Doubling down on stupid
by digby
The Heritage Foundation Obamascare travelling revival show continues:
Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina organized an evening town hall meeting, which called for defunding the federal health care law. More than 300 people attended the event.
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Opponents of the law warn that health care premiums will increase and businesses will cut jobs because they can’t afford to offer health coverage to employees. Proponents say that won’t happen and that Republicans are using scare tactics to derail President Obama.“They just want it to go back to the way it was,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United For Change, a liberal group that says the new law should not be defunded.
Tampa is one of many stops on a nine-state tour organized by Heritage Action, a conservative group that’s focused on repealing the Affordable Care Act.
DeMint said opponents don’t have much time to try to make changes to the law before a March 2014 deadline for people to enroll. Benefits will kick in Jan. 1 for those who enroll earlier.
“This might be that last off-ramp to stop Obamacare before it becomes more enmeshed in our culture,” he said. “This is not about getting better health care.”
DeMint said uninsured Americans “will get better health care just going to the emergency room.”
The biggest applause of the night went to Rafael Cruz the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The elder Cruz, a Cuban immigrant, gave the invocation and spoke out against the health care act.
Some conservatives have threatened to close the government temporarily this fall — by refusing to fund federal operations beyond Sept. 30 — if that’s the only way to cut off money for President Obama’s signature health care law. Other Republicans have dismissed the tactic as counterproductive and even dangerous for Republicans seeking re-election next year.
It’s hard to believe that anybody’s out there making the case for using the emergency room for all their health care needs, but there you have it. Heckuva job Minty.
Meanwhile, we have the brilliant political strategist Erick Erickson with this:
Ted Cruz has not proposed shutting down the government.
Mike Lee has not proposed shutting down the government.
Congressman Meadows has not proposed shutting down the government.
In fact, everyone who supports defunding Obamacare has been very clear that they’ll vote for a continuing resolution, just not for Obamacare funding. If the government shuts down over that, it would be Barack Obama insisting his health care plan nobody wants gets funded.
It’s possible they’ll be able to convince every member of their hardcore Tea Party base to interpret events in exactly that way. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the leadership of the party, even the rightwingers, understand that normal people will see that it’s the Republicans shutting down the government. Because — reality.
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