The House Republican leadership ought to get behind a simple, one-sentence bill to repeal Obamacare — now.
The truly effective way to lower health-care costs — and to increase fairness at the same time — is to allow all Americans to deduct their full health-care costs (not just their insurance costs) from both their income and payroll taxes, thereby leveling the playing field between those with employer-provided insurance (whose taxes wouldn’t change) and those who purchase insurance on the open market (who would no longer be the only ones taxed on income used to purchase health care). Not only would this actually bring down health costs — while ObamaCare would raise them — without increasing the size or reach of the federal government — while ObamaCare would increase these dramatically — but it would foster adult self-reliance and self-respect, not childlike dependence encouraged by a paternalistic government.
Despite efforts to roll out “popular” provisions ahead of schedule, polls show that ObamaCare is getting less popular all the time — as independents now favor repeal by a margin of 50 points (72 to 22 percent), less than half of all Democrats oppose repeal, and younger voters are jumping ship. And once ObamaCare is gone, there will be no shortage of ideas that can replace it.
House Republicans created a report card for ObamaCare 90 days in, cataloguing the failing grades the bill received on issues like costs to families, job creation, and deficit reduction.
Saying that ObamaCare, if implemented, would cost America its status as the “greatest country in the world,” Sen. Orrin Hatch is advancing legislation that would repeal ObamaCare’s individual and employer mandates (two cornerstones of the overhaul) as the first steps toward full repeal.
Polling in eleven key swing states shows that voters, especially independents, are still in strong opposition to ObamaCare. “We found that public opinion about health reform is roughly stable, and opposition to reform appears to be an important determinant of voting intention in the midterm elections-particularly for political independents.” Results also show that opinions on the health care law are especially salient for independents in determining how they plan to vote in November.
Looking at the problems ObamaCare is likely to cause for the federal budget and American businesses and families, repealing it is far from impossible. Other unpopular or ill-conceived health care measures have been repealed in the recent past before their enactment. “President Barack Obama’s signatures on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act do not end the national debate on federal control of health care. The debate merely enters a new and perhaps even more difficult and divisive phase. Based on current revelations and previous experience, this continuing debate gives Congress ample justification to repeal Obamacare. At the very least, Congress can dismantle or defund its damaging provisions.”
Independents’ overwhemling (2-to-1) support for repeal should give Republicans the confidence needed to advance a 1-sentence repeal bill — which would make it much harder for Democrats in swing districts to try to straddle the fence on ObamaCare.
“Heritage Action for America, the Heritage Foundation’s new ‘grassroots advocacy organization,’ launched its first national campaign Wednesday evening with Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King’s filing of a discharge petition aimed at repealing Obamacare.”
For the 4th-straight week, Americans show that they favor repeal of ObamaCare by a margin of more than 20 points — with independents in this week’s poll favoring repeal by a margin of 29 points.