Joe Heck Starts His Next Campaign... And Says We Can't Have Health Care

I told you so. This was all pomp and circumstance.

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday evening to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- President Obama's signature accomplishment and the single most consequential piece of legislation Democrats passed in the 111th Congress. [...]

The vote fulfills one of the GOP's main promises to its base ahead of the November midterms, when they retook control of the House from the Democrats. But it's a Pyrrhic victory for conservatives. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has signaled he won't hold a vote on repeal, and any effort by the GOP to force that vote will be met with fierce resistance by Democrats who still hold a majority in the upper chamber.

After being drubbed for supporting the law in the months before the elections, Democrats have regrouped, with a reform-friendly caucus, and are finally fighting back.

Armed with polling data that suggests that the public isn't staunchly in the GOP's corner on this issue, Democrats are challenging the Republicans to contend with the fact that repeal now means rescinding benefits voters are already enjoying.

We've already talked about how Nevada will benefit from health care reform. (And btw, Desert Beacon has even more facts and figures on health care today!) We've seen how the nation will benefit from health care reform.



And yet, Joe Heck decides to ignore all of this. Why? Read between the lines of all the usual "Tea Party, Inc." talking points he crammed into his floor speech today.



He's probably already confident that The Legislature will redraw NV-03 in a way that will make the district safer (meaning more GOP friendly) in 2012, so he's bashing health care reform in order to keep currying the teabaggers' favor so he can enjoy an easy primary win when he runs for another office in 2014 or 2016. Again, it's all about electoral politics. Good policy clearly doesn't matter here.

And in the near term, House Republicans know this is going nowhere. Again, Harry Reid has no interest in wasting The Senate's time on this nonsense. After all, repealing reform would just increase the federal deficit and increase costs for us the consumers.



Again, this is all pomp and circumstance. Instead of offering any ideas on economic recovery and job creation, or even improving health care reform for that matter, House GOPers are playing political games with our health care. And Joe Heck is playing along with it. Ridiculous.