UPDATED Lindsey Graham: Cut Obamacare To Avoid Sequester
Last edited Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:42 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: TPM
SAHIL KAPUR 9:17 AM EST, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for cutting the Affordable Care Act to replace the sequester.
"Here's my belief: let's take Obamacare and put it on the table," he said. "If you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, let's look at Obamacare. Let's don't destroy the military and just cut blindly across the board."
-30-
Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/lindsey-graham-cut-obamacare-to-avoid-sequester
UPDATE:
GOP Senator Would Take Away Health Coverage From 30 Million Americans To Avoid Military Cuts
By Josh Israel on Feb 17, 2013 at 10:05 am
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday the government should protect the Defense Department from automatic spending cuts by slashing $1.2 trillion from the Affordable Care Act.
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham suggested that the sequesters across-the-board cuts to federal spending, including about a roughly 7.5 percent reduction in military spending, would be destroying the military. But rather than agree to President Obamas proposed alternatives to the sequester, the South Carolina Republican said we should save money by eliminating health care for the 30 million people covered by the Affordable Care Act:
CHRIS WALLACE: Let me just ask you one more question about the sequestration before we let you go, Senator. You know if we go into the sequester, the president is going to hammer Republicans, the White House already put out a list of all the things, terrible things that will happen if a sequester kicks in, 70,000 children losing Head Start. 2100 fewer food inspectors and small business will lose $900 million in loan guarantees and you know, Senator, the president will say your party is forcing this to protect tax cuts for the wealthy.
GRAHAM: Well, all i can say is the commander-in-chief thought came up with the idea of sequestration, destroying the military and putting a lot of good programs at risk. It is my belief take Obamacare and put it on the table. You can make $86,000 a year in income and still get a government subsidy under Obamacare. Obamacare is destroying health care in this country and people are leaving the private sector, because their companies cannot afford to offer Obamacare and if you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, look at Obamacare, dont destroy the military and cut blindly across the board. There are many ways to do it but the president is the commander-in-chief and on his watch well begin to unravel the finest military in the history of the world, at a time when we need it most. The Iranians are watching us, we are allowing people to be destroyed in Syria, and im disappointed in our commander-in-chief.
The draconian cuts to vital programs Graham and other Republicans are demanding, including providing health insurance for the millions of Americans who otherwise would not have it, will hurt the economy and hurt real people.
But Grahams solution also misses a key reality: Obamacare actually reduced the deficit. His proposal to put its elimination on the table would mean increasing the budget deficit by an estimated $109 billion over the same 10-year period, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
-30-
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/17/1604781/gop-senator-would-take-away-health-coverage-from-30-million-americans-to-avoid-military-cuts/
drm604
(16,230 posts)Last edited Mon Feb 18, 2013, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)
How about let's not do either of those things. They aren't the only two choices.
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)get out of the way. Go home and find a huge rock to hide under.
putitinD
(1,551 posts)cstanleytech
(26,294 posts)For those not aware of it PDQ being in this case the Please Die Quickly heathcare plan.
disndat
(1,887 posts)like they are doing in south Korea for lack of the traditional extended family and safety net help the South Korean from govt.- N.Y. Times, 2/18/2013
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)Still Sensible
(2,870 posts)that is all.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)I don't think even the President does. It's like they own the damn channels. I don't get it.
Hard Assets
(274 posts)Start with your bloated DoD first. All of it.
AAO
(3,300 posts)And shit for brains. And a black hole for a heart. And no soul whatsoever.
MAD Dave
(204 posts)The Republicans are pathological.........as a Canadian I find them extremely scary. They care not for anything but padding their own pockets and the pockets of their friends.
They cannot maintain a consistent stand except for "Obama is bad".
Stupid beyond any measure of stupid.
Lil Missy
(17,865 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)then we'll talk about other cuts. Until then, quit holding your fellow citizens hostage.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)That's my belief!
aquart
(69,014 posts)How nice. How common.
You do your country no favors. I don't hate Israel, but I do hate their influence over our country. They have shown time and time again that they can take care of themselves. Time to wean them off of the teat.
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)hell if we are going to spend more than 1.2 trillion to cut 1.2 trillion X_X I didn't flunk math I did mess up on algebra. this dude flunked math
Botany
(70,516 posts)Because if we cut Obamacare, aka the affordable care, act we will have to spend even
more money which will add to the deficit and that will show that "both sides" are serious
about controlling the national debt.
Lindsey thinks he won not only the Presidency but was made King of America and can
rule by fiat.
Laurian
(2,593 posts)lifetime. There was a time when he was not such an extreme idiot, but apparently fear of a challenge from the far right has him acting like a fool. I hope he is challenged.
Oh, how I would love to see a Republican stand up instead of caving to the tea party fanatics. You'd think at least one of them would value their dignity over an elected position.
Volaris
(10,272 posts)Also, I want Rachel running Meet The Press. If the media is going to be accused of having a liberal bias, they could at least TRY to be guilty of the charge...
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)rurallib
(62,423 posts)Then we can cut money to Texas to thank Senator Cruz, then perhaps Arizona to thank old Johnny boy...........
Andy823
(11,495 posts)I would add all the states that have the tea party clowns in congress doing all they can to destroy the country so they can try and turn it into their own weird version of tea party heaven, the place where everyone is packing a gun, and you simply shoot the people who don't agree with you@
All these idiots, Lindsey especially, who refuse to end tax breaks and subsidies to big oil, corporate farms, all forms of "corporate welfare", or cutting the huge, huge military budget, but instead want to take away health care reform, programs for those in need, and balance things on the backs of those with little to spare, should also have their salary and benefits as members of congress taken away from them!
I get so tired of all the BS from the right about how to cut expenses when they never go after those with the most money, the ones have have "increased" their fortunes over the last decade but don't want to help fix the mess their kind got us into!
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Boy do I hope they loose more seats in the mid-term.
alp227
(32,033 posts)So he should take a break from the sunday shows I'd he doesn't want a deeper hole.
But he represents ultra conservative South Carolina, so given his constituency he is essentially guaranteed a win like Bernie Sanders in Vermont.
I remember reading that the tea party wanted to primary graham. Doing so would SPLIT the conservative vote which means...a Democratic shoo in????
disndat
(1,887 posts)but a lot of Republicans are afraid of the Tea Party running candidates against them unless they advocate the Tea Party agenda - example: Olympia Snowe. I see a lot of "Ted Cruzes" in our future thanks to the Koch Bros, deep pockets.
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)Doesn't he have a family that he can spend time with a couple of Sundays per month, so maybe he could leave the rest of us alone?
DavidDvorkin
(19,479 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)it SAVES money.
Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)Just ask Boehner
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43471
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)So we can continue to fund defense. Thank you Linsey Graham for reminding the public you don't care about them but love love love the effort to continue endless war you irresponsible murderous lying sack of stupid.
The Wizard
(12,545 posts)how much the teabilly twerp is getting sent to Cayman Islands account from defense contractors.
still_one
(92,219 posts)be mad at the Senate Democrats for allowing the filibuster rules to stand, thereby making this president, and congress effectively a lame duck one.
In fact, the congress might as well go home. If we need a Supreme Court appointment does anyone really believe the repukes won't filibuster that appointment unless it is a thomas or scalia look-alike
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)He attacked Hagel for suggesting that we go terrorists in a police style action. Let's look how their military plan worked.....Bin Laden got away. Now let's look how a police style action worked.... Bin Laden dead.
Turbineguy
(37,343 posts)either millions die or he gets primaried.
on point
(2,506 posts)mtasselin
(666 posts)Why are these assholes on TV every week, they have nothing and I mean nothing to contribute to the conversation. He has been sucking on the public tit for so long that he does not know what it is like to have a real job or to go out and have to look for one.
RetroGamer1971
(177 posts)Horse-hockey. The republicans could have blocked this by not voting for it in the house. They didn't. President Obama cannot pass legislation. He can only sign it, propose it, or veto it. THAT IS THE SEPARATION OF POWERS!
"After all, 174 House Republicans voted for the measure that Politico said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was the chief Republican architect of. Todays New York Times editorial has some choice words for this blame game, calling out Republicans for their attempts to bend the truth and rightfully showing the GOP is responsible for the upcoming sequestration."
http://www.democraticwhip.gov/content/ny-times-editorial-republicans-hiding-truth-sequestration
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Doing away with the ACA just shifts the financial loss from the government ledger to the private ledger.
If we want to strengthen the private ledger, doing away with the ACA is the worst thing we could do.
We need to cut the military budget when it comes to stationing troops overseas, and we need to impose import duties on goods coming into the US.
Alexander Hamilton was right. We need to subsidize American industry and tax imports. That is how you make America competitive with other countries. That is how you create jobs. That is also how you insure national security. Because we couldn't survive as a country at this point without importing manufactured goods and medicines from other countries. And that means that, economically, we are dependent, not self-sufficient as a nation.
If we really had to fight a war, if we faced an invasion, let's say due to global warming, we would not be able to survive without importing food, clothing and other necessities from other countries. We won WWII because we were able to take care of ourselves. We can't do that now because we rely on other countries for imports.
We need to change our trade agreements.
nobodyspecial
(2,286 posts)They lost the court battles over ACA, and yet again they want to hold Americans hostage to get their way. Although I'm still screwed since I live in a GOP state refusing to implement it. Fuckers!
lib2DaBone
(8,124 posts)More war......
More money for them ... austerity for everyone else.
Typical Republican Brain
go west young man
(4,856 posts)cstanleytech
(26,294 posts)amount they can collect to no more than what the poverty level is for that year and they cannot vote themselves anymore raises ever again.
mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)sakabatou
(42,157 posts)obama2terms
(563 posts)Over Barack Obama's dead body. The main thing that gets me about republicans not liking Obamacare and wanting to do away with it is they have nothing to replace it with. The GOP wants to repeal it without any sensible suggestions on what we can do to make our healthcare system better, and that's because they have no ideas. They don't want Obama to get credit with fixing our healthcare system or fix anything for that matter. ( which at this point no one knows if the ACA will fix everything) so I guess their main goal is to repeal his achievements. After all Mitch McConell (sp?) himself said he wanted to make BO a one term president, so it doesn't shock me that they not only want to filibuster everything, but repeal anything Obama does get done.
sinkingfeeling
(51,459 posts)ThomThom
(1,486 posts)we could shut down most of the CIA and a lot of bases around the world also
ground the drones now
Arkana
(24,347 posts)by someone even nuttier than he is so that when he gets forced into retirement he will know that he spent the last two years of his term being an insufferable, contrarian douche for nothing.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)That is all.
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)Let's just stop sending federal funds to South Carolina. And we'll start by eliminating mosquito spraying funds.
Expect lots more repukes to call for eliminating Obamacare in the next few months.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)just pimping away for his puppet masters
ColumbusLib
(158 posts)Lindsey Graham is now my Most Despised Republican. What a waste of space he is! Obamacare will end up saving us so much money and providing much better care... the math just doesn't add up to say cutting Obamacare would save any money in the long run.
booley
(3,855 posts)..Obama and the Dems should be playing along!
That and they forgot there's plenty of stuff conservatives love to throw money at.
Me personally though, I would rather use money if it might help people then to potentially kill people.
VA_Jill
(9,983 posts)...we take Miss Lindsey and put HIM on the table. I'm as sick of his attacks of the vapors as I am of McGrumpy's tantrums.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)Now it's "Obama's idea." Yeah, right, Lindsey, like all good repukes, you conveniently "forget" the facts.