G.O.P. Plans to Use Purse Strings to Fight Health Law

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As they seek to make good on their campaign promise to roll back President Obama’s health care overhaul, the incoming Republican leaders in the House say they intend to use their new muscle to cut off money for the law, setting up a series of partisan clashes and testing Democratic commitment to the legislation.

Republicans, who will control the House starting in January but will remain in the minority in the Senate, acknowledge that they do not have the votes for their ultimate goal of repealing the health law, the most polarizing of Mr. Obama’s signature initiatives.

But they said they hoped to use the power of the purse to challenge main elements of the law, forcing Democrats — especially those in the Senate who will be up for re-election in 2012 — into a series of votes to defend it.

Republican lawmakers said, for example, that they would propose limiting the money and personnel available to the Internal Revenue Service, so the agency could not aggressively enforce provisions that require people to obtain health insurance and employers to help pay for it. Under the law, individuals and employers who flout the requirements will face tax penalties.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/health/policy/07health.html

[regnaD kciN]

1. And they start off with B.S. already...

Republican lawmakers said, for example, that they would propose limiting the money and personnel available to the Internal Revenue Service, so the agency could not aggressively enforce provisions that require people to obtain health insurance and employers to help pay for it. Under the law, individuals and employers who flout the requirements will face tax penalties.

The Obama administration already announced that they would not be enforcing the tax penalty against those who flout the mandate, let alone hiring additional workforce to do so.

[blue sky at night]

7. thanks for kicking that idea in the ass...

we keep hearing this like a drumbeat around here....sickening after the fifteenth time.

[CLANG]

20. It says right in the fucking bill that the fines are not enforcable.

[dflprincess]

2. Oh please,

the one part of the law they will support is the part the requires we hand money over to the health insurance companies. Besides, that scam doesn't even start until 2014 so there really isn't anything they can do about now in terms of the purse strings.

I'd expect what they will try to cut is the money for community health clinics or the subsidies to help people pay for the shoddy products their pals are selling.

[ixion]

3. Being that I was adamantly opposed to the Insurance Industry Profit Protection Act

I would be happy with anything that makes it less invasive, and would actually welcome a total repeal.

[DonCoquixote]

14. so we would wind up

with nothing at all, think the GOp will pass single payer?

[ixion]

16. we need health CARE reform, not health insurance mandates

health insurance is NOT health care. You'll not get a wit of sympathy from me over the repeal of the Insurance Industry Profit Protection Act. As I said, I was adamantly opposed to it, and remain so today.

Also, you do realize that in the reality-based community, that was a very bad piece of legislation, and it handed the GOP a cudgel with which to beat the dems.

[CLANG]

19. True, but we won't get it - especially now. Get real.

And thanks for wanting to throw my 20 year old unemployed autistic off my health care plan (which he was able to get back on until age 26 because of the new laws). There are many young people in the same position that will again be thrown to the wolves.

[DonCoquixote]

26. thank you

I was thinking of how to reply to the above poster, but you did so better than I could, and I say this as an asberger's sufferer who has cost his parents much over the years, and sadly, still does.

[joeglow3]

28. DING DING DING DING We have a winner.

This bill had NOTHING to do with health CARE costs.

[cstanleytech]

4. Could the dems counter any such attempt say

by linking the funding for healthcare to the funding for defense? After all we all know the republicans tend to be cowards when it comes to cutting defense funding.

[littlewolf]

5. Doubt that amendment would pass ...

[cstanleytech]

9. True but it might be worth a shot.

[OHdem10]

6. A movement could work with acitivists in the states to start

letter writing campaigns. Individually written letters
have the most impact. E--Mails and phone calls
to congress when they start pulling these shenanigans.
This gives opportunity for people to explain HCR person
to person.

[Unvanguard]

8. An attempt to defang the mandates is extremely worrisome.

Mainly because it will be hard to muster political opposition to it. But if the mandates are non-existent or unenforceable, then all the popular elements of the bill, the elements the Republicans won't touch, will start having perverse effects as low-risk people abandon insurance.

[DallasNE]

10. How Do The Republicans Force These Bills Out Of Committee

Where a vote is taken on the floor? Also, the Democrats may force a vote on new rules for a filibuster. When done at the start of a legislative session it only takes a simple majority of 51 votes to modify. That could have the added benefit of getting more Judges confirmed. Believe it or not, the Republicans don't hold all of the high cards.

[still_one]

18. no they don't own all the high cards, but that they are more than just talk compared to the Dems/nt

[underpants]

21. This article mostly deals with the House - there is no filibuster in the House

and all spending bill begin in the House. Now once it gets to the Senate THAT is where it can be shut down.

That scenario is going to be the way everything the Repubs do had BETTER get shut down. Of course Obama can veto anything he wants to but watch the Repubs stick stuff on to bills that they know he is going to veto for political commercial soundbites.

[classysassy]

11. The senior citizens

that vote against their own interest by voting for republicans are a shameless bunch of mis informed people,they should be aware the insurances companies bank rolled the evil,hateful republicans so they can continue to rip off the citizens that can least afford their scams.

[juajen]

13. Why are you blaming it all on senior citizens? NT

[roseBudd]

23. Without old white people the GOP wins nothing

[quakerboy]

12. They better be careful... they are threading a needle here

"they would propose limiting the money and personnel available to the Internal Revenue Service, so the agency could not aggressively enforce provisions that require people to obtain health insurance and employers to help pay for it."


On the one hand, I suspect there would be lots of employers shirking any responsibility to pay for employees who were grateful to them. On the other, the insurance industry may not be quite so thrilled. And they have corporate money too...

[pattmarty]

15. Again, everybody is missing the fucking point. If an incremental.............

..........form of Medicare for all were passed, this discussion wouldn't be taking place, AND more importantly the Dems wouldn't have been "routed" in the midterms. This "reform" is a fucking sad joke on all the American people with "most" of the actual provisions not coming on line until 2014 and the donut hole fix not until 2020. Medicare was in place and up and running in 11 goddamn months.

[still_one]

17. What the Democrats should do is add a public option to the HCR, and fight about that /nt

[lobodons]

22. G.O.P. Take my health care away!!

I have a pre-existing condition and being 24 am on my parents health care policy. PLEASE TAKE MY HEALTH CARE AWAY!!!!! But sorry, I will be dead by 2012 so will be unable to vote for you.

[briteleaf]

24. The Republican give and take

It's very simple and may well cost the GOP in 2012. At the same time they want to choke off funding for our national health care bill, one of the other high priorities on their agenda is to extend tax cuts for the wealthy. So sad to see that the party that once stood for more individual freedoms have been reshaped by their corporate puppet-masters into the new, improved Replutocrats.

[Gin]

25. states will have their own single payer....VT is ready to go..

that will create the national wave...(IMO) and that will be the change we can believe in.

[cap]

27. Yeah, right...

they are going to take away billions from the insurance companies????

Oh yeah, and Congress has to buy its health care from the exchanges.