Republicans like to refer to the U.S. House of Representatives as the “people’s house.” Ever since the election in November, they have been on a mission to conduct what they say is the No. 1 priority of the people – repealing health insurance reform. There is only one problem with that. It’s not true.
According to every legitimate poll, including the recent CBS News/New York Times survey, unemployment (still over 9 percent and much higher in some parts of the country) continues to be the top concern of the majority of Americans. Joblessness is causing cities, towns and local governments to decay. Buildings are still boarded up. Foreclosure signs continue to litter many neighborhoods. Yet, the new House of Representatives, led by John Boehner of Ohio, charged ahead last week and voted to repeal the recent health-care reform package, labeled “Obamacare” by radio talk show hosts, as well as Boehner himself, who should be above this sort of parochial nonsense.
It is appalling that the House has chosen to make this symbolic repeal vote its first major piece of business, particularly when millions of folks are still out of work. And to be fair, I have also stated in this blog that President Obama was wrong in highlighting health care while unemployment was seemingly on the back burner during his first several months in office. Only now has Obama, with his upcoming State of the Union address, seemed to have shifted his full attention to jobs.
Little has changed in American politics in recent months. Republicans won big in November for one reason and one reason only: They were not the party in power while unemployment hovered around 10 percent. Somehow they took what American voters told them (fix unemployment) and twisted it into some sort of mandate to attack everything Obama, including needed financial and health-care reforms.
Trying to tie unemployment rates to health care legislation, as Republicans are now doing, is not only contrary to every objective economic study, but it is also proven to be incorrect by recent history.
We didn’t have insurance reforms when we got into this economic mess three years ago. We didn’t even have the law for the first part of the Obama presidency. So repealing the act and expecting jobs to miraculously reappear is not only wrong, it’s ignoring the need for feasible economic solutions.
Where are the studies showing that repealing health reform will reduce unemployment? Probably in the same file that suggests the wealthy create jobs with the extra money they get back from Uncle Sam. Instead of making these broad and often outdated assumptions, Republicans (and GOP-slanted media outlets) should produce facts based on objective research. Show me sound data that says for every $50,000 a billionaire saves on taxes, that money is used to hire someone. Until then, I have a hard time accepting these trickle-down theories, particularly when the income gap between the wealthiest Americans and the middle class continues to widen.
Going back to a system that allows insurance companies to gouge customers, or worse, lets people needlessly die, is not going to put America back to work in jobs that pay livable wages. Losing one’s house because they got sick isn’t going to improve the real estate market. The mood of the country isn’t going to get better by funding unjust wars or continuing to ship jobs overseas.
Congress needs to do better, act with more dignity and intelligence, while attending to the real-life issues that continue to confront our nation. Getting sucked into a Palin/Limbaugh universe is a recipe for further economic and personal disaster. Jobs not only propel the economy, but they also fuel individual self esteem and tighten the moral fabric of this country.
It is time for politicians to turn off Fox News and pay attention to what real journalists and pollsters are reporting. The margin of error for most scientific polls is 5 percentage points or fewer. With health care well behind jobs in most polls in the last two years, there should be no excuses to not make the economy the No. 1 priority in Washington, state houses and the media. The people have spoken. Will Mr. Boehner and others listen, or will they continue to misinterpret the message from the 2010 elections?
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