- Joined
- Jul 10, 2012
- Messages
- 4,136
- Reaction score
- 915
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
Republicans were begged to participate, the only caveat the democrats made was that there would need to be some Republican votes for the bigger changes Republicans would have wanted, the Democrats simply did not have the votes if they conceded elements to Republicans and Republicans still didn't vote for it. This was party over country and politics over nation. But the bill did include 161 amendments put forward by Republicans with many of them substantive.
One of two things will happen because the GOP will not address any of the shortcomings of the bill, they will either benefit politically or be blamed for not doing their job. In one case, Democrats will win the House and make the needed changes, or alternatively, the GOP will win the Senate, and they may have the power to repeal the bill in total and enjoy the backlash of reinstating pre-existing condition exclusions, allowing insurance companies to throw dependents off at 21, repeal tax credits to small business for buying health insurance, reopen the Medicare "doughnut hole", and these benefits will be up an running so will have to be taken away from Americans. And if and when they do this, besides all of the people who will be angry at losing the benefits of this bill, if insurance rates don't fall, they will then own THAT.
How do you expect Republicans to participate when the majority of the bill, expanding Medicaid and hundreds of billions in new taxes, is fundamentally against what the party believes in? Taking one or two ideas from Republicans doesn't make it a bipartisan bill. It reminds me of the fiscal cliff debate. Romney wanted to limit deductions to bring down overall tax rates. Obama wanted to limit deductions to raise taxes, then tried to spin it as a "Republican issue."