ObamaCare, Government Shutdown and the Federal Debt Limit
Friday, October 4, 2013
It's been three days and counting, as the Democrats and the Republicans have come to a stalemate regarding a bill that had Obamacare and government funding packaged in one bill. Great idea HOUSE! The Republicans are demanding the demise of Obamacare, but so far have been unable to stop it. The bill that had absolutely no hope of passing in the Senate, led to a government shutdown, with what seems to be no end in sight. Just the absolutely essential parts of the Federal government are running at this time, and Federal employees are feeling the pinch.
President Obama vowed to veto the bill even if it passed the Senate and ended up on his desk. The one piece of legislation that he will be known for in history would go down to defeat with a single signing of his pen. Of course that will never happen. The Republicans continue to pass legislation in the House, now over 40 times to defeat Obamacare. Obamacare now is the law of the land. Last week, the 'exchanges' became active, allowing people who could not qualify for insurance or basicially had no means to acquire it to now have insurance coverage.
Granted, the program dubbed 'Obamacare' by the Republicans will have it's bumps in the road as does any new major program, and it is coming to light that many employers are afraid of the costs that they will have to endure to employ people and supply insurance to everyone. The law states that everyone needs to obtain insurance or pay a penalty under law.
After the filibuster speech by Republian Senator Ted Cruz, the Republicans were still not able to defeat Obamacare.
In a desperate attempt to get something done in Washington, it now appears that the Republicans are moving away from the Obamacare fight. Many Republican Senators now know that they cannot breakup Obamacare, and they are now fighting with hard right wing Republicans to do what is necessary to get the government open again. But now they suddenly have another problem on their hands, the need to raise the debt limit. The deadline to do this is just two weeks off, and if an agreement to raise the debt limit cannot be reached, then the government will go into default and will no longer be able to pay it's loans. The last time the Republicans held out in raising the debt limit, they costed the United States a ton of money, along with a decrease in credit rating, from AAAA to AAA. So what's next if a debt limit increase is not passed? Is it possible to go from AAA to AA? You can hardly imagine that the U.S. government didn't learn its lesson the last go around, but appearently they haven't. All they seem to want to do is pass temporary measures to fund the U.S. Government. This works for a short period of time, but then we must go through this all over again.
Just like President Obama is taking a hard line on Obamacare, he will now again take a hard line regarding the debt limit. He wants to pass a permanent measure to fund the government, not piece together temporary measures to please the Republicans. Before President Obama leaves his 2nd term of office as president, he will do everything he can to fight for his cause for the middle class, starting with Obamacare, ending two wars that a republican President by the name of George W. Bush got us into, along with a host of other bills that he will take credit for, becoming one of the more famous Democratic presidents in U.S. history, to the dislike of the Republican party along with the conservatives that try to disassociate themselves from their own party.
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