News from the Plains: All this RED can make you BLUE
The Chutzpah of Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe
by Barry Friedman
First, a story. A poem really. Maybe you know it.
Little Moshe shot his parents in bed,
Took their cash and their car, and then fled.
He showed chutzpah; his plea:
"Have some mercy on me!
I'm an orphan! My parents are dead!"
Okay, keep that in mind.
Jim Inhofe, February 12, 2013
"I have already cosponsored several pieces of health care legislation, including a full repeal of the ObamaCare. I will continue to fight to see this law repealed and work towards common-sense health care solutions with my Senate colleagues.”
Senator Tom Coburn,
October 12, 2012
“I applaud Governor Fallin's decision. Obamacare's Medicaid expansion and exchange would have, in the long run, hurt Oklahoma patients by increasing their costs, reducing their choices and placing an unsustainable fiscal burden on our state,”
Senator Jim Inhofe,
June 28, 2012
“In short, Obamacare costs too much in the form of lost rights, lost jobs, higher taxes, and increased debt. I will join with my colleagues to repeal this law and pursue sensible healthcare reform.”
Senator Tom Coburn,
September 21, 2011
“The number one detriment to job creation in this country is the president’s healthcare plan — businesses aren’t going to hire people that they know they’re going to be mandated to cover,” he said. “And so that’s the number one thing keeping people right now from hiring new people . . . because they know next year, and the middle of the year after that, they’re going to have to have an additional benefit that they don’t now cover.”
Additionally, since the Affordable Care Act (
Obamacare without the sneer) was passed in 2010, the House of Representatives voted 37 times to repeal it; thirty-seven times Senators Inhofe and Coburn supported those efforts. (Because, as we know, there's nothing more important for our elected representatives to do but vote to repeal more than
three dozen times legislation that's been ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. It's not like we're facing any other challenges in this country.)
Further, Senator Coburn introduced legislation that would reduce the federal matching rate for Medicaid expansions, which is at the heart of ACA.
Similarly, Senator Inhofe introduced a bill, the Sequester Prevention Act of 2012, which would totally defund ACA.
So what happened last week? President Obama decides to postpone the implementation of the employer mandate for one year due to the reporting requirements, which businesses say they need, and Coburn and Inhofe start dancing on a grave in which nobody's buried but one in which they keep digging.
Senator Coburn responded, "This decision is a stunning admission that the Affordable Care Act is unworkable." Senator Inhofe responded, "The decision shows the federal health care law will "devastate the economy" and is "further proof the law is a looming disaster for Oklahoma businesses," Inhofe's press office said in a series of tweets.
Stunning ... devastate the economy? And I'm shocked there was gambling going on at Rick's, Shatner wears a toupee, and Mitt Romney is acting like an entitled putz who still can't believe he lost.
How does an extension in paperwork requirements prove ACA will "devastate" the economy? How is the decision "stunning" when, with the exception of denying global warming, blocking Obama's judicial appointments, ginning up scandals, and voting against aid to storm-ravaged areas, trying to gut universal healthcare is all Coburn and Inhofe have been doing since 2010. They have gummed up the gears of ACA since its passage and they're now feigning surprise (while simultaneously celebrating) that the gears can't handle the gum.
More importantly, notice how the senators' concerns are with the state of the industry, taxes, the burden on business, the federal-state relationship, and with their sense of capitalism and social democracy--not one word about babies who need pre-natal care or 40-somethings who need cancer screenings. And if you think I'm cherry-picking their statements, find me a press release from either one of their offices whose seminal point is the plight of the 45-million in the country who are uninsured and not bashing Obamacare.
Remember, as soon as ACA was approved by a majority in congress--you know, how Democracy works. This wasn't rammed through by a Muslim Socialist Cabal with a hard-on for Blue Cross/Blue Shield--Coburn and Inhofe took to the fainting couch, predicting the onset of death panels, encouraging governors and attorneys general throughout the land to file lawsuits, commiserating with business lobbyists who were fighting it, throwing every major issue in the country on the ACA pyre, and screaming about freedom, choice and the ability to make one's own healthcare decisions.
And screaming about it, in part, to the 690,000 Oklahomans (21.9% of the state) who are uninsured.
Many of whom who had to be thinking--considering, as well, the senators' own cushy government-run healthcare--"Now that's chutzpah!"
chutzpah, inhofe, coburn