Radically Right Wing and Disrespectful
Published in Die Tageszeitung
(Germany) on 1 October 2013
by Dorothea Hahn (link to original)
(Germany) on 1 October 2013
by Dorothea Hahn (link to original)
Translated from
by Ron Argentati.
Edited by Laurence Bouvard.
There may be things to criticize in Obama's health care reform, but it's the best thing to happen in the United States after decades of failed attempts to remedy the scandal of 50 million citizens without health insurance in the world's richest nation. The reform means social progress.
No one can deny that the health care reform bill introduced in Congress in March 2010 reached its conclusion — after much debate — via the democratic process. It's clear that President Obama made it the centerpiece of his first term and was elected to a second term with a clear majority. Obamacare has been repeatedly and democratically reaffirmed.
The fact that the tea party persists in trying to sabotage the law and to deny funding for it shows just how ideologically boneheaded it truly is. It shows how little it understands the workings of democracy. It shows what little respect it has for the voters and their national institutions, and how little it cares about 800,000 government employees that have to stay home instead of earning a paycheck.
It goes without saying that the law that has long since been passed and, for the most part, already implemented doesn't even apply to the 2014 budget. Linking the two issues was no debate offer; it was merely an instruction manual on how to sabotage the budget and a sure way to the government shutdown that has now turned the country into a nation of victims.
Without the leadership of the Republican Party, the party's right-wing minority would have failed. Mainstream Republicans had already accepted health care reform — albeit grudgingly — but were talked into supporting tea party demands during the budgetary debate. That's how they managed to shut the U.S. government down and that shows just how powerful the Republican radical right wing has become.
No one can deny that the health care reform bill introduced in Congress in March 2010 reached its conclusion — after much debate — via the democratic process. It's clear that President Obama made it the centerpiece of his first term and was elected to a second term with a clear majority. Obamacare has been repeatedly and democratically reaffirmed.
The fact that the tea party persists in trying to sabotage the law and to deny funding for it shows just how ideologically boneheaded it truly is. It shows how little it understands the workings of democracy. It shows what little respect it has for the voters and their national institutions, and how little it cares about 800,000 government employees that have to stay home instead of earning a paycheck.
It goes without saying that the law that has long since been passed and, for the most part, already implemented doesn't even apply to the 2014 budget. Linking the two issues was no debate offer; it was merely an instruction manual on how to sabotage the budget and a sure way to the government shutdown that has now turned the country into a nation of victims.
Without the leadership of the Republican Party, the party's right-wing minority would have failed. Mainstream Republicans had already accepted health care reform — albeit grudgingly — but were talked into supporting tea party demands during the budgetary debate. That's how they managed to shut the U.S. government down and that shows just how powerful the Republican radical right wing has become.