More than 15 days ago, the Republican-led House of
Representatives shut down the U.S. Government over their unwavering disapproval
of the Affordable Care Act (ie. Obamacare).
Ironically, their decision to shut down our government is
costing us more, and doing far worse damage, than their assumptions of
Obamacare would have.
Although it is true that Republican members of Congress put
forward bills to reopen the government, their proposals have all insisted that
President Obama first make concessions on a 3-year-old law: a law that Congress
passed, the President signed, the Supreme Court upheld, and the American people
support (the last election overwhelmingly proved this).
Major provisions of Obamacare have been closely modeled
after Republican ideas - a private-sector,
free-market solution that encourages individuals to take more responsibility for
their personal lives. It is not a government-run, single-payer system, but one
that creates competition in the health insurance market. It gives the uninsured,
under-insured, and insured the choice of choosing multiple insurance companies,
who will now compete for these people’s business, which will, in turn, lead to lower
premiums, lower costs, greater efficiency, better care, and an improved
industry.
Yet, regardless of how they feel about
Obamacare, Republican leaders have no right to hold our entire economy at
hostage. Because shutting down the government is not how you make the
government work. We have a lot of issues to fix, but that’s all on hold because the
government is closed and we’re on the verge of default.
The President has time and time again proven his
ability and willingness to negotiate and compromise, even when members of his
own party disapprove. But his decision to stand up for democracy and refuse any
deal that would reopen the government at the expense of paying a “ransom” is the
right one.
“Think about it this way, the American
people do not get to demand a ransom for doing their jobs. You don't get a
chance to call your bank and say I'm not going to pay my mortgage this month
unless you throw in a new car and an Xbox. In the same way, members of
Congress, and the House Republicans in particular, don't get to demand ransom
in exchange for doing their jobs. And two of their very basic jobs are passing
a budget and making sure that America's paying its bills. They don't also get
to say, you know, unless you give me what the voters rejected in the last
election, I'm going to cause a recession.
And you know, I've heard Republicans
suggest that, well, no, this is reasonable, that this is entirely appropriate.
But as I've said before, imagine if a Democratic Congress threatened to crash
the global economy unless a Republican president agreed to gun background
checks or immigration reform. I think it's fair to say that Republicans would
not think that was appropriate.”
