ADVERTISEMENT
Home / Blogs / The Politics Blog

Nov
23

How Obamacare Came To The Fiscal Cliff

By Charles P. Pierce
at 12:15PM

Just when I thought they couldn't surprise me any more — the Republicans, with their incredible (and completely groundless) hubris, and the Democrats, with their incredible (and completely groundless), ah, pliability — out comes a story, carefully designed to coincide with National Avarice Weekend, in which both sides surpass themselves in their ability to astound the American people, and to make the lives of millions of American people even worse.

As we discussed the other day, it's bad enough that Social Security and Medicare get tossed into a "debt deal" just to show putative good faith to a bunch of vandals who lost the last election. (Come to think of it, it's even worse to talk about a "debt deal" and the negotiations regarding the Gentle Fiscal Incline as though each is an essential part of the other.) But there is absolutely no good reason at all to throw the Affordable Care Act, or any part of it, into that mix. For all its relevance to what they're allegedly talking about, let alone what they're allegedly trying to do, they might as well discuss hocking the Buchanan flatware out of the China Room on an upcoming episode of Pawn Stars. The game is easily given away.

Even minor cuts to the law's spending would earn GOP lawmakers political points among their conservative constituents, something that'll be valuable if they have to swallow tax increases.

And, also, too:

Where Boehner does have some room to negotiate is on the fiscal cliff - that cocktail of expiring tax cuts and across-the-board spending hikes set to kick in at the end of the year.

Wait. Stop. The president, and the congressional Democrats, are under no affirmative obligation to make John Boehner's life easier just because he's got a caucus full of more nuts than a Wal-Mart fruitcake. The president, and the congressional Democrats, are under no affirmative obligation to arrange for John Boehner's mellow to stay unharshed just because he's dependent upon a political "base" that went to the monkeyhouse 30 years ago, pitched a tent, and never left. John Boehner's political problems are John Boehner's political problems. They're not the country's to solve, and certainly not the president's, either. Let him solve them himself. The popular speculation is that this is all just political posturing, and sop-tossing, and ass-covering. I am less sanguine. In this atmosphere, in which the entire discussion is taking place behind closed doors and in which the general welfare of most Americans seems to be little more than a side issue, empty rhetoric has a way of becoming empirical political fact.

The Prevention And Public Health Fund: The prevention fund was designed to help local communities combat disease and promote wellness. Republicans deride it as a "slush fund." Initially set at $15 billion, GOP leaders convinced the president and Democratic leaders to chop it by $6.25 billion in the payroll tax cut deal early this year. Having sensed that Democrats are willing to reduce its size, they'll hope to continue chipping away at it.

Here's a list of all the things this "slush fund" hoped to accomplish, because, as we know, preventing disease in our communities is a luxury that this country simply cannot afford because belt-tightening, just like the American family, share sacrifice, etc. etc. And it loses almost half its funding just because the Republicans are able to "deride" it as something. Maybe they can call the entire law as "Cholera" and we can do away with the whole thing. Watch these bastards, I'm telling you.

Tags:

Post Your Comment


ADVERTISEMENT

About The Politics Blog

This blog is about politics, which, according to Aristotle, a truly veteran scribe, is the result of humans being the only herd animals capable of speaking to one another. Or shouting at one another, or giving to each other the ol' bazoo, for all of that, although there is no translation for "bazoo" in the ancient Greek. Thus, for our purposes here, this blog will be about politics in its most basic form — to wit, how we speak to each other for the purposes of governing, or choosing not to govern, ourselves as a small-r republican political commonwealth. It will be the policy of this blog not to treat ignorance with respect simply because that ignorance profits important and powerful people. It will be the policy to operate on the principle that, while there may be two sides to every question, rarely are they both right. If this blog sees a man walking down the street with a duck on his head, it will report that it saw a man walking down the street with a duck on his head. It will not need two sources for that. It will not seek out someone to tell it that what it really saw was a duck walking down the street with a guy on its ass. It will be the belief of this blog that, as Christopher Hitchens once said, the only correct answer to the question, "Is nothing sacred?" is "No." And there will be fun.

About The Authors

  • Charles P. Pierce

    Charles P. Pierce

    Charlie has been a working journalist since 1976. He is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.

    View All Posts
  • Esquire Contributors

    Esquire Contributors

    Thomas P.M. Barnett, Chris Jones, Tom Junod, Scott Raab, Eric Rauchway, John H. Richardson, Eli Sanders, Mark Warren, John Weaver, and other smart people, occasionally.

    View All Posts

Archive

Select a Month

Special Offer