Fortieth-Something Time's the Charm!

[Mike the Progressive]

I guess public healthcare is a very controversial matter in the United States.

It's not public healthcare. It's forced private healthcare.

I think you mean mandated.

[Fartsniffage]

It's not public healthcare. It's forced private healthcare.

I think you mean mandated.

I think the ACA is controversial enough without bringing gay marriage into it...

[Mike the Progressive]

I think you mean mandated.

I think the ACA is controversial enough without bringing gay marriage into it...

....

Congrats. I rarely do that.

[Ostroeuropa]

I have no idea why they are so determined to send the message that people reliant on Obamacare should dread their election as they will immediately repeal it.
Are they suicidal as a party?
The longer it goes on, the more people Obamacare will cover.
That's before you even get into the people who just don't give that much of a fuck being stunned at their relentless opposition to it.
The only people this appeals to is people who would vote for them ANYWAY. And that strategy sure worked out well for them las- oh.

That's why they've been trying to get rid of it so hard.

Pretty dumb.
They'll end up with a permanent stigma against their party just like the tories have in the UK, and they'll end up with Nixon-China syndrome, where they are utterly incapable of fielding a candidate who isn't anything but a publically declared socialist when it comes to healthcare, lest the masses freak out and the democrats go "Ermagerd! Privatized healthcare!!1 Republicans are teh evulz."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_goes_to_China

It'll hand the democrats a blank cheque with which to win election after election for absoluely minimal effort, same as the Labour party does.
They just need to bring out a few tea party boogeymen and point out that if these people get elected, thousands/millions will die, and BAM.

Same as the Democrats became unelectable for decades without a very vocal support for capitalism because BETTER DEAD THAN RED, and how that basically fucked up the US economy in a number of ways by allowing unopposed neoliberalism to run rampant.

This bodes ill for everyone.
A lazy as fuck "Party of power" democrats is bad news, they'll stagnate and never come up with new shit, because they don't have to. It's also terrible for the republicans, who'll become a hysterically terrified and capitulating opposition. It violates the spirit of debate and the purpose of the oppositional system.

[Apparatchikstan]

Rise and rise again, until sheep become lions.
I've got no issue with a party acting on the desires of it's constintuency (yay democracy), and dismantle an unvetted piece of legislation that was opposed by two-thirds of the electorate to begin with.
The ACA is not public healthcare, and if you want to talk about a public option that is truly optional, isn't redistributionist, or establishes any federal power to regulate behavior, or discriminate upon behavior or other physiological factors, I'll have that talk.

[Divitaen]

Typical GOP extremism. The PPACA aside, I think the GOP needs to grow out of their childish and immature political bull-headedness. Its wrecking the country and engendering a very toxic culture of obstructionism over racist fear-mongering.

[Katganistan]

In no other democratic system would you have half of your elected representatives openly advocating the dismantlement of Public Healthcare.

Public Healthcare is a sacred institution in most Western nations.

I would say this is a distinctively American political phenomenon.

Republican phenomenon.

[Ashmoria]

Republicans to open February with vote to repeal Obamacare

The Republicans have full control of Congress, so what's the first agenda on their mind? That's right boys and girls, REPEALING OBAMACARE.

Obama may no longer be campaigning for re-election because he won twice, but the GOP sure seems determined to erase any positive historical legacy that can be linked to him. Hell, they'd probably erase the existence of his Presidency if they found a way to do so. "So who was President after George W. Bush and before So-and-So, Professor?" "That was the darkest period in American History since the Civil War..."

Well, this is probably a sure sign they're going to do jack shit on immigration reform as well. The Democratic Party really needs to get a midterm strategy organized, otherwise shit like this will be a new normal in U.S. politics.

nah Boehner needs to get this over with so they can start working on the important stuff. feed the base then they'll stop grumbling about being hungry.

the question they aren't answering is "if you are going to rip insurance out of my cold dead (soon without insurance) hands what are you going to replace it with?"

the inability to answer that question will be a big fat problem going forward now that they have "all the power".

but no, they aren't going to address immigration. and I don't really want them to. anything they can get past their lunatic teaparty caucus would suck big time.

[Ashmoria]

Republicans to open February with vote to repeal Obamacare

The Republicans have full control of Congress, so what's the first agenda on their mind? That's right boys and girls, REPEALING OBAMACARE.

Obama may no longer be campaigning for re-election because he won twice, but the GOP sure seems determined to erase any positive historical legacy that can be linked to him. Hell, they'd probably erase the existence of his Presidency if they found a way to do so. "So who was President after George W. Bush and before So-and-So, Professor?" "That was the darkest period in American History since the Civil War..."

Well, this is probably a sure sign they're going to do jack shit on immigration reform as well. The Democratic Party really needs to get a midterm strategy organized, otherwise shit like this will be a new normal in U.S. politics.

A midterm strategy? We just had the midterms. The next one is the full-on Presidential three-ring circus!

maybe they'll stop after this one. as more and more republican states take the Medicaid expansion the congress will seem to be fucking with the futures of certain presidential hopefuls. mike pense just took a modified version of the Medicaid expansion. having the party still want to get rid of it all puts him in a bad spot if he decides to run.

[Ashmoria]

I believe there is a type of disorder that describes why they keep doing this.

Negrophobia?

its interesting that in the US we use racism to cover the class war. "we" don't want black people (and other minorities) to get something for nothing but what we do to "fix" that is to disadvantage an entire class of people--the poor and the working poor--which is largely made up of white people.

[SaintB]

I'm diabetic. The only reason I can afford my prescriptions and even qqualify for insurance is because of the affordable healthcare act. I'm not a partisan kind of guy, I am open to voting for either (or any) party since I follwo individual records and merits... but this is the kind of thing that has had me voting straight dmeocrat for the last fucking decade - this shit right here.

[Ashmoria]

I'm diabetic. The only reason I can afford my prescriptions and even qqualify for insurance is because of the affordable healthcare act. I'm not a partisan kind of guy, I am open to voting for either (or any) party since I follwo individual records and merits... but this is the kind of thing that has had me voting straight dmeocrat for the last fucking decade - this shit right here.

its hard to vote for a party that wants to kill you.

[SaintB]

I'm diabetic. The only reason I can afford my prescriptions and even qqualify for insurance is because of the affordable healthcare act. I'm not a partisan kind of guy, I am open to voting for either (or any) party since I follwo individual records and merits... but this is the kind of thing that has had me voting straight dmeocrat for the last fucking decade - this shit right here.

its hard to vote for a party that wants to kill you.

Very. It's hard not to HATE a party that is taking an active role in harpooning my health and well-being. It may just be politics to them but its personal to me: to me its litterally the difference between a long full life and death before fifty and I am growing a steady and powerful hatred for all things 'conservative' because of these kind of shenanigans.

[The Emperor Fenix]

In no other democratic system would you have half of your elected representatives openly advocating the dismantlement of Public Healthcare.

Public Healthcare is a sacred institution in most Western nations.

I would say this is a distinctively American political phenomenon.

Republican phenomenon.

In other countries they'll just lie to your face instead.

Given our appalling wealth inequality and oncoming wave of unequal health outcomes the UK will continue to serve as a great rhetorical device for Democrats, NHS coming and going