There is a wonderful Saturday Night Live episode where the Reverend Jesse Jackson hosts a game show titled, "The Question is Moot."
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In the skit, in case the link does not work, Jackson asks contestants various questions. After they attempt to answer he says, "The question is moot," and proceeds to explain why. Moot, in case you are wondering means: not worth talking about : no longer important or worth discussing- this according to Merriam-Webster. Notwithstanding the circus that is the United States Legislative Branch, the question of defunding Obamacare has long been moot.
For starters, there is no such thing as Obamacare. It doesn't exist. Just like the "Obamacare cards" that the right wants young people to burn like the draft cards of the '60's. Draft cards were real and were burned. Obamacare cards are being designed by groups funded by the Koch brothers and are no more real than unicorns. Let's take a moment to consider why Obamacare does not exist.
The Right talks about Obamacare as if it is some government program, which it is not. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare is a set of rules and regulations to expand access to the private insurance market. The whole point of insurance is that you pay a company money to be there for you when the shit hits the fan all the while hoping, planning, and expecting that it never will. Indulge me in an analogy, if you will.
You own a company and have been paying insurance premiums for years. One day, the shit hits the fan. You call the insurance company and file a claim. Working through their contractors, a clean up crew comes to clean up the shit. The clean up costs exceed a certain dollar amount, and even though the shit is still there, your insurance has dried up. Or, more perniciously, the insurance company decides that having a fan for shit to hit was a pre-existing condition and denies your claim altogether.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) changes this. The government is not taking over the insurance industry, it is simply changes the rules. Just like outlawing cars that explode and toys that poison children, the insurance industry has to accept a certain level of accountability to their customers. They have to clean up all the shit when it hits the fan. They cannot claim the fan as a pre-existing condition.
Let's face it, life is a pre-existing condition. Having a uterus is a pre-existing condition. However, the key point in all of this is that people will be buying insurance from PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES. While it is true that the ACA expands access to medicaid for states that opt in to it, the rest of the expanded insurance is provided in a capitalist manner. We subsidize the oil industry, the most profitable industry in the history of the world. We subsidize billion dollar agribusiness. Why can't we subsidize the health of our citizens?
There is another reason why the question of defunding (or even delaying) Obamacare is moot. The money has already been spent. We've already paid for it. In the interests of disclosure, I have worked for a company that had contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services. We were not in the health care business. The exchanges were set up by law to go into effect on October 1st. While that is the first day of the US government's fiscal year, the money to make that happen was spent in the last fiscal year.
Congress appropriated money last year to set up the exchanges, and contracts, binding contracts were awarded to companies to do the work. All of this has already happened. Much like raising the debt ceiling is not about spending more money, but about honoring our debts, Obamacare has already been fully funded. All we are really talking about is keeping the government operational. By law, Obamacare is now simply a matter of enforcing the law of the land. Hence, its funding cannot be separated from the operation of government.