Jenny Beth’s Journal: Repealing ObamaCare: Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

It’s been nearly eight years since ObamaCare went into effect and repealing the disastrous law feels like a pipe dream. While several states are trying to fight the “so-called” constitutionality of ObamaCare in the courts, federal lawmakers have been taking bad approach. Instead of keeping their promises to repeal and replace ObamaCare, Republican lawmakers think the solution is to add tens of billions of dollars to the spending bill in order to bail out health insurance companies.

The Hill has the commentary:

They’re doing their best to keep it quiet, in hopes they’ll be able to add that bailout money without their own base voters learning of it, the same base voters who believed them when, during the course of four different election cycles from 2010 to 2016, they promised that if they were given power in Washington, they would repeal and replace ObamaCare.

This attempt to add a health insurance bailout to the omnibus spending bill is outrageous. It’s one thing to fail to repeal ObamaCare as you promised. That’s bad enough. Trust me, I hear it from the grassroots all the time. But to then go many steps further in the other direction, and to actually strengthen ObamaCare, by spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out already-rich insurance companies? I can think of nothing that would be more of a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Voters gave the GOP the majorities in both houses of Congress in 2014 and 2016, and added the White House in 2016. They did that largely because they believed the promises that Republican candidates made to repeal ObamaCare. If Washington under GOP control spends tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out insurance companies and strengthen ObamaCare, voters will rightfully ask, what the heck is the difference between a Democrat-controlled Washington and a Republican-controlled Washington?

ObamaCare has done nothing but provide low-quality and unaffordable healthcare. Premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed, making insurance impossible to obtain for the average, hard-working American. After eight long years under an administration that took the economy into a downward spiral, Republican lawmakers have a chance to turn it around. Voters gave Republicans control of both houses and its time that they work on an ObamaCare repeal — not an insurance company bailout that would lead us into a deeper downward spiral.

 

Continue Reading