrary to all of their bluster and public pronouncements, it is NOT a “failed law” nor is it the clear will of the American public that this law be defunded and/or repealed, not when a majority of Americans- and even a majority of Republicans- like most of the provisions of the law, especially when it’s referred to under its proper name and not the derisive “Obamacare” label, which seems to be clearly designed “catnip” for the right-wing teabaggers.
Under the *leadership* of Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, the House has held (now) FORTY-TWO votes to defund and/or repeal PPACA since 2011 and they are now expecting the Senate, which is currently controlled by a ten-seat Democratic Majority, and Democratic President Barack Obama, who pushed the law in the first place, to ratify their latest scheme by attaching it to a must-pass government funding bill, putting the normal daily operation of the Federal Government at risk if they don’t. Having failed to win back the Senate in two consecutive elections (2010 & 2012), as well as the Presidency in 2012, they are now seeking to use the threat of a government shutdown (and coming soon, a federal debt default) to achieve what they have failed to achieve politically (or legally) for the past three years.
What makes the situation even more disgusting is that this battle isn’t being fought over something truly immoral, such as ordering our military to invade and occupy other countries by way of phony/exaggerated intelligence and/or ordering our soldiers and intelligence officials to torture “terror suspects” and detain them indefinitely. No, they’re waging this epic battle against a law designed to enable more Americans to obtain access to health insurance, which only leads me to one inescapable question: What the hell is wrong with these people? No, the law isn’t perfect. Yes, there will be problems and “bugs” that will need to be fixed as the law is being fully implemented. However, it IS the law now and Republicans need to respect it in the same way that we Democrats have had to respect laws passed by Republicans despite being intensely, if not fiercely opposed, to some of them.
Republicans remain free to keep speaking out, to keep ranting and screaming about how horrible the law is as they seek to win more elections and get more people whom agree with them elected to Congress and to the White House. However, their current scheme to get their way by holding our country hostage to their demands is truly as reprehensible as it is undemocratic and it needs to be roundly condemned by EVERYBODY- Democrat and Republican alike. It also needs to be made clear that if there is a government shutdown, it will NOT be because Democrats refused to sign on to the Republican’s quixotic attempts to defund and/or repeal PPACA but because the Republicans decided to tie their desperate attempts to do so to continued funding for the Federal Government. To President Obama’s credit, he has forcefully condemned these actions and has rejected all appeals to negotiate over the law, as well he should. Now, it’s up to the rest of us to let the Republican Party know, in no uncertain terms, that this is NOT how our government was designed to function, nor how it should EVER be allowed to function. We must also hold them accountable if they remain committed to this course of action and our country plunges into further economic disaster and misery as a result.
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