Free Republic

The Democrats' comprehensive meltdown after their fifth straight election loss is a spectacle worth savoring. They're vacillating between denial and self-flagellation, between consuming depression and delusional optimism. Some are even blaming hacking for the loss. Don't let them fool you; they did not expect carpetbagger Jon Ossoff to lose to Karen Handel in the special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District. If they had, they would not have poured unprecedented millions into the race. No one but gambling addicts intentionally waste that kind of money. For all the talk about President Donald Trump's being in trouble, the Democratic Party is...

It's finally official. The Affordable Care Act is a public-policy flop of epic proportions. That's the only possible conclusion from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City announcement last week that it will drop out of many markets in Kansas and Missouri. The firm lost $100 million under the Obamacare insurance exchanges from 2014 to 2016. This is another body blow to the government-insurance system Barack Obama created in 2010. Blue Cross is one of the biggest health insurers in the nation, and now 25 more counties in these states will have no insurer left. Nearly every news...

The moment the Congressional Budget Office released its score of the Obamacare repeal bill passed recently by the house, hysterical partisan voices began their hue and cry. Under this baneful new reform, headlines wailed, "23 million would lose health coverage." That isn't actually what the nonpartisan CBO's report said. But politicians and activists know a powerful rhetorical point when they see it. And there's great danger when such a potent point can be made that all resolve to do something necessary will collapse into a puddle of political cowardice.Lawmakers should not allow alarmism to distract their attention. Obamacare is shredding...

Now that House Republicans have passed a revision/repeal of Obamacare, the Left has turned convulsive.  Predictions of bodies strewn on the streets and picked up on oxen-driven carts have been offered by elected officials who want us to take them seriously.  Let us review the current state of health insurance in America.What Obamacare did was six basic things: 1.     Provide that your child can be on your health insurance until the age of 26.  I am not sure why this is so wildly popular, if it truly is.  This is not Italy where young men live at home until they...

I give up. Ten minutes after I started watching the Senate intelligence committee hearings Thursday morning, I got so frustrated I started looking for a good cartoon show. What's so aggravating about these staged Congressional hearings is that you know what the Republicans and the Democrats are going to say before you even turn on the TV. If it's healthcare reform, the right side says it's going to replace Obamacare with something that works - but then they can't sell their conservative ideas to the public and they don't have the courage to really try. Meanwhile, the left side says...

RUSH: So what’s actually bigger news in terms of how it affects the country and the people who live here? Aetna insurance quitting the Obamacare exchanges next year, or no evidence of Trump colluding with Russia? Does anybody…? Can anybody tell me what this collusion is alleged to be? Can anybody? Originally they said that the Russians hacked the election, so what was the hack? There is on-the-record testimony from election officials — both parties and President Obama — saying it’s impossible to affect the vote and the counting of the vote. Not possible. Obama on down: “It’s not possible....

Last time they were in charge, Democrats created the dumpster fire we know as Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, which is nothing more than a failed wealth redistribution experiment. Historians will look back at the Obama years and note the rise of Democrat Party lemmings who threw themselves off the Obamacare Cliff in a fit of melodramatic sanctimoniousness. They will question why Democrats passed a bill they knew from the beginning was a pile of excrement and then left it for someone else to clean up. And that cleanup is upon us, given some people are asked to pay premiums...

Thursday was an amazing day in Washington, D.C. You can’t say that very often. First, it was the National Day of Prayer. It’s amazing to think about millions of Americans praying across our nation. We need it, especially in the swamp. Second, as Vice President Mike Pence explained, Congress finally passed a bill that delivered the “beginning of the end of Obamacare.” Let’s hope the Senate approves and passes it soon, and hands it over to President Trump for signing into law. Third, under the radar was another huge act of liberty: President Trump signed an executive order rolling back...

ACA architect says Published May 07, 2017 Fox News Facebook Twitter livefyre Email Print Now Playing What would the new health care bill mean for you? ObamaCare co-architect Jonathan Gruber -- who infamously said “the stupidity of the American voter” helped get the measure to become law -- now blames Trump for rising premium costs. “Whose fault is this?” Gruber asked on “Fox News Sunday.” “Since President Trump has been elected … premiums are going up and insurers are exiting.” Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor, argued that perceived rising premium costs are really a one-time increase in...

For eight years, I have joined my colleagues in the fight to repeal and replace the train wreck that is Obamacare. This was the call heard around the nation for years, particularly leading up to President Trump's historic victory. We promised the American people that if they supported us, help would be on the way. As a conservative, I believe that the federal government should have a limited role in our personal lives, including health care. As a cancer patient, I knew the importance of getting this bill right and replacing Obamacare with a patient-centered solution that also ensures access...

The failed House Republican American Health Care Act (AHCA) was always a work in progress. The three-phased approach to reform health care called for passage of the AHCA to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) taxes and mandates; and slow the growth in Medicaid as (i.e. phase one). Phase two was the selective removal of Obamacare regulations by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Phase three was to be a forthcoming health care bill to revamp onerous insurance regulations. Passage of the AHCA (the Obamacare repeal bill) would have resulted in numerous benefits – getting rid of the individual...

In the aftermath of the debacle over the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, President Trump can learn a valuable lesson that will serve him well in the next battle over tax reform and other issues. The president was elected largely on the force of his strong personality and vague promises to fix things that are a "disaster," a favorite word of his. Personality is not policy. Leaders who lead by personality can also die by personality, which is what happened in the House last week when the president's threats and arm-twisting failed to deliver enough votes. The strategy,...

According to The New York Times, 10 moderates, 15 conservatives, and eight other Republicans would have voted against the Republican repeal and replace Obamacare bill. So, then, 15 or so conservatives made it impossible to pass the bill favored by nearly every other Republican and by President Donald Trump. If that is the case, what we have here is another conservative example of purism and principle damaging another major opportunity to do good. The first purist conservative example were the Never-Trumpers, who believed it was better for Hillary Clinton to be elected president and for the Left to have four...

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...

In April 2008, I was in Monrovia, Liberia to determine if the company for which I was working wanted to take on the management of the airport, Roberts Field. After 15 years of civil war, the airport – a former PanAm station where 707s and 747s stopped for fuel and food prepared by French chefs before traveling to South Africa or the Middle East – was just returning to operation. As a Space Shuttle emergency landing strip, Roberts Field had the longest runway in Africa. During a two-week site survey, the director general of civil aviation asked our team of...

The unhinged, looney left is obsessed with blocking the potential repeal and replacement of Obamacare. They act as if everything is hunky dory. Why repeal something so wonderful? This is either delusional, denial or Bernie Madoff-like fraud. Here's the real story.If a 20-year old kid’s leg has advanced gangrene, do you spend millions of dollars in a crazy one-in-a-million attempt to save the leg? If so, you risk killing the patient. Or do you make the smart decision to amputate the leg to save the patient’s life? What’s more important- a leg, or the next 60 years of living a...

President Trump met with a number of Americans deeply and negatively affected by Obamacare at the White House Monday as the administration tries to sell the American Health Care Act.  "Our rates are three times what they were before Obamacare started. We have one provider in the county," Carrie Couey of Colorado said. "We have very little options for what we can and cannot do. We are a small business, but we aren't brick and mortar we are cattle ranchers. We can't afford our equipment anymore if we're paying these rates year after year after year. Our food source...

Among the most popular of the potentially looming tragedies cited by proponents of Obamacare is that thousands of Americans will die if Republicans are successful in repealing it. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler at the Chicago Tribune, for example, posit that “repealing Obamacare will kill” as many as 43,000 people every year due to a lack of health insurance. Note that they don’t just suggest that 43,000 people will die as a result of the repeal. Specifically, their argument is that Republicans, and you that may support the effort toward repeal, will kill them. It’s hard to miss the political...

Earlier in the month, House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters that Republicans would soon introduce tangible legislation to uproot the failing Obamacare status quo and replace it with a better system. GOP leadership released an outline in mid-February that hinted at the approach they were planning to adopt -- and now a more detailed draft proposal has leaked into the press. With all the necessary caveats in place about how the document is by no means a finalized piece of legislation, it provides the most comprehensive and specific glimpse to date at Republicans' long-awaited Obamacare alternative. Writing at Commentary, Noah Rothman sees a...

On Saturday, Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders called for nationwide protests to stop Republicans from repealing the Affordable Care Act. The trigger event was Friday's confirmation of Dr. Tom Price as President Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services. Price is charged with making good on Trump's promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Already, protests against repeal are disrupting town halls and making headlines. But the nation won't be fooled by demonstrators carrying signs to save the ACA. The silent majority -- mostly working people -- have been clobbered by the health law. They won't be taking to...