An important first step

Last night, while the White House was preparing a lavish state dinner for the authoritarian dictator from China, the House of Representatives voted to repeal Obamacare 245-189, 26 votes more in favor of repeal than originally passed it. It was disappointing that only three democrats voted for repeal but at least that is three more than the number of Republicans who voted for the albatross.

It is especially encouraging that this piece of legislation was passed regardless of the fact that Senate Majority Leader Reid has promised to stonewall, refusing the bill a place on the senate voting calendar and the President’s promise to veto. House Republicans were mocked and degraded in the weeks leading to this vote and stuck to it.

The debate from some representatives in interviews and on the house floor was irresponsible, ridiculous and comical. There were statements that repeal of this law would lead to deaths. Obviously not considered was that much of the law is not even done or enacted and that millions did not die daily before it was passed.

Another line was that it is irresponsible of us (in the cosmic sense) to let 40 million people go without health insurance. Not considered here is the fact that passing a law that forces citizens on an erstwhile free country to purchase health insurance is not the same as providing coverage and doesn’t even guarantee that everyone will indeed follow that law.

Yet another overused line was that it is unconstitutional to repeal Obamacare because health care/insurance is a basic human right, specifically the right to life in the bill of rights. It could be argued that this is reasonable but the original bill of rights is well documented and the right to life is not a guarantee of health. And it is understood by reasonable thinkers that a basic human right cannot be a tangible good, one that incurs some kind of cost or requires anyone be compelled to provide a service to another.

Obamacare was about nothing more than an attempt at complete control of an industry that is already halfway there by the federal government. People who vote for ignorant representatives that think in a way that leads to reasoning and comments like those above are beholden to government and are left to believe that they are owed. These people are victims but not of those who can take care of themselves, they are victims of power hungry politicians who treat them as peasants. The vote yesterday was mostly symbolic but not meaningless; it is an encouraging first step on the long road to complete repeal.