House votes to repeal ObamaCare — for the 33rd time
posted at 4:52 pm on July 11, 2012 by Allahpundit
Thirty-third time’s the charm?
Members approved the bill in a 244-185 vote, after five hours of debate that stretched over two days.
As expected, just a handful of Democrats supported the GOP repeal bill. Five Democrats sided with Republicans in the final vote, more than the four who sided with Republicans in a Tuesday procedural vote…
“For those who still support repealing this harmful healthcare law, we’re giving our colleagues in the Senate another chance to heed the will of the American people,” Boehner said, noting the House vote against the law at the start of the 112th Congress. “And for those who did not support repeal the last time, it’s a chance for our colleagues to reconsider.”
It’s worth doing this, I suppose, as theater for Republican voters, to reassure them that the GOP really will drop the bomb on O-Care if given the chance. Although … how reassuring is it really? These votes are being taken with absolute certainty that the bill is DOA in the Senate and on Obama’s desk. How much can you fairly extrapolate from that about the commitment of centrist Republicans to repeal if the GOP retakes the White House and Congress and suddenly their votes mean something? Beyond that, remember that House Democrats are enjoying these votes too: They’re base-pleasers for both sides, as even Republican strategists acknowledge, since they remind liberals of how drastic the consequences would be for their pet boondoggle if they don’t turn out in the fall and salvage some part of government for the left. It’s fine as a symbolic flipping of the bird to John Roberts and his new best friend in the White House, but after 33 roll calls, I’m thinking the vote-shifting potential of these gestures has reached a point of diminishing returns.
Another thing. What effect are these votes having on the caucus?
“As a doctor I fully endorse — and as a Republican I fully endorse — the goals of the 2010 health law,” said New York Rep. Nan A.S. Hayworth (R), an ophthalmologist, on Tuesday. “Every American should have access to good, affordable health care and affordable, portable health insurance.”
In moderate New Hampshire, Rep. Charlie Bass (R) indicated he wanted to find a way to allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans and to prevent insurance companies from barring those with pre-existing conditions from purchasing coverage…
“There are more voices now saying we’ve got to have something to replace the law with,” said one Republican House member, who asked not to be named so he could freely describe the thinking of GOP colleagues. “And some substance to the replacement, because that’s what they’re hearing back home, because that’s what the other side hits us on. There are stronger calls for that within the conference.”
If the optics of a barrage of repeal votes without an agreed-upon replacement plan is starting to give centrist Republicans cold feet, that’s bad news. In fact, predictably it’s the centrists on both sides who are most tormented by these votes: Of the five Democrats who voted with the GOP today, two are from reddish-purple North Carolina and the other three come from the Republican strongholds of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Utah. (The Utahn is Jim Matheson, who’s facing a stiff challenge from tea-party favorite Mia Love.) These votes would be hilarious if there was still a sizable Blue Dog presence in the Democratic caucus, but the big red wave of 2010 washed most of them away and now we’re left with a few stragglers trying to stay above water. Let us savor their discomfort, my friends, as we mourn our latest thwarted repeal.
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Kind of like communism was good for the youth, religions, and the artists.
acyl72 on May 22, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Surprised there wasn’t a “donate button” at the bottom of her webpage.
can_con on May 22, 2013 at 8:48 PM
Congratulations class of 2013, you managed to graduate without learning critical thinking skills. You have been programmed to be compliant to the state from which all your needs and desires will come. Don’t bother looking for meaningful employment, as we have ruined any chance of you being independent and self determined. Everything you say and do can and will be used against you if you show any signs of resistance to the state. You will not enjoy any privacy. Welcome to Amerika.
tom daschle concerned on May 22, 2013 at 8:51 PM
I will gladly
payrob you Tuesday for thehamburgerDeath Panels you buy for me today.—————— Joe Mengele Sebelius, Death Panels Kommandant.
viking01 on May 22, 2013 at 8:51 PM
Um..I just have to comment…pre-existing condition of acne?? WTF
BeachBum on May 22, 2013 at 8:51 PM
Great job kids, you’ll be excited to know being dependent on us is now easier than ever!
rightmind on May 22, 2013 at 8:52 PM
I’m tired of this BS meme about “robbing our childrens’ futures”. This is simple thievery, and we’re being stolen from NOW through inflation, and means nothing to most voters…they’re used to living in debt and the numbers are so staggering it simply doesn’t compute for them. Oh, and…they believe that the Wizards of Wall Street and the Gov’t surely know what they’re doing and will fix everything.
So, it doesn’t mean anything to enough people to make a difference at the polls. Besides, even if it did, how much more would the GOP get is into debt? They’ve done it before.
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 22, 2013 at 8:52 PM
There’s an old joke that goes, “I want to live long enough to be a burden to my kids.”
Obamacare is going to guarantee I am, along with a lot of other people my age and older.
Liam on May 22, 2013 at 8:54 PM
Not if your parents lose their employer provided insurance and get thrown on the exchanges.
Curtiss on May 22, 2013 at 8:56 PM
Nurse Diesel was born 60 years too late. She would have made a marvelous Nazi and Associate of Dr. Mengele. Pity…
/SPARC
glcinpdx on May 22, 2013 at 8:57 PM
Nurse Diesel was born 60 years too late. She would have made a marvelous Nazi and Associate of Dr. Mengele. Pity…
/SARC
glcinpdx on May 22, 2013 at 8:58 PM
I was at a party this past weekend, a rather daper young man of 80 years told a “funny but true” joke.
He asked at Social Security how he was going to get back all that he had paid in. The lady looked up his numbers, and told him with interest, it would take 32 more years to pay him back.
He looked me straight in the eye and said
If you knew Don, you could believe that.
JusDreamin on May 22, 2013 at 9:05 PM
Of course you can get Plan B at age 15.
You can drive a car at 16.
You can vote at age 18.
You can legally drink at 21.
You can serve in the military.
But when it comes to healthcare, you can mooch off your parents until you’re old enough that you probably have a family of your own. Here’s to being a responsible adult or something.
Happy Nomad on May 22, 2013 at 9:14 PM
Good if you are going to be a government worker.
Guess there might be some openings in the IRS soon…
ProfShadow on May 22, 2013 at 9:15 PM
I doubt any but the most serious and earnest of young Democrats are actually going to find their way to the HHS blog. I mean, how many here even knew there was one? I didn’t.
Even if they are aware of her statement, all Sebelius’ words won’t mean a thing when members of the class of 2013 can’t find work or can only find part-time work thanks to Obamacare or when they see differences in their paycheck because of Obamacare.
INC on May 22, 2013 at 9:17 PM
How many parents will subsidize their “kids” until they’re 26? I won’t.
Charlemagne on May 22, 2013 at 9:17 PM
Somehow, though, I can’t feel sorry for these college kids who, their first time voting, voted for Obama. And for those who voted for him twice. And let their liberal parents who voted Obama suffer just like the rest of us.
While I deplore this law and wish it be repealed, I’m going to enjoy seeing liberals suffer for the laws they wanted but didn’t always have to heed. Now, for the first time, liberals have to pay, too.
“Welcome to the party, pal!”
Liam on May 22, 2013 at 9:20 PM
I have little faith in the young. They get their news from Colbert and Stewart and couldn’t tell you where Canada is on a map let alone intelligently explain international affairs. Many of them will happily sign up for that “free” healthcare.
Happy Nomad on May 22, 2013 at 9:21 PM
Maybe she can explain why she broke the law & why she was extorting money from organization she was ‘lover’s….it will give her some practice before she has to do it before CONGRESS!
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 9:23 PM
Well good for you! I knew that the financial support was cut off the minute I graduated from college. Of course, I had a job and wasn’t back in my childhood race car bed because of the lousy economy.
Happy Nomad on May 22, 2013 at 9:24 PM
Well, remember that campaign ad. They wanted their first time to be special.
Happy Nomad on May 22, 2013 at 9:26 PM
Well, they gave it up to a psycho, and he’ll forever be like a stalker.
Liam on May 22, 2013 at 9:30 PM
“You vill drink zee Obamakare, und you vill enchoy it! Ja?”
slickwillie2001 on May 22, 2013 at 9:32 PM
What year did Sebelius run in the Kentucky Derby?
bw222 on May 22, 2013 at 9:34 PM
Yeah, it’s like a Lifetime Movie Network script.
Innocent happy young people graduate from college. Before you know it they’re enrolled in Obamacare, have to trade their cool phones in for Obamaphones because they don’t have any income. They turn on the television to see Mooch lecturing them to eat their vegetables. It is as if they’ve lost their real families and been adopted by the Obamas. Or more accurately they’ve been recruited into the radical left-wing party of which Obama is the cult leader.
Happy Nomad on May 22, 2013 at 9:41 PM
Hah! Trick question. Sebelius isn’t a mudder and got scratched before the race for fear that the track conditions would result in a broken leg. Thus eliminating any chance of stud fees.
Happy Nomad on May 22, 2013 at 10:00 PM
Chickens coming home to roost.
.Left wing professorial nuts in colleges teach kids socialism.
.left wing indoctrinated college freaks elect Obama president.
.Obama appoints whackos like Sebelius and the IRS to propose and administer Obamacare and other lunatic government programs (government “problems” would be more apt.)–all over-funded, job-killing and cancerous.
.Left wing indoctrinated college freaks not only can’t afford Obamacare but they can’t get any jobs because of it.
.In a no-job market the only openings available for poorly trained, unqualified left wing indoctrinated college freaks is to become left wing professorial nuts themselves. Problem is-only one opening per 75,000 applicants.
MaiDee on May 22, 2013 at 10:55 PM
This. Only recently has it even been physically possible for me to go apartment shopping. And the state of the job market basically robs you of all career choice.
Seriously, you wanna be depressed to the core of your being? Try writing out a budget and realizing 9 hour shifts of putting up with flappy-mouthed rudesters for co’work’ers and being abused by dumb angry proles who want everything for free will BARELY provide enough money to exist on.
Would be a lot more money for me if it wasn’t being taken to feed the Democrat ‘minority’ voting blocs…
MelonCollie on May 22, 2013 at 10:55 PM
Exactly. Even with all manner of Federal subsidies, there are only so many ‘jobs’ for overpaid wind-up puppets. The rest of us actually have to find real employment, which is currently about like panning for gold at your local public pool.
MelonCollie on May 22, 2013 at 10:58 PM
Nah, there are plenty of jobs for them. Obama wants his domestic national police force, equipped as well as the military. 3 hots and a cot along with all the “personal defense weapons” and “weapons of war” you can want with that new authoritah.
oryguncon on May 22, 2013 at 11:24 PM
Well, except for that really, really high insurance premium – you know, that one that you’re required to purchase. Oh sure, you probably wouldn’t have purchased insurance at such a young age – but if we’re going to offset the costs associated with insuring people with preexisting conditions – we need to you to pay your fair share. See? Doesn’t that feel good?
Sure hope you find a good-paying job… you’re going to need it!
Hill60 on May 23, 2013 at 12:04 AM
I still think that in this picture she looks like Dana Carvey as The Church Lady.
bugsy on May 23, 2013 at 5:42 AM
I don’t understand why there is never any pushback from the GOP or commentators on the stupid claim that insurance companies discriminate with higher premiums based on being a woman. What they are referring to is that insurance is typically higher for a woman of child bearing age than a similarly aged man. Well, duh that’s because women can get pregnant and men can’t and so they are at a higher risk of causing higher payouts. I know my six pregnancies cost our insurance company a lot more money than my husband did at the same age. To force a single male to pay the same rates as a single female during childbearing years is redistribution for the sake of politics/feminist agenda pure and simple.
txmomof6 on May 23, 2013 at 5:52 AM
I despise this Sebelius woman.
locomotivebreath1901 on May 23, 2013 at 6:12 AM
to the class of 2013:
good luck finding a job; and don’t forget to pay your obamacare ‘taxes’ or the IRS will be coming for you.
you voted for these socialists; welcome to the real world chumps!
burserker on May 23, 2013 at 10:10 AM
In charge of your medical records.
Schadenfreude on May 23, 2013 at 3:16 PM