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Mercer: Rounds Unlikely to Push ACA Repeal

Bob Mercer will back away from this point as soon as I mention it, but hey: reporter Bob Mercer and Representative Stace Nelson seem to agree that Mike Rounds has no intention of repealing the Affordable Care Act:

But tell me this: Why don’t you want to increase the number of people covered by health insurance?

Obamacare should be a godsend to South Dakota insurance businesses.

Our Legislature passed a state law last year requiring that Obamacare policies purchased by South Dakotans must be obtained through a South Dakota insurance producer.

Two of the key lobbyists in that 2013 effort are working on the U.S. Senate campaign of former Gov. Mike Rounds, who runs an insurance and real estate business [Bob Mercer, "Republicans Feel Safe Battering Obamacare," Rapid City Journal, 2014.05.18].

The lobbyists-cum-Rounds campaigners to whom Mercer refers are Rob Skjonsberg and Jason Glodt. The law in question was enacted via 2013 SB 139. And remember, just to complicate things, Rounds opponents Stace Nelson and Larry Rhoden both voted for 2013 SB 139. Nelson and Rhoden helped create a rule that protects Rounds's profit margins under the ACA. The implication from Mercer is that Rounds, a good businessman, would want the ACA to stay in effect as long as possible so he doesn't have to change his business model or the state statutes that favor it.

Mercer also seems to agree with Independent Senate candidate Larry Pressler that we won't repeal the Affordable Care Act no matter whom we elect Senator:

It seems mathematically unlikely that Congress would repeal Obamacare during the next two years while President Obama is still in office.

Opponents of Obamacare would need two-thirds majorities in both the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives to override a presidential veto [Mercer, 2014.05.18].

As Mercer notes, all this talk of repealing ObamaCare is just vote-getting rhetoric. Rounds won't want to repeal it. Nelson and Rhoden won't be able to repeal it. They're just trying to score fear points.

5 Comments

  1. Bree S. 2014.05.18

    Probably won't even need to repeal it; thank you Justice Roberts.

  2. Roger Cornelius 2014.05.19

    So, now we come down to it, what are the financial rewards for Rounds' insurance business if Obamacare is fully implemented in South Dakota?
    All this talk about repealing Obamacare is designed to do nothing more than put fear in the grandpa Don's and be able to say "I hate President Obama more than you", as if that is a qualification to be the next South Dakota senator.
    Repeal Obamacare is a fake campaign issue, just as Bosworth is a fake candidate.

  3. larry kurtz 2014.05.19

    Funny that the right wing smoke machine has turned on Mercer after his years of reporting for them. Even more curious is his evolution on social issues such that the rabidly racist Rapid City Journal has become kinder and gentler having added his perspective to their racist pages.

    Weird planet.

  4. larry kurtz 2014.05.19

    did i mention that the rapid city journal is racist?

  5. Lanny V Stricherz 2014.05.19

    So let me understand this. Republican pro capitalist South Dakota, passed a law that says that if you buy health insurance to abide by the ACA, you have to buy it from a South Dakota Agency? Isn't that more socialist or maybe fascist than the ACA itself?

    What about car insurance and homeowners and renters and life insurance? Do those also have to be purchased from a South Dakota agency?

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