Words. For the Grand Old Party's consideration...
"It's time to demand that GOP leaders, candidates and other would-be Obamacare repealers take a pledge. It should be simple. Something like: "Because I believe so strongly that Democratic health-care reform is a calamity for the country, I hereby vow that neither I nor anyone in my family will take advantage of the protections offered by this law." Those pledging would of course voluntarily surrender their current group health coverage and be thrown into the unregulated market for individual health insurance, so as to swim in the same sea of insecurity as their constituents. A quickie law would be passed allowing insurers to treat pledge-taking Republicans and their families under prior rules, exempting them from the reforms just signed into law by the president.
Perhaps you're thinking this would be cruel. Should we really punish Mrs. Debbie Boehner if she has a preexisting condition? If one of Mitch McConnell's daughters develops a disease that puts her over the lifetime cap in one of the plans the minority leader favors -- the kind that would give his daughter more "skin in the game" -- wouldn't that be too harsh? What if the McCain brood came down with uncoverable blights? Come to think of it, where is Sarah Palin's family getting coverage today? Thank goodness being on the ticket was her ticket to riches -- as a former state employee whose COBRA coverage is running out, she'd soon be out of luck. (Maybe a small-government GOP fix would be to name every uninsurable American a vice presidential candidate, so they could cash in and afford . . . well, maybe not.)
Still, one man's "harsh" is another's "accountability." And no one argues more sternly than Republicans that behavior should have consequences. So I have no doubt these principled warriors of the right would do their duty. Rather than submit their loved ones to the character-corroding clutches of Obamacare, they would urge their kin to buck up and go to the poorhouse stoically -- and, if need be, to meet their maker with their love for freedom intact..."
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