Press "Enter" to skip to content

Repeal Vote #33: Noem Posing on Affordable Care Act

Kevin Woster directs our attention to yesterday's CBS report on the House GOP's latest show vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Speaker Boehner, Rep. Kristi Noem, and the GOP gang have spent about 80 hours on these repeal votes. That's two full work weeks, $24 million per week: $48 million wasted on political theater.

Even from a Republican perspective, this latest repeal vote is utterly useless. Congresswoman Noem, for instance, already declared repeal vote #1 back in Janaury 2011 to be her "greatest accomplishment." That one vote and all the associated sound bites are plenty to establish that they would be proud to repeal what they incorrectly call government-run health care (although a year and a half later, Rep. Noem still hasn't repealed her own gold-plated government-run health insurance). Any further votes add nothing but a number to an absolutism that is already clear to any voter with a heartbeat.

If Rep. Noem were serious about repealing or at least changing the ACA, she'd have spent the last year and a half working with her House colleagues and with Senators to craft a real health care plan, a workable compromise that stood a chance of gaining bipartisan support and improving Americans' health coverage situation. But with her House bosses scheduling only 42 working days for the rest of 2012 and lots of other major issues to tackle, it doesn't sound like they are planning any hard work like that.

With repeal vote #33, Rep. Noem is not really fighting or working to repeal the ACA. She's doing what she does best: posing... and wasting tax dollars for her selfish interest.

Vaguely related bonus poll for Troy Jones: Pew's first poll since the Supreme Court's affirmation of the ACA finds President Obama's lead over Romney expanding from four to seven points. I'm trying to figure who's the deader horse, the repeal-ACA theater or Mitt himself.

19 Comments

  1. larry kurtz 2012.07.12

    Kristi Noem: Millions In Latest Fighting.

  2. larry kurtz 2012.07.12

    Breaking: New 'Anti-Abortion Pill' Kills Mother, Leaves Fetus Alive. Source.

  3. larry kurtz 2012.07.12

    Noem defends pheasants, pans peasants.

  4. Steve Sibson 2012.07.12

    "Even from a Republican perspective, this latest repeal vote is utterly useless."

    Agree, Congress should simply refuse to fund it.

  5. larry kurtz 2012.07.12

    Under ObamaCare you will benefit from a more accessible mental health evaluation, Steve: Bill paints a joyful picture of how well you could be.

  6. Owen Reitzel 2012.07.12

    How would you fix healthcare Steve??
    i haven't seen you righties answer that one.
    maybe we just let the poor people die? what do you think?

  7. Jackie 2012.07.12

    There was a quote on HBO's new show "The Newsroom" in which the network owner alluded that Michelle Bachmann "was a hairdo". That is essentially what Noem is. Pretty enough, trots along and votes lock step and does what she is told. (When she attends her committee meetings, that is.)

  8. Charlie Johnson 2012.07.12

    Have we had a vote up or down to eliminate federal crop insurance? How would KN vote then?

  9. Dougal 2012.07.12

    $50 million wasted voting 33 times to repeal Obamnycare ... and Kristi Noem and her pay John Boehner got the same result 33 times. $50 million wasted on a completely foolish and entirely predictable gimmick.

    Noem/Boehner voted 33 times on the same thing and got the same result. Buttkiss! And we paid $50 million to help them make fools of themselves. But at least Kristi got her college degree while "attending" Congress.

  10. Justin 2012.07.13

    somebody said:

    "Agree, Congress should simply refuse to fund it."

    Ah yes, the old default strategy. That was a good idea wasn't it?

    It certainly wouldn't be the first time NOBODY in D.C. acknowledges our budget. Of course we are still pushing tax cuts and spending as "stimulus". It isn't stimulus if it happens every year. Anybody talking about cutting taxes or stimulus spending, including Obama is ignoring the facts that a) stimulus isn't stimulus if you do it every year, and b) the second order effect of stimulus is never enough in either case to make up for the first order effect of increasing the deficit as it relates to tax cuts and spending for the sake of spending.

    We now have the lowest federal tax rates on average as a percent of our income (according the CBO) in history. If the economy isn't growing above average now, why would anybody still believe in stimulus? But if somebody can point to a stochastic model that yields a significant econometric result saying otherwise, I'm open to listening.

    I don't think it's the government's job to create jobs. When they try to do it they come up with the worst jobs possible (non-recurring construction and government jobs primarily) and seem to have a knack for using the opportunity to line somebody else's pockets.

    But I digress, this moronic Congress that has done nothing but convince the world the U.S. is on the verge of default. Smart move, right? Along with the 33 votes on ACA, that is their crowing achievement.

  11. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.07.13

    "Crowing achievement"—was that a deliberate turn of phrase?

  12. Steve Sibson 2012.07.13

    "completely foolish and entirely predictable gimmick"

    Agree, but that is the norm for the theatre we call politics in America. This crap is pre-written and roles are assigned to the two parties.

  13. John 2012.07.13

    NOem, Boehner, and Cantor are 3 reasons why the congress is less popular and has less respect than does England's King George III at the time of the revolution, and the modern day Communist Party. All 3 of these hairdos and tans must go.

  14. Steve Sibson 2012.07.13

    So John, shall we go back to that tanned actress from California?

  15. Justin 2012.07.13

    What tanned actress from California?

    Isn't that what Kristi Noem is? Oh no, she isn't Miss California, she was the Snow Queen.

    I nominate the new Miss SD as the new GOP nominee. At least she didn't win a lesser pageant.

  16. Justin 2012.07.13

    ...and no, "crowing achievement" was a typo (crowning). If it sounded better, I would lie but I don't think it is going to catch on.

  17. Douglas Wiken 2012.07.13

    Doing the same thing more than once and expecting a different result is what Einstein labeled as insanity. The national GOP has demonstrated insanity 33 times.

    Less GOP,
    more JOBS.

    A free billboard, 10 second spot for TV, bumper stickers, whatever. Democrats should have them all over the United States.

  18. larry kurtz 2012.07.22

    For Troy:

    "The best we can say about economics is that we know what not to do; we have plenty of modern examples from African kleptocrats to totalitarian North Korea.

    A functioning modern economy needs respect for property rights; a government that is able to collect taxes and offer a social safety net; banks that allow the payment system to function; markets that allow businesses to raise capital and so on. Once those essentials are in place, whether the right top tax rate is 40% or 50%, the right interest rate is 1% or 5% is largely a matter of trial and error, and of political acceptability."

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2012/07/economic-history?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/muddledmodels

  19. Jana 2012.07.22

    Larry, I'm guessing you remember when Ireland was held up as the great example of lowering corporate taxes to global lows was seen as the panacea for economic growth.

    Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Ensign, the fourth-ranking Republican in the chamber, argued yesterday:

    "You know, we have the second highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. Microsoft, which is a great American company, has zero exports from the United States. They have a lot of exports from Ireland, because, guess what, Ireland has a 12.5 percent corporate tax rate; we have a 35 percent corporate tax rate."

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016642.php

    So how did that low tax - low wage plan work out?

    "But the economic collapse of the past few years — unemployment has gone from 4.5 percent to more than 13 percent — has exposed the downside of Ireland's low-tax policies, and forced it to backtrack somewhat, he says Fintan O'Toole, a columnist for The Irish Times and the author of Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger."

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126614692

Comments are closed.