Why the Republican Party is equally guilty of Obamacare; Libertarians explain

For Immediate Release Thursday, July 2, 2015

Republican politicians and their allies are wailing over the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling which affirmed provisions of Obamacare, blaming the president for the onerous, 17,000-page body of law that is driving up the cost of health insurance premiums and reducing health care access for Americans.

But Republicans are just as much to blame for Obamacare as the president.

Governor Mitt Romney enacting Romneycare in Massachusetts

During the 2012 primary election, presidential candidate Mitt Romney and other Republican politicians ran on repeal of the law. But as soon as Romney secured the GOP nomination, he changed his rhetoric to ‘repeal and replace.’ Most Republican politicians quickly followed suit, punting on the prospect of outright repeal.

Republicans continue to chant the ‘repeal and replace’ mantra today, long after Romney lost his bid.

Republican politicians, to the horror of their rank and file constituency, have long been enemies of health freedom. Their transgressions include:

Justice Roberts

• Republican politicians refused to defund Obamacare despite holding majorities in the US House and Senate.

• Republicans nominated Mitt Romney for president in 2012, despite the fact that he championed an earlier version of Obamacare – ‘Romneycare’ – as governor of Massachusetts. Republican governor Romney proposed, lobbied for, and signed into law his socialized medicine scheme – without any prompting from Massachusetts Democrats. He partnered with Democratic politician and darling of socialized medicine advocates, Ted Kennedy, to foist his decree upon the citizens of Massachusetts, which he revealed after they elected him.

Justice Kennedy

• Republican president George W. Bush appointed John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court – where he twice ignored the Constitution and the law to uphold Obamacare.

• Republican president Ronald Reagan appointed Justice Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court – where he also blatantly ignored the law to uphold Obamacare in last week’s ruling.

• In 2003 Republican president George W. Bush championed the largest expansion of Medicare since its enactment by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.

Pres. George W. Bush

These actions show that Republican politicians not only want to keep Obamacare. They helped to pass and sustain it, one of the most grotesque violations of Article One, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution in U.S. history.

“At its core, the ACA is big government threatening ordinary Americans with penalties if they don’t buy insurance from big corporations,” said Nicholas Sarwark, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. “Republicans invented it; Democrats passed it; Republicans fully funded it; and a Republican-appointed Chief Justice has twice contorted the English language to uphold it.”

Speaker Boehner

Republican-bolstered Obamacare:

• forces millions of Americans to buy insurance coverage that they do not want or need and often cannot afford. Insurance lobbyists and their clients love it; families’ earnings and savings are drying up paying for it.
• mandates that small businesses must buy medical insurance they cannot afford, forcing many to close their doors.
• raises the cost of insurance co-pays and deductibles – which today cost more than plain old insurance used to cost.
• results in insurance companies canceling existing policies, leaving Americans uninsured.
• shortens the supply of doctors, forcing many to wait months for care and to suffer in the process, sometimes seriously jeopardizing their health.
• imposes gobs of red tape and waste on medical practitioners and patients
• forces doctors to take actions that they believe are wrong and which fly in the face of their judgment and experience of what’s best for patients’ health.
• denies patients their right to control and promote their own health.
• creates dependence on government, undermining more effective methods to provide low-cost, high-quality, safe and effective health care.
• invades patients’ medical privacy.

Sarwark contends, ‘We need to not only repeal Obamacare, but more importantly, remove the many laws and regulations that harm Americans’ health and drive up costs. Specifically:

• ‘End insurance mandates on individuals and businesses so Americans are free to pursue the health care options of their choice. This will reverse the spiraling cost of monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles by forcing insurance companies to compete for your business.
• ‘End restrictions on who can sell health insurance, which will spur competition, lower costs even more, and give Americans more choice to get the coverage they want and need.
• ‘Repeal all restrictions on free clinics and other forms of charitable health care so low-income families have access to needed medical services without running to an emergency room or becoming dependent on fellow taxpayers.
• ‘Close down the heavy-handed regulatory powers of the FDA and allow the market to regulate drugs. This will make drugs far more safe and effective than they are today, expedite the development of life-saving cures, and dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs and medical devices.
• ‘Relax licensing laws that prohibit qualified practitioners from providing safe, low-cost health care. This will lower costs of office visits and procedures while making health care more accessible around the clock.’