UPDATE – yesterday I reported on GOP House members’ commitment to cut a hundred billion from the discretionary spending this fiscal year (which, by the way, started October 1, 2010). After I posted this piece, the GOP reneged on the commitment, with aides to Speaker Boehner saying the $100 billion figure was ‘hypothetical’.
No, it wasn’t.
In the ‘Pledge to America’ the signatories said “We will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone.”
In a speech at the time of the midterm elections, Boehner himself committed to that number, saying “We’re ready to cut spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving roughly $100 billion almost immediately.” (note Boehner’s website had the link up yesterday, it doesn’t work today.)
So why is this in a blog focused on health care?
Simple. The GOP has committed to overturning, or at the least de-funding, health reform. Not some of the Accountable Care Act – all of it.
That includes:
– the prohibition against medical underwriting that effectively prevents those of us with pre-existing conditions from obtaining individual coverage in most states.
– the closing of the doughnut hole in Part D that will save seniors thousands on their drug bills
– the requirement (already in place) that insurers cover kids till age 26
– the requirement (already in place) that prohibits medical underwriting or pre-ex exclusion for kids
– vouchers for less-well off folks to use to help cover the cost of insurance
– prohibition on lifetime maximum coverage limits
I find it…interesting that many of the same folks who passed Part D and its $16 trillion addition to the deficit in an attempt – successful at that – to woo seniors, would now want to upset seniors, and moms, and families by killing provisions that most voters like.
We’ll see.
Jan
5
