GOP's childish opposition to healthcare reform

Los Angeles Times ^ | January 21, 2011 | David Lazarus

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....The repeal bill will now likely perish in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and in any case would almost certainly face a presidential veto if it miraculously made it that far. But House Republicans say they'll still obstruct the healthcare law by blocking funds to implement its provisions.

It's hard not to think of a bunch of spoiled children throwing a tantrum because they didn't get their way.

The healthcare reform law, while imperfect, is a done deal. The prudent thing to do at this point is to build on it rather than waste time with fruitless — and needlessly divisive — political grandstanding.

And the Republicans have outdone themselves for misinforming the American people about what the reform law will and will not do.

Aside from scurrilous talk of "death panels" and "socialized medicine," House Republicans have reimagined healthcare reform as a jobs bill, rather than as a long-overdue revamping of how medical treatment is accessed and delivered in a country with about 50 million people lacking insurance coverage.

They titled their legislation the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." They claimed that 650,000 jobs will be lost....

[snip -- long diatribe about the GOP inventing facts goes here]

Conservatives might have ideological differences with some aspects of the reform law. Those differences should be respected.

But House Republicans have no business attempting to undermine a law just because they disagree with parts of it. It's as if Southern lawmakers had tried to block or repeal the Civil Rights Act after it became law in 1964.

They didn't because they had the maturity to accept the new status quo and move on. Today's Republicans should take a lesson from them.

As Frist said, healthcare reform is the law of the land. Deal with it. Work with it.

Grow up already.

[stylin19a]

he needs to buy a history book.

The Volstead Act was a done deal until it wasn't.

[GailA]

When I first went to work we had health ins. It covered ER visits with a co-pay, in hospital stays with the doc bill covered if you were in the hospital @ 85%. But NO RX’s NO doc visits.

So you didn’t go to the doc’s unless you were truly SICK.

[lentulusgracchus]

Don’t forget the talking point [LIE] that millions of people with pre-existing conditions are dropped or can’t get insurance.

Well, whether they were or weren't -- let's say arguendo that their claim is true, okay? -- it is still a second-order concern compared to the horrendous proposition of having to depend for your health on a totalitarian political party and their ruthless adherents.