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LATHER, RINSE, REPEAL

Rep. Michele Bachmann Attempts to Repeal Obamacare Again

This is the 34th time legislation has been introduced in Congress to try and get rid of the health reform law

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

It's a new year and a new legislative session. But the very first bill introduced in the 113th Congress has a mighty familiar ring to it.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R- Minn., put forth a measure to repeal Obamacare, the health care reform law upheld this summer by the U.S. Supreme Court. This brings the grand total to 34 times legislation has been introduced in the House to repeal Obamacare, Salon reports.

After the 2012 presidential election, House Speaker John Boehner acknowledged that Obamacare was now the "law of the land." His spokesman later backpedaled and said the speaker and House Republicans "remain committed to repealing the law," NBC reported. Still, attempting to repeal Obamcare, which is now being implemented in the states, is a legislative dead end even if it passed in the House. In the unlikely event the Democrat-controlled Senate approved such a measure, the president would surely veto it.

The previous 33 unsuccessful attempts by House Republicans to repeal the law has taken up 80 hours of time in Congress, a CBS News report found in July. That's about two full work weeks at a cost of $48 million dollars, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Via Salon and CBS News, and Huffington Post

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • o
    woodtick57
    !
    She is the lady who BARELY eked out a victory in MN's most far right district. gerrymandered to be even more far right this last year.
  • PoliticalSpice
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    She is the brightest bulb in the republican light bulb gactory. The one who got legilation through stopping regulations to end our constitutional right to buy 100 watt bulbs. I'm hoping they nominated her for prez in 2016, with her on the ticket dems could run a block of cheese and win in a landslide...
  • o
    thejimbo
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    @PoliticalSpice How many Republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, they'll leave the room in darkness instead and then blame it on Obama.
  • Post Removed by Moderators

  • View all 20 replies >

  • DerivePI
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    If you like socialized medicine, then you can find out who represents you (and vice versa). Besides, everything else congress and our government does seems to make things worse. This morning I heard that interst on our debt was 15% this year. As in $15 for every $100 we were taxed couldn't be spent to support our growing retired population.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    Why is the interest rate on our debt so high? no other interest rates are tha high except credit card companies...did we put our debt on our Visa? Do we get Flying Miles for that? mayvbe we should use a Discover card and get money back?
  • kirbstomp1
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    @woodtick57 - oh you know there this thing called the federal reserve which is privately owned by 12 giants banking companies that print money out of thin air then loan it to our government and charge interest. Which we have to pay back. That sounds alot like stealing....
  • DerivePI
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    @woodtick57 - sorry, not rate but perrcent of revenues collected. For instance, if you paid $10,000 in taxes this year, $1,500 of that went to for interest on our $16+ trillion loan and the other $8,500 was left to pay for social security, medicare, medicaid, defense, etc.... This will get worse and worse until collapse.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    @kirbstomp1The Fed does not loan money to the US gov't. Most of the interest the Fed earns from selling the Treasury notes is given back to the US gov't.

  • View all 25 replies >

  • o
    woodtick57
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    This is what Bachmann is known for; proposing bills that aren't relevent. She proposed a constitutional amendment to keep the US from going to a world currency, even thought that was never a serious issue by anyone. When asked by Pawlenty in a debate to show what she has accomplished, all she dcould come up with was her light bulb bill, which was a total joke as it tried to stop a ban on incandescent bulbe when there never was a ban on those!!! she is not even aware of the legislation the congress she was a part of passed!
  • frigginhell
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    Congress needs crap like this to change the story from the crap they're not getting accomplished. It will fail like they all do. This is a distraction and that is Bachman's job. It's all she's good for. Expect many more bills that have a 100 percent guarentee of not passing before being introduced. It's time to put a guillotine in front of the capitol building to remind these clowns the outcome of messing with the masses for to long.
  • PNWest
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    This is just another example of the GOP putting party before country. After passing ZERO real jobs bills in the last congress and blocking all democratic attempts they voted 33 times to repeal Obamacare. The President's healthcare plan is the law of the land and all of these bills were pure political grandstanding. What else would you expect to start the new congressional session but more of the same from this bunch of clowns?
  • justapirate
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    I'm far from a right winger and I say the Obamacare law was and is a massive screwjob on this country. It didn't do a thing to control medical costs or expenses, which is the real problem, anyway.
    What Obamacare did do was lock in a whole new market for insurance companies, allows medical expenses to just keep escalating with the same lack of control there is now. It's a big win-win for insurance companies/ healthcare entities and drowns everyone else.
  • PNWest
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    @justapirate You are certainly entitled to your opinion and are also entitled to bang your head against the wall as often as you like because you don't like it. But tell me this. Why is it acceptable for the GOP to waste time passing anti-Obamacare legislation that will surely fail 34 times to date? Especially at a time when there are so many real problems facing the nation. The GOP is playing up to it's supporters like you. Not doing the countries business. According to the write up this has already wasted $48M. Is this acceptable to you?
  • Zazziness
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    @justapirate I agree. A single-payer health system like they have in Canada would have made much more sense, to me. I still hope we'll see it.
  • justapirate
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    @PNWest First off, I am far from a GOP supporter.The GOP platform deserves as much derision as the Dem platform. I'm far more interested in an American platform and those two parties can't comprehend that idea.
    So, insurance costs are escalating and medical costs are escalating and you think we should just throw them all the bucks they want? That's what you think is a solution to healthcare costs?
    Back in the good ol' days a couple of years ago I raised all kinds of hell about what was being charged against my insurance.$8,000 for an hour of a doctor's time,$33,000 for 6 hours of out-patient care. I was told, "Don't worry about it. You have insurance". And that was from my insurer. I DO worry about it. That was just wrong.
    $72,000 for two days in the hospital PLUS another $20,000 in medicines and after hospitalizion check-ups.
    You really think that's justifiable in any manner of common sense? Obamacare doesn't stop that and, frankly, has escalated those costs more.
    That was an idea that was worthy of the outhouse.

  • View all 14 replies >

  • Buzzfriendly
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    Typical politician. She is the same clown that applied for dual citizenship with Switzerland which pretty damn close to socialist as you can get but rallies against here in the US. I think she dropped her application due to the public becoming aware of it but it does go to say a lot about her political motives vs. her personal gain.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    Did she actually apply for it or was it given to her when she marriede her husband? i thought the latter was the case and when she realized it, she tried to get it revoked.

    Not a fan of Bachmann in any way, but i do like accurate facts...
  • Buzzfriendly
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    @woodtick57 I know her eligibility for dual citizenship is because of her husband but just guessing here but I think it would still be up to the individual to apply for that citizenship and given the fact that it is very difficult to obtain Swiss citizenship it seems reasonable to assume that one would need to apply. Again I don't know if this is fact nor do I seem to be to find out if I am right or wrong. Where I in her shoes I would do it in a heartbeat but then again her political philosophy and mine greatly differ.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    @Buzzfriendly i too checked it out. i had heard during her campaign that it was soley because of her marriage, but it seems she made the request, according to her campaign staff in an old interview, on teh behest of her children who wished to explore thier option of dual citizenship.(they probably wanted the good health care...)

    thanks formaking me check my facts, which were incorrect. it seems her campaign put out two wholly different versions of the story...imagine that!
  • Buzzfriendly
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    @woodtick57 The only thing I know that is fact is that her eligibility comes from her husband. Everything else I said is from the basis of what seems logical to me and what my gut feelings tell me. I expect she is vague for just that reason.
  • JustTheFacts
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    Good for her ... glad to see someone is fighting to keep socalism from being accepted as the normal. The only people for this BS are a bunch of parasites who are in debt up to their eyeballs and expect someone else to foot the bill for their mistakes because they chose to piss their money away on foolish things or better yet refuse to work at all! Since when did it become the law of the land for businesses and government to take care of your worthless ass for the rest of your live? Typical liberal BS ... don't pay for the mistakes you make in life ... blame someone else for them and have them foot the bill!
  • JustTheFacts
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    @Bullitt Zazziness wouldn't probaly know anything about that because he isn't a small business owner ( like myself )! It's hard enough as it is to stay in business in the current economy without being squeezed even more by a welfare healthcare program!
  • DARSB
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    @Denizen_Kate Could be, I guess, although that would be a much smaller target than before. Only about 8% of this year's Congresscritters claim Tea Party credentials, compared to 24% in 2010.
  • Ted_Rall
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    Although my main problem with Obamacare is that it doesn't go far enough, and I am a huge fan of socialized medicine, I cannot and will not fault people like Michele Bachmann who stick to their principles and fight against legislation that they and their constituents don't agree with. I wish that liberal Democrats had the same principles, repeatedly fighting against Republican and conservative proposals and wars and bills that they disagree with. That is what the political system is supposed to do. Compromise is way overrated.
  • Zazziness
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    Extremism very seldom leads to sustainable, wise answers to long-term problems. Compromise tends to lead to the middle-road and that's more workable than endless internal battles. "Divide and conquer," as our enemies would say.
  • PNWest
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    33 times last session and one already this session. When is enough enough? This is just pure and simple grandstanding on the part of the GOP. It has no chance at all of ever becoming law. It doesn't do anything new - just rehashes the garbage that failed 33 times last session. Congress should not be wasting time on this.

  • View all 21 replies >

  • u
    debido
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    I hope that you have noticed that your weekly paycheck has been less since January 1st. This is ONE of the new taxes that is hidden in Obamacare and there are more to come. The hike in payroll taxes will add approx.$1,300.00 to what YOU send to the government while your health insurance premium will go up. Do not be fooled into believing that the tax hikes are just going to be on the rich. They are going to be applied to everyone. Both parties are guilty of these tax raises and both parties are crooks!
    Yes I agree with anyone that wants to repeal this farce of a Bill. When you vote on something, please research it before voting. Then at least you will know what you are helping to pass or not pass.
  • PayThatCEO
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    There's nothing hidden about it. It's finally come down to where the REST of us have to pay for the overspending of the last decade. Why wasn't anyone screaming about the government overspending 10 years ago? What did we all think was going to happen when we ran out of money after giving it all away to Iraq and those invested in the war?

    Why do you want to repeal Obamacare? Are you one of those who likes getting something for nothing? You don't like the idea of being responsible and paying for your own healthcare? If you get sick, you just walk out of the hospital and leave the bill for everyone else to have to pay?

    If anything, your health insurance premiums will come down because you won't have the added cost of non-paying patients tacked on to YOUR medical bills.
  • Politicskid
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    @PayThatCEO You're right in one respect; there certainly wasn't enough action when the debt begun to raise in it's accumulation. If we had caught it early, there would be less of this high spending culture in the capital.

    You very well know that Obama does a whole lot more then mandate health care coverage. It wouldn't have to be the size of multiple dictionaries if that was all it did!

    ObamaCare raises taxes and regulation in many, many ways, which is why we're seeing the cost of health care to up so dramatically since it's begun taking effect. Worst yet, Health Care happens to be one of the few industries left that the US dominates in. If you live overseas and need an operation, our hospitals are the to-to place. High medical taxes and regulation will not only discourage innovation that can save lives and boost our economy, but also cause a borderline monopolization of the industry, which makes prices skyrocket for the consumer. Also, as we've seen in many other countries, it will bring down care quality for middle class due to the lack of motivation to give good care.

    The criticism of ObamaCare is not that it makes people purchase something in itself, it's that it does the exact opposite of what it's name, The Affordable Care Act, implies.
  • u
    debido
    !
    @Politicskid I agree with what you said up to this statement, "that the criticism of ObamaCare is not that it makes people purchase something in itself". I have a real problem with OUR government telling us what we have to purchase and the extent that government is beginning to enter our daily lives. We have a Constitution and they are stripping it at every turn and we the people are letting them! Vote them out of office ... every last one of them.

  • View all 9 replies >

  • o
    Sharpshooter
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    Why is it an issue to challenge legislation that a huge part of the population don't like? I thought that was part of what Congress is supposed to do.

    I understand that the Axelshaft/Jarrett Junta WANT congress to be a rubber stamp and their puppet gets angry when he's questioned but they need to get over it. If there was nothing to hide in Obamacare they should have allowed it to be fully discussed in public as the puppet promised in his first campaign.

    Every time one of the Junta gets up in arms over it being questioned, the more convinced I am of them hiding even more than we've already uncovered.

    "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Queen Gertrude must have been one of those subversive Republicans huh?
  • Knightkore
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    Typical progressive liberal idealogy...how DARE anyone challenge us...
    They actually think Achmed the dead terrorist line "Silence, I kill you" is something to aim for when not agreed with...
  • u
    DrMoonshine
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    Meanwhile Apple shifts its manufacturing back into the country and every other sensible company goes on as usual. However companies run by GOP backers will surely pull a Hostess on their business and employees, only to blame it on Obamacare. Meanwhile they take those hundreds of millions they pulled out to go on vacation and make some more money afterwards.
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  • o
    woodtick57
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    @MarkJM i am not aware of the page, but it is fact. check it out. It is funny that so many say the populace is against Obamacare, yet most of them have no clue as to what it really entails.

    sheeple..
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