Excerpt
For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.
Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.
Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan.
Speaking to an ebullient audience of Democratic legislators and White House aides at the bill-signing ceremony on Tuesday, Mr. Obama claimed that health reform would “mark a new season in America.” He added, “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”
"Republicans face possible risk in healthcare repeal" by Thomas Ferraro, Reuters 3/23/2010
Excerpt
Republican lawmakers vowed on Tuesday to try to repeal President Barack Obama's landmark U.S. healthcare overhaul but a new poll suggested they may run the risk of a voter backlash in advance of the November election.
In fact, Democrats dared Republicans to move to rescind the measure that Obama signed into law earlier in the day.
"I don't see how they standup at a town-hall meeting and say they favor repeal of a law that prohibits insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions," said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden.
Gallup released a poll that found longtime opposition to the plan had turned to support, 49 percent to 40 percent. That may ease Democratic concerns as they near the November congressional elections.
"Passage of healthcare reform was a clear political victory for President Obama and his (Democratic) allies in Congress," Gallup wrote.
Earlier in the day, 12 Republican senators introduced legislation to rescind the healthcare law. "This fight isn't over yet," said Senator Jim DeMint, chief sponsor of effort.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell did not sign on to DeMint's bill but said the party would campaign to repeal.
"The slogan will be 'repeal and replace,'" McConnell said, acknowledging that the public has favored some of the new reforms, such as ones to make healthcare more accessible and the insurance industry more accountable.
There has been bipartisan agreement on some provisions, such as prohibiting insurance companies from dropping people from coverage when they get sick.
But there is opposition to others, such as tax hikes and cuts in the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly to help pay for it.
A repeal, however, would wipe out the entire law.
Yap. GOP on the wrong side again. Opposing this bill just like they opposed Social Security and Medicaid in the past. And by all means, lets keep the trend going; rich get richer, poor get poorer.
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
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