Poe on PPACA: Repeal "Totalitarian Act"
On January 10, we ran a daily news item on how Representative Ted Poe (R-Tex.), while speaking in support of H.R. 2, the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act bill, said of the current health care legislation, "Congress must repeal this totalitarian act." It was the kind of quote that seemed to sum up the intensity surrounding the health care debate. And it also got our readers talking.
Obviously this guy is not a Constitutional scholar, economist or health care expert. Or even novice. Our government employs countless techniques to force individual responsibility on individuals who otherwise expect the rest of us to bear the consequences of their ignorant behavior, such as driving without car insurance. None of our freedoms is absolute, all of them are relative, and all come with commensurate responsibilities. Unfortunately we have to occasionally remind people like Mr. Poe of the responsibility part of the equation.
Gary Duell
This is newsworthy? Get a grip. Not worth the digits it took to print it.
Robert Lehmert
It's easy to say what you are against. Rhetorical flourishes and sophistry only go so far. What are you for?
Richard Harris
Why is it that anything that helps the poor, less fortunate, those in poor health, so irritates the right-wing fascists? They never complained about Enron, or the bail out for AIG, BOFA, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, et al. They have also complained about Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid since these landmark social programs were implemented. Never heard them complain about the interstate system begun by Eisenhower…
Jerry Zillion
The goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is to ensure that all Americans purchase health insurance and thus eliminate the uninsured. This benefits the country as a whole by spreading the costs nationally in this plan which is equivalently to that sponsored by Bob Dole in response to the Clinton bill. Of course, Ted Poe has his federal health insurance so he does not need to suffer the consequences. Hypocrisy reigns, however, in Limbaughland.
jjheinis
Wow, National Underwriter with a complete article that knocks Obamacare? Do my eyes deceive me? Could it possibly be that the NU is getting just a tad more balanced in its reporting? A good omen, but I will need to see more of the same to believe it.
sunforester
Representative Poe is 100% right that it's unconstitutional to require citizens to buy something just because they are alive. However, I do take exception to his comparing this to requiring that drivers have auto insurance. People do not HAVE to own cars and babies and children don't have to get auto insurance. The minimum required auto insurance is to protect other people's property. If Congress does repeal the requirement to obtain health insurance, then they'd better fix PPACA as well. They can't require insurance companies to take anyone and everyone who wants insurance and cover all of their pre-existing conditions without putting the health insurance companies out of business, which would be even more of a job-killing move.
WGT
PPACA is already keeping healthy children from getting insurance across the country. Because you cannot tell a child who has health problems "No," every carrier in my state that used to sell child only policies has pulled out of the market. The sick kids (2%) have no access nor do the healthy kids (98%). This law will apply to adults in 2014 and we will have one carrier (Uncle Sam). We will all work for the government in a decade unless this bill is repealed.
John
Most Republicans are just too stupid to be entrusted with the (admittedly necessary) task of repealing PPACA. The mandate is not the problem; the low penalty for not buying health insurance is the problem. That, plus the fact that health insurance reform is not health care reform. The Democrats blew a golden opportunity: health care reform should have included cracking down on the two guiltiest parties: the drug companies and the AMA-backed specialists. PPACA should stand for Pharmaceutical Proliferation and Accelerating Costs Act. The cure is worse than the disease.
Jeff Baker
Why can Congress not just kill the bill by not funding it since we do not have funds to pay for it? Why is this such a big deal and cost? When I do not have money for something I simply do not buy it. I would also like to add to the idiots that want this bill, you should order it and read what is in it before you open your big mouths. I have been in health care for years and you need to educate yourself before knocking the Republican party.
Pam
