NYC Letter: What's In The Bill? VII -- Finally! Bipartisanship!

Day 1,266 of CHOPE
D-minus 190 Days

Remember this fairy tale?

Our position's clear, his position's clear: We feel very confident that the individual responsibility provision [Ed.: media-friendly re-naming of the tax mandate] within the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. We've remarked before that its provenance is in the conservative political arena -- the Heritage Foundation, supported by a number of Republicans before it became a bipartisan idea.

Jay Carney,
reinventing Obamacare as a bipartisan effort
SEOUL March 27, 2012 (Politico)

Obamacare in its final form passed without a single Republican vote in either chamber. There was no across-the-aisle love from Olympia Snow (R-ME) or Susan Collins (R-ME), Not even the beguiled Joseph Cao (R-LA, 2nd) voted for the final bill. This upset people who believe Congress should do things together when Democrats want something done. It greatly upset Democrats who couldn't point to a single Republican "moderate" to own their unpopular junk bill.

SCOTUS recently ruled Obamacare is a massive new tax on the middle-class. This finally inspired some bipartisanship in Congress.

5 DEMS VOTE WITH HOUSE GOP TO REPEAL OBAMACARE

July 11, 2012 (WaEx) - Five Democrats joined with House Republicans to fully repeal President Obama’s national health care law by a 244 to 185 vote. This is an increase over the three Democrats who voted to fully repeal the law in January 2011, an indication that even after the Supreme Court decision upholding the law, some Democrats in more conservative districts still find it a liability.

You think?

Of the five Democrats who voted to repeal the law,  Reps. Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Mike Ross of Arkansas, and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina all voted to repeal it last time, too. Boren and Ross are retiring after this term.

Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Larry Kissell of North Carolina both voted against repeal in January 2011, but switched this time around. Matheson faces a tough race against Tea Party hero Mia Love. Since Kissell voted against repealing Obamacare, the North Carolina legislature passed a new redistricting map that makes his district more conservative than when he was reelected in 2010 with 53 percent of the vote.

There you go, bipartisanship. And to think, once upon a time the partisan position itself lacked partisanship.

CHOPE.

The comity of repeal.