so far this week there's been lot of discussionabout obamacare. the democrats have met, and they're tryingto come up with ways to protect their signature achievement during the obama years. meanwhile, republicans are meeting tryingto figure out exactly how they're going to repeal this entire law. well, there are some things that republicanscan and cannot do in order to kill obamacare. there's a few things democrats can do to saveit. let's start with the easiest. a full repeal of obamacare.
is it possible? yes. is it probable? no. because democrats in the senate, though theyare the minority, they can absolutely filibusterer a full repeal. therefore, a full repeal will not happen. the republicans are going a little bit sneakierroute right now. they're trying to tie-in anything in obamacarerelated to budgetary issues, which include
the tax subsidies for people who cannot affordhealth insurance, they're tying those to budget bills through a process known as reconciliationwhere the budget bills cannot be filibustered. they're simple up and down, yes or no, vote. goes to the president, he signs it, thosecan be repealed. typically, those pieces of legislation shouldnot and cannot be included in a budget bill. it has to go through something known as thebyrd law, b-y-r-d, and then that has to be decided by a senate parliamentarian. if the parliamentarian actually says, "no. you can't include those," the republicansthen have the option to fire the senate parliamentarian,
hire a new guy who's going to give them approval,so then they'll be able to do that. here's the thing, the best part of the affordablecare act is the condition, or the preexisting conditions, stipulation that says you cannotbe denied health insurance if you have a preexisting medical condition. republicans can't touch that because a democraticfilibuster will keep it in place. they can, however, make health insurance unaffordablefor millions of people by repealing all of those tax subsidies, and in effect, thosetax subsidies are paid for increased taxes on the wealthy which is going to give thewealthy a tax break of $346 billion over the next 10 years.
that's what this is all of about. this has nothing to do with health insuranceor wanting a better plan. republicans are simply trying to give thewealthy another tax break. that's what the whole repeal of obamacareis about. that's why they're only wanting to touch thesesubsidies issues and the tax issues, because that's all they care about. what's going to happen is that's going tomake people unable to afford this health insurance. here's another side product of what couldhappen if they repeal the subsidies but leave in the preexisting condition requirement,healthy people will simply not buy insurance.
they won't need it. if they get sick, they then can buy healthinsurance. they can't be denied. then the insurance company has to pay. it's going to result in higher premiums foreverybody else. huge financial losses for the insurance industrywhich is going to result in ever higher premiums. bottom line is that there's no way to do thisguys. we have a law in place. is it perfect?
god no. why not just improve it? the answer is because republicans don't wantto. again, it's for two reasons. one, they want to give the wealthy that massivetax break. two, this was created by democrats, so itneeds to go away. it's spite and loyalty to the 1%. that is 100% what is behind the republicanspush to repeal obamacare. they do have a couple tools to do this with.
unfortunately, when 20 million people areno longer able to afford health insurance, the republicans are going to have to own that. they're going to have to answer for that inthe midterm elections. that's not going to end well for them. even worse, it's not going to end well forthe 20 million americans who find themselves without health insurance because the republicanswanted to give a tax break to their wealthy donors.
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