Posted on 04/15/2015 9:12:48 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
Republican Sen. Rand Paul split with senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to vote for a healthcare bill Tuesday night that will add about half a trillion dollars to the national debt over the next several decades.
Paul sided with the overwhelming majority of senators and representatives who voted for the bill, in a decision almost certain to come up in the primary race, where he is currently joined by Cruz and Rubio.
The “doc-fix” bill solves a recurring problem in the way Medicare payments are made to doctors, extends a children’s health insurance program, and requires higher-income seniors to pay higher premiums, and is hailed by supporters as a rare example of meaningful compromise. (RELATED: McConnell’s Priorities: Balance Budget, Then Increase Deficit In Separate Bill)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will add $141 billion to the federal deficits over the next decade, and by 2035 it will add half a trillion dollars to the federal debt, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
President Obama applauded passage of the bill in a statement Tuesday, and said he will be “proud” to sign it into law. (RELATED: Senate Overwhelmingly Approves Medicare ‘Doc-Fix’ Bill)
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is also expected to run in 2016, voted with Paul for the bill.
Cruz and Rubio joined just six other Republican senators in voting against the bill: Mike Lee, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, David Perdue, Ben Sasse and Tim Scott.
“While he’s supportive of parts of the bill, he was very concerned about the substantial unfunded cost and ultimately couldn’t vote for it,” an aide to Rubio told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bill explicitly exempts itself from a rule known as PAYGO that requires Congress to “pay” for increased spending by finding cuts somewhere else.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee offered an amendment Tuesday that would strike the PAYGO exemption from the bill. Paul, Graham, Cruz and Rubio all voted for the amendment, but it was rejected.
Cruz released a statement Tuesday explaining his vote. “I cannot support the Boehner-Pelosi bill, which institutionalizes and expands Obamacare policies that harm patients and their doctors while adding roughly half a trillion dollars to our long-term debt within two decades,” he said.
“Any deal should be fully paid for and include significant and structural reforms to Medicare that provide seniors more power and control over their health care,” he added.
Paul was not immediately available for comment.
The Rand Paul supporters got a lot of explaining to do here.
Rand Paul is a fake, a trojan horse canadate, he is not a conservative, he is not what he portrays him self to be.
It’s time for Rand Paul to drop out of the race for the GOP nomination.
Paul is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, he’s no conservative or even a republican. He;s a nutcase who has more in common with the left wing anarchist.
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio was part of 8 Senators who voting agianst this bill, Lindsey Gram and RAND PAUL voted for it.
” I’ve not seen one liberal-tarian as of yet defend this pandering fool.”
Well, maybe they are only half stupid ?
I would never vote for Rand.
You do realize that the old folks on medicare paid into this their entire lives. We are not talking about bums here. We are talking about Medicare recipients who contributed to a flawed system for 50 years.
Paul made a wise choice in the short run because many of these Medicare recipients will vote R in primary and in the general.
Since the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for intrastate healthcare purposes, misguided RINO Sen. Rand is just another example why the ill-conceived 17th Amendment should never have been ratified.
The 17th Amendment needs to disappear.
Well, If Paul gets the old folks (medicare champion) and the millenials, he won’t need you.
McWeasal gave him his marching orders and he snapped too, saluted and did as he was told...
I think crashing the Medicare system would only create another opportunity for the MSM to bash the GOP as evil people who want to screw old people. It's hard enough to find a doc who will even take medicare patients around here.
Sure, the program is fundamentally flawed, and needs major rework. That takes work, not just posturing.
Has Dr. Cruz put out his Obamacare replacement yet? I must have missed it. His Medicare replacement? His Medicaid elimination bill?
Rand Paul On Shutdown: "Even Though It Appeared I Was Participating In It, It Was A Dumb Idea"I said throughout the whole battle that shutting down the government was a dumb idea. Even though it did appear as if I was participating in it, I said it was a dumb idea. And the reason I voted for it, though, is that it's a conundrum. Here's the conundrum. We have a $17 trillion debt and people at home tell me you can't give the president a blank check. We just can't keep raising the debt ceiling without conditions. So unconditionally raising the debt ceiling, nobody at home wants me to vote for that and I can't vote for that. But the conundrum is if I don't we do approach these deadlines. So there is an impasse. In 2011, though, we had this impasse and the president did negotiate. We got the sequester. If we were to extend the sequester from discretionary spending to all the entitlements we would actually fix our problem within a few years.[Posted on 11/19/2013 12:16:51 PM by Third Person]
Rand Paul's immigration speech...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.
Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.
Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...
This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.
Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reformLatinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]
Has anyone noticed that the Government of the United States has operated without an actual budget for the past 6+ years?
We’re supposed to believe that “conservative” politicians would stop the increases in Federal spending if only they could.
Conservative politicians are simply to put on a show to keep conservatives voting Republican.
Make the sheeple think their government is really the ruler, not the bankers. If only more of our guys were elected, we’d have a smaller government. Sure.
Now Rand is a different animal.
The bankers need someone to function as opposition the THEM.
Rand and his dad play the part of the “against the bankers” token group in Congress.
They don’t want to abolish the Fed, just audit it.
They don’t want government to issue its own new money, they want the bankers to continue to issue new money.
Rand and Ron are “against” the bankers, but they support the bankers at the same time.
And they make sure to “lead” the anti-banker caucus.
So opposition to the bankers is controlled and watered down.
Rand and Ron never will win conservatives - all they have to do to make sure they never do is come out (as Libertarians) supporting recreational drug legalization.
It’s all such a silly game of lies.
Poor little sheeple. It’s great to see FReepers frequently starting to see through the lies (of both left AND right).
One major difference: the "Left" gets theirs to vote early and often. The "Right" tends to confuses their sheeple who are apt to stay on the couch. That's OK with the "Right" that seeks only to maintain a place at the table at which the booty is divided, not actually run anything.
It's clear we need a Conservative Party. However, any "Third Party" will hand the Democrat Party even more power. Rand? Ross Perot Reincarnated.
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