Only that even if they did somehow get it through Congress, it would have to be with enough votes to override a certain presidential veto.
So, yeah. It’s a waste of time and money.
Symbolism. They interpret the election results as a mandate for the repeal of the HCR bill, so they’re doing what they were elected to do, in their view.
“My opponent, a Democrat, voted to kill jobs! Vote for me”
That’s why.
For the same reason the democrats passed the employee free choice act in 2007 when Bush was still president. To energize the base. Once the dems actually had the votes to get it passed in 2009 though, it still died.
As far as repeal, they are working on the state level to repeal it. And I think they can cut funding on the federal level (subsidies, the pre-existing condition plan, etc). I have no idea if they can end the new regulations with just the house.
Heh, or college students: “Thermogoddamnics”
Obligatory Daily Show clip:
The final bit, which begins at about 5:30, is pretty good. It’s a Fox & Friends segment where they’re debating the title. The liberal guy (named Weiner, of course) starts talking about how the bill doesn’t in fact kill jobs, and the host stops him, saying they’re not there to talk about what’s in the bill, they’re there simply to debate the title.
Then the conservative guy starts trashing the bill, and the host of course gives him carte blanche. When the liberal guy jumps in to try to defend the bill against the conservative guy’s charges, the host again tries to stop him, and says, “Hey, the problem is with the name.”
I figured that it must be symbolism (if there is no way they can actually repeal it)
However, aren’t the Republicans advertising themselves as the part of fiscal responsibility? Would a real party of fiscal responsibility waste so much of our taxpayers money (& representatives’ time) doing something symbolic, when it could use that time to work on things that have a chance of actually being implementing and actually reducing government costs and taxes for everyone, or at least work on implementing other things that are line with conservatives’ ideals?
This is clearly a waste. A waste of representatives’ time and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The Democrats, or at least the Democratic pundits in the media, should be hammering this day and night, in every newspaper, talk show and media outlet.
But, of course, they aren’t (AFAIK), which is par for the course for Democrats. They have a distinct inability to form an echo chamber of attack against the Republicans (while the latter are great at it)
Obviously the health care act, which grants them the freedom to switch jobs, will result in some undesirable positions becoming harder to fill.
Republicans just want to protect the employers who make their profit off such ‘over the barrel’ workers.
Wasn’t it just last month that the Pubbies were howling with dismay over the “uncertainty” about health care reform, how that “uncertainty” was worse than just about anything?
Well, they aren’t really wasting much money. In any case, I think it’s reasonable to introduce legislation which has no chance of passing if that’s what you think you were elected to do.
Hell, most things Congress does pass are largely or wholly symbolic: resolutions honoring random worthies, or naming pointless National Things (birds, rocks, and so on).
I’m surprised you (or anyone) feel this way. If Ron Paul spends a lot of his time and effort to introduce a new “Let’s get rid of the Fed Act” every month, even though it has no chance in hell of passing, shouldn’t his supporters be upset at him for not working on bills that are in line with their ideals but do have some chance of actually passing?
At least those things managed to get passed, which is more than the current “Neener Neener Act of 2010” will accomplish 
But seriously, I think those are a waste of representatives’ time and taxpayer money as well.
Well, Ron Paul’s constituents keep reelecting him, so regardless of whether they should be upset with him, they obviously aren’t.
Symbolic gestures have meaning. If a black parent sued the Selma School Board in 1920 demanding that his daughter be admitted to the white school, I think we can all agree he had about the same chance of prevailing as this bill has of passing - but that doesn’t mean he was wrong to try anyway.
If my FIL’s facebook page is anything to go by, at least some members of the Republican party think this is merely the opening salvo that will somehow lead to certain healthcare repeal. By which mechanism this will supposedly happen, it’s not entirely clear, and I’m sure not going to open that can of worms.
Sometime Fox News is almost a parody of itself. It often blatantly illustrates how the national conversation is intentionally misdirected.
Discussion of this bill becomes a discussion of the name of the bill. Discussion of Wikileaks becomes a discussion of the definition of rape. Discussion of the relationship of violent rhetoric to actual violence becomes a discussion of the meaning of “blood libel” and whether or not Sarah Palin has been subjected to it.
We all fall for it, myself included.
They were howling about the uncertainty with regard to the tax law.
Was it just as meaningless and wasteful for the Democrats to ignore it or oppose it for as long as they did…everybody knew it was going to happen?
Everybody certainly did not know it was going to happen.
So, Hu Jintao is in town and he brought a bevy of Chinese businessmen with him that are going to start factories or buy a bunch of stuff from America.
Some are getting tours of the Capitol (you know, to show them what real democracy looks like) by the congressmen of the district where they intend to buy their soybeans or open their factories.
This is the bill they see being debated. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
He might be even more impressed by how empty the chamber is - mostly just the guy with the floor and a CSPAN camera. Democracy in action!
Just as important as asking questions is to figure out what are the right questions to ask. In other words, we should question even our own questions. The job of the media seems to be to distract us from what’s actually important.
An interesting letter signed by numerous economists, who agree that the bill kills jobs:
It’s quite an impressive list of signees, including two former directors of the Congressional Budget Office, two former associate directors of the CBO, Four previous members of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, senior economists from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the former head of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, at least two Nobel Prize winners in economics, and professors of economics from the most prestigious schools in the U.S.
They all agree that the bill is a barrier to job growth. Are they all ‘factually incorrect’?