The Rural Electrification Act of 1935 was signed into law by then Franklin D. Roosevelt. The intent of the law is pretty self-explanatory. It was to assist people (largely farmers) who lived in rural areas to get electricity through public and private partnerships.
Today, the only people living in the United States that don’t have electricity are people who don’t want it.
Yet the Rural Electrification Act is still the law of the land. The Rural Utilities Service still operates under the Department of Agriculture and has an annual budget of anywhere from $5-$7 billion.
An outdated piece of legislation that was passed nearly 80 years ago is still law today and I’m supposed to just swallow the big heaping pile of crap being offered to me about the repeal of Obamacare?
“Just wait. The GOP will win the Senate in 2014 and then the White House in 2016 and then Obamacare will get repealed! Hooray!”
Forgive me if I don’t buy into the hype.
Not only do we have useless 80-year-old laws on the books eating up billions that makes me skeptical, there is also the period between 2001 and 2007 when the GOP controlled Congress and the White House. Does No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D ring a bell? They both became law with the GOP in full control of the legislative and executive branches.
How’d that work out?
Some people don’t like the defund argument and don’t support it and that’s fine. I respect that point of view. There are also some idealistic enough to think the GOP will repeal if they have power.
But it won’t happen.
Why should it? Congress and everybody else who made their case will have their exemptions. Repeal means first undoing the provisions for pre-existing conditions and allowing 25-year-old “children” to be on Mom & Dad’s work plan. That will not be politically popular. In addition, Obamacare will have had three years of time for it to have sunk its’ claws into the depths of our healthcare system.
Congress hasn’t been able to repeal a wasteful, expensive and unnecessary law that is nearly 80 years old.
So stop trying to sell people a bill of goods about repealing Obamacare once the GOP has power, because history tells us Obamacare is here to stay.