Terry Allan Hall Loc: Republic O' Tejas

Here's a fun question, posed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"If the Affordable Care Act is so awful," Reid asked, "why did Koch Industries use it to their advantage?"

That's a rhetorical question, by the way. The answer is because they could get a big ol' chunk of money from the federal government, that's why. Congress created a $5 billion temporary reinsurance fund in the Affordable Care Act, to subsidize the cost to employers for providing ongoing coverage for people who retire before Medicare eligibility. The Kochs, of course, took a chunk of that.

The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, Reid said, "helped the company pay health insurance costs for its retirees who are not covered by Medicare." Reid asked sarcastically: "So it's OK for Koch Industries to save money through Obamacare" even as Koch-related groups seek the law's repeal. […]

Federal records show that Koch Industries received $1.4 million in early retiree subsidies. That's considerably less than the sums many other employers received. A Koch Industries spokesman said he had no comment on Reid's latest criticisms.

Other companies did receive a lot more: UPS got $37 million; Union Pacific $9.7 million; Altria Client Services nearly $11 million; and AT&T $213 million. All of those companies donate more heavily to Republicans, but none of these companies have made it their mission to k**l Obamacare. That makes the Kochs a special case. But very typically Republican.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Pretty simple, 'it's the law of the land'.

What's even more interesting to me is this double standard.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/carolplattliebau/2014/04/08/bad-news-for-harry-reid-kochs-donated-to-schumer-too-n1821310?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Vacaman

I gues that makes UPS almost 35x more democrat? Are you kidding me?

Augustus Greatorex Loc: NE

"Helped"? It didn't pay for their former retired employees full reinsurance? $14 hundred thousand dollars didn't cover all of it? I thought they said Affordable Care?

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

Good for the Koch's. You go Koch Brothers!

AuntiE Loc: 45th Least Free State

It seems to irritate people when companies utilize the law. I find it amusing.

stevenkalka

There's nothing wrong with any business utilizing a law to it advantage even while seeking its repeal with the expectation of replacing it with a better alternative.

JimMe

Let me get this right... You Quoted FOUR Large Corporations that received Considerably More Than The Koch Brothers - AND ADMITTED THESE FOUR CORPOATIONS WERE MORE REPUBLICAN LEANING BUT DIDN'T LOOK TO REPEAL OBAMACARE - And Then State the Koch's Accepting Their Monies While Looking To Repeal ObamaCare was "...very typically Republican"...

So, in Your Thought Process, ONE-OUT-OF-FIVE CORPORATIONS SHOULD BE DEEMED "... very typical..."

I Must Admit... YOURS IS A VERY LIBERAL INTERPRETATION OF "... very typical..."

RetNavyCWO Loc: VA suburb of DC

And what alternative would that be?

stevenkalka

There were several early on that went nowhere. Obama's response was "We won" when he still had a majority in both houses.

The most recent one from Bobby Jindal:

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/04/02/bobby-jindal-offers-health-plan-alternative-to-obamacare

RetNavyCWO Loc: VA suburb of DC

There was no alternative described there. Republicans keep saying they have an alternative, but they never produce one. If they really want to do something useful for Americans and help themselves politically, they would do what Obama has invited them to do all along: jump in and make some serious proposals to improve the ACA. Practically everyone supports the provisions of keeping children on their parents' policies (at a cost of course; it's not free) and prohibiting denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Portability of coverage after leaving an employer-sponsored plan is also universally supported, as is the removal of lifetime caps on health care costs. If Republicans could come up with ways to retain those provisions without mandating that everyone has health insurance (which is their only real objection, even though they were the ones who originally proposed it), they would get the credit for it and find themselves in a great position to regain the Senate and the White House. Their own bigotry shoots themselves in their feet.

If Republicans would clean house of the likes of Ted Cruz and the rest of the Tea Party and get themselves back in line with mainstream America, they might just get me and others like me back in their court.
They can't keep standing in the way of moving this country forward and expect to get anywhere themselves.