Republicans irresponsible, yet again

As I noted yesterday, Republicans seem to believe that the magic beans will proide better healthcare than the recent reform. Their call has been based on factual lies--lies the adults among them know they have told--that the reform is some kind of "government takeover" or that it will result in "death panels." They should have shame for those lies, but I know for a fact, they do not. Those lies resonate with their uninformed (by choice) base, and so wins them political victories. But as Ezra Klein points out this repeal effort used to be sold as "repeal and replace" but the GOP decided instead to just repeal. Why? Because, as Klein also points out, replacing is hard--it is the difference between being an oppositional party and a governing party. The GOP is great at opposition--hell, who wouldn't be when the truth absolutely doesn't matter? But they have been shitty at governing. For all their talk, when they ran all three branches, they only made healthcare worse.

"Boehner's GOP, in deciding against offering the promised replacement for the Affordable Care Act, ducked the hard work and highest responsibilities of governance."

Further, they seem to believe, as I noted, in some magic free market to fix everything. But as Yglesias pointed out the other day, our existing system only works because of government intrusion. Without government regulation, preexisting conditions would keep anyone from switching jobs, but regulations mean that if you are covered under a big plan, you can't be denied coverage as long as you maintain coverage. COBRA allows people to keep that going after a layoff. Then Medicare takes care of those over 65 with an actual government program--the very same one the Republican said that the ACA would harm.

I have long since lost respect for the GOP. I lost respect for them first when all they cared about in 2000 was tax cuts, and said "screw you" to investing for the future. I further became disgusted when they embraced, defended, and wanted to expand torture. Their lack of morality or ethics were on full display then. And then I watched as supposedly reasonable people parroted the lies of Palin and Beck about healthcare to win votes.