Yesterday, the U.S. House voted in favor of overturning the monstrosity that is Obamacare.1 While this is largely symbolic, as such a move would be unlikely to be able to pass the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate or override Mr. Obama’s almost certain veto, it is nice, at least, to see the Republicans attempting to follow through on their campaign promises. This, however, is where the positives end. Today the U.S. House began drafting a healthcare bill to replace Obamacare. Will this Republican bill be at least marginally better than Obamacare? Most likely, yes. However, Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution gives the U.S. government no power over healthcare, which means that, regardless of how much better the Republicans’ new bill will be compared to Obamacare, it will be de facto unconstitutional.2 Further, since a complete repeal looks unlikely, some Republicans are talking about simply defunding Obamacare and thus taking the easy way out in getting rid of it.3 Again, is getting rid of Obamacare a good thing? Most certainly. But by simply defunding it, rather than repealing it, the Republicans will have accepted it as constitutional and will have laid the groundwork for a future Congress to easily re-institute Obamacare and take it even further. This entire thing is yet another round in the cycle that American politics have taken for the last 100 years. The liberals make gains, the electorate throws them out and puts conservatives into power, the conservatives make token attempts to push the liberals’ gains back while all the time accepting the Left’s fundamental propositions (i.e. that the U.S. government has the power to be involved in healthcare), the electorate grows apathetic, and the liberals regain power and keep moving the goal posts ever farther left. The Republicans’ handling of this issue is referred to as winning the battle and losing the war.
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