I love how they will say of illegal immigrants, "no one should be illegal." But when it comes to hard-working, law-abiding U.S. citizens, the YOU/Obama/Trump/Ryan are eager to call them illegal. We are just the property of the government. To me, anyone who voted for/supports this bill is nothing other than a socialist. It allows the government to force people to do something that isn't in their interest and pay a large portion of their income for "insurance-in-name-only."
The Obama mandate had teeth in the fact that the IRS collected the penalty (2.5% of income or $700, whichever was higher). Trump is not going to enforce it, but Obama was.
There are also getting rid of the Obamacare taxes ( 0.9 percent additional Medicare tax and the 3.8 percent net investment tax), which is good.
The whole problem with the first round of negotiations on this bill was that the House Freedom Caucus deemed it inadequate, and demanded several concessions. At the time, many around here applauded the HFC for their courageous stand. Once the bulk of those were granted, the support of some GOPe moderates began to peel off and the vote was canceled.
Subsequently, a consensus began to form in this community among those who were opposed to the bill—such as myself—that once it met with the approval of the House Freedom Caucus, that would represent some minimal level of adequacy that might actually be a bona fide step in the right direction towards the eventual repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
Therefore, if this bill passes in the next day or so—with the critical support of the House Freedom Caucus—I sincerely hope that the same people who applauded the HFC for their courage will now accept their collective judgement regarding the propriety of what ends up being passed.
We all know it won't be ideal, but it will—hopefully—signify the start of a process that will ultimately accomplish the goals which President Trump outlined during his campaign.
So I sincerely hope that this amended bill passes, and I trust President Trump to use his best judgement to shepherd the process going forward. It will represent an important "win" for the Trump agenda, with the added benefit that the Democrats and Media (but I repeat myself) will be—as Scotty from Star Trek would say—"mad enough to chew neutronium".
Let's give Congress a little pat on the head, and congratulate the President—who has worked very hard—and celebrate this significant victory with him, and hopefully enjoy a moment of unity together as we see a few "baby steps" being taken in the right direction on the Obamacare issue.
Hopefully, that's not too much to expect...