Reason #15 why they hate the ACA: You can register to vote at the same time!
So the GOP hates the Affordable Care Act. They hate it for a number of reasons — it’s the signature legislation of a Black President (one that stomped them in two elections), it’ll actually help people (and not Insurance companies) out, It’ll kill their mantra that “Government never works” for the next 20 years, it’ll remind Minorities that the Democrats are the only ones with their interests in mind, what have you.
Well, Add another reason: Legally, any place you can sign up for the new Exchanges, you can also register to vote.
One of the main reasons Republicans oppose Obamacare has largely flown under the public’s radar — until now. Here’s the key to understanding the GOP’s typically mean-spirited position: applications for insurance under the Affordable Care Act will also allow people to register to vote. Aha! The picture jumps into focus. Those in our population who are most anxious to sign up for healthcare coverage are the same people who the GOP has worked diligently, in state after state, to disenfranchise. The Affordable Care Act could lay waste to all that conservative effort.
Specifically, thanks to the 1993 Motor Voter Act, any Government office — and the exchanges are Government offices — also has to allow people to register to vote at that location. In fact, the draft form for signing up for an exchange openly asks you if you wish to also register to vote at the same time.
So the GOP had a predictable Whiny Ass Titty-Baby fit, with professional Ignoramus Charles Boustany, Jr (R-LA) writing a ranting letter to the Department of Health and Human Services claiming that letting people register to vote at the same time might confuse the poor little peons.
And golly gee, don’t you know the GOP is aaaaallll about preventing people from being confused about the ACA, what with them lying about it every time they open their mouths and all that.
Fortunately, it appears that Obama has finally figured out that the GOP of 2013 has the mental capacity of an 8 year old, and is refusing to budge on this point.
The ACA Exchanges are Government Offices — of course — and that means according to the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, they have to offer the ability to register to vote.
And who are most likely to visit these exchanges, at least initially? Who doesn’t have insurance right now? That’s right — poor people and minorities, the very people the GOP has spent the past few decades trying to make sure they can’t vote.
Consider that the GOP was willing to have their professional Liar James O’keefe slander Acorn for the sin of helping poor and minority voters register to vote (which is why the Wingnuts continually try to make up stories about how ACORN committing voter registration fraud, despite ACORN having dissolved years ago now) — imagine the hair pulling rage they must be going through now that they just realized, the ACA not only helps Americans find Insurance at a sane, reasonable rate, it not only has backdoors to help states go single-payer, it helps undo decades of disenfranchisement.
Little wonder they’re having a national meltdown over the ACA — it may be the single most anti-GOP Stupidity bill to come out in the past decade.