From the “Moderate” Side by Jim Blessing
I read with amusement how our new congresswoman, Susan Brooks, was very proud to join her fellow Republicans in voting to repeal Obamacare (for the 38th time). Ms. Brooks, along with Sen. Dan Coats, also is standing firm against any form of gun limitations, resisting immigration reform and voting against the rights of women.
While these two legislators would like us to believe that they are “reasonable” Republicans, their views and voting records are in line with the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party. One wonders whether their expressed views truly reflect their beliefs or whether they are so worried about a Tea Party primary challenge that they strictly follow the Tea Party voting line. Either way, the result is the same.
We visited Susan Brooks’s new office in January when she was holding tickets for us to the Inauguration. We thanked her assistant for the help and wished her luck. The assistant told us that Ms. Brooks hoped to join new members in Congress in working together in a bipartisan manner and to cooperate regardless of party to address the needs of our citizens.
Seemingly, Ms. Brooks has already abandoned that approach. Instead, we have seen her standing behind Republican leadership in the House, who are attacking bipartisan approaches to gun violence, immigration reform and healthcare.
Healthcare in America is three times more expensive than any other country in the world. Unlike us, all other industrialized countries have had universal healthcare for a long, long time (some as far back as the 1880s). Does anyone see a connection in our high healthcare cost and Republican long-time efforts to block universal coverage?
Even Sen. Coats admits that the earliest any legislative action might possibly repeal Obamacare would be 2017. To succeed, this would require Republicans to take control of the Senate by 60 votes (last done in 1908), retain control of the House, and win the Presidency. Why the charade of voting again and again to repeal the act, when they know it won’t succeed? Don’t they have anything better to do?
By 2017, it will be seven years (2010) since Obamacare was voted into law. As Republicans were heavily opposed to Social Security (1937) and Medicare (1965) when they were first enacted, I wonder why they are not also trying (over and over again) to repeal these laws.