Letter to the editor

Republicans disagree with Affordable Care Act

Congressional Republicans do not accept the fact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is law of the land, though enough voters agreed with the President’s policy to return him to office in 2012.

Meanwhile we have witnessed staggering displays of bad faith among Republicans, who have declared their determination to overturn "Obamacare" through more than 40 time-wasting symbolic votes in the House and now pretend that they only want to delay implementation of the law for a year.

House Speaker John Boehner hypocritically accuses the President of an unwillingness to negotiate and compromise while enabling a cadre of 30 or 40 Tea Party extremists who have made their uncompromising position absolutely clear.

In reality, the President and the Democrats have done plenty of compromising with Republicans over the past five years. It is easy to see why Democrats now need to hold the line against the Republicans’ outrageous demands.

If Democrats acquiesce to those demands, it will only make them vulnerable to further extortion efforts by the Republicans. This is no way to govern. If one party can succeed in shutting down the government, and, only a little farther down the line, send the nation into default on its debts when it does not prevail through normal political channels, then democratic process and the will of the people are profoundly subverted.

Behind the Republicans’ frequent assertion that the ACA is a "train wreck" is the fear that, once fully up and running, the ACA will prove popular, as have other programs such as Medicare and Social Security. If this were not so, Republicans would simply let Obamacare fail and Democrats pay the price at the polls.

That fear is the real driver of the Republicans’ attempts to defund the ACA and deprive millions of their fellow Americans of health care coverage.

Thomas Smith
River Falls