The House of Representatives has voted to repeal the recently passed Healthcare Law that was supported by the President and many Democrats. Some people think it’s unnecessary to repeal the whole thing, that it would be better to just keep the “good parts” of the law and revise or remove the “bad parts.” Yes, The reform’s supporters admit now that, of course, a 2000-page law that originally was passed by a very narrow margin unread by many legislators and even fewer ordinary citizens has some bad parts mixed in with the good. No one seemed willing to admit that back when Nancy Pelosi uttered a statement that will be used in political satire for the next century, “We’ll have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.”
Supporters seemed to expect that as people came to realize the “good parts” of the law, it would increasingly be seen as necessary and that more people would come to value it so much that they would be willing to overlook the “bad parts.” Now, after losing the majority in a House election won largely by candidates who campaigned on repealing “Obama Care,” it’s clear that that ploy has not worked. The 20 plus state attorneys general who have challenged the law’s constitutionality present a case in point.
At a time when the press says the electorate longs for both political parties to work together, some must be encouraged to hear members of both parties say they want to keep the “good parts” of the law and get rid of the “bad parts.” If this is truly the tenor of the country, though, why insist on repealing the law?
Having read large parts of the original bill, I know that it’s incredibly complex. Imagine it as the proverbial “can of worms” and imagine that someone has instructed you to separate the fat worms from the thin worms. Most of us, I suspect would find it much more efficient to dump all the worms out of the can, spread them out, sort them, and then replace the ones we wanted to keep. That’s what Republicans are trying to accomplish. Dump out the can, replace the good “worms,” add some other good ones, and let the bad worms wriggle back into the earth where they belong.
TheMiddleofSomewhere 