Republicans a buncha spoiled children throwing a tantrum

From The Los Angeles Times, 1/21/11:
http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-fi-lazarus-20110121,0,750971,full.column

GOP's childish opposition to healthcare reform

By David Lazarus

Get over your bad selves.

That's basically what former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist told
his GOP compadres this week as they set about trying to dismantle the
national healthcare reform law.

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The repeal bill will now likely perish in the Democratic-controlled
Senate, and in any case would almost certainly face a presidential
veto if it miraculously made it that far.

But House Republicans say they'll still obstruct the healthcare law by
blocking funds to implement its provisions.

It's hard not to think of a bunch of spoiled children throwing a
tantrum because they didn't get their way.

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The Republicans have outdone themselves for misinforming the American
people about what the reform law will and will not do.

Aside from scurrilous talk of "death panels" and "socialized
medicine," House Republicans have reimagined healthcare reform as a
jobs bill, rather than as a long-overdue revamping of how medical
treatment is accessed and delivered in a country with about 50 million
people lacking insurance coverage.

They titled their legislation the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health
Care Law Act."

They claimed that 650,000 jobs will be lost if the law is allowed to
stand.

And don't take their word for it, House Republicans insisted.

That alarming job-loss figure is attributable to the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office.

Except it isn't.

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House Republicans donned their fuzzy-math hats and seized upon that
half-percent number as representing a portion of the roughly 131
million jobs in the U.S. economy.

Half a percent of 131 million is 650,000.

Therefore, 650,000 jobs will be lost.

That's not what the budget office said or even implied.

If not a deliberate invention by healthcare reform foes, it was a
gross misreading of what the budget office had actually concluded.

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Moreover, the budget office took a close look at the Republicans'
repeal bill and determined that it would increase the federal budget
deficit by about $230 billion over the next decade.

House Republicans chose to ignore that last finding.

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Here are some of the important things the law does do:

•It makes coverage available to more than 30 million of the 50 million
people who now lack insurance. That should have a profound effect on
the healthcare system and on taxpayers who would otherwise be called
upon to fund visits by the uninsured to emergency rooms.

•It expands coverage for young people by allowing dependent children
up to age 26 to stay on their parents' health plan. With the
unemployment rate so high, this is a boon to families nationwide.

•It offers a vast array of free or low-cost tests to diagnose problems
before they become serious. Preventive tests include screening for
high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, as well as counseling for
smoking cessation and weight loss.

•As of 2014, no insurer will be allowed to deny coverage to anyone
with a preexisting medical condition. The Department of Health and
Human Services estimated this week that as many as 129 million
Americans under age 65 have such a condition.

Conservatives might have ideological differences with some aspects of
the reform law.

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But House Republicans have no business attempting to undermine a law
just because they disagree with parts of it.

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As Frist said, healthcare reform is the law of the land.

Deal with it.

Work with it.

Grow up already.

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Hey, Republicans, all together now....BOO HOO!!!

Harry