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Bobby Schilling (R, IL-17) calls President’s bluff.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  January 26th, 2011 at 02:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Getting rid of Phil Hare in IL-17 last year was one of life’s little pleasures – originally because Phil Hare was an odious little apparatchik toady who inherited the seat and kept it from inertia, but later because I grew to like Bobby Schilling.  Small business guy, pretty friendly, enjoyed taking whacks at Hare at every opportunity: what wasn’t to like?

Turns out that Representative Schilling hasn’t lost his taste for afflicting the comfortable: he’s publicly taken up the President on Obama’s kind offer to talk to Republicans about fixing the health care bill.  Bobby’s got a bunch of things to discuss:

  • The individual mandate.  Which is on track to be thrown out as unconstitutional.  Oopsie!
  • The 1099 disaster.  Short version: Obamacare added legislation that would force small businesses to have to make truly insane amounts of disclosure on their transactions.  Obama opposed fixing this until after his party got shellacked in the midterms.
  • Schilling’s family’s Health Savings Account.  Which is on the chopping block once Obamacare is fully implemented, and so much for keeping your health plan if you wanted to keep it (Schilling chose not to use the Congressional health plan).
  • And, oh yes: the general lack of transparency in the Obamacare ratification process.  Although the election of Bobby may be taken as a sign that the first corrective measures along those lines have been taken.

Bottom-line time: by offering such an opening at this one the White House has demonstrated that it doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo that times have changed.  This isn’t 2005-2006, where the Republicans could be safely ignored because we were all fighting each other over illegal immigration and Harriet Myers; or 2007-2008, where the Republicans could be leapfrogged because we had committed our resources to keeping the Democrats from losing the war; or 2009-2010, where the Republicans were dismissed because “I won.”  This is 2011, and Bobby Schilling is in office because he made it visibly clear last year that he is not scared of Barack Obama.  Doing things like this is why IL-17 sent him to Congress in the first place.  Him, and a whole bunch of his colleagues.  So the President needs to get with the program, and have his Chief of Staff clear some time on the President’s calendar.

Assuming, of course, that President Obama’s kind offer wasn’t actually a lie.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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COMMENTS

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  • Flagstaff

    Nibble away at the edges of that cheese and the stinking central core still remains.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Should we just let it get further entrenched until it generates it’s own entitlement group?

    By all means try to kill it or defund it, but when that fails, and it probably will, You have to try something else

  • victrola

    I know some people may find that to be overly partisan, but don’t mend it, end it. I want the baby thrown out with the bath water. To fix the especially egregious parts is like removing a tumor and saving the patient.

    ObamaCare was a crap sandwich, and the American people need to take a big bite. I want voters furious at Obama and the Democrats for the next election.

  • http://www.notadriveby.com DF

    There is no saving this disaster. Just like with investment decisions sometimes you have to cut your losses, and dump the disaster. Either that or you risk digger a deeper hole. Remember how Pelosi said we had to pass the bill to find out what’s in it? Well we still have not found out everything, but the more find out the worse and worse this looks for our country and for business.

    The 1099 requirement alone is insane. Just goes to show you that the people who wrote the law have never run a business in the private sector before, otherwise they would realize the added cost, hassle, and uselessness of this requirement.

    DF
    www.notadriveby.com

  • luciusacius

    that we have got to stop focusing on the inevitable RINO attempt at betrayal that is coming. We need to get out and replace the RINOs preemptively. All of them. Then only the democrats remain to stab us in the front, our back will be secure. If we can’t kill this monster this year, at least we can force the Democratic majority in the senate to show their true contempt for the American people publically and before the 2012 elections. Maybe we can force Obama to veto repeal before the election. These are worthy secondary goals. Then with a Republican, and more importantly a conservative majority in Congress and a conservative Republican President in 2012 we drive a stake through its heart as the first order of business in the 113th Congress. Starving it of funds and removing its worst features allows us to continually remind people of the sleazy way it was passed, and, more importantly, stops Obama care from becoming ingrained into the status quo. No implementation money means there is nothing to get comfortable with. We cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good that is actually obtainable now.

  • victrola

    Do Republicans sometimes disappoint me, of course, but on this issue, EVERY single Republican in Congress voted against ObamaCare and EVERY single Republican (so far) has voted to repeal ObamaCare outright. That’s an incredible display of unity, and is an excellent example of how even moderate Republicans are useful for the conservative movement. At least on this issue, the problem is not on our side of the aisle.

    Getting Republicans elected and Democrats thrown out of office is the BEST way to get rid of ObamaCare, not focusing on replacing Scott Brown or Olympia Snowe.

  • Flagstaff

    “By all means try to kill it or defund it, but when that fails, and it probably will, You have to try something else”

    I quote myself. “You never lose until you quit trying to win.”

    Do you not think the Dems had a strategic plan to pass ObamaCare in the first place? Do you think it included quitting if they lost a vote in committee, or in eaither house? What if the two houses didn’t exactly agree, and the Republicans elected the Senator they needed to filibuster the reconciled bill? Did they capitulate because they didn’t have the numbers?

    Of course not. They simply applied some muscle to the system and their own process, and they forced a vote on the bill they themselves agreed was flawed BEFORE that Senator could do anything to stop them.

    THEY DIDN’T QUIT.

    So what if the Senate doesn’t sign on to full repeal and the bill dies there? So what if they do sign on, and the President vetoes it? There is not one dang rule that says, “Republicans lost the first try. Pack up and go home. It’s over now.”

    The “something else” to try is to TRY AGAIN.

    In fact, losing that battle over and over again will be a GOOD thing for Republicans, and it should be their strategy. Bringing that bill up again and again and again and again does at least two good things. First, it keeps the errors of the bill and Obama front and center as a topic of discussion, especially by the Tea Party. It reminds everybody that it was forced through Congress and signed by the President WHEN THEY ALL KNEW THE PEOPLE OPPOSED IT. Do you think that the Tea Party Movement will go away if Obamacare and its lies and excesses are pushed in their faces again and again? What will happen is they will remain energized. They don’t like the bill better now that it’s passed, THEY HATE IT MORE.

    Second, it keeps the opposition to ObamaCare focused on only one thing–the WHOLE thing. Repeal efforts aren’t fragmented, they are concentrated. And don’t forget, opposition to Obamacare was a big reason Republicans gained 60-plus seats in Congress in November. Continuing the fight proves the Republicans were sincere when they ran with repeal as a major plank in their platform.

    If parts of it start withering away, some of the OPPOSITION will wither away as well. Eliminate the mandate, and the court cases evaporate. Eliminate the 1099, and some opposition from small businesses will evaporate. Also, without the mandate and the 1099, the bill is no longer a “money-maker” for the government–it adds to the deficit. There is more, but you get the idea.

    So if I were General of the Republican Army, my strategy would be to keep hitting the administration with “complete repeal.” That would be the objective.

    My tactics would be to hit with a bill to repeal at times when it’s most embarrassing for the President. I’d make sure it included plenty of press conferences explaining WHY it should be repealed, and I’d be sure to have a spokesman who understood the finances and the politics and the ‘unintended consequences’ that will ensue from Obamacare backwards and forwards.

    “Should we just let it get further entrenched until it generates it?s own entitlement group? ”

    If the Democrats create an Obamacare support group, I’d make sure everybody knew it was politically supported, not a grass-roots movement. And I would have an alternative ready for publication, but make sure it required the repeal of the whole package before it could be implemented.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Once the plan becomes ingrained it will be nearly impossible to kill just like Social Security and Medicare. Here you see two real life examples staring you in the face and you make a rah rah coach’s argument.

  • JSobieski

    The universe of possibilities includes more than simply the obvious.

    Sometimes removing a critical brick or two will bring the entire wall down.

  • JSobieski

    The universe of possibilities includes more than simply the obvious.

    Sometimes removing a critical brick or two will bring the entire wall down.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    you take that back!

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    you take that back!

  • Flagstaff

    Not if the opposition continues to oppose. But if they roll over and play dead by agreeing to make a few changes here and there, the thing remains an albatross around the neck of the economy.

    It isn’t just that the thing creates many unsupportable programs; it also sets up something like 1000 administrative units, not answerable to voters, that are an abomination to a representative government.

    If nothing else, it should be repealed just because it was passed behind a wall of lies against the will of the people.

    As for SS and Medicare, I remind you that both were approved of by the people at the time of passage, and they still like them. THAT’S why it’s so hard to do anything about them. And they also were sold based on bad economics and lies, although nothing on the scale of Obamacare.

    ?Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty? I agree. Do you really think they can ferret out ALL the bad parts and just leave the VERY FEW ‘good’ ones? Our freedom and our liberty were taken from us by the last Congress. Taking back only SOME of it is not an option.

    So, Rah Rah!

  • gekster

    but was afraid he might go for gekos next.

  • Flagstaff

    Dick Morris essentially seconded my tactic of keeping Obamacare front and center until 2012. Said it would guarantee his defeat.

    That is NOT a money back guarantee.

  • sharonmcp

    From the Daily Caller

    South Carolina Republican and conservative firebrand Sen. Jim DeMint introduced legislation to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday, the first official step in bringing the House-passed repeal bill fight into the staid upper chamber.

    But a slew of mostly moderate senators declined to support DeMint?s legislation, raising questions on the unity of the Republican caucus.

    …Backing him are 34 Republicans including Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and Republican Whip Sen. John Kyl of Arizona.

    Conspicuously absent from the list of cosponsors are Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Michael Enzi of Wyoming, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

  • sharonmcp

    Suggest that everyone read Sam Foster’s diary, Chief Medicare Actuary to Congress: Obamacare will not cut costs and start letting everyone know about the newly released information in it.

  • america1st

    Given the extent of the brain rot in Ma$$holia, San FranFreakShow, Sh**cago & other urban sewage basins, the realistic best we can hope for is a Scott Brown in those venues. But there is no excuse for the likes of graham, lugar, collins, snowe & murkowski – much less such as jeffords, specter, crist & castle who stood with the dims more frequently than blue dogs. What our country needs are Constitutional conservatives, **NOT** “small R” politicians who put more emphasis on congeniality than principle.

  • http://teapartisan.wordpress.com Socrates

    is the surest way for it to become ingrained.

    Take away the 1099 requirement, soften the mandates, provide waivers and workarounds, and it becomes a pill people can swallow.

    And tinkering only adds to uncertainty. If one onerous provision is axed, will the others be? The quest will then be to lobby the government for the best position.

    And that’s not an America I want.

  • Flagstaff

    Thanks for saying it so succinctly.

    Obamacare is prolonging the recession because it is a huge and non-productive addition to the fixed cost of doing business, the nut that every business must overcome to be profitable.

    There are many bad practices that have become entrenched in the government, and one of the worst is the dispensation of subsidies to aid a favored business or pressure group.

    Waiver from a law is essentially a subsidy to a favored constituent.

    There may be situations where a subsidy from the government to a particular industry is justified, but I would rather it be a grant, one time, and short-lived.

    What we SHOULD have are fair and reasonable laws that are concerned with protecting the people from predators, which have little effect on honest and fair operators. If we remove the manacles from the oil and gas industries we wouldn’t have any reason to give them subsidies.

    Subsidies are just another name for help to escape from overbearing regulations. Eliminate the overbearing part, and eliminate the subsidies. Eliminate Obamacare, open up the insurance industry, and people who WANT coverage will be able to buy it.

    See you later at the Cafe.