Posted on 02/19/2016 9:08:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
If Cruz and Rubio are looking for some eleventh-hour ad material to galvanize righties before tomorrow’s big vote, they can’t do better than this.
Somehow, after six years of conservative agitation against the mandate and a 5-4 Supreme Court majority finding it unconstitutional as an exercise of Congress’s commerce (but not taxi!) power, it seems likely we’re going to end up with two consecutive Republican presidential nominees who are pro-mandate.
Romney at least wanted to leave the mandate-making to the states; Trump, an authoritarian with no apparent philosophical interest in federalism, probably won’t be as deferential. The silver lining, though, in nominating Trump as his affronts to conservative orthodoxy pile up (“Bush lied!”) is that we’ll get to finally see in the general election just what sort of real electoral muscle the conservative movement has. In theory, if the GOP electorate is as conservative as people claim, Trump saying something like this should detonate his potential support among a solid third of the party. No major-party nominee can win a general election after bleeding that much support on his own side.
In practice, I’d be very, very surprised if the numbers of Republicans staying home in a Trump/Hillary race greatly exceeded the numbers who stayed home for Romney or McCain. It’d be a different group that failed to show this year than failed to show in previous cycles, but in terms of raw numbers? Partisan tribalism will deliver most Republicans to Trump no matter how many supposed “core” beliefs he tramples on. That’s why, whatever Trump’s critics might tell you right now, he really does stand a decent chance of beating Hillary.
The bit about the mandate isn’t even the most interesting part. That distinction goes to Trump suggesting, repeatedly, that the only alternative is letting people die in the streets. I’m tempted to call that Obama-esque — “my opponents are not just wrong but morally depraved” — but O tends to reserve that form of argument for foreign policy and gun-control lectures. The guy on the left whom Trump sounds like here is actually Alan Grayson, the most notorious progressive troll in Congress, who stood up on the House floor in 2009 and said, “If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly.” Trump couldn’t have said it better himself. We’re maybe 10 days away from making this guy the prohibitive favorite for the Republican nomination.
My understanding is that he was referring to the issue of preexisting conditions.
Rush is discussing this now.
yeah, i just watched the town hall. he did qualify his remarks. extensively.
by the by, i watched kasich, yeb, and trump on that anderson cooper town hall.
frankly, it was a reasonably fair treatment of all of these guys....not too much “gotcha” crap, and though i know anderson cooper probably loathes all of them, he did a good job hiding the fact.
he just did his job asking questions and letting them speak.
I watched the entire “town hall” he never said that he supported forcing people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. This is completely out of context and at odds with everything he has said about Obamacare during the campaign.
Around here it has rained every day for the last week. When someone asks about the weather a common response is, “Gotta love that rain!”
RE: My understanding is that he was referring to the issue of preexisting conditions.
So how to understand what he means? The government can force anyone with a pre-existing condition to enroll with a healthcare provider?
Curious minds want to know...
He was talking about pre-existing conditions. But the Salem Communications marching orders to quote him out of context have gone out, and the die-hard Cruzaders are lapping it up. It will be submitted 100 times today from Tedhall/TedState/HotAir/etc...
Correct. He’s said in every speech that Obamacare would be repealed. He was talking about hospitals being mandated to not deny care.
He also said people are dying in the streets. Pure BS. There’s no people dying in the streets. Sounds just like the democrats.
I understand that GOPe buttboy allahpundit (along with clowns at redstate) are not that bright, but Trump’s “mandate” referred to providing healthcare to the hobos dying in the street. Trump was not referring to any forced healthcare plan for everyone.
Nice try.
The VIDEO is posted on the link
This is it! Trump’s poll numbers will tank now, I tell ya!
I am home and bit cranky because of a cold. So could someone call Rush and clue him in that Trump is talking about the implementation of his plan in the future. He is heading off the democrat talking point in the general election to the effect that Trump is a rich billionaire and doesn’t care at all about anyone.
It is the same as a politician talking about shoring up Social Security. The democrats will pounce and claim that the Republicans want to turn the old folks out on the streets.
Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Bush, Kasich, Carson.
Damn. It looks like maybe I was right the first time.
Scott Walker, still consistent.
Hotair has lost over half its commentators since they moved to Facebook. I deleted their app and removed their bookmarks.
There is no reason for a mandate to force folks with pre-existing conditions into a one-size fits all healthcare plan run by the government. They will crawl over broken glass to join if they have the opportunity.
The odd thing is that we’ve never seen folks dying in the streets because a doctor or hospital wouldn’t treat them. There are even laws that prevent an emergency room at a private hospital from re-routing a patient to a charity hoslpital.
And while we are on the subject, the reason people don’t die in the streets in the past was because every county in the country has a hospital where the poor and/or uninsured can get care, with the cost based on their ability to pay.
THIS IS WHAT I GATHERED FROM TRUMP IN THE ABOVE VIDEO:
1) Those who are sick and cannot afford to pay for healthcare must be taken care off because he does not want to see people “dying in the streets”.
2) Obamacare is a disaster it’s got to be repealed.
3) The poor will be taken care of while achieving the goal cheaply, also giving them the ability to choose their doctor
4) It won’t be single payer.
5) He mentioned COMPETITION.
THIS IS WHAT I GATHERED FROM TRUMP IN THE ABOVE VIDEO:
1) Those who are sick and cannot afford to pay for healthcare must be taken care off because he does not want to see people “dying in the streets”.
2) Obamacare is a disaster it’s got to be repealed.
3) The poor will be taken care of while achieving the goal cheaply, also giving them the ability to choose their doctor
4) It won’t be single payer.
5) He mentioned COMPETITION.
That was Cooper's question, what would make insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions? That was the last thing out of Cooper's mouth and it's what Trump responded to.
If any of these people were interested in the truth, they would ask Trump to clarify. Instead they take a comment out of context and run with it, shameful. But this is the campaign Ted and his cohorts run, negative and twisted to try to scare people into voting Cruz.
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