Posted on 03/25/2015 12:21:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: There continues to be some... well, not just curiosity, some confusion as well about Ted Cruz and his decision to sign up for Obamacare. There's another option. There's some options that he has here, and I want to run through these. Now, all of this would have been academic had his wife not quit. Well, she didn't quit. She took an unpaid leave of absence from Goldman Sachs. If she had stayed there while he ran the campaign, this would not even be an issue.
But they made a determination that a campaign is a family endeavor, obviously, and she wants to be there to support him, and she is quite accomplished in her own right as well. So she's just taking an unpaid leave. She's gonna go back there. Well, depending on what happens with his electoral chances here, but she will go back there. Her temporary leave without pay cancels the family health care package, which, at Goldman Sachs, has a value of about $20,000.
That's a pretty good benefit, and it's gone. So what are the options Ted Cruz has? Because I'll tell you the reactions that I'm seeing are running the gamut. Some say that he's been brilliant here in illustrating to people how punitive this law is and how big and deep the long arm of the federal government is. Others say he looks like a hypocrite because he's well known to hate Obamacare.
He has made one of his central campaign promises a total repeal of Obamacare, and yet here he is signing up for it. Not only signing up for it, but he doesn't appear to be doing so begrudgingly. He doesn't appear to be angry about having to do it. He just matter of fact signed up for Obamacare, and he had no choice in this regard. There are three things he could do. Sign up for insurance, not get insurance and pay the fine.
In which case, if the family encountered any health care expenses, the family would have to have enough money to pay for those out of pocket and make the choice to do so. So that's two-pronged. I don't know how much money Cruz has. But let's say he's got enough to handle whatever day-to-day normal health care might come up, maybe even in an emergency or two, but may decide I don't want to spend my money for that so you I'm gonna go get insurance like everybody else does.
'Cause if I don't get insurance, if I protest kind of thing here and just pay the fine, it will be cheaper than insurance. But what if somebody in the family gets sick? I don't live alone here. I have family responsibilities. Of course, the third thing he could do is nothing. It's really not an option. He's a member of United States Senate. Not doing anything doing would not be cool.
That would mean that it would be publicly stating he's doing nothing, and the IRS would not have to find him in an audit. The IRS is the collection agency if you don't have insurance. They're gonna get you for your fine, and the IRS is how they're gonna collect it, and they're gonna collect it from your refund, if you have one. If you don't get a refund, at some point they're gonna figure you will get a refund, and they're gonna take that whenever you get it.
If you never qualify for a refund, they're gonna send you a bill. One way or the other the IRS is gonna get your fine money if you decide not to get insurance. But when you get right down to brass tacks, Obama has given all of us no choice here. Ted Cruz has no choice but to use Obamacare because congressmen are forced into Obamacare. They cannot use a non-Obamacare insurance policy and still get it through their employer.
Their employer is the federal government, and they can't get insurance outside the government and get the employer discount or the premium subsidy. So there really are no other choices. There are no individual insurance plans thanks to Obamacare. Well, that's not true. There are still a few companies selling individual insurance plans, not nearly systems used to before there was Obamacare.
The private sector individual health insurance market is rapidly evaporating, thanks to Obamacare. So there really are no other choices. There are no individual insurance plans anymore, thanks to Obamacare. It's not totally, but there are so few, they're prohibitively expensive because there are so few of them. There's no competition for them. If you go in, if you find a company still selling individual plans just to you, health insurance plans, you're gonna pay through the nose for it.
That's why seven million or more people lost their health insurance, because the private sector provider is drying up. The private individual insurance market is drying up. That is why seven million and probably more people lost their health insurance. So just to review this: Cruz had two choices if he intended to follow the law. Trying to find a private plan -- and most of them have been done away with, or become incredibly expensive because of Obamacare, which makes them out of reach.
If he went that route, he would lose whatever his employer pays toward his premiums. Second thing he could do, get insurance through his employer, which, by law has to be Obamacare because he's a member of the US government. So where's the hypocrisy? The Drive-Bys are trying to say he's a hypocrite here, but he's got no choice. If he's a member of the Senate, in the federal government's the employ, he's got to follow the law. He has to be insured through Obamacare.
All these Democrats who fought the Bush tax cuts, did they refuse to pay less on their income taxes, or did they take the cuts? It's six of one, half dozen or another. Democrats hated Bush's tax cuts, but I'll bet that every one of them took them. How many Democrats do you think did that? They're out there. When Bush announced his two or three series of tax cuts back in 2001-2002, and all these Democrats are disagreeing with him. But how many of them do you think said, "You know what?
"I'm in protest, and I'm gonna pay more taxes than I should. I'm gonna violate the law and I'm gonna get a greater contribution to the government. I'm not gonna take my tax cut." How many you think did that? I'll give you the answer: Zero. They all followed the law, and nobody called 'em hypocrites. They're out there opposed to tax cuts but every damn one of them took the tax cuts. Well, here's Cruz, opposing Obamacare, and promising to repeal it if he ever has the chance.
But the law is the law, and they're calling him a hypocrite. What do they want him to do, break the law? I'm talking about the media and whoever else or his critics, what do they want him to do, make a stand here on this? Is that what some people want him to do. He hates Obamacare. He's supposed to be make a stand; he's supposed to be show leadership. If Obamacare is bad, he should not sign up for it. Is that what some people think he should have done?
The COBRA option, his wife could go to COBRA. COBRA is 18 months, max. I don't think 18 months would get him through the election. It would be tight, might be right up to the election in 2006. But COBRA is not inexpensive. COBRA is not cheap. All COBRA is is a mechanism whereby if you get canned, if your company goes out of business or for whatever reason you lose your insurance, COBRA is the mechanism that's been set up for you to go and keep it.
But there are no cost reductions in it. Now, if Cruz had opted for the fine instead of the insurance, that would be cheaper, but he would not have had insurance. So now we're back to, okay, if the family needs health care, actually needs some treatment, does he have the money to spend it out of pocket if all he does is pay the fine and doesn't have any insurance? If he does have the money -- and I don't know.
If he does have the money, is that how he wants to spend it, or would he rather save it, keep it in a 401(k), whatever he does with his money. I have no idea. His wife probably handles that. She's at Goldman Sachs. I'm sure they've got the money to pay the fine. But if he went out and paid the fine, if he opted not to insure his family, can you imagine what the Drive-Bys would do with that? They would call him a dangerous lunatic, they would call him a monster. So he can't win on this. He can't win.
I have not heard him say -- now, Snerdley, correct me. I have not heard Cruz say that he's doing this under protest. I have not heard him say he'd rather not have to do it. I've not heard him complain about it. I've heard him say, "I gotta follow the law." We read the law, and we follow it. We follow the text of the law. But I've not heard him express regrets that he has to do this. Have you? (interruption) Well, he may have; I just haven't heard it. I think some of his supporters want to see some synchronization here, if you will.
Because, on the one hand, Ted Cruz is identified as somebody who despises it and has vowed to repeal it. And then out of the blue, the next thing people know, he's signing up for it and doesn't appear to be upset about it. So some people say, 'Wait a minute. This is not in sync. He ought to be mad that he has to sign up for it. And when he signs up for it, he ought to turn this into a big issue to his advantage. He ought to make a teachable moment out of this." That's what I hear some people saying.
And some people think he is doing that, but they are inferring it because I don't hear him saying it.
END TRANSCRIPT
Bonuses. I’m sure they have savings, so they’re definitely not struggling. Good for them.
If Rick Perry’s performance is as dismal in debates as the last go around, you will be disappointed. Considering that Ted Cruaz was a champion debater at Princeton and even has an event there named for him, I wouldn’t be getting my hopes up that anyone is going to best him in that format.
I think subdued Al Gore form debate #3 in 2000 could have beaten Ted. Ha ha.
This is a simple issue. Ted Cruz respects the laws of this country, even those he vehemently disagrees with. He is following the statute because he is a law abiding citizen.
Hillary or Fauxcahontis - "Obamacare is wonderful. It was such a good idea. It may need tweaked a little here and there but we can't scrap it entirely. It is too important."
Cruz -"Madam, I have Obamacare. You don't. I happen to know, along with millions of other Americans that IT SUCKS. If you could come down off your high horse and see what normal people have to deal with, you would realize that all of your centralized tinkering with markets destroys them."
I kind of think he was joking...
Unlike the man he hopes to replace.
A few back and forths with Perry and he will probably give up and apologize for taking up his time,
Perry is a master at words, he is almost deadly with them.
He is 10 steps ahead of his opponents.
And he's like a cowboy
Now you’ve added tequila to the mix? Careful.
Like when he couldn't remember a key part of his own cost reduction plan during a nationally televised debate? Thanks but maybe we should give Cruz a try.
Does anybody really expect that a Senator (of either party) is going to have a less than stellar experience with the federal health plan?
Words are to Perry as the Sword was to Damocles.
Ted had better just give up now and ask Perry for a cabinet job, like director of the IRS, to round up those tax cheats.
I understand the members of the senate have the best health insurance available at no cost. Includes family too. What’s the problem?
I imagine Cruz is a tad bit more clever than the folks criticizing him.
How much are you drinking? We in Texas can tell you Rick is full of shiite. I would vote for him before Jeb or any other RINO but not a chance against Cruz.
Well as my Dad (RIP) used to say
“nothing’s too good for the taxpayers”
Dude, you have no idea.
I liked Perry in 2012. I still refuse to call him a demon; I think he’s a decent Christian man, although I believe Cruz is a much better candidate.
But the DEBATES! I remember approaching them all with a sense of sick doom. It got to the point I wouldn’t watch, but would lurk on the live threads here. And they always went something like this:
“Hey, Rick is doing pretty good”
“Maybe he’s recovered...he just got off a zinger”
“Yes, he’s doing very well, actually”
Then...
“OH,NO!!!”
“Perry just self-destructed!”
LOL, this time I’m actually looking forward to the debates!
But he is super articulate.
Besides, Texans are all alike. Perry, Cruz, what's the difference?
That was before the ACA.
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