The Afforable Care Act and Hypocritical Republicans

Marco Rubio, a member of the U.S. Senate, elected to that august body by ignorant and angry Floridians, has publicly stated that he did not support the recent government shutdown, that he never wanted to shut down the government, that he was merely opposed to the Affordable Care Act.

Marco Rubio is a liar and a hypocrite!  On several well-documented occasions, Senator Rubio stated explicitly that he would vote to shut down the government in order to defund the ACA.  The Huffington Post has him cold:

"Rubio, along with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky), led the Senate-side GOP push for the government shutdown strategy.  Over the summer, Rubio refused to back any funding package for the federal government that would allow the health care law to go into effect.  Absent a funding bill, the government would be forced to shut down.

"'On this issue we're willing to fight no matter what the consequences, politically or otherwise [are].  If the issue is not Obamacare, I can't understand what issue it would be.  Rubio told conservative radio host Mark Levin in August,' "You cannot say you are against Obamacare if you are willing to vote for a law that funds it."'"

Rubio is one of several Republicans who have attempted to paint their perfidy in a color other than the blood red of suffering people who were hurt by the shutdown.


We have noted many times on this blog how lies and hypocrisy define the current GOP.  The ACA  set the stage for a whole new troupe of liars and hypocrites to act out their nonsense.

The June 24/July1, 2013 issue of The Nation tells the story by noting first that from the very beginning, even prior to Obama's signing of the Affordable Care Act, Republicans swore they would repeal it. 

The reason had to do with polls indicating the American people thought the health care law was a good thing and that they would become even more receptive to it when they "found out that the plan denounced as a 'monstrosity' by the National Republican Senatorial Committee would not trample on their liberties so much as help protect their health."

And that's why the Republicans of the U.S. House of Representatives have voted over and over again, nearly 40 times, to repeal Obamacare.  Well, it also had to do with the fact Obama is half-white.


So, these hypocritical Republicans have been hard at work in the darkness from day one!  They don't really believe the ACA is bad [I mean, c'mon, it was originally a Republican plan!], but they know they're dead meat if it works and they don't like our half-black president!

The Nation reports that "letters produced by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that many of these same anti-Obamacare Republicans have solicited grants from the very program they claim to despise."

Paul Ryan is one anti-Obamacare hypocrite who, though he fought to have the ACA repealed, "sent a letter requesting ACA money for health clinics in his district..."  Kristi Noem, a right-wing Republican from South Dakota as well as Rob Portman (R-Ohio) also asked for ACA funds for their areas.  And both of them campaigned against the act and have worked hard to have it repealed.

"Though notably less transparent, the behavior of these GOP lawmakers parallels that of GOP governors like Arizona's Jan Brewer, who blast the president's health reform package while embracing the millions in Medicaid funds that it provides."

Here are some more names of people who have arduously worked for repeal of the ACA and spoken against it in public while at the same time asked for ACA monies for one reason or another:

Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx), Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tx), Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxy Chambliss, Republicans from Georgia, along with Mark Kirk of Illinois and Thad Cochran of Mississippi. 

There's also Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Il) who "congratulated a local non-profit for winning a Community Transformation grant, noting that the program will give 'people the tools to live healthier and longer lives.'"

Jerry Moran, the chair of the NRSC, "has hailed programs that exist because of it [the ACA)."  It's rather humorous, if sad, that "A picture posted on [his] official Facebook page shows the senator in a suit with a food on a shovel to break ground for the health clinic [the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas]."

Kristi Postai, CEO of the CHC-SEK clinics said that the clinic's funding came from the ACA and Moran voted "No!"   

"Some of the letters obtained by The Nation are from lawmakers who are no longer in office," but whose hypocrisy spilled from the printed page, including Jerry Lewis, Bobby Schilling, Kay Baily Hutchinson and Robert Dold."

Then there is one Hal Rogers, a Republican congressman, who calls the ACA socialistic, but "wrote a letter asking for an Obamacare health clinic grant almost as soon as the money became available."

And finally, Bill Cassidy (R-La), has been in the forefront of the attempt to derail the ACA, but was happy to pose "at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for three school-based health centers" which received a $500,000 grant from the ACA.

My guess is there are many more Republicans in our Congress who have vociferously and poignantly claimed the Affordable Care Act would bring about the end of the world, while at the same time have tried to obtain benefits from the act which would benefit their constituents thus giving them credit when none was due.


Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds.  Republican legislators have learned well that they can tell big, bold lies over and over again because the mainstream media gives them a pass every time.