Mean and Heartless

 Although no longer recommended to induce vomiting, ipecac still finds its way onto crossword puzzles. Whenever I see the word, I immediately think of one much more efficient emetic: the sight of a smug, unctuous Chuck Schumer peddling his moralistic snake oil from the floor of the Senate. His over-the-top hypocrisy and cavalier disregard for facts should be enough to make anyone gag.

 

Schumer’s latest show of divisive demagoguery is leading a Democrat chorus branding the latest Republican senators’ health care proposal as mean and heartless, when its intent is to fix the problems of the disastrous ObamaCare that he and his Democrat cohorts foisted upon the American public.     

The Republican proposed legislation (ACA) is far from perfect; it must improve to earn the support of holdout senators. It needs to remove insurance subsidies, for instance. But even in its current form it is far better than ObamaCare. It removes job-killing employer mandates and fines on young people for not enrolling in the program; it eliminates mandates to buy coverages people don’t need or want; it retains coverage for pre-existing conditions; it reduces taxes and allows markets to work. That does not, in my view, meet the definition of mean and heartless.

What would be mean and heartless is leaving the shattered remnants of ObamaCare in place, a system that has broken its promises to the American people (If you like your plan, you can keep your plan….), increased premiums and deductibles by over 100% for many, and left an increasing number of states with no insurers at all.

ObamaCare is collapsing because its numbers are unsustainable and depressing the economy. Yet, when Republicans offer a plan to control the expansion of Medicaid, they are called “killers” by Democrats and the liberal media. When they look to cut costs, Senator Warren calls the cuts “blood money.” And the smarmy snake oil peddler from Brooklyn continues to smile and lie.