Posted on 04/02/2017 1:22:42 PM PDT by Candor7
The conventional wisdom—repeated by President Trump—is that the right-wing House Freedom Caucus is singlehandedly blocking Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare. In fact, Freedom Caucus members have been reaching out to the larger bloc of “no” votes—GOP moderates—to find a path forward. Moderates are rebuffing them. Here’s why.
Moderates hang up on hard-liners
As I discussed last week, the contours of a deal exist that could satisfy the concerns of both the House Freedom Caucus and GOP pragmatists. They involve replacing the AHCA’s flat tax credit with a means-tested one that focuses on offering assistance to the working poor, and pairing that change with rolling back more of Obamacare’s premium-increasing insurance regulations.
But members of the Tuesday Group, the countervailing faction of House GOP moderates, are saying no to any phone calls from members of the Freedom Caucus. “If that call comes in,” said Rep. Chris Collins (R., N.Y.), “just hang up.”
As Eliza Collins and Herb Jackson of USA Today have reported, members of the House Freedom Caucus reached out to the Tuesday Group to see if the two blocs of “no” votes could come to an agreement that they could then take to House leadership to fix the GOP replacement bill, the American Health Care Act.
But Rep. Collins was having none of it, telling the USA Today reporters that the Tuesday Group had “unequivocally” rejected the offer to meet with their hard-line counterparts. “It’s not changing the opinions in our conference,” Collins added. “We’ve moved on. We have to move on to tax reform…I truly believe health care has moved on and won’t be dealt with until 2019, if then.”
Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.), co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, added, “I am not negotiating with anyone…I’ve seen stories that there are discussions about certain negotiations between the Tuesday Group and the Freedom Caucus. That’s not the case…Do I talk to other members? Absolutely. Am I negotiating with anyone about the bill that was just put aside? No.”
Do moderates secretly oppose repeal?
It seems strange, on the surface. Moderate Republicans campaigned on repealing Obamacare as much as conservatives did. But they are much more fearful of how repeal may affect those in their districts that benefit from the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid and subsidized insurance exchanges.
That’s the key to this story. Moderates are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They campaigned on repeal, but when push comes to shove, it’s not clear that they really want to repeal the law and face constituents who lost their coverage as a result.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to pull the AHCA from the floor benefited moderates more than anyone else. Those moderates can still say that they support repeal, while avoiding a vote that defunds Obamacare and throws their constituents off their coverage.
That’s why another co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R., N.J.), expressed opposition to negotiating with the Freedom Caucus. “When side groups start to negotiate,” he said, “the risk is upsetting other people who are not part of the process.”
Really? Rep. MacArthur feels that negotiations should involve every GOP member of Congress, such that no group would be offended or excluded? Congress has rarely, if ever, used such an unwieldy negotiating process in any other bill.
Working with Democrats?
We’ll see what the outcome of such a process is.
According to the USA Today reporters, Rep. Dent "said it was time to bring Democrats to the table and work on a bipartisan solution to fix Obamacare rather than repeal it entirely."
Perhaps the House Freedom Caucus will stand down. Indeed, Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) says that “We’ve moved [the goal posts] much closer” to the center. “All they have to do is kick a little chip shot through the goal posts.”
Will moderates walk up to the ball?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3540125/posts
1)Ryan is bought and paid for by his wife whose estate is worth 6.5 million dollars , she and her family are democrats.
http://heavy.com/news/2015/10/paul-ryan-wife-janna-little-speaker-of-the-house-married-children-bio-job-net-worth-age-romney-pictures-photos/
2)Secondly Ryan is bought by the Insurance and Big Pharm Lobbies.In Particular Northwestern Mutual, a Milwaukee-based insurance company that also offers financial services. All but eight of Ryan’s 20 biggest backers are in the financial, insurance, or health sectors, CRP data shows.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/14/the-big-money-behind-paul-ryans-political-career
Paul Ryan tried to screw the People on Health Care, and he will keep trying to screw the people on Health Care.He wants massive profits for his backers.The Freedom Caucus stopped Ryan and exposed him to the People and also exposed Ryan’s agenda to President Trump.Ryan does not care one wit for the People.Ryan is a man made by his wife’s fortune, not from his own effort or intelligence, or popular support from the electorate. He bought his way through lobbyists.
President Trump needs to turn that Ryan rig around, or he will become the lamest duck in presidential history.All the president has to do is rely on the People. It wouldn’t take much.
BUT ASK YOURSELF THIS: WHY IS RYAN SO ROOTED IN “HIS BILL?”
The insurance Companies are drooling over the Ryan bill because they now have a market which has trained their clients to be accustomed to $6000.00 to $10,000 deductibles.
Those deductibles will never go down if the Insurance Companies have their way in the Ryan bill, their profits will skyrocket.
We need interstate Health Insurance competition badly. Without that we will have no equitable health insurance for the people with 1000 dollar deductibles or $500 deductibles as we should have and indeed, had in the past.
God Bless the Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Dent “said it was time to bring Democrats to the table and work on a bipartisan solution to fix Obamacare rather than repeal it entirely.”
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So, it is really Democrats in R jerseys wanting to save Obamacare after all, hmmmm................................
So, it is really Democrats in R jerseys wanting to save Obamacare after all, hmmmm................................>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thats right. The twist is in.
Ryan is well.... a sell out RINO. Looking after his own lobbyists.
And we either sell out to the dems or go Ryan. Hell of a choice.Both are buzzards worrying a dead carcass.
Everyone is forgetting about John Doe who wants a 1000 dollar deductable for his middle class family. Only the Freedom Caucus is looking out for John Doe, nobody else.The president does not appear to be.( Yet?)
They aren’t “centrists”, they are “Republican liberals”, and should be called as such. They hide behind labels like “centrist” and “moderate” and “Main Street Republican”, like Democrats hide behind “liberal” and “moderate”, even though they are radical socialists.
Don’t let them get away with it.
Watch their faces when they are called “Republican liberal”, because it will be like turning on turning on the kitchen light at night, and seeing the cockroaches scurry away.
Paul is just providing balance in the Senate so all the negotiating power does not go to the moderates.
The headline and thrust of the article is misleading. The timeline here is post-bill failure. The HFC and their minions are now attempting to argue that they're the ones trying to make progress on the bill by confusing readers about the timeline of these comments. They're also not telling their readers that the HFC is making the removal of the pre-existing condition mandate central to their plan, which is a no-go to anyone who doesn't want to face throwing 25% of their constituents off of their insurance plans, with no way to get new insurance, without a viable alternative solution.
Centrist GOP financed by big pharm, insurance companies, etc. doing the work for big pharm, insurance companies, etc., Americans be damned. Too bad we can’t get rid of Butt Boy Ryan. Where are those anti-Ryan Tweets?
I am much more interested in the actual contents of the bill. We want to see it please. Leak it out. Show us in some way— Put it on PDF give us a clue. From every speculation I have read, it is simply an obamacare patch job hardly deserving of any conservative vote but we want to see it and read it so we can see what they have done.Im simply not interested in someone else’s spin on this highly important decision in whether we retain free market constitutional freedom or just go full blown communism.n If this is the same socialist bill that RAISES PREMUIMS and uses transfer payments to pay others premiums—I am not interested.Thank you!!
Like these two Florida RINOs...Ileana Ros=Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo. Yeah, they hate the dictator in Cuba but they sure love the dictatorship of a federal bureaucracy telling you what kind of health care to have....
Ileana is in one of those weird districts that elected a "Republican" rep (her) but voted for Hitlery as the successor of Valerie Jarrett's man child.
Ping
Just stop it. It’s the FC. Poe even admitted it.
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Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump Mar 25
Watch @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews tonight at 9:00 P.M. 17,464 replies 10,185 retweets 51,469 likes
Jeanine Pirro Retweeted
Fox NewsVerified account @FoxNews Mar 26 .@JudgeJeanine: "Paul Ryan needs to step down as Speaker of the House." http://bit.ly/2nToFua
I’m just wondering, the greatest number of no votes coming from freedom caucus? From moderates? Nope, biggest group who doesn’t want to vote to fix their mistake are Democrats.
Republicans would absolutely be blamed if the shoe was on the other foot. So of course, Republicans are blamed either way.
I knew this a week ago. After Ryan pulled the bill from being voted on, it became clear that it was more than just HFC members who were against TrumpCare.
Exactly so. Ryan essentially invoked the Hastert Rule which meant the bill didn't have majority support in the whole GOP caucus. If it was just the HFC, he'd have gone ahead with the vote and then had real evidence of their obstruction, rather than just duping people into badmouthing the HFC.
Does the draft legislation include allowing the sale of health insurance across state lines? Does it include tort reform? If not, the proposals are a POS. President Trump should tell Ryan, McConnell, and the country-—”I will not sign any health care bill that does not include these provisions.”
Sad, but it seems as though DJT is willing to sign anything no matter how crappy it is.
He will when the timing is right.
Moderates. I hate that stinking word. Simply means they don’t have the ability to make a stinking decision.
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