Conservatives want Obamacare ended. The “Affordable Care Act” is anything but affordable.
When Barack Obama tells people they should give up their cable and cellphone to pay for Obamacare, someone needs to point out where the “affordable” part of Obamacare is.
While the majority of Americans want Obamacare repealed, Republicans in Congress lack the leadership to do anything about it. The House leadership is not making a real effort to repeal Obamacare. They just schedule a series of meaningless votes.
Instead of showing leadership, Republican leaders in the House stumble around like newly castrated cattle, trying to figure out what they lost and why it was important.
There is a strategy that will work to repeal Obamacare, if the Republican leadership will act on it.
All the House leadership has to do is attach a sunset provision for Obamacare to a piece of must-pass legislation.
Sunset provisions are something that should be attached to every major law passed by Congress. Ronald Reagan once said: “The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.” Government programs, no matter how good or how bad, are never repealed.
Obamacare, to quote former Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, is a “train wreck.” Yet Democrats will not vote to repeal it.
The sunset provision that should be attached to a must-pass bill would say simply, “Unless reauthorized by Congress, the Affordable Care Act shall be repealed on November 1, 2016.”
That date is no accident. That date is right before the 2016 presidential election. The 2016 election should be a referendum on Obamacare. If Obamacare is such a great idea, Democrats need to step up and do more than just give it lip service. They should face the voters on it.
Endangered Democratic lawmakers this year are distancing themselves from Obamacare and from President Obama. They are hoping they can squeak through a re-election, then two or six years from now, Obamacare will no longer be an issue as America simply accepts its suffering.
If Obamacare is popular, the Democrats should put their money where their mouths are. They should support a sunset provision for Obamacare, then run in 2016 on reauthorizing Obamacare.
For conservatives, there is a lesson here as well.
Conservatives cannot simply sit back and allow law after law to be passed. Conservatives should make a pledge that when conservatives do control the Congress, every law that is passed will have a five-year sunset provision.
If a law or a program is a tremendous success, Congress will have no trouble reauthorizing it. However, if the program is a miserable failure, like Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank Act or any number of other programs, it can and should die a quiet legislative death.
If Republicans are really interested in a conservative agenda for America, enacting a sunset provision for Obamacare and every other law enacted by Congress is a very good start.
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