Communicative Weakness and Democratic Unwillingness

by Andrea Rhodomoyer and Pajtim Sylaj, Secretary
Published in The Voice on March 27, 2014
A response to a semi-literate rambling on blaming the GOP for being responsible for all partisanship

On October 1, 2013, the United States government experienced a partial shutdown. However, if there is any making sense of the shutdown, it is unquestionably crucial to understand and recognize a timeline of the events that took place before and after. Mr. Catona shared his views as to why he believes that the Republicans were the direct cause of the shutdown. This article clarifies that an indifference between two parties is needed for a disagreement to transpire, and how the stubbornness of the Democrats lead to an unwillingness of negotiation.

On September 20, 2013, the Republican Party agreed to keep the government funded through December 15, 2013 as long as President Barack Obama agreed to defund the 2010 Affordable Care Act, otherwise referred to as Obamacare, which has been delayed numerous times by the president himself.  Four days later, Sen. Ted Cruz delivers a filibuster- like speech encouraging a governmental shutdown unless the Democrats make the delineated negotiations and compromises on the health care law. Through September 27 to September 30, the Democratic-led Senate rejects any provisions made by the GOP, one of those provisions being that the president and his congressional staff be required to pay unsubsidized healthcare expenses. As a result, the shutdown ensues.

After the commencement of the partial government shutdown, the Republican-led house began approving bills as an effort to revive prevalent government programs, including national parks and museums, National Institute of Health medicinal study, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and Head Start. The Democratic-led Senate and the president, however, either ignore or reject the Republican attempts, giving them more incentive and motivation to prolong the shutdown. After much discussion of debt limit extensions and disagreements between House GOP leaders and the president, it isn’t until October 16 that the Senate Majority and Minority leaders announced that they came to a decision to momentarily end the government shutdown until January 15, 2014 and extend the debt limit until February 7, 2014. The proposal passes through both the House and Senate and is signed into law by President Obama just after midnight on October 17 (mediate.com).

Health care improvement from the Republican mindset exhibits the support of commonsensical reforms that will lower costs for the American people, certify the utmost quality in health care that the people deserve, and end to lawsuit exploitation. The Republican Party is in strict opposition of government-run health care that compromises that physician-patient relationship, hinders the promotion of competition, and staggers healthcare quality and variation of choice. In the past, as polling has demonstrated, the American people are in disfavor of such a health care policy developed by President Obama, due to the common belief that the ACA will drive up costs and hurt the quality of health care (gop.com). Eighty-five percent of GOP voters and sixty-eight percent of unaffiliated voters expect health care costs to increase under the new law. This view is also shared with thirty percent of Democrat voters (rasmussenreports.com).

Even though Gun Control is irrelevant to the cause of the government shutdown, background checks for purchases of weapons do exist. Over ninety percent of U.S. citizens support background checks, however, a much smaller amount support stricter gun control, such as high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic rifles (NRA).   

This isn’t the first or last time the two political parties disagree. There is a greater challenge for these parties to come to a neutral agreement when the president refuses to negotiate and bypasses congress to pass a law that many are not in favor of. In our past, a Democratic president has successfully negotiated with congress and the Republicans, just as a Republican president with Democrats. It is not about how many bills are passed, but rather the quality and how effective these bills are to the nation as a whole.

Obamacare: A collapse of the Progressive Movement

by Zach Moore

Since 2009, Bill and Hillary Clinton have piggy-backed off of President Obama’s attempt to build a progressive platform for a liberal America. For obvious reasons, this is something that the Clintons feasted off of. Why did they do this? Hillary would love a bid in 2016. Moreover, they saw an opportunity to take advantage of progressive America; a system of big, careless government that is in control of dependent individuals. You see, President Obama has created this dependent America, not for reasons of sympathy in which he tries to display, but for strictly politically motivated ideals. If the majority of Americans are dependent on the Democratic Party to feed them out of their hands, they are never going to vote against them.

So what do the Clintons do? They endorse Obamacare. Believing it would be a success, they knew that Americans who enroll would be dependent on Hillary getting elected in order for their “free” care to continue. Therefore, sadly, they believed it would be a sure win for the Democratic Party in 2016. This is just another clear example of the left taking advantage of progressive America, as they use it as nothing but political leverage. This can be seen clearly as Bill Clinton endorsed the Affordable Care Act in September of this year, again as a mere attempt to get his beloved wife elected.

Was this a successful strategy? Of course not. Obamacare was a dismal failure just as many people in the United States expected. In addition, Bill and Hilary Clinton endorsed an individual who lied to the faces of American people on multiple occasions. To be precise, President Obama stated, “If you like your health care plan you can keep it....period”. This, as agreed upon by the majority of Americans is not only deceptive, but an outright lie. Bottom line is, the Clintons endorsed a now perceived liar. They tarnished their reputation (even further), and President Obama quickly became a political liability to their campaign. So what do they do? They run from the disaster and distance themselves from President Obama.

Today, October 12, 2013, Bill Clinton decided to make his distance well known to the American people by saying, “I personally believe, even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to these people and let them keep what they got." Hold on a second Bill, during many speeches you attended and endorsed, the president contradicted what you just said. Did you raise a red flag then? No. Even though you knew it was wrong, you let it go all in a mere attempt to deceive the American people just at the president did. If anyone in the world thinks this revelation of Clinton’s beliefs on the Affordable Care Act is anything more than an attempt to run as far from President Obama and the Affordable Care Act as possible, they are completely wrong.

Bottom line is President Obama has become a political liability to anyone in the Democratic Party who supported the Affordable Care Act. Even further, his presidency and the Affordable Care Act is a ticking time bomb that will surely destroy the reputation of his supporters in government. Thanks to him, Republicans now have a very distinct opportunity to lay this “progressive” movement to rest for many decades to come. So, from all Republicans in America, thank you Mr. President for proving that your “landmark” legislation was in fact, a total disaster.

On the Medical Device Tax

by Zach Moore

A part of the "First Word, Last Word" column on the The Voice
Originally published on 10/31/13 and available here: http://www.buvoice.com/opinion/2013/10/31/first-word-last-word.html

(Advisor's note: this submission was required to be "about 500 words", but the subsequent rebuttal from a writer of The Voice totaled 637 words)

Since the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency, an image has been painted for the American people of a universal, problem-free health care system that offers affordable or even “free” care. Based on the president’s rhetoric, one would believe that there is a magic money tree placed in the north lawn of the White House that miraculously drops leaves of one hundred dollar bills right into the pockets of Obamacare. Although this sounds excellent and the president somehow has fooled many Americans into believing this fairy tale, it is far from the case. An American who thinks based on logic understands the sad truth and reality, which is that President Obama has drafted a piece of legislation that is destroying the economy. Where does $60.1 billion of funding for the Affordable Care Act come from over the next decade? Sorry, not from the money tree the president is hiding from us all, but from the all too familiar 2.3% medical device tax.

Pacemakers: About to be way more $$$

Before jumping into the medical device disaster that the president has pursued, I believe it is important for readers to understand the importance this industry has in health care. Pacemakers, chemotherapy and defibrillators, just to name a few, are products that the medical device industry is responsible for. In order to produce and sell these products, research and development is key. A 2.3% tax on all revenues now significantly threatens the ability of this industry to devote money to innovate new products that could save lives.

Although many understand the effects on price and demand based on tax rates, it is obvious that the president does not. It is common sense for one to know what happens when tax rates increase on the revenues of a company: The price of goods go up in order to counter act the lost revenue. Therefore, what the president said would be more affordable, actually becomes less affordable. The price of medical devices goes up, therefore, making health care less affordable than it was before. What happens when these prices increase? Sales decrease, leading to a downward spiral of demand and lost revenues for one of the largest employers in the U.S.

Currently, according to the Wall Street Journal, the medical device industry employs 400,000 U.S workers directly, and another two million through supply and distribution. A 2.3% tax on this industry threatens many of these employees’ jobs. By cutting revenues by $6.7 billion annually, companies simply will not have the ability to maintain the size of their workforce. This is seen already, as, according to the Wall Street Journal, medical device companies have cut their workforce by 10% in order to brace for the impact.

This frivolous tax is something that the people of this country can not continue to ignore, nor can we as American’s continue to fall victim to the blinding image of something the president portrays as being free. Funding $60.1 billion comes from somewhere, and in this case it comes from thousands of lost jobs, increased costs for consumers, and irretrievable innovation that could have potentially saved lives.

Senator Ted Cruz Tries to #MakeDCListen

In case you missed it, Senator Ted Cruz engaged in a filibuster really long speech beginning yesterday into today.  Here is a link to one of the better "update" feeds available from the speech (the picture of Cruz's daughters back home when the senator read them their goodnight story from the senate floor is pretty goshdarn cute!).  I believe it wound up being just shy of 22 hours. He was joined by a number of senators, including most prominently Mike Lee, Maro Rubio, and Rand Paul. Also spending time on the floor were senators Mike Enzi, Pat Roberts, and Jeff Sessions. Notably absent was Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey.

While Mike Lee and Rand Paul were great speakers, it should be noted that Marco Rubio was outstanding. Waking up early this morning, as he was last night, giving a passionate defense of the free market. He might have stepped out of line with his amnesty bill, but at heart he is a conservative.  Here are his early remarks:



To be clear, this was not technically a filibuster (though, I guess it depends on who you ask), but a lengthy floor speech. It seems that Senator Cruz knew it would be coming to an end around noon today before the day's business began, and before Cruz joined Rush Limbaugh on his show.

The Republican argument against what Senator Cruz undertook is that it makes no difference. The continuing resolution to fund the government without Obamacare wasn't going to pass, and no one wants to shut down the government in order to prevent Obamacare from being implemented.

All that might be true, but many of our elected officials have been appointed to fight this monstrosity of a law with every ounce of their being. Senator Ted Cruz did just that. We might be stuck with a terrible law that destroys jobs, is incredibly expensive (make that ridiculously expensive), puts the government between the doctor and the patient, and the American people overwhelmingly don't want, but we're not taking it lying down. That's what the likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham don't get. No, we don't want the government shutdown, but we will not go quietly into the night on this law. We will fight, and we will be heard. We will #MakeDCListen.


Here are some of the highlights:

"I intend to speak in support of de-funding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand, to do everything that I can to help Americans stand together and recognize this grand experiment three and a half years ago is quite simply not working."

"Millions of people are asking for accountability, truth, the truth about Obamacare is it's failing the men and women of America. It is time, quite simply, to make D.C. listen."