Politics

AFL-CIO Calls for Major Changes to Obamacare; They Should Join Up w GOP!

|

Over at the Washington Examiner, Sean Higgins reports on a "major embarrassment" for the Obama administration. The 12-million-strong AFL-CIO has passed a resolution that reads in part

"The ACA [Affordable Care Act] should be administered in a manner that preserves the high-quality health coverage multi-employer plans have provided to union families for decades and, if this is not possible, we will demand the ACA be amended by Congress."

Writes Higgins:

Terry O'Sullivan, president of the Laborers' International Union of North America, said in a speech on the convention floor that, if the administration could not address their concerns, then organized labor should call for the law's full repeal.

"[To] the men and women that I represent, it could have a devastating impact on our ability to provide health insurance to them and their families," O'Sullivan told the Nation.

Read the whole piece.

Note to savvy Republican legislators (if the rumors that you exist are true): Reach out to these guys and create an ad hoc coalition to pressure the administration to delay implementation of Obamacare for at least a year. As Obama's own willngness to push back the employer mandate and other aspects of the law attests, the behemoth is not ready for primetime.

This is the perfect time for the sort of transpartisan, ephemeral, single-issue coalitions that Matt Welch and I touted in The Declaration of Independents. The GOP leadership and the AFL-CIO may not have a lot in common but they share a desire to delay and revise Obamacare.They've got an increasing percentage of Americans who agree with them, and they've got a president who just got spanked six ways to Sunday over Syria.

If unexpected coalitions could emerge to block SOPA/PIPA and push pot legalization in various places, surely Republicans and union leaders could come together to make a strong case for delaying the official start of Obamacare. Especially given all the other shit that needs to get done in the few remaining work days the federal government has scheduled for September.