Posted on 09/26/2013 8:48:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
On Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz began a filibuster of the worst law passed by the worst President in American history. He vowed to “speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand.” And after 21 hours on his feet, in the true fashion of an “anarchist,” as Harry Reid and the mainstream media smeared him, he politely followed parliamentary procedure, yielded the floor, and exited the Senate chamber.
The Senator knew there would come a time when he could no longer stand, but Cruz is from Texas, where you can find the Alamo, the Alamo Bowl, the Alamo Inn, the Alamo Economic Development Corporation, the North Alamo Elementary School, and the Alamo Bar and Grill. In other words, Cruz and his fellow Texans know a lot about what it means to stand boldly on principle even in the face of certain defeat.
What’s not as well known is that there’s another fight to defund Obamacare, and in this other fight, President Obama doesn’t get a veto. This is a fight completely within the reach of conservatives to win. But it’s a fight too many Republican governors are afraid to wage.
I’m talking about the decision every state government faces of whether to accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Democrats wanted to coerce states into expanding their Medicaid programs to achieve his vision of universal health care, so the original version of Obamacare included a huge costly punishment of states that refused to expand Medicaid. In the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision last year, it struck down as unconstitutional Obamacare’s plan to punish uncooperative states. Now, thanks to that court decision, every state has the option of rejecting the Medicaid expansion without the threat of any punishment from Obama.
Fortunately, about half the states have refused to expand Medicaid. Unfortunately, the remaining states include Republican governors. If you hate Obamacare, you should know who they are. It’s time to name names.
Republican Governors Jan Brewer of Arizona and Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota are the most egregious offenders. They represent states that voted for Mitt Romney – very red states where rejection of the Medicaid expansion would come at little-to-no political cost for them. Those states’ constituents are conservative. It’s a shame that on this issue, their governors aren’t.
Five other Republican Governors are in the second-to-worst class of offenders. John Kasich of Ohio, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Brian Sandoval of Nevada, and Rick Scott of Florida lead states that George W. Bush was able to carry. These are not die-hard blue states, but their governors are acting like blue-state governors by accepting Obamacare’s invitation to expand Medicaid. (Florida’s legislature has thus far succeeded in blocking Scott’s attempt at expansion, but the same sadly can’t be said elsewhere.)
Let’s be clear about what’s at stake. The Medicaid expansion is absolutely central to Obamacare. It will cost federal taxpayers at least $800 billion over the next ten years. Obamacare raises taxes by $500 billion in order to (help) pay for the expansion. Although Obamacare’s individual mandate has attracted most of the attention, there’s nothing about Obamacare, from the perspective of those of us who think government taxes too much and spends too much, that is worse than the Medicaid expansion.
Republican Governors who want to expand Medicaid make two arguments. First, they say that a rejection of the Medicaid expansion in their states would mean that federal tax dollars from their citizens fund the expansion in other states. But that’s only true if there are other states that expand. If all 30 Republican governors joined with the Democratic governors of Montana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and West Virginia (5 red states that voted for Romney), there would only be 15 states expanding Medicaid – which would save federal taxpayers in all 50 states hundreds of billions of dollars.
Second, at least one Republican Governor, John Kasich, has argued that rejecting the Medicaid expansion is un-Christian. Kasich told an interviewer that “we will be held accountable” by God for not expanding Medicaid because “the right way to live is to make sure that those who do not have the blessings that we have, those who are beleaguered, those who have fallen on hard times – we can’t ignore them. We have to help them. And we’re expected to do that, and I believe the Lord expects us to do that. And it’s spelled out pretty clearly in that Old and New Testament, consistently.”
Unlike John Kasich, I’ll let the Lord speak for himself, but I have three questions for Kasich and governors like him. If spending $800 billion by a government already $17 trillion in debt is actually some kind of Eleventh Commandment prescribed by the Almighty, as Reverend Kasich apparently believes, why did Kasich campaign in 2010 in favor of repealing all of Obamacare? Why did he support a suit by 26 states in 2011 challenging the Medicaid expansion’s legality? And since nothing in “that Old and New Testament” changed between then and his Come-to-Obama moment, what did?
Proven Federal Fact: The only way to balance the US Federal Spending and Income within the next two years is to execute this two step process:
1.) DEFUND Obamacare in 2013; and
2.) ABOLISH Obamacare, Democratcare, and Republicancare in the first month of 2014.
______________________
BTW US Congress men and women, failure to do BOTH of these timely steps will insure that your replacements will gladly do it for you.
It is all about the money, stupid - - - OUR taxpayer money!
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick ———
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that government is to help the poor. That responsibility is given to individual followers of God and His Word. God knows that the government can’t run anything without corruption and so much waste that the needy get pennies on the dollar from all the grandiose political programs to help them.
I would submit that the worst president in history would be Buchanan.
Immensely ironic that Harry Reid would call Cruz , or anyone else , an "anarchist" .
This from the same political apparatus that supported the "OCCUPY .... " movement.
All that Cruz did was to "OCCUPY THE SENATE " for 21 hours , and Harry Reid is upset and beside himself .
At the heart of the argument over The Affordable Healthcare Act could be considered the sinister nature of those who crafted and rammed it down our throats. Christ the Son of God said “you shall know them by their fruits.” Why this quote is so important is that the Affordable Healthcare Act more than anything else, far more of an impact on humanity than benefitting the poor, is an empowering of a government far beyond one’s wildest dreams at a time when its credibility is at an all-time low. Consider that Barack Hussein Obama has voted for protection of a procedure called partial birth abortion where a “doctor” would kill an aborted baby while half-way delivered so that he could say it was an abortion and not a murder by law. Look at the morality of lawmakers in Washington who were and are behind the Act: Sodomite Barney Frank. Hypocrite Catholic Nancy Pelosi. Pathological liar and fornicator Bill Clinton. “what does it matter” Hillary Clinton. Constitution-hater and Saul Alinskiite Obama.
Look at the numerous questionable parts of this convoluted law that are imposed on the population: forcing all to pay for abortion and birth control. Forcing states to expand Medicaid. The Bible says “God loves a cheerful giver”.
It’s one thing to steal to the stingy rich and give to the poor and it’s quite another by extreme national debt to steal from the innocent (our descendants) and give to perspective voters as is happening at the hand of these politicians today.
By accepting the act, we relinquish more personal and local freedoms than anything else we could do. It may not be such a bad idea in principle if those running it were someone trustworthy, competent and benevolent, but they are not. Thus it is a grave mistake and just plain evil to accept their package of supposed aid. Don’t fall for their trap.
Instead, this is what it comes down to.
No coherent message, no organization, no planning.
The worst part of the plan was running the co-author of Obamacare against Obama last year. And it’s not just the leadership who were responsible for that but the party voters who voted for him in the primary.
You are right.
We heard NOTHING from the leadership and little from the rank and file in all that time.
Those who did speak up got hammered. Rats pack up like dogs to protect their own. The GOP scatters like cats.
I don't understand your comment or your anger.
Who cares if the Democrats didn't want to hear what we had to say?
The only thing I had to say was: “NO Obamacare!”
Taking back the House majority in 2010 was largely based on Republican outrage over ObamaCare.
But the FIRST POLITICALLY SERIOUS attempt to stop it didn't start until last week, 10 days before ObamaCare goes into effect!
That's pathetic, and it's almost certain that more than enough Republicans will defect to fund ObamaCare, or even worse, “postpone” ObamaCare for one year, which is EXACTLY what all electorally challenged Democrats want!
Now, according to the article you posted, we can only hope that enough state governors refuse the Medicaid option because, according to Republican theory, that will undermine the financial structure of ObamaCare.
Really?
When was the last time a huge federally funded domestic welfare program was shut down for lack of money?
Interesting comment, would you care to elucidate? It takes some doing to be worse than Obama, in fact if a president could be worse than Obama wouldn’t he be so bad that one would have to repeat Hitlery’s query, “What difference does it make?” Technically being shot between the eyes with a .44 magnum might be worse than being shot between the eyes with a .22 magnum but you are fairly well guaranteed dead either way.
“Republicans had FOUR FREAKING YEARS to design and implement a national political strategy to stop ObamaCare.”
Yes they did! And in that time all they accomplished was to hold symbolic votes in order to show the dumb folks back home that, “hey, we tried...we’ll keep trying...promise.”
The lousy traitors patted each other and yucked it up with the Rats, joining with them to lambaste the “stupid” Tea Party at every opportunity.
Then along came someone who represented what they hate most in this world, a true Conservative...a Tea Party guy...a young senator who really ought to know his place in the pecking order, ya know!
Thank goodness he didn’t care what they thought, and he showed them all up in less than a 24-hour period — not only with his knowledge of the Constitution, but by reminding them of what it is to be a Patriot (well, that is if they ever knew).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.