The Republican-controlled House scheduled a vote on the Keep Your Health Plan Act for Friday. The bill, which came out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would negate the damage done by President Obama’s broken promise, assuring the public could keep their health insurance plan if they choose to.
With low party approval from failing to derail ObamaCare during the partial government shutdown, congressional Republicans have perhaps found a new lne of attack toward President Obama and his signature health care law, which may have the potential to boost party favorables.
Congress is returning on Tuesday from the long holiday weekend, and while the battle shifts to this House Republican-backed bill that would allow Americans to keep their health plans, Republicans are on the offensive and solid ground.
“Actions speak louder than words,” said Michigan Republican and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton. “If the president is serious about offering relief to Americans whose health plans are being canceled, then he should strongly support the Keep Your Health Plan Act. … The president ought to embrace the bipartisan call for legislative action.”
Democrats staunchly and universally opposed the Republican plan triggering the government shutdown, but now some Democrats solely for political survival have changed their minds.
Republicans have attacked every lawmaker and other persons connected to the website failures, including contractors who helped build the site, and Speaker Boehner said the site’s technical problems are just “the tip of the iceberg.” That comment certainly turned out to be the case.
As a matter of fairness, the Republican-controlled House will also propose legislation to delay the individual mandate for Americans, just as the president unilaterally delayed the employer mandate, The proposal will also seek to verify that low-income people getting federal subsidies to pay for the insurance actually qualify for them.
Both are widely supported proposals among the American people, with the latest survey finding that just 34 percent support the individual mandate, while 54 percent oppose it. The support for ObamaCare overall has cratered after a short bump during the shutdown, when Democrats were propagating falsehoods over Republican motives. Support for the law has never overtaken opposition, however, particularly when measuring intensity.
Senate Democrats who favored shutting down the goverment to protect the unpopular, failing law they supported in the first place, but now feel political pressure to pretend that they have changed their minds, are Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Kay Hagan, of North Carolina. All are also facing conservative groups vowing to spend millions to show voters their early support for and subsequent defense of ObamaCare.
Landrieu, in fact, introduced a bill last week similar to the House one that would allow Americans to keep their existing health plans. However, she was immediately pounced on by conservatives who dug up footage of Landrieu supporting these foreseeable disasters, showing her hypocrisy.
“When we passed the Affordable Care Act, we did so with the intention that if you liked your health plan, you could keep it,” Landrieu said. “A promise was made and this legislation will ensure that this promise is kept. I have said repeatedly that the … act isn’t perfect, and I am willing to work with anyone who wants to improve it and implement it correctly.”
That statement is about as true as President Obama’s original promise, as a study conducted by People’s Pundit Daily has shown.
