On October 11th, John Boehner (R-Ohio), the current House Minority Leader—and the presumptive Speaker of the House in the 112th Congress—warned that we should not expect funding to implement health care reform if the Republicans become the majority in Congress – “They’re going to need money from us to hire those 22,000 federal employees we think it’s going to take to run this monstrosity. And I’ll just tell you, they’re not going to get a dime from us.”
Representative Boehner went on to acknowledge that an all out repeal of the health care law is unlikely, as President Obama will still hold veto power from the White House. But even if an outright repeal isn’t possible, Republicans will still have the ability to hold up funding for many aspects of the reform legislation through the annual budget process. If Republicans take control of the House (as most polls indicate is a very likely scenario), Boehner stated that it will be the Republicans “job to do everything we can to keep it from being implemented, to keep it from moving ahead.”
So, as I see it, the choice in this election regarding health care is a clear one. Flawed or not, do you want health care reform? The bill has many great features—elimination of preexisting conditions clauses and recission, access to minimum coverage for the poorest Americans, etc. But, I think we all recognize that it also comes with a range of problems to be fixed.
Which leaves one question to think about: If the Republicans are in the majority, what is their alternative proposal?
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