Right Round the Bend

Republican’ts clearly want nothing whatsoever to do with helping Americans to find more affordable health-care coverage or bringing down the persistently escalating costs of health care in this country. Instead, they’d prefer to wind the clocks back, undermine and overturn last year’s history-making health-care reform legislation, and leave Americans again at the mercy of manipulative, avaricious health insurance suppliers. Although they won’t lift a finger to create new jobs for the unemployed, they’re happy to stage pointless, time-wasting efforts to repeal health-care reform and try to stall the scheduled enactment of publicly popular provisions within the Affordable Care Act--at least until the U.S. Supreme Court rules once and for all in favor of the health-care law’s constitutionality.

Today brought more signs of GOP irrationality on this matter:

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday he has asked his attorney general to advise him on whether implementing and enforcing the federal health care overhaul would put Parnell in violation of his oath of office.

A federal judge in Florida this week struck down the law as unconstitutional in a case joined by 26 states, including Alaska. A major point of contention is a provision requiring citizens to buy health insurance.

Parnell told reporters that he took an oath to support and defend the constitutions of the United States and Alaska. While the Republican governor concedes the issue is expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, he said he has a duty to uphold the law and wants Attorney General John J. Burns to advise on what that duty is after the Florida ruling.

Sometimes I wonder at the intelligence of my fellow Americans.

READ MORE: “Can’t Repeal Health Care Reform? Try Burying It in Paperwork!” by Bradford Plumer (The New Republic).