{"id":2822,"date":"2013-01-28T16:27:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T23:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=2822"},"modified":"2013-01-28T16:27:41","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T23:27:41","slug":"obamacare-the-resistance-endures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2013\/01\/obamacare-the-resistance-endures\/","title":{"rendered":"ObamaCare: The Resistance Endures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cannon\"<\/a>Michael Cannon<\/a> is Cato Institute\u2019s director of health policy studies and an indefatigable crusader against socialized medicine. Recently, he wrote an excellent article<\/a> concerning the continuing resistance against ObamaCare, the need to maintain that resistance, and the relative success of that resistance so far:<\/p>\n

Former Romney adviser Avik Roy now advises conservatives \u201cto accept the defeat of the movement to repeal Obamacare.\u201d Conservatives should instead shift their energies to \u201cthe most desired conservative outcome of all: a fiscally sustainable, fully reformed set of health-care entitlements.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Review, that conservative icon that \u201cstands athwart history, yelling Stop,\u201d seems a strange venue for encouraging conservatives to accept defeat. Roy also has a curious understanding of conservatism\u2019s goals, which as I recall have more to do with protecting freedom than with administering the entitlement state. But when Roy likened ongoing Obamacare resistance to Teruo Nakamura, \u201cthe last known holdout from the Imperial Japanese Army, [who] finally surrendered\u201d on a Pacific island some 30 years after his team lost World War II, I nearly spat out my sushi.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I can bring my friend around to the view held by most Obamacare opponents:This thing is still vulnerable. And even if we fail to stop it, trying to stop it will do more to protect liberty and improve social welfare than a strategy of accepting, legitimizing, and \u201credeeming\u201d it.<\/p>\n

After three years, Obamacare remains unpopular. Both the raw numbers and the intensity favor its opponents. Last month, for the first time ever, Gallup found that a majority of Americans oppose a government guarantee of health insurance for all. The ongoing resistance to Obamacare is a grassroots phenomenon. It has probably intensified since the election, as many disappointed voters (and non-voters) have sought an outlet for their frustrations.<\/p>\n

Resistance will grow later this year as a result of \u201csticker shock\u201d at Obamacare\u2019s \u201cstartling rate increases\u201d of 30 to 40 percent in the individual market and 100 percent (!) for young adults.<\/p>\n

Officials in nearly half the states have joined the resistance thus far, by declining to establish the health-insurance \u201cexchanges\u201d essential to the law and\/or to implement its costly Medicaid expansion. If states hold the line, then insurers, hospitals, and such \u2014 who were counting on those subsidies to offset Obamacare\u2019s taxes and Medicare cuts \u2014 will join the chorus demanding that Congress reopen the issue.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration probably won\u2019t be able to get exchanges up and running by October in those two dozen states. A Xerox official who makes money implementing those exchanges for states said of the logistical task HHS faces, \u201cThese are systems that typically take two or three years to build. The last time I looked at the calendar, that\u2019s not what we\u2019re working with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obamacare still faces a barrage of lawsuits. Those challenging the contraceptives mandate and the Independent Payment Advisory Board won\u2019t kill the law. But they might improve it. Either way, they will keep its negatives high. The Pacific Legal Foundation\u2019s challenge<\/a> to the individual mandate could take down the entire statute. Kaiser Health News says Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt\u2019s lawsuit is \u201cby far the broadest and potentially most damaging of the legal challenges\u201d related to Obamacare, and \u201ceven some health law supporters concede [it] seems correct as a literal reading of the most relevant provisions.\u201d If Oklahoma prevails, \u201cthe whole structure [of] the health care reform law starts to fall apart.\u201d Look how panicked<\/a> the law\u2019s supporters are. Tell me again why now is the time to \u201caccept defeat\u201d?<\/p>\n

Continuing to insist on repeal can also help to avoid the looming debt crisis. Congress desperately needs to cut spending. The easiest stuff to cut is (a) unpopular spending that (b) hasn\u2019t started yet and therefore isn\u2019t protected by the kind of organized constituencies that protect existing spending. Obamacare fits both criteria. Since the administration won\u2019t be able to implement it on time anyway, Congress should enact a two-year delay of its new entitlement spending. That would be a huge victory and reduce federal deficits by $160 billion. Opponents are more likely to get that delay if they keep demanding full repeal.<\/p>\n

Following Roy\u2019s advice would prevent opponents from capitalizing on any of these opportunities. Obamacare\u2019s entitlement spending will begin flowing in 2014, and we will never stop it.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, as I travel the country speaking about this law, I find that Obamacare opponents are solidly in the Frederick Douglass camp: \u201cPower concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Michael Cannon is Cato Institute\u2019s director of health policy studies and an indefatigable crusader against socialized medicine. Recently, he wrote an excellent article concerning the continuing resistance against ObamaCare, the need to maintain that resistance, and the relative success of that resistance so far: Former Romney adviser Avik Roy now advises conservatives \u201cto accept the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ObamaCare: The Resistance Endures”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[580],"tags":[2240,937,938,2241,2617,2133,2239],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}