Yesterday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted for a budget that continues to fund the government, but that delays the implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year and repeals a medical device tax.
The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), has already said that he will strip out those provisions and send it back to the House, thus creating the stalement, stare-down shutdown situation we're all facing on Tuesday.
Enter star Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Mr. Cruz needed to make this appearance on "Meet The Press" today because his arguments have required tougher questioning for some time. He needed to explain his position (and we say his position because it is not shared by many of his Republican colleagues) to an audience outside of the conservative echo-chamber so we can understand his perspective.
However, in the face of these tough questions, the Senator, known as a skilled debater, fell flat in front of the logic of his opposition. He explained the Senator Reid was being unreasonable in his unwillingness to compromise on delaying the Affordable Healthcare Law by a year. He said that Senator Reid has told the American people to 'go and jump in a lake,' and that Mr. Reid's position was absolutist.
Mr. Cruz called delaying Obamacare for one year a compromise, but is it really? No, as Chris Matthews outlined, the Affordable Care Act passed through the House, through the Senate; the president signed it into law; and the Supreme Court upheld the passing of the law. Given this, there is simply no reason why Mr. Reid should compromise. "When is a law [finally] legitimate?" Mr. Gregory later asked during the panel. In this instance, Mr. Reid is doing right by the American people by not compromising with the extremists in the House and Mr. Cruz.
The fact is that far-right Republicans are going to bring us all down because they refuse to uphold law. It may be true when Mr. Cruz says that millions of Americans oppose the law, but on the other side of that the majority of Americans (that would be millions too) support the law and think that it should at the very least be upheld. We agree with Dee Dee Meyers who said that it was an 'unreasonable avenue to pursue.'
And clearly illustrated in today's interview is that Republicans have no alternative plan to control healthcare costs in this country when Mr. Cruz said that the best way to get health insurance is to get a job. That's simply a ridiculous answer, because having one doesn't beget the other. That was an appallingly cavalier answer that says he doesn't understand the reality of healthcare distribution in America. Instead, it speaks of an idealogue with no real solutions.
Mr. Cruz also weakly tried the populist argument, quoting union leaders who say Obamacare is destroying employer-based healthcare and citing how corporations are getting exemptions; then he turns around and says Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) is an inspiration to him, essentially killing the legitimacy of his populist stance.
Why?
As a Senator, Phil Gramm, as the Chairman of the Banking Committee, pushed through the end of the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept commercial banks separate from Wall Street Banks which in turn created an unregulated environment leading to derivatives and credit default swaps... Yes, remember these terms... They're the ones you had to familiarize yourself with when the world economy was in the midst of a complete meltdown in 2008. Well, Mr. Cruz is inspired all right... Inspired to bring it all down again because he doesn't believe that we as a country should try and insure as many people as we can.
Senator Cruz also explained that Obamacare 'isn't working,' and it's important to note the grammatical tense here because the law hasn't been fully implemented yet - that starts Tuesday - so how can he say that it isn't working? If he's speaking about provisions like parents keeping their kids on insurance plans until age 26, more Republican households take advantage of that than Democratic ones. Overall, the provisions that went into immediate effect - another being no rejection due to a preexisting condition - are very popular.
Former Governor Jon Huntsman, who tries to be the voice of reason (and whose opinions are constantly dismissed by other Republicans), said that politics aside, the 17 healthcare exchanges that will start on Tuesday will be an 'interesting experiment,' but it's politics that will dictate the success of the law. And what you're going to see is that the states that have embraced the law, will be successful in the overall goal, which is to lower healthcare costs across the board. The states that do not will see their costs continue to rise.
Congressman Raul Labrador (R-ID) stated the Democrats and the president want the government to shutdown to make the Republicans look bad... No, Republicans don't need help from Democrats, they're making themselves look bad all on their own.
No more delays and no more kicking and screaming - fund and implement it
and let's see where it shakes out. If Republicans don't like it, then win
back the Senate and the Presidency and repeal it. If the law turns out to stink and everyone hates then that won't be hard to do. In the meantime, take your medicine.
Roundtable: Republican Congressman from Idaho Raul Labrador; former
Republican Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman; former White House Press
Secretary during the Clinton administration Dee Dee Myers; and author of
the new book “Tip and The Gipper,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Note: With regard to President Obama speaking with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, talk is good in a Godfather sort of way. Until Iran dismantles its nuclear weapons ambitions and recognizes Israel's right to exist, the U.S. stance is 'keep your friends close, and your enemies on the defensive.
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