I think that William A. Jacobson pretty much sums up my attitude about the Upton bill:
The Upton Bill seems to violate the principle that Democrats should own Obamacare completely, and we should do nothing to save Democrats from their own folly, particularly after we were called terrorists, suicide bombers, arsonists and hostage-takers for trying to help just a month ago in the run up to the temporary, partial government scale-back.
On a purely political level, though, let Democrats go on record against it, or let Obama veto it.
I honestly can see both sides of this particular argument, and I certainly don’t blame my colleagues for not trusting the Republican party as far as they can throw it so much as I rely on my colleagues to do precisely that. I find the GOP to be a good deal more helpful and pleasant when it’s never quite sure whether or not we’re about to haul off and eat its spleen. It’s the sort of thing that focuses the mind.
In this particular case, though, I think that the whole thing is producing enough useful panic in the Democratic caucus to be worth doing. Note: I am often wrong.
Moe Lane
The Upton bill puts us “on the side of the angels” by showing people we’re trying to do something to help them (even if the private insurance market is now more broken than Humpty Dumpty thanks to the ACA) and not just saying “We were right and we told you so.” So, good politics and a good move, I think. And it be signed into law (which I doubt) it will hasten Obamacare’s demise.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Mmmmm. Spleen.
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While I’m solidly in the “let it burn” camp, the Upton bill is a no-brainer. It inflicts a mortal wound on Obamacare, and show the LIVs that we’re “doing something” empathetic.
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Without the ability to force people onto the exchanges, Obamacare cannot work, even in theory. Gut shoot the law, let it fester and die.
The Upton Bill is the “Let It Burn – Action” option. Whether or not it is signed into law, ObamaCare burns. Full repeal will be the ultimate outcome.
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I say, no veto override. If this somehow manages to get to Obama’s desk (I doubt it will) and vetoes it (I’m sure he will), then we can go to the people and say we tried to fix ObamaCare. We look good and still haven’t even touched ObamaCare.
The other play, though: bring on the pain. Let the American people feel the affects of socialism. Make this THE choice in 2014: vote D and continue down this road, or vote R and let’s repeal this bastard law. Ocare could be the defining issue in both 2014 and 2016. I say: stay out of the way, but ride it hard.
I agree, in principle, but lettin’ it burn opens the door for the Dems to blame us for fiddling while it burns, eh?
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We need to appear non-idle.
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Mew
Doesn’t a delay just make next year catastrophically worse?
Obamacare makes next year worse because employer mandate.
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This is “just” the individual policy market, i.e. the people who fight their way through insurance red tape to buy products the insurers don’t really want to sell because they have no alternative but to be uninsured.
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So … Yes, this makes next year worse, but in a very small way… It’s like adding Justin Bieber to American Idol…
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Mew
The bill that should be passed is one that repeals Obamacare. “Period.” (To quote a famous person.) The current debacle isn’t something that can be fixed. As Moe says, it is the system. There isn’t a fix. It foundationally flawed. And then there isn’t any future confusion about what was meant. If insurance providers don’t have any long-term certainty, there’s little incentive for them to do anything different than follow the law that’s on the books.
We are never going to repeal OC unless we get some control back from these people. The only way we can do that is to get some of these LIVs to open their eyes (I know, most of them are lost causes, but not all). This appears, as of now anyway, to be a solid way to stay out of the “evil GOP taking away your health care” meme and still not actually do anything to help the cause.
Well now that it has been passed I think if it, or Landrieu’s bill make it thru the Senate and get reconciled and O’bama vetoes it we should try for an override and see how many votes we can get. Two reasons: 1) Embarrassing O’bama 2)Hopefully kicking off a Democrat civil war between the O’bamabots and the Dems in Congress who want to keep their jobs. A Democrat civil war would make for a nice back drop going into the 2014 elections.