On Obamacare Repeal: In Defense Of Rand Paul And Cathy McMorris-Rodgers

There’s been quite a few verbal barbs aimed at Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, the #4 Republican in the House, over comments about reforming Obamacare rather than repealing it. Allahpundit writes

Interestingly, it’s Cathy McMorris-Rodgers’s comments about “reforming” rather than repealing the O-Care exchanges that drew most of the blog chatter this weekend, not Rand’s equally eyebrow-raising remarks at Harvard on Friday. Is that because McMorris-Rodgers is guilty of a double heresy, having forecast a new amnesty push this summer too? Or is it because Paul’s conservative bona fides are still in good standing whereas no one trusts the House leadership on anything anymore, starting with ObamaCare? Whatever the reason, McMorris-Rodgers issued a statement this morning aimed at the gullible optimists among us insisting that she’s on Team Repeal all the way. Whew.

Noting The Hill article mentioned in the excerpt (eyebrow-raising remarks0

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) admitted Friday it’s “difficult to turn the clock back” on ObamaCare, but proposed making the law voluntary as a possible fix for consumers.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to turn the clock back. People get assumed and accustomed to receiving things, particularly things that they get for free,” he told a crowd of students at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Friday.

Paul’s comments echo those of other Republicans who have admitted it will be difficult to fully repeal the law after some of its more popular provisions took effect.

Paul goes on to offer some advice on reforming, how things might go, what can be done. Now, let’s be honest. Can Obamacare be repealed? Well, yes. Should it be repealed at this point? No. Not straight repealed. That boat sailed with Mitt Romney’s loss and the failure to retake the Senate in 2012. Even then, it might have been difficult to simply repeal. The loss of the White House in 2012 was the most damaging, as the enormous amount of latitude within the PPACA would have allowed a President Romney to slow or stop so much of the damage.

Consider the “contraception mandate”: that was wholly a creation of Team Obama. It doesn’t appear within the text of the law. Establishing 30 hours as full time? Again, that was done by Team Obama. By the end of 2012 there were already 20K pages of rules and regulations regarding Obamacare, added to the 2,000+ pages of the PPACA. The tentacles of the Act were already insinuating themselves with not just the health insurance and health care industries, but many other sectors of the economy.

Heck, don’t forget that Obamacare also changed the student loan system, essentially taking the private sector out of most student loans, in order to keep the interest rates high (in the 6% range, despite the US borrowing at about 2.4%) with the profit fed back into Obamacare. And, let’s face it, to make students more beholden to Government.

Obamacare has already changed so many things in so many ways. Now that the Exchanges have started and people are obtaining health insurance through those Exchanges (albeit, most signups are due to losing their insurance due to Obamacare), simply repealing wouldn’t just be difficult, but reckless. I know people are thinking “hey, we repealed Prohibition, why not Ocare?” Comparatively, that repeal was simple. Alcohol banned, alcohol not banned. Hey, we also “repealed” slavery. The fallout from that lasted a long time, and, realistically, slavery wasn’t as intrusive on lives as Ocare. Not that many people really owned slaves. Though much of the South’s economy relied upon slaves.

Obamacare has caused massive amounts of uncertainty within the private sector. It’s even caused problems with municipal governments. Now, there’s always some uncertainty within the economy, and especially the private sector. That’s business. Government should not make it worse. Simply repealing Ocare will further cause uncertainty. What needs to be done is that it is slowly replaced with wise legislation. Things like the Exchanges and subsidies can’t simply be dumped. It will be hard work to replace all the bad parts of Ocare with good ideas, things that work for everyone. There should be no losers, just winners.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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