Ahead of a likely U.S. House vote on a government funding bill, Yahoo asked conservative and Republican voters whether they'd prefer their representatives vote to fund the government or gut the Affordable Care Act. Here's one voter's perspective.
COMMENTARY | I support the House Republican effort to defund Obamacare even if the result is a government shutdown. Indeed, a government shutdown may be necessary to impress upon the president and his supporters how serious this matter is.
The Conservapedia has a comprehensive history of the Affordable Care Act and why the effects of it are so pernicious. Suffice to say, the ACA will hike the cost of health care while lowering its quality, provide perverse incentives to employers to reduce hours of their employees, give government an unprecedented power to be intrusive in Americans' most intimate lives, and balloon the national debt. The inevitable result of Obamacare will be rationed health care, with a supervising board of bureaucrats deciding what should and should not be given to patients.
The law was rammed through both houses of Congress when the Democrats had enough control in the legislative branch to do so. It passed without a single Republican vote.
Solid majorities of Americans oppose the health care law along with groups ranging from the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons and a number of labor unions. Even though the passage of Obamacare was a major contributing factor in the 2010 political tsunami that caused the Republicans to regain the House, the president and congressional Democrats have been unresponsive to public efforts to scrap the law.
Clearly the president and other supporters of Obamacare think that they cannot be stopped in their desire to seize control of the American health care system. That is why congressional Republicans need to pass a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare and then stand fast if the Democrats choose to shut down the government rather than listen to the desires of the people.
Some have suggested that the effort is futile, that Republicans will just be blamed for shutting down the government. But if they stand firm and articulate why they are doing so, pointing out that they have voted to fund every part of the government except for Obamacare, they may be surprised at the public support they get.
There will be no immediate personal consequences for me caused by a defund fight, as far as I am concerned. But defunding the ACA succeeds, I am confident that my long-term quality of life will be a vast improvement over what will happen if the health care law is allowed to stand.
I stand with my House representative, John Culberson, in passing Friday's bill that guts Obamacare.
Mark R. Whittington lives in Houston.
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