Washington
Working people are just barely figuring out how the new health reform legislation will work, but that’s not stopping Congressional Republicans from launching a coordinated plan of attack to derail, de-fund, and ultimately wreck the new health care legislation. The political assault is part of the Republican Party electoral strategy for the November elections. Several bills have already been introduced into Congress by Republicans in both the House of Representatives and Senate which would repeal parts of the sweeping health reform legislation passed just several months ago. Despite public opinion polls that show opposition to the Democrats’ health bill has been steadily declining since its passage, Republican campaign operatives are convinced that by making it impossible for the bill to be implemented that they will benefit at the ballot box on election day. These forces are banking on the hope that working people will become frustrated with the mess they create, and then reward the mess-makers at the ballot box. Given the complexities of the massive legislation – along with its shortcomings and many unanswered questions – and such a crass and corrupt plan of attack has the possibility of success.
While the health care bill passed at the beginning of the year is far from perfect, these attempts to destroy the new reforms are nothing more than evidence of the desire of the Republican Party to regain control of Congress no matter the cost to working people. Republican candidates for Congress are being asked to sign-on to a pledge to de-fund the health care legislation and thereby make it impossible for the provisions of the legislation to be initiated. Republican House Minority leader John Boehner and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback have both issued multiple messages of support for the wrecking operation, and they have been joined by dozens of other elected Republican officeholders and candidates. Big business television and radio spokespersons have now joined the drumbeat of support for the wreckers, providing the illusion that there is public support the political operation.
The health bill’s provisions to rein-in illegal and unscrupulous conduct by the insurance industry would be stopped if funds were not appropriated to allow the federal government to enforce them. The early creation of insurance pools for those individuals with pre-existing conditions would be derailed, leaving these working people with no choice but to continue to pay exorbitant insurance premiums. The web page being used to rally Republican lawmakers and candidates to wreck the new health bill is merely a continuation of the fanatic campaign against any health care or health insurance reforms. Working people and voters should be reminded that the long push to pass the urgently needed health care legislation was accomplished only over the fanatic opposition of virtually all Republicans, and nearly failed owing to those Democrats who watered-down the bill for more than a year and a half in the vain hope of obtaining even one Republican vote.
Commenting on the latest attacks on the health reform legislation, UE General Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Klipple said, “I hope that Congressional Democrats take note of this new initiative to wreck the start of the new health legislation. If this doesn’t cure them of their seemingly endless desire to coax some measure of bipartisanship from Republicans then nothing will. Working people need the new health care bill provisions to be rapidly enforced and initiated, strengthened in many ways, and defended from these kinds of attacks. The last thing we can afford is for the new bill to become bogged-down in a morass of political infighting and maneuvering. It’s time for Democrats to take the gloves off and look into this scheme to wreck the health care legislation. Working people strongly suspect that if we pull back the curtain on this we’ll see big business and the insurance companies pulling the strings.”