Free Republic

Sen. Ron Johnson, a tea party Republican from Wisconsin, knows that the politics of Obamacare are changing. “It’s no longer just a piece of paper that you can repeal and it goes away,” he told the New York Times. “There’s something there. We have to recognize that reality. We have to deal with the people that are currently covered under Obamacare.” Jan. 1 isn't likely to be a glitch-free day for Obamacare. There will be people who try to use their insurance and find they can't, or it's not the plan they meant to buy, or it's not a plan...

As the burning wreckage of Obamacare continues to fill the air with its toxicity, an alternative is already working its way through the House, courtesy of the conservative House Study Committee.

DENVER – There are nearly 250,000 Coloradans whose health care policies have been or will be cancelled as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the state’s Dept. of Insurance announced on Wednesday. So far, just 3,408 Coloradans have purchased new insurance plans on the exchange; many more, 34,168 Coloradans, have enrolled in Medicaid since the program expanded under the law. “To have almost a hundred health plan cancellations for every exchange sign up in Colorado under Obamacare is exponentially worse than even the most extreme skeptic could have predicted,” said Kelly Maher, executive director of the group Compass Colorado.

I keep hearing this Democrat talking point being trotted out, accusing the Republicans of harming their constituents by not doing everything in their power to "fix" the Affordable Health Care Act. This one must test well in focus-groups because it keeps getting repeated. I've yet to hear one Republican answer this coherently. Here's my suggestion for a response: "If I saw a friend's house being looted would I do everything in my power to stop the looting, or would I walk over and try to negotiate with the looters? Would I call the police and try to get some neighbors...

With Obamacare shaping up as a public policy disaster that is the equivalent of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the Hindenburg, the Bay of Pigs, and Desert One combined, perhaps we should go back and take in Ronald Reagan’s warning about this back in 1961.  Reagan said that socializing health care would require socializing the patients, and voila, we have Obamacare canceling insurance plans previously agreed to between consenting adults.But Reagan also warned that doctors would come to be regulated, too: Today, the relationship between patient and doctor in this country is something to be envied any place. The privacy, the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could “easily” become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 and “save our party.” Christie most recently made national news when he decided to drop a legal challenge to rulings in New Jersey state courts that declared same-sex marriage legal there. And not long before that, he changed his position on the question of whether illegal aliens should get in-state tuition rates at New Jersey state colleges. Now he backs legislation...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to the Sunday shows almost exactly one year since he lost the election to Barack Obama, only to attack the President and call his second term into question. The former Republican politician wasted no time attacking the President over his rocky Obamacare roll out during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "The president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience in Massachusetts," Romney said, repeating that he thinks a state-by-state healthcare plan would work better. Romney then launched into a greater attack on the President's "you can keep your...

Mitt Romney isn’t including tea party favorite Ted Cruz among the Republicans’ most electable potential presidential candidates in 2016. … … Romney says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie “stands out as one of the very strongest lights.” …

Obama's aides would not speak to the Trib with their names used for this story. The White House emailed transcripts of press conferences to defend the president's position, attributing the remarks to Obama: “The majority of people in the individual market today qualify for discounted or free health coverage when signing up for coverage through the Marketplace. One study found that 48 percent of people who buy insurance through the individual market will get a tax credit that averages at over $5,500. And 1 million in the individual market today will qualify for Medicaid in states that choose to expand...

In an appearance on MCNBC’s Morning Joe, Nicole Wallace (former George W. Bush adviser and McCain/Palin campaign adviser) ruined all of the gang’s orgasmic revelry of false equivalency over Obama’s bad numbers in the latest NBC/WSJ poll by pointing out that Republicans have even worse numbers, and there seems to be no bottom for the party. Wallace then warned Republicans to stop being about nothing but criticism, “So I think the peril in looking at these numbers for President Obama is to continue down the path of railing against his administration’s policies.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Republican Party’s approval ratings are at an...

With his signature health-care law under fire, President Obama flew to Boston Wednesday in an effort to remind the public that ObamaCare is modeled on the plan of his former GOP opponent and Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney. “Your law was the model for the nation’s law,” Obama told supporters in Faneuil Hall on Wednesday.

October 30, 2013 In Romneycare Birthplace, Obama to Ask for Patience by Alexis Simendinger & Caitlin Huey-Burns In the shadow of Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care model, President Obama will argue Wednesday that Obamacare merits the patience and bipartisan backing the Bay State mustered seven years ago for what was then a radical new approach. The president will speak at Boston’s Faneuil Hall, hoping to draw parallels to the state-based, mandated health coverage signed by Romney, the former Republican governor defeated by Obama nearly a year ago. Romney was not invited to attend the event, a White House official said....

Editor, Times-Dispatch: I am self-employed and I pay for my own health insurance. I assumed I would pay a surcharge for the Affordable Care Act every month. I assumed incorrectly that I would have the freedom to choose, that my future and security were in my hands. My insurance agent visited my office and asked me what provision of the ACA I wanted to sign up for. I thought he was kidding; he wasn’t. I do not have a choice. My policy will go from $325 a month to more than $900 a month, my coverage will be nowhere near...

“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.” – P.J. O’Rourke Okay, that used to be funny. Before it was hijacked by the Teahadists and used to hold hostages and make ransom demands. Butt now I see that sticker shock is starting to stun people all across America, even journalists: Obamacare is not just creating havoc in state exchanges, it is roiling the larger private health insurance market. Costs are skyrocketing thanks to the expensive mandates, regulations and taxes buried in the Affordable Car Act. Call it the Unaffordable...

Here’s some free market advice to GOP legislators at all levels thinking about introducing bills supporting the state health exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): Be prepared to wear the “Care” moniker around your name. You know? As in HillaryCare, RomneyCare or ObamaCare. Colorado’s Amy Stephens, a Republican state representative from El Paso County, was once considered a future Lt. Governor, or member of Congress. Instead, she may have flamed out her career by sponsoring a bill that would opt Colorado out of ObamaCare by implementing a so-called “health exchange” under PPACA. Yet that didn’t stop...

Breitbart News reported that House Republicans have offered a new deal to the White House to end the fiscal stalemate. The GOP plan, authored primarily by House Budget Chair Rep. Paul Ryan according to Hill sources, would meet Obama's demands in exchange for negotiations on a longer-term budget agreement. At least two high-ranking Capitol Hill sources have told Breitbart News that Ryan’s plan would also help protect Obamacare as it is currently implemented. Ryan's office deny the claims. “What your sources are attempting to attribute to Congressman Ryan is not accurate,” Kevin Seifert, Ryan’s spokesman, said in an email. But...

President Barack Obama spoke with House Speaker John Boehner on Friday but did not wholly accept the House Republican plan to open government, raise the debt ceiling and open budget talks, sources said. -snip- Senior Republican sources say Obama is amenable to changes to mandatory and discretionary spending, but needs Republicans to commit to increasing governmental revenue.

Shutdown: Obama's approval rating has cratered, Democrats are fighting among themselves and ObamaCare — the reason for the shutdown in the first place — has been a disaster. So why are Republicans' knees shaking? The federal government's hometown newspaper, the Washington Post, reports "key GOP figures" are "abandoning their bid to immediately stop the federal health care law" and are "scrambling for a fallback strategy." Republicans, the paper claims, "have overreached," and their plan to stop ObamaCare has been "politically disastrous" and a "failure." House leaders seem to be dropping talk of Obama-Care and, over in the Senate, Republicans appear...

In a heated radio interview with Texas-based Matt Patrick of KTRH Wednesday, Senator John Cornyn awkwardly defended himself from charges that he did not support Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz in their efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, as nicely laid out by Matthew Boyle of Breitbart. According to Boyle, a "a senior congressional staffer" told Breitbart that "Instead of helping Cruz with their power as Senate GOP leaders, [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and Cornyn are working against him." Indeed, the staffer did not mince words and said, ““To be clear, nobody is...

SALT LAKE CITY — Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said before giving a speech at the University of Utah Wednesday that shutting down the government is the wrong way to oppose the nation's new health care law. Romney repeated his concerns about the strategy against the Affordable Care Act employed by some Republicans in Congress, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, that led to the shutdown of the federal government on Tuesday. "My view is that Republicans, elected Republicans, almost universally agree that Obamacare is problematic for the economy and for the American family," he said in response to a...