Michele Bachmann, revving the repeal train. [h/t David]
After last week's insanity with regard to the political end-run around the Affordable Care Act and subsequent withdrawal of what could have been a horrible political quandary for Democrats, Republican freshmen are making loud whining noises over the fact that they haven't yet had their chance to vote to repeal it.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) urged leadership to hold a repeal vote so freshman members can serve up the same anti-Obamacare talking points for their conservative constituents that more senior Republicans enjoy.
“If you’re a freshman — the guys who’ve been up here the last year, we can go home and say listen, we voted 36 different times to repeal or replace Obamacare. Tell me what the new guys are supposed to say,” he said. “We haven’t had a repeal or replace vote this year.”
“We have not had a chance as freshmen to do that,” said first-term Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL). “Even if it’s just symbolic — and even if we understand that process-wise we are not going to be able to say, okay we want repeal, it’s done, and it’s over. But this is the issue that so many people around the country who love the Republican Party are frustrated with.”
Poor babies. It breaks my heart that they're frustrated over not being able to brag about denying sick people access to health care. I know I will lose sleep over it every single night, won't you?
Of course, the reason they want the vote is because they're stupid enough to think that 2014 is going to be 2010 all over again, which it will not be. Evidently they didn't learn that in 2012, when people did not vote for full repeal of the ACA, and wholeheartedly embraced the principle that pre-existing conditions should not exclude people from getting health care.
They were able to get traction in 2010 because no one actually benefitted from the reforms passed at that time. It is three years later now, and many young people have access to health care because of the ACA, and many, many more people will be able to get health insurance and access to health care on January 1, 2014.
But hey -- let them have their vote, Speaker Boehner. I welcome such a vote, so that every nutcase Republican who voted for it can be ousted from office on 2014 by angry voters yelling at them not to touch their Obamacare.
