A nonserious budget

Millions of Americans are already benefitting from the health care reform known as Obamacare. However, repealing this law is still a priority for congressional Republicans.

There is no other way to explain that the new spending plan introduced yesterday by Rep. Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, was based on the idea of eliminating Obamacare, in addition to changing the structure of the Medicaid health care program.

Apparently, voters’ overwhelming rejection during the past presidential election of the proposal to repeal the health care reform was not enough. At least we might have thought that Ryan, who was the vice presidential candidate on the losing Republican ticket, would have gotten the message from the electorate.

But obviously, he did not. This new proposal joins 33 previous attempts in the House of Representatives in the past two years, promoted by Tea Party-minded legislators, to eliminate, remove funding or reduce the health care reform.

Ryan’s proposal is an example of perseverance that lacks any usefulness. No one, not even the most optimistic conservative, can believe that there is a possibility to eliminate Obamacare with President Obama in the White House.

That would only be possible if Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and the presidency. This probably won’t happen until 2017 or later either, if the party continues to put priority on eliminating health care coverage and protections that benefit millions of Americans.

The worst part is that this budget should begin the process to finalize a federal spending plan in the next few weeks in order to avoid a government shutdown. Ryan’s proposal, as presented, shows a lack of seriousness and credibility, which can only be understood within the narrow-minded ideological universe of the House of Representatives.