New Congress sets its eyes on oversight

This adds some good context to the op ~ emphasis/bolding below [except for the title] is mine ~ Sooz

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS ON REPEAL.... At least we know what one of the first bills to receive a vote will be in the new House.

Maybe so. But there's almost certainly a realization on everyone's part that House Republicans are doing this for show. If passed, their repeal measure can't pass the Senate, and wouldn't overcome a veto. The GOP wants to pursue repeal just so they can say they pursued repeal. This isn't going to be policymaking from responsible, problem-solving lawmakers; this is going to be a public-relations stunt. We can probably expect quite a bit of this over the next two years -- Republicans are great at campaigning, but tend to have trouble governing once the election has come and gone.

But I continue to think there are opportunities here for Democrats. To hear Upton tell it, one of the very first votes House Republicans will cast in the new Congress is raising taxes on small businesses. And adding over a trillion dollars to the debt. And taking away health care coverage for millions. And making seniors pay more for prescription drugs while weakening Medicare. And allowing insurers to discriminate against children with pre-existing conditions.

To be sure, Republicans won't put it this way, but their rhetoric is irrelevant against the reality -- by voting for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, they're voting for the consequences that come with the law's elimination.

If Dems fail to go on the offensive on this, they're missing an opportunity.

—Steve Benen 9:40 AM January 2, 2011

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archiv ... 027338.php

the reality of governing is far different than the fiction of the campaign.

I hope what happens in the first 90 days of the New Congress is the Republicans will expose themselves to be the liars they are.

You would be better off hoping they expose themselves as liars by not doing what they said they will do during the cmpaign.  Too many people will be hurt if they they do follow through.

they really CAN'T follow through.  they actually tipped their hand to the democrats in 2012, because of that fact.  by 2012, i am convinced that people will start to see the benefits of this bill, and will stop complaining.

it is not a government takeover
it is not the end of the world
it WILL save money

Nonsense!
The Goppers will campaign for 2012 with "The marxist dems in the senate won't let us repeal and the really really bad stuff starts in 2014! Vote for us and we also outlaw abortion, put a stop to Obama's marxist take over of our country and cut taxes to create jobs! God bless the USA!"
A winning strategy.


Edit: "and we will shrink the guvermint!"

Here we go ~  ~ Sooz


POLITICO Breaking News
-------------------------------------------------

House Republicans will vote next Wednesday, Jan. 12, to repeal the new health care law, making good on a top-tier GOP campaign promise and setting up a showdown with President Barack Obama over his signature domestic policy achievement. The repeal effort is not expected to succeed, given that Democrats maintain control of the Senate and the president can veto the legislation, but Republicans also plan to chip away at pieces of the law over the long term.

The republicans know they won't be able to repeal it so they're doing this early and hope people will forget about it in the next election.

why do these discussions NEVER bring up medicare? it really pisses me off.

one other thing- they just cut Access back in Arizona. really painfully bad move.

"They" (GOP, and other gov agents) just don't get it, do they?  There are millions of people out there, some with insurance, many without, NONE of whom can afford to access healthcare...the insurance that some have have this 20% part that the patient must pay (usually after having met some huge deductible) on bill after bill (not counting the "copays") and many of the millions that are without insurance are either unemployed or minimum wage earners who are held at just below the 40 hr/ full time status so that they are ineligible for health insurance through their employers...many of our young adults (ages 18-25) fall into this group...college kids who are facing tuition hikes even as the GOPhers are wanting to scale back student aid....without Obama's healthcare act, I personally can name 4 young adults in my family that would be without insurance and would not be able to buy privately health care insurance....Thanks to the new healthcare legislation all have insurance.   In tandem with this situation, you have this monstrous greedy unethical delivery system that has millions of dollars worth of technology that it feels obliged to utilize in the practice of defensive medicine (fear of lawsuit) as well as helping to support (pay) for the existence of this technology (eg. CATSCANS) when in fact often common sense diagnostic skills could be used instead of the technology....this technology is often over used at extreme cost to the patient/payor and hospitals continue to "remodel" themselves into rivals of the swankest luxury hotels instead of putting some of the profits into medical schools/and personnel....this situation exists throughout the country.   Our hospital chain CEO earns more than Toyota's CEO...but if we are one patient shy of our "quota" they won't let even so much as a nurse's aide work her scheduled shift because of "crunching" the numbers..
she can take a paid vacation day (if she has any vacation pay left after being "cancelled" several times) or she can stay home without pay...this cancellation of staff affects RNs too....and patients think the staff is "understaffed" (they see the remaining staff that is working running to and fro frantically) because of the "nursing shortage" and so the patient waits and waits for his need to be met (pain med, assistance to bathroom, etc.) when in fact they are kept waiting because of the greed of the "number crunchers' of the administration who wants "higher productivity"--fewer workers doing more tasks....and people fall, suffer accidents, and sometimes die because of all this craziness...and even the "lack of staffing" lawsuits" don't seem to be able to halt this insanity...the only answer to all of this lunacy is universal healthcare with gov't regs....not a popular idea, but the greed of the private sector has made this a necessity.  Otherwise, our young will be bankrupt from medical bills (or die unnecessarily) and the healthcare system will implode on itself like a huge tumor caving in on itself...there is no other answer except gov't intervention.