Politics Plus

Republicans were taken so aback by the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare, that they did not have a lock-step evasion planned for reporters, wanting to know what comes next, if they can repeal Obamacare.  Here are excerpts from a couple of articles and an excellent video that illustrate the Republican health care plan, RepubliCare.

First, here’s Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Mitch McConnell’s appearance on Fox News Sunday was remarkably revealing — it showed as clearly as you could want that the Supreme Court decision is finally forcing Republicans to declare what, exactly, they would replace Obamacare with if they realize their goal of repealing it entirely.

Pressed by Chris Wallace to say what he would do to insure the 30 million people who will get insurance under Obamacare, McConnell at first dodged the question, instead launching into a litany of complaints about the law. He repeated the debunked claim that it would cut $500 billion from Medicare. Asked the question again by Wallace, McConnell actually laughed and said he’d “get to it in a minute,” before claiming the best thing we can do for the health system overall is to get rid of the law and all of its “cuts” to health providers. He labeled Obamacare a “monstrosity” and vowed that there would not be a “2,700-page” Republican reform bill.

Asked a third time how Republicans would insure those 30 million people, McConnell said: “That is not the issue. The question is how you can go step by step to improve the American healthcare system.” … [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Miami Herald>

Apparently RepubliCare is so bad that McConnell does not even want Faux Noise sheeple to know what it is.

Next, here’s John Boehner.

House Speaker John Boehner vowed on Sunday to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying the law, which the Supreme Court ruled as being constitutional this week, should be "ripped out by its roots."

"This has to be ripped out by its roots," Boehner said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “This is government taking over the entire health industry. The American people do not want to go down this path. It has to be ripped out and we need to start over one step at a time.

Boehner said that once the entire law is repealed, lawmakers can discuss individual measures. "We can have a common sense debate about which ought to stay and which ought to go," he said…

Inserted from <The Hill>

Quack, quack for the duck! We already had a common sense debate and passed a law.  Boehner won’t admit what RepubliCare is either.

Ed Schultz discussed the Republican health care plan with Howard Fineman.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bought Bitch Mitch says we have the best health care system in the world. It is, but for the 1% only!

John Boehner, aka Agent Orange, says he has a better way. It’s You’re on your own.

Ryan’s patient centered solutions are patients, who can’t afford insurance, get the RepubliCare Death Option.

There’s a reason Republicans won’t tell us what their plan is. It benefits only the 1%.  The 99% just get to pay for the benefits for the 1%.

Here it is:

I have always pictured the Supreme Court of the United States as a very formal setting, where collegiality and propriety prevail at all times.  In addition, Justices regularly claim that the atmosphere was non-political.  A rare glimpse inside SCOTUS puts both those myths to rest.

Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court’s four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama’s health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations.

Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy – believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law – led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold.

"He was relentless," one source said of Kennedy’s efforts. "He was very engaged in this."

But this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into, "You’re on your own."

The conservatives refused to join any aspect of his opinion, including sections with which they agreed, such as his analysis imposing limits on Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause, the sources said… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CBS>

This actually surprised me.  To a large extent I had bought into the myths about the decorum of the court, even though I knew that the Court id dominated by right-wing political activists.  I suppose it’s time to smell the coffee.

This tends to validate my position that Roberts wanted to goose step with the Republican Regime, but so soon after unconstitutionally deciding Citizens United, he correctly determined that unconstitutionally overturning the ACA, would permanently stain the legacy of the Court that bears his name.

The partisan bullying pursued by the other Republican activists underlines the importance of reelecting Barack Obama and keeping Republicans out of the White House, as the following graphic demonstrates.

One of the few things for which Republicans actually do have a plan would devastated if Republicans get control, because their plan is to take something already bad, and make it worse.  Willard Romney, who has never met a lie he wouldn’t tell, outlined his views on the subject.

What a shining example this is of Mitt Romney’s policy ideas. In his stump speech yesterday, he mocked President Obama’s vision of fairness and opportunity for all by saying he agreed with it. It’s mockery because of course he does not agree with it, as he reveals a few short words later…

…Some definitions, so that his statement may be parsed more clearly:

1. "Every single citizen" means people who reside in this country legally but also excludes those who are undocumented workers, especially if they are brown or black.
2. "Place of opportunity" means a place where one navigates all barriers with no safety nets or possibility of a hand up. It is a meritocracy where one must have at least one special advantage (obsequiousness is helpful) in order to grasp the opportunities in that place.
3. "Willingness to work hard" means they may not ever join their collective voices in a union or expect fair wages or any benefits whatsoever, but instead accept jobs with substandard pay and scrape together whatever they possibly can to advance to the next rung on the ladder. It is especially important that these people with this willingness also agree to pay their dues to Wall Street and the bankers.
4. "Right values" means these people must, at all times, look down on others who are poorer, less educated, and have fewer advantages than they. They must not, under any circumstances, view women as equals. That goes for LGBT as well. It’s fine to pay lipservice to both groups but when it comes to matters of consequence, it’s critical that Those With Right Values turn their backs and discriminate as much as they possibly can. Right Values also include God and Guns.

Provided a person meets those requirements, Mr. Romney then affirms that they should have as much education as "they can afford." This is a man who wants to privatize our K-12 education system, who slashed Massachusetts’ education budget by large margins, increased class sizes to unmanageable levels, attended an exclusive private school, exclusive private colleges, and has the means to send his children to any college they can afford so that they too, can make tons of money by stripping other people of their jobs and futures… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here is is.  Watch Willard lie!  Lie!  Lie!! Lie!!!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that our system is broken.  We need national standards for education, based on preparing our young people to make a living, not just to get a passing test score.  We need to evaluate teachers on the quality of the work they do, not just their student’s grades.  One cannot fairly compare grades between a teacher with a class of 15 in an affluent district and a teacher with a class of 150 in a slum district.  We need to address the problem that some districts have everything they want, while others have nothing that they need.

However, if Willard and the Republican Party have their way, most resources will go to fancy prep schools for the rich, like the ones Willard attended, and pseudo-Christian schools, where science and critical thinking take a back seat to dogma and obedient intransigence.  Willard and the Republicans want a well educated super-rich class overseeing submissive, unthinking worker drones.