The New York Times writes today, “Republicans on Capitol Hill have put together a highly coordinated two-week renewed assault on the health care law, seizing on the legislation’s second anniversary and the next week’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court concerning its constitutionality. On Monday, Congressional Republicans took to the floor of both chambers to denounce the law . . . . Republican members are also holding sessions on Twitter, making videos and scheduling television interviews day and night, with one veteran lawmaker, Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, appearing on Fox News on Monday. On the Senate floor on Monday, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said, ‘The reason I ran for the United States Senate was primarily because of this law.’”

Republicans are spending the week highlighting the many flaws of Democrats’ unpopular law, from its inability to control costs, to the fact that it won’t lower premiums, to the thousands of jobs that are being lost as a result of its passage.

Last year, Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf acknowledged that his office estimates that under President Obama’s health care law, “there would be a reduction of 800,000 workers.” Across the country, companies are being forced to lay off workers, including medical device manufacturer Medtronic, drug maker Abbot Laboratories, artificial joint maker Stryker Corp, medical insurer American Enterprise Group, and orthopedics device maker Zimmer Holdings. An owner of 9 tanning salons in Wisconsin called the new tanning tax imposed by the health care law “a death sentence for many small salons.”

In an op-ed for Politico today, two of the Senate’s doctors, Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) write, “Based on our combined 50 years of practicing medicine, we warned [two years ago] that his health care law would be bad for patients, bad for providers and bad for taxpayers. The law focused on some of the symptoms in our health care system but failed to address the underlying disease. As the Obama administration began implementing its overhaul, we continued examining the data and the conclusions of nonpartisan experts, including the Congressional Budget Office and the Congressional Research Service. We have compiled our findings into a new oversight report about the law’s negative side effects. We found fewer choices, higher taxes, more government and less innovation. . . . We found that American families are paying higher premiums than they did when the law passed. If all this were not enough, the law’s costs continue to soar. Expanding health insurance coverage will cost at least $1.76 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the CBO. That’s double what the president said his entire program would cost. The president and Democrats in Congress made specific promises to sell their health care plan. Over the past two years, the evidence in our report shows they have not kept their word.”

They conclude, “As physicians, we know firsthand that we cannot go back to the system we had before. We believe that we can — and we must — fix what was not working in our health care system. However, an honest solution cannot be built on a failing law. Real reform starts with repealing the health law and then replacing it with solutions that really lower costs, increase coverage, empower patients and reduce government interference. Only then can Congress help Americans receive the care they need, from the doctor of their choice, at a price they can afford.”

Related:

Picture of the Day: Prominent STL Democrat Tweets Repealing Obamacare is “Excellent?”

Non Partisan CBO Doubles Projection Costs for Obamacare; FLASHBACK VIDEO: Russ Carnahan Calls Obamacare Protestors “Attack[ers] On Our Representative System of Govt.”

Polling Shows Obamacare Still Unpopular; 75% Say Individual Mandate Unconstitutional, Even Majority Of Democrats Agree

Comments

comments