More Stand-Up From The GOP


Paul Krugman's Thursday illuminated the absurdity of Repub continuing opposition to the Affordable Care Act:

Has anyone else noticed how much the GOP position on Obamacare resembles the classic borscht belt joke about the two ladies at a Catskills resort? Lady #1: “The food here is so terrible, it’s inedible!” Lady #2: “And the portions are so small!” Republican #1: “Obamacare is slavery!” Republican #2: “And it’s so hard to sign up!”

Ah, but it gets worse, and more absurd.    Prior to the deal raising the debt ceiling, Breitbart reported

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chair of the House Budget Committee, told conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes Monday morning that House Republicans had demanded a one-year delay in Obamacare's individual mandate, along with an end to congressional exemptions, while offering a six-week debt ceiling hike to allow room for negotiations on broader budget issues. The offer was made to President Barack Obama last Thursday.

That was back in the day in which Republicans were all about delaying the individual mandate in the ACA. Two days prior to Krugman's post, Fox News noted

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill Monday that would delay the penalty that the people who do not buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act would have to pay.

Rubio introduced the bill with fellow Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Trey Radel. If it passes, it would delay the individual mandate of the new health care law until six months after the exchange website – the site where people sign up for health insurance – is free of any major glitches, according to a statement from Rubio’s office.

Rubio, a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, announced last week that he would introduce his legislation because people should not be punished for not buying the insurance by next March when major technical problems have affected the online sign-up process.

Rubio’s measure, titled the “Delay Until Fully Functional Act,” is co-sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), James Inhofe (R-OK), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), John Boozman (R-AR) and Mike Johanns (R-NE).

And Tom Cotton. In late September, the website of the U.S. Representative from Arkansas declared

Earlier this year, President Obama gave big businesses and corporations a break when he announced a one-year delay of Obamacare’s employer mandate. But hard-working Arkansans deserve a reprieve too. As they are seeing their hours cut and taxes go up as a result of Obamacare, a one year delay of the individual mandate would be the least President Obama could offer them.

Now, however, Think Progress' Igor Volsky has found

A Republican Congressman predicted that the GOP will extract political concessions from Democrats should they try to delay elements of the Affordable Care Act, suggesting that Republicans won’t agree to fix the law they claim is hurting millions of constituents without a fight.

“Folks, don’t be surprised if in 30 days, or 45 days, or 60 days, it’s not Republicans who are asking for a delay of Obamacare or a delay of the mandate, it’s Barack Obama and Mark Pryor coming to us, asking us to delay it for them,” Rep. Tom Cotton (R), the GOP nominee for Senate in Arkansas, said during an event for the Benton County Republican Women on Oct. 26.

“And then the issue will be, what concessions are they willing to make, so we can delay their own disaster of a law,” he continued.

The individual mandate Democrats imposed upon the country is such an intolerable burden and disaster that Republicans will allow it to be delayed only if they can extract concessions in return.  That suggests, of course, either that Cotton and some other Repubs were just joshing about the horrors of the mandate- or have always believed it is truly awful and want it to stay in place because they are so darned concerned about their constituents.



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