Political Irony

Washington Post published an editorial “Republicans should get out of the way of Obamacare“. Their argument is summed up by the last paragraph:

Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court found most of its provisions to be constitutional. Republicans, having opposed the bill and supported the legal challenge to it, are entitled to be unhappy about the outcome, though in our view they are wrong on the merits. They are not entitled to obstruct and flout the laws of the United States. On the contrary, they have an obligation to cooperate in good faith with wholly legitimate laws duly passed and reviewed by all three branches of government.

But I think they could make a much better argument.

The editorial points out that as a result of 21 states blocking implementation of Obamacare, an estimated 5 million people won’t get health care coverage. The state insurance commissioner even boasted that Georgia is doing “everything in our power to be an obstructionist“. Of course they are, because the health insurance industry has secretly thrown more than half a million dollars at them to be obstructionists.

Just imagine if states tried to do the same thing with Medicare. If 5 million people suddenly lost their Medicare coverage because Republican-controlled states decided they didn’t like the law, the Democrats would enjoy a landslide election next year.