Posted on 03/29/2017 8:21:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
The House Freedom Caucus and its chairman, North Carolina Republican Congressman Mark Meadows, are taking flak, many saying they are responsible for the failure to pass the American Health Care Act.
With all other Republicans on board, a big assumption, the votes of the 29 members of the Freedom Caucus could have made the difference in passing the legislation. But they refused to support it.
Should they be chastised as obstructionists? Are they childish idealists who don't grasp that politics is about the "art of the deal"?
Some go beyond suggesting that these conservatives are naive. They accuse them of being sinister, opposing the AHCA to receive fundraising from right-wing zealots and ideologues.
I say not only is this is unfair criticism, but that the conservative stalwarts of the Freedom Caucus are American patriots deserving high praise.
Let's first appreciate that dealmaking in business and dealmaking in politics and governing are not the same thing. Business deals are about one thing -- money. A businessman determines his bottom line. If the deal he constructs doesn't meet it, he walks.
Although certainly there are critical economic implications to a political deal, these considerations don't define the essence of the exercise. The essence of the political deal is about the nature and meaning of the society in which we live.
There was a lot of dealmaking in the founding of the American republic and the construction of our Constitution. One of the most famous and consequential "deals" was the accommodation in the U.S. Constitution of slavery and the slave trade.
Arguably, without this accommodation, there would have been no deal. However, the irony of the accommodation of slavery in a nation founded on the ideals of human freedom speaks for itself.
Regardless of how one chooses to look at what happened, what is clear is that a dear moral and human price was paid for making this deal, culminating in a civil war in which 620,000 Americans died at the hands of their own brothers. And the repercussions of this deal are still felt today.
The accommodation of slavery in the founding states then lead to further deals -- the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act -- trying to find ways to accommodate slavery in new territories that entered the union.
All along there were abolitionists. Those who refused to accept any "deal" that accommodated slavery in existing or new states entering the union.
Many viewed the abolitionists as extremists, fanatics who refused to accept compromise that would permit slavery in America.
One abolitionist, Senator Charles Sumner, was attacked with a cane and almost beaten to death on the floor of the Senate after he gave a fiery speech attacking slaveholders.
Abraham Lincoln started off as gradualist on slavery, but ultimately clarified his view that on slavery there was no "deal," no compromise. In his famous "House Divided" speech, he said, "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. ... It will become all one thing or all the other."
The Freedom Caucus members are today's abolitionists. They see, rightly, how far America has drifted from its blueprint of freedom, and the grave consequences of this fiscally, morally and existentially.
Our health care system was already broken before Obamacare was passed. The factors causing escalation of health care insurance premiums and health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP are because of structural defects in the system, created by government, which precludes it from operating as an efficient market.
Certainly, the American Health Care Act made improvements in Obamacare. But these core structural problems were left intact.
The legitimate point of the Freedom Caucus is that there is no deal on right and wrong, no compromises on our ideals of freedom. We must fight for these ideals because ultimately we will wind up being either all free or all socialist.
Thank you to Kaslin and Star Parker.
Bullshit position ... Crap Analysis... The Rino Ryan health insurance bill was obamacare II ... a CLONE... Americans do not want a revised obamacare with strong financial penalties enforced by the IRS just for not having Health Insurance... Such a crazy leftist position is not tolerable to the American Middle Class... It was fortunate that the Obamacare CLONE was DUMPED ...
“Our health care system was already broken before Obamacare was passed.”
NO IT WAS NOT... only in the eyes of LEFTIST was the health Insurance system broker... And Health Insurance is NOT Health CARE...
Fully 80% of working Americans stated in surveys that they were satisfied with the health insurance coverage mostly via their employer...
If you know your real history, you will understand why B.H. Obama likened his presidency to Lincoln. The War of Northern Aggression was entirely avoidable and unnecessary. Slavery was not the reason for the war, abolition was well underway before the war, Slavery was Lincoln's way of keeping the unpopular war going, no more and no less...Lincoln was not a friend of the Negro.
The legitimate point of the Freedom Caucus is that there is no deal on right and wrong, no compromises on our ideals of freedom.
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Well, at least someone gets it.
The number of freepers who would rather we did not remove the weasel Eric Cantor is astonishing.
In before “The Kochs! The Kochs!!” Moveon.org crowd shows.
"Effective as of Dec. 31, 2017, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act are restored or revived as if such Act had not been enacted," the bill states.
Mo Brooks is a member of The House Freedom Caucus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ask your Congress Critter to co-sponsor the bill and sign the discharge petition for US Representative Mo Brooks's bill titled, "Obamacare Repeal Act"!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S.S.: The HFC got rid of Boehner, too.
I’m with the Freedom Caucus
What a great idea to label Obamacare opponents (and other opponents of redistributionist policies) — as ABOLITIONISTS.
Doing so properly frames the argument against socialist policies because they ENSLAVE people.
Government plans like Obamacare are against the 13th Amendment which states that “neither slavery nor INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE shall exist in these United States except for crime or punishment.”
My supporting others with my costly healthcare premiums that tripled since 2010 is INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE. Much of this is because the insurance companies were FORCED to take on people with costly pre-existing conditions and to offer low-cost policies to people who say they can’t afford health insurance.
In other words the Obamacare fascists want to CONTROL people and FORCE them to serve others.
I will be “my brother’s keeper” on my own terms (voluntarily). But to force me to be my brother’s keeper is unethical and unconstitutional. It’s a form of slavery.
So that’s why the opponents of Obamacare are the NEW ABOLITIONISTS.
I interpreted his move as a brilliant cut-'em-off-at-the-kness tactic to keep France and the UK from coming in on the Confederate's side. Once the Emancipation passed, if they supported the Rebs, they would be seen to be in favor of slavery. Without their support, the South was doomed. Mate and Checkmate.
Funny thing though, Lincoln had no power over the Southern States. And yet, for the slave states that remained in the Union, where Lincoln did have authority, he neglected to free them all..
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