The House today made an intriguing move in the fight against ObamaCare, but as with most such moves, it won't mean anything if they back down in the end. And that's what they usually do.
In a 237-182 vote, the GOP-controlled House voted to delay the individual mandate by 10 years as a condition of the annual Medicare "doc fix." Now just so you understand the context, every year the federal budget (or I should say "continuing resolution" since we no longer actually have budgets) reflects a massive cut in the reimbursement rate of doctors who take Medicare patients. This year the scheduled cut is 24 percent.
This is always a con. The cut never happens because every year Congress subsequently votes to "fix" it and make the Medicare doctors whole. That is the proverbial "doc fix" - a term you may have heard but perhaps have never really had explained to you. It's all part of the shell game Congress plays to make itself look much more fiscally responsible than it really is. Doctors know the game and simply assume that their full reimbursements will be restored.
If they are not, many doctors would have no choice but to stop seeing Medicare patients because they couldn't afford the loss they would take on the business. The whole thing is a scam and Congress ought to stop doing it. But in the context of things as they are today, the doc fix needs to happen or the entire Medicare system will fall apart.
So Republicans have taken a potentially important stand by attaching the 10-year individual mandate delay to the doc fix. If they were to stand firm, Democrats would be forced to choose between accepting the delay or endangering Medicare.
What typically happens in these situations, though, isn't that. The bill will now go to the Senate where Harry Reid will surely refuse to let it go to the floor for a vote. Instead, he will pass a "clean" doc fix bill with no conditions whatsoever and send that to the House.
If Republicans were really serious about this, they would stand firm and refuse to vote on Reid's "clean" bill - insisting that if Democrats want their doc fix, they'll have to swallow the bitter pill of the 10-year mandate delay.
Now you know what would happen. Democrats would run to the media screaming that Republicans are endangering Medicare in the pursuit of some unworthy partisan goal, and we would begin to see stories of frightened senior citizens who can no longer see their doctors and will surely die immediately as a result.
Republicans could fight that if they wanted to. They could respond that they're taking this stand because President Obama refuses to give the same relief to individuals that he has given to businesses by enacting not one but two delays in the employer mandate, in spite of the fact that the law gives him no authority by which to do so. They could explain that by taking this stand, they are going to force Democrats to grant relief to individuals who do not want to be forced into ObamaCare and should not have to be.
But if Republicans took such a stand, withstanding the media assault and the Democrats' howling, well, let's just say that would be a first. John Boehner's history as Speaker of the House is that he sends good spending bills to the Senate, only to fold like a cheap suit when Harry Reid sends back a horrible one. Why should we expect anything different this time?
I don't. I sure wouldn't mind a pleasant surprise, though, Mr. Speaker.
