House GOP Wastes No Time In Attacking Obamacare

(This caricature of the GOP elephant is by DonkeyHotey.)

The Republicans told us they would try to destroy the Affordable Care Act (even though they have no replacement for it) if given control over both houses of Congress -- and in the first week of the new 114th Congress, they have started to make good on that promise. It looks like they are trying a different tactic though. Instead of trying to repeal the whole health care law, they are going to attack it in bits and pieces (sort of a "death by a thousand cuts" approach).

This week the House passed a bill to modify the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Obamacare required larger employers to provide health insurance for any employee working at least 30 hours (or pay a penalty to the government to help the government finance that insurance). The law intentionally set the limit at 30 hours to make sure all full-time employees would get health insurance. The new House bill would raise that limit to 40 hours.

The House Republicans bragged that their bill would "protect" the insurance for full-time workers, but that is nothing more than an outrageous LIE. The effect of the bill would be to do just the opposite -- take the insurance guarantee away from any employee working less than 40 hours. This means an employer could cut an employee's hours by one hour (limiting him/her to a 39 hour work week) -- and in doing so they would still basically have a full-time employee, but would no loner have to provide health insurance or pay the penalty for not providing it.

This would shift the burden for paying for health insurance from the employer to the taxpayer, who would then have to pay for that employee to either get on Medicaid (if a low-wage worker) or get a government subsidy to buy private insurance. This bill was not passed to help or protect workers or taxpayers (because it hurts both). It is nothing more than a GOP payback to corporations for donating huge sums to help them get elected last November.

Some may think that corporations (and other large employers) won't take advantage of this new bill if it becomes law. If you think that, then you don't understand either capitalists or human nature. I have no doubt that many employers will take advantage of the law by cutting hours to 39, and putting the money that should go toward providing insurance into their own pocket, letting taxpayers foot more of their labor costs.

This horrendous bill must be stopped before it becomes law. Hopefully, that can be done in the Senate with a filibuster. If not, this would be a great opportunity for President Obama to put his veto pen to work.