A Destructive Obsession
We know that the GOP will do nearly anything to deny millions of Americans the security of quality, affordable health care. Nevertheless, even we were surprised to discover that House Republicans have collectively voted to repeal Obamacare a whopping 7,386 times.
Those 7,386 repeal votes represent about 15 percent of the floor time in the House of Representatives since 2011. This would perhaps help explain why this Congress is on track to be the least productive in the modern era.
Yesterday we learned that Republicans will do a whole lot more than waste time when it comes to Obamacare. In addition to threatening to shut down the government over Obamacare, they’re now threatening to manufacture a debt limit crisis and tank the entire economy unless Democrats agree to massive cuts to Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
According to a new poll out today, the GOP’s obsession with destroying Obamacare is wearing thin with the public. In particular, the GOP’s current effort to defund the health care law is broadly unpopular. The overwhelming majority of Democrats oppose it, 53 percent of Independent voters oppose it, and even 34 percent of Republicans oppose it.
As you can see above, most of those who oppose defunding Obamacare think “using the budget process to stop a law is not the way our government should work.” They’re right. And that’s why, as we explained last week, the GOP’s obsession with killing Obamacare is killing the Republican Party.
BOTTOM LINE: Those 7,386 Republican votes to repeal Obamacare didn’t create one job, didn’t lower one health insurance premium, didn’t help one of the 129 MILLION non-elderly Americans with a preexisting condition get affordable coverage, didn’t help one senior save on their prescription drugs, didn’t help one young person stay on their parents’ insurance, and certainly didn’t help one of the nearly 50 MILLION uninsured Americans.
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