Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Today is the two-year anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act, which, once fully implemented will cover 30 million Americans and begin to lower the rate of growth in health care spending. Since reform passed, however, Republicans have voted to repeal or defund the law at least 25 times and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is preparing to focus largely on health care as he charts “a course for a Republican Senate in 2013 and what could be a bruising reelection bid in 2014.”

During the nearly 10-month legislative battle that preceded passage and in the years after, the GOP characterized the bill as a “socialist” “government takeover” and warned Americans that the bill would destroy lives and American society, hurling apocalyptic warnings that seem downright satirical two years later:

Below are some of their most outrageous claims:

– REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH): Passage of health reform is “Armageddon” because the law will “ruin our country.” [3/20/2010]

– FRMR. SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R-PA): Health reform “will destroy the country” because, “in the next year or so,” America will have to “dramatically cut the military because we can’t pay for it.” [10/23/2010]

– SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK): “There will be no insurance industry left in three years.” [10/12/2010]

– REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): “On page 16, you can read for yourself that no new health insurance policies can be written once this federal plan comes into effect.” [7/17/2009]

– GLENN BECK: “This is the end of prosperity in America forever … the end of America as you know it.” [11/19/2009]

– SEAN HANNITY: “If we get nationalized health care, it’s over; this is socialism.” [11/2/2009]

– REP. PAUL BROUN (R-GA): “That’s exactly what’s going on in Canada and Great Britain today…and a lot of people are going to die.” [7/10/2009]

– REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): “I would hate to think that among five women, one of ‘em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.” [7/15/2009]

– REP. VIRGINIA FOXX (R-NC): “The Republican plan will] make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all Americans and that ensures affordable access for all Americans and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” [7/28/2009]

– SEN. TOM COBURN (R-OK): “I have a message for you: you’re going to die soon…When you restrict the ability of the primary care givers int his country to do what is best for their senior patients, what you are doing is limiting their life expectancy.” [12/1/2009]

– REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): “Socialized medicine is the crown jewel of socialism. This will change our country forever.” [11/3/2009]

– HERMAN CAIN: “If ObamaCare had been fully implemented when I caught cancer, I’d be dead.” [8/18/2011]

– NEWT GINGRICH (R): “I think it is a disaster. I think, candidly, Governor Palin got attacked unfairly for describing what would, in effect, be death panels.” [10/11/2011]

– RICK SANTORUM (R): “What got me into this race was Obamacare…I believe, final death knell will be to America of having government control that very critical aspect of our life, which is access to the care that we need to stay alive.” [12/13/2011]

Tea Party firebrand Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) is apparently unsatisfied with the number of meaningless symbolic votes Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is holding, saying in a recent interview that he would prefer to repeatedly waste the House of Representatives’ time by voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act every single month. He told Accuracy in Media for an upcoming documentary:

WALSH: If I were the Speaker, starting last year, every month we would have voted to repeal ObamaCare. I would have pulled ObamaCare up on the floor of the House yesterday.

Watch it:

Walsh’s scheme is an exercise in both redundancy and futility several times over, because no matter how many times the House passes a repeal (it only takes one time to matter), the Senate, controlled by Democrats, is not going to do the same. And even if they did, President Obama would certainly veto a bill killing his signature legislative accomplishment.

Meanwhile, Walsh would continue to enjoy his government healthcare while wasting everyone else’s time.

The House GOP’s vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s long-term care program isn’t sitting well with Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who is out with an op-ed in Politico this morning, criticizing Republicans for failing to offer any meaningful solution for financing long-term care services. “They view repealing CLASS as a tactical step toward undermining health care reform – without putting forward any real alternatives for families who have nowhere to turn,” he writes:

Repealing CLASS won’t do anything to solve our nation’s long-term care crisis. Legislation rarely starts out perfectly – indeed, the Republicans’ own Medicare prescription drug bill left a huge coverage gap, forcing seniors to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket. It is only because Democrats rejected the ‘throw out the baby with the bathwater’ approach to legislating, and figured out a solution, that this gap will finally be closed and seniors can save millions on prescription drugs.

Lawmakers had designed CLASS to take the strain off of Medicaid — which finances more than half of long-term care — and allow individuals to establish a cash benefit during their working years that would be available if they become disabled. As Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) explained during a Energy & Commerce health subcommittee hearing, “It was very much a notion of personal responsibility and not relying on the government.” But since the administration decided that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius did not have the necessary authority to bring the program in compliance with the health care law’s sustainability provision, the GOP chose to repeal the measure rather than act like lawmakers and actually work to ensure its longevity. The move is calculated to hurt Obama, but will do nothing to address the long-term care time-bomb:

At last night’s CNN presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida, the GOP candidates told an unemployed woman in need of health insurance that they would repeal the health reform law that could help her find coverage and giver her a tax deduction to go out and find her own insurance.

The woman — Lynn Frazier — said she found herself “unemployed for the first time in 10 years and unable to afford health benefits.” Under the Affordable Care Act, Frazier may qualify for temporary insurance in the state’s high-risk pool, which already provides coverage for 3,285 Floridians who can’t find affordable coverage elsewhere. In two years, she’ll be able to pick out a health policy through the state’s Exchange. All private insurers will offer a comprehensive basic set of benefits and allow consumers like Frazier to compare and contrast different plans to find the coverage that works best for them and their family. Insurers won’t be able to deny insurance based on past illness or rescind coverage unexpectedly, as they often do in today’s health market, and Frazier will pay a “community” rate and may even qualify for tax credits to help her afford her premiums and out of pocket cost-sharing expenses.

The Republican candidates pledged to undo these benefits and instead encouraged her to find coverage “as an individual” — on her own — with the help of a government tax deduction:

– RON PAUL: And you should have an opportunity — medical care insurance should be given to you as an individual, so if you’re employed or not employed, you have — you just take care of that and you keep it up.

– NEWT GINGRICH: She ought to get the same tax break whether she buys personally or whether she buys through a economy. She should also be able to buy into an association so that she’s buying with lots of other people so it’s not single insurance, which is the most expensive kind.

– MITT ROMNEY: What we should do is allow individuals to own their own insurance and have the same tax treatment as companies get. You do that and people like this young woman would be able to own her insurance. The rates would be substantial lower for her buying it individually than if she had to buy it individually today.

– RICK SANTORUM: All three of these folks sound great and I agree with them. I would just add that health savings account, which I introduced 20 years ago with John Kasich, is really the fundamental reform of getting consumers back involved in the health care system.

Watch the exchange:

In reality, sending off Americans to face health care insurers on their own without first reforming the individual health care market — so that companies can no longer deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, rescind insurance, or charge sicker and older people substantially more — is an inadequate solution that will do little to lower the number of uninsured or reduce health care costs.

Since insurers are hoping to attract the most profitable beneficiaries, individual plans offer “coverage so riddled with loopholes, limits, exclusions, and gotchas that it won’t come close to covering their expenses if they fall seriously ill.” As a Consumer Reports investigation concluded, individual insurance policies are “more costly than the equivalent job-based coverage, and for those in less-than-perfect health, unaffordable at best and unavailable at worst.” The lack of effective consumer protections in most states also allows insurers to trick consumers by selling plans with “affordable” premiums “whose skimpy coverage can leave people who get very sick with the added burden of ruinous medical debt.”

Thus, if an individual falls ill under the GOP’s proposal, the cost of the medical episode and the inadequate insurance will outweigh any beneficial tax treatment and deplete any health savings account they may have.