Posted on 03/25/2017 5:40:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
For strategic reasons, I have signed onto liberal newsletter eblasts, so that I can know what the enemy is doing in my state. After Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act (ACHA), every Democratic lawmaker, candidate, and special interest group exulted in their victory:
“Your calls made the difference!”
“We did it!”
“You saved health care.”
Uh … no.
Because Obamacare remains intact, healthcare remains in morbid free-fall. Doctors are still quitting the medical field, with premiums rising, health insurance exchanges failing, and hospitals closing. Democrats did themselves no favors in fighting against reforms. Obamacare is still an albatross hanging around their necks, and they will have to blatantly lie to voters that it’s working, or that somehow the Republicans are to blame because … they keep trying to fix the mess created by the Democratic Party.
So, should Democrats around the country pat themselves on the back for stopping another disaster? Perhaps they deserve a little bit of credit, since they were loud. The true glory and applause belong to Republicans across the country who hammered the Congressional majority to reject “Obamacare-lite.”
Yes. I wrote that.
Let’s walk through some surface realities about the bill that met a quiet death off stage rather than an ignominious demise before all. The Unaffordable Careless Act forced through Congress needs to be repealed—period. No replacement needed. This process could have been done and over with within days. All Speaker Ryan had to do was search the archive of dead bills for the budget reconciliation of 2015. That bill would have repealed Obamacare, expect for the coverage for pre-existing conditions and allowance for children to stay on their parents’ healthcare plans until age 26. CARTOONS | Henry Payne View Cartoon
I believe that Donald Trump approved of those two aspects of the Affordable Care Act (even though they should be repealed, and the opportunity for such benefits restored to insurance companies and locally-run agencies). It’s time to get back to basics and just do the right thing, yet the leaders refused to do so. What is the matter with the Washington DC leadership in the House?
Here are my thoughts on the matter.
The House Leadership is still part of the Old-Establishment-DC-Two-Step phalanx. Paul Ryan basically stepped on the neck of the House conference for the job. Since when did a candidate for Speaker of the House ever list a series of demands? The other leaders (and their powerbrokers) never ran for office on promises to drain the swamp and sharply limit the growth of Washington DC into Main Street. They said all the nice things that Republican voters and activists want to hear, but turned around and did the bidding of their major donors.
Now that social media and internet technology of have improved the average citizen’s watchdog role while facilitating grassroots candidates to run for office and succeed, this Mad Men/chain-smoking backroom wheeling and dealing doesn’t cut it anymore. US Senators like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul (and I will add Pat Toomey) ran on platforms dedicated to operating outside of the Big Government GOP orbit. They will not be bought, or they will lose their seats.
Also, please stop blaming the House Freedom Caucus as a bunch of stuck-up ideological Pharisees. We need more in their ranks who will demand the best for the Constitution and the American people. Yes, the “compromise critics” will roll out arguments like “The Framers were not ideologues” or “In Washington, you never get everything that you want.” 225 years later, though, the Democratic Party has embraced socialism as a foundational philosophy. They have never wavered or apologized for this false, destructive world view. Republicans want to accommodate with this anti-Constitutional world view? Not going to happen.
From this cause, a new Congressional hero stands out in Washington DC. His name is Thomas Massie, and was crystal clear about his views on RyanCare. Well, he did change his vote, but from “No” to “Hell No!” He came to the defense of our President and his country, too, acknowledging that stopping this rotten stop-gap replacement bill would save face for President Trump—and the country.
Let’s face it, no matter how many majorities or minority results that Republicans yield from election to election, the power rests with us, and more Americans are flexing their muscle. Also, pundits should acknowledge that the House bill was going to be dead on arrival in the US Senate. Republicans opposed this legislation, which continued too many subsidies, practically slammed the same mandate on individual consumers, and maintained the worst of Obamacare in place.
What results must spring from Obamacare repeal in the healthcare industry, so that American voters feel that they are getting what they voted for by supporting Trump?
1. Lower insurance premiums
2. More access to quality health care
3. Choices
4. Freedom
5. Less interference
6. No untenable waiting times
Would RyanCare have delivered on these promises? No.
Candidate Trump promised to repeal Obamacare. He also offered a health care program that he would take care of everybody. Nothing could make that happen more quickly than getting rid of Obamacare, then repealing the other mandates, regulations, and limitations which have made bureaucrats happy, but have made Americans unhealthy. Congressional Republicans don’t even have to “start over.” Back to the 2015 Reconciliation Bill, Republicans. Every time I called a House Rep to reject RyanCare, I also told them to reintroduce the previous bill. This is not a difficult process, people. US Senator Mike Lee is already on the job.
There is a silver lining to this RyanCare defeat. The Speaker may face an early retirement, just like predecessor John “Don’t Make Me Do This! It’s Too Hard!” Boehner. Principled Republicans like Dave Brat have further established their non-establishment cred, too. May their tribe increase … and again influence in Congress.
By the way, doesn’t “Speaker Thomas Massie” have a nice ring to it?
How can keeping obamacare be a victory?
No, we will not be sending checks to the Maine GOP this ear.
Exactly! ryancare = obamacare. What kind of idiot thought it was good idea to keep obamacare in place, but attach the GOP brand to it?
LITTLE RYAN AT THE BAT
The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the GOPe that day.
The vote stood more than 20 shy; the looming clouds were gray.
But when Moderates shook their fists and conservatives said "No bill!"
A pall-like deathly silence fell upon the Rulers Of The HillA sneer appeared on Ryan’s lip, as he gazed up at the clock
He pounds with cruel authority, his gavel on the block
And now the clerk calls for the vote, and now he adds it up
And now the air is shattered by the force of Ryan's "NO!"Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,
But there is no joy in Swampville—Little Ryan has struck out.
This kind.
It might be spun as a Freedom Caucus victory. It pretty much said that conservative concerns have to be addressed.
It could be spun as a defeat, if the GOP leadership now writes them off and decides to cross the aisle.
“What kind of idiot thought it was good idea to keep obamacare in place, but attach the GOP brand to it?”
BINGO: ROMNEY and Ryan
That also seems to be Trump's reaction. He will wait awhile and then seek a bipartisan bill without the need for the Freedom Caucus.
Perhaps a pyrrhic victory except that we have not lost the ability to fight unless you consider the loss of Ryan critical to our fighting ability. I don’t. He gave us a sell out bill that would have destroyed the conservative majority. We are well rid of this trash. The establishment’s insistence upon keeping the health industry squarely in the hands of government bureaucrats is the real and true war.
Obamacare is a foundational part of the conversion from a Constitutional to a top-down socialist government. The evil forces in DC will not allow health-care to be returned to the private sector. I am not at all certain Trump understands this.
If the freedom caucus’s goal is to be “the party of no” then it was a win.
If not, they need to figure out how to either
1) convince others to accept their (and my) ideas & preferences
2) negotiate with the rest of the party (includes compromise if option 1 failed)
It’s likely that Ryan just totally bungled this, and future legislation will be handled different. It’s still not a victory for anyone.
They still have moderates that need to be persuaded or negotiated with. If you call this a victory, you’d have to call it a victory if this year results in
1) No tax reform bill
2) No immigration reform legislation (includes funding the wall)
3) No good budget bills
4) An Omnicrap budget at the end of the year
All the big legislation has moderates opposed to the freedom caucus. Nothing will happen if both ends of the party are unable to persuade the other and unwilling to compromise.
If it’s easier to pull 30 Ds from the crazy party than 30 Rs from the freedom caucus, Trump will try that approach.
I am now counting the days until Trump issues a waiver to all Americans to opt out of Obamacare if they want. Why are we obsessing over the details of the sausage-making?
Waivers are the coin of the realm as established by Obama himself. Let’s just get this done.
I respectfully disagree, there are so many reasons why:
* Trump and the GOP campaigned on solving the problem, they have not
* Saying we will wait for it to “explode” sounds good, but it’s not viewed as leadership
* No matter what happens with Obamacare, the apparent assumption is that the Dems would be blamed (they never will) and that suddenly the Dems will be willing to work with Trump and Ryan to pass this bill (it will never happen)
* This was a massive political miscalculation which will now constrain the size of the individual and business tax cuts.
* Many here keep saying, replacing Obamacare with Ryan care is just Obamacare lite. Perhaps that is true to some degree. But I’d rather have Obamacare lite with an HHS secretary able to scuttle it for 8 years than lose my momentum, lose the size of the tax cut, lose the image of a great deal maker, bolster the dem base, deflate the gop base. This was very shortsighted.
* I love to stand on principle too. However, the pragmatic view is that this is most likely as conservative a government you will see for the rest of your life. This arrangement of government will not last Trump’s entire administration. We might get 4 years of it.
* Stating this is 4D Chess move to get rid of Ryan is crazy. I’m no fan of Ryan, but Trump would not accept failure on a major campaign promise during his first 100 days to possibly get rid of Ryan.
Most coherent comments about repeal/replace on FR.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:owen/index?brevity=full;tab=comments
Is it true the House Freedom Caucus is backed by the nevertrump Koch brothers??
This was a big “F%^K YOU GO AWAY” to the American people from the scumbags in the Freedom Caucus.
Question: WHAT HAS THE FREEDOM CAUCUS EVER DONE FOR US? We now know what this bunch of “conservatives” has done TO US but what have they ever done FOR US?
For me they remind me of why I am no longer a Republican.
Sometimes you just have to stand back and watch socialism crash and burn.
The word that should be on all our lips now is “waiver.” Waivers from the o-care mandates. Without the mandates, people won’t join and insurance companies won’t participate. We’ll end up with a de facto free market, cash and carry system.
And for those who are lamenting the demise of this bill, not to worry. I expect that this bill will be back, just like the wall street bailout was killed and then resurrected a few weeks later.
“What kind of idiot thought it was good idea to keep obamacare in place, but attach the GOP brand to it?”
And Trump, he said it was a good bill. So he’s an idiot too.
President Trump Makes a Statement on Healthcare Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F2pGAhaiSI
“This was a big “F%^K YOU GO AWAY” to the American people from the scumbags in the Freedom Caucus.”
I’m glad they stood for what they were elected for by their Districts.
Ryan would not cave on an actual repeal. He strapped conservative ideas onto a bad program. He does not understand that those who bought him are not conservatives.
You might like these comments on the subject; http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:owen/index?brevity=full;tab=comments
Seems to be one of the most coherent voices here on FR.
Yup. I agree with you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
