12 AUGUST 3, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
EDITORIAL
A return to regular order - and sanity
When Arizona Senator John
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McCain gave the literal
thumbs down on the Senate
fl oor last week to the latest attempt to
kill Obamacare, there was a sense that
sanity had prevailed. For now.
Of course, Republicans and the
current administration won't cease
and desist in their eff ort to repeal and
replace the Aff ordable Care Act. Nothing
seems to deter this cause: not the
reported millions of people who would
lose their health insurance under proposed
repeal bills, not the unpopularity
of said repeal bills, not even the mere
acknowledgement by Obamacare’s
staunchest supporters that the law is
imperfect and they want to help fi x it.
In the wake of the latest defeat of
repeal and replace, a bipartisan group
of Congress Members -- including Tom
Suozzi, who represents northeast
Queens -- has done something that the
repeal and replace champions haven't
done in 7 1/2 years: come up with a serious
plan to reform health insurance to
help the insured and businesses alike.
The plan that the Problem Solvers
Caucus, as the bipartisan group is
called, seeks to regulate (and also
guarantee) the funding of cost reduction
payments to ensure aff ordable
premiums; changes mandates for
small businesses to provide health
care coverage for their full-time workers;
repeals the medical device tax
that's oft en passed on to consumers;
and allows states to create regional
marketplace agreements to increase
competition and lower coverage costs.
The bill is not a perfect plan, and
who knows if it will ever be seriously
considered by the hardline House leadership.
Regardless of this proposal's
fi nal fate, the idea represents the kind
of eff ort that's needed if this country
wants to fi x its health care system.
Republicans and Democrats working
together? What a concept!
Actually, it used to be the “regular
order” of business on Capitol Hill, as
Senator McCain pointed out last week.
Somewhere along the way, however,
regular order devolved into regular
chaos, as partisanship gripped the
majority and minority alike. The end result
is regular dysfunction that’s made
Congress as a whole less popular than a
root canal, as one recent poll mentioned.
Bipartisanship and compromise are
necessary for not just regular order,
but governing a democracy. Both parties
must be in on the deliberations
and the creation of legislation that
will aff ect the lives and well-being of
millions of Americans.
Queens' Congressional delegation
should continue to insist on having a
voice on health care reform, and the
Republican leadership must end its
hyper-partisan management of Congress.
Americans want government in
Washington; they don’t want chaos to
reign any longer.
Screenshot via YouTube/C-SPAN
“No,” says Senator John McCain during a July 28 vote on an Obamacare
repeal bill.
