Two weeks before taking over control of the House of Representatives, Republicans have already succeeded in starting to defund Obamacare. As Ezra Klein, a zealous Obamacare supporter, writes in the Washington Post, “The Senate passed the Continuing Resolution [by a vote of] 79-16…. Another way of saying that: The Senate voted to defund the implementation of both health-care reform and financial-regulation reform.” Shortly thereafter, the House followed suit, by a vote of 193 to 165. This result was achieved because, in Klein’s words, “The omnibus spending bill collapsed,” preparing the way for the continuing resolution. Klein frankly says: “[T]his is bad news for the health-care bill.”
It is indeed, and it’s a good first step leading into a new era in the House. House Republicans will soon pass a full repeal bill. They then need to pass replacement legislation that provides a compelling, incremental, commonsense alternative to Obamacare. That alternative needs to address rising health care costs (which last year’s House Republican health care bill already did), and it needs to address in a meaningful way the plight of the uninsured (which last year’s House Republican health care bill decidedly didn’t do), by giving tax credits to the uninsured for the purchase of health insurance. Tax credits for the uninsured are a no-brainer, as it’s both unfair and senseless that about the only Americans who don’t currently get a tax break for the purchase of health insurance are the ones who we’re all supposedly the most concerned about: the uninsured.
