Paul Ryan: Repealing HCR Will Be The First Goal Of A GOP Congress

Closing the donut hole will be a big issue for a lot of old timers in Florida and I believe that happens right away. I don't know how running against HCR is a big winner in Florida.

Repeal is virtually impossible once it passes - this is nothing more than a bunch of red meat being thrown out to the rabid base, not something they would be able to actually accomplish.

Since the Republicans have made 60 votes the de facto new majority in the Senate, do they think they could muster 60 repeal votes (no matter how many seats up from their current 41 they pick up)? They won't have a majority, let along 60 seats.

But even if they do, they forget that Obama is President until at least January 2013, probably January 2017. There is this little thing called a veto, something that requires 2/3rds in each house to override. On what planet do they think that is possible?

And if they somehow think they can do it under some 51 vote budget reconciliation motion, they are ignoring the reality that a huge part of the legislation is policy that cannot be addressed with reconciliation -- and still is subject to a veto.

But even those practical barriers are nothing compared to the political reality -- once this thing passes, the American public isn't going to want Congress to spend another year fighting over health care. And they certainly aren't going to be able to defend re-imposing pre-existing condition exclusions, removing small business tax credits, getting rid of new enrollees in Medicaid, abolishing the high risk pool for currently uninsurable folks, taking away subsidies to buy insurance, and re-opening the donut hole in Part D....

These things are going to be popular, and a Congress that decides their first priority is getting rid of them will see a public uprising that will make the tea parties look like afternoon tea at some fancy English hotel.

The Republican leadership knows that opposition to the legislation will be at the highwater mark right before it passes -- once it is in place, it will work to Democratic advantage - in November and beyond.

Oh, and may I just say that boy do I hope they follow through on this! I don't envy their position -- the teabaggers will demand nothing less than a pledge to support full repeal, and any Democrat with a brain will turn that into "Republican X wants to let your insurance company dump you when you get sick!"

Please, please, please make this a major plank in your platform this fall. Along with privatizing Social Security and eliminating Medicare. Sounds like a winning formula. Go for it.

Aside from the bill being created, sponsored, and enacted by Democrats, and aside from the lies about what the bill actually does ("kill grand-ma", "government take-over", "socialist medicine", etc.), what exactly are the substantive reasons why Republicans and conservatives are fighting this tooth and nail? Is it all just politics? The lies whip up their supporters into a frenzy. The obstruction and demagoguery is really reaching into CRAZY-land here. So, the Republicans don't want to make health-care insurance affordable to more people, they want the insurance companies to be able to raise rates whenever they want, they want the insurance companies to be able to kick people off of their plans for pre-existing conditions...am I totally missing something? What substantively don't they like? How it's being paid for?

I hear them say "it's a bad bill" and "the American people don't want this", but I have yet to hear any coherent argument against it.

Dream on, dream on, dream on, .....

GOP Congress? No problem.

All the Dems need is 41 senators and everything stops dead.

... er, right? RIGHT?

I am so FUCKING sick of "my" party, being the permanent, proverbial 90-lb. weakling! And it's all because we matter less than their corporate constituents!

I think these guys are believing their own Fox/Astroturf hype a bit too much. To run on a platform of repealing reform sounds like a great way to expedite your own extinction.

And that would be a good thing.

Ryan needs to repeal his Pet Shop Boys hair style...