The first order of business for the new Republican led House of Representatives is to repeal, in toto, the health care reform bill passed by the previous congress.
They gave their repeal measure a real catchy name "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Cool name HUH??
The problem is that, along with most of what Republicans want us to believe about the economy, they are lying again. Every bipartisan evaluation of the impact of the health care refrom bill estimates a very small impact on employment and most predict that more jobs will be added in the health care industries than will be lost elsewhere.
In otherwords, the President's health care reform law will increase employment.
http://factcheck.org/2011/01/a-job-killing-law/
Republicans have also often referred to the Health Care reform bill as a budget buster despite the independent analysis that indicates that the Health Care Reform bill will actuall reduce the deficit.
Its like they just have to lie about stuff. Its not like these independent studies are not well publicized. They include the CBO study. But they don't seem to care about what is real, they only care about whether or not people will catch them in their lies.
Its like their claim that tax cuts create jobs. Not exactly a lie since tax cuts do create a few jobs. But they will never acknowledge that dollar for dollar tax cuts are far LESS effective at creating job than direct spending like infrastructure projects and extending unemployment benefits.
They clearly don't actually care about creating jobs.
They do like making political points though.
By saying things that aren't true, over and over again, even after what they are saying is shown to be untrue.
And isn't that the definition of a lie.
The Beltway Beloved Buckley
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The fact that anyone sees William F. Buckley as a respectable, brilliant,
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2 comments:
As usual, a thoughtful analysis. I won't argue your contention that Republicans (as a party at least) don't especially care about creating jobs; they want to remain in power (or in the case of the Senate, regain power).
Where we begin to disagree is in your viewing the Democrats as fundamentally different. I don't agree. The Democrats are just a different gang of folks who want to stay in power.
I believe that there are good and decent folks in both political parties who wake up and go to bed thinking about what they can do for their constituents. But much more, I think, are loyal to the R or the D after their name.
People care about you, but the party doesn't give a rat's ass whether you live or die.
Also, I disagree with you vis-a-vis the health plan. I've seen a number of independent estimates that say that the plan will kill jobs. I'm sure you'll agree that you can find an independent study that will say just about anything.
But more importantly to me than that, I don't believe (and I can already feel the love I'm about to receive from various posters, Walt among them)that prepaid healthcare is a right. No, I don't WANT to lose my home if I get sick, but I'd trade my home for my life in a second.
RK,
I guess I measure how interested one party or another is in supporting job creating by how effective the policies they are proposing would be in supporting job creation.
Democrats broadly believe that in times like these, its both economically and politically valuable to pay people to do things that need to be done anyway. We also believe that the country is overall stronger if we give help to those who need it, especially in times like these. So Democrats have broadly supported spending on infrastructure projects (roads, rail, airports) that both benefit the overall economy AND put people to work. And we broadly support providing direct assistance to those who are on the edge like the long term unemployed. I just recently started a new job after being on unemployment for 9 months. And studies of the effectiveness of different kinds of stimulus clearly show that tax cuts make for lousy stimulus while direct spending is much more effective at stimulating the economy.
I don't share your view that both parties are the same. I don't deny that big money from corporations and the wealthy have an impact on some Democratic Party policies. I am not blind to my partys weaknesses, but despite the influence of big money on my party, we still advocate policies that are FAR more effective at supporting job creation and far better for the long term economy than Republicans do.
I would love to see the studies you are referencing that conclude the health care reform bill will kill jobs. I included in my post a link to at FactCheck.Org article on the subject. I am always looking for more data though if you want to share some links to those studies you have seen.
I don't know that I would argue tht prepaid helathcare is a right. I think that ensuring that all of our citizen and legal residents have access to affordable health care actuallyl makes us a better and stronger nation. And remember that the health care reform bill had two core objectives, one was expanding the number of people who were covered by some health insurance plan or another. The other objective was to reduce the rate of health care inflation. I don't know of anyone who argues that we can accept the rate of health care inflation we have experienced as a nation over the past 2 decades. The health care bill does many things that are attempts to bend that curve. Expanding coverage should actually bring overall costs down because more people will see their doctors before they get so deathly ill that they ahve to go to the Emergency Room.
I think that the number of medical related bankruptcies (more than 2/3 of all bankruptcies are related to the cost of health care) constitutes a real drag on the economy.
I think almost everyone would trade their house for their life in a second, but does it make sense that in the richest nation in the world that so many have to make that choice.
And if the choice is not only losing your house, but the house where your wife and children life, because of the costs of your medical care. Are you then so willing to make them homeless so that you can get well?
As always, love you comments. Keep the cards and letters coming.
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