It is utterly inconceivable that anyone on this thread would have supported Rino care had been offered up by Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and Barack Obama as president of the United States rather than by Paul Ryan and Donald Trump.
Posted on 04/02/2017 5:05:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
President John F. Kennedy once said, “Victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.” This remains true and was on full display when the first attempt at repealing Obamacare was pulled before a vote in the House of Representatives.
Since that moment, Republicans have reverted to their old ways and reformed into their default position – the circular firing squad.
A Republican’s critical aim is never more true than when directed toward another Republican. That’s why even when they win, they lose.
Adults don’t assign blame; they take responsibility. Since the failure of “repeal and replace,” finger pointing has become the name of the game.
Who is to blame for what truly was an embarrassing snafu? Everyone.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan never should have set a date for a vote before he had enough votes to win or even a final piece of legislation around which to rally those votes.
The speakership is a powerful, important position, but it’s not God. Simply declaring something will happen won’t make it happen. That arbitrary deadline doomed the bill, and it was unnecessary.
The Freedom Caucus burnt more calories complaining about the bill than articulating a position. It was a bad bill, but where were the alternatives? Where was the case for getting the government out of the health insurance business completely? There’s one to be made. I’ve made it, and it’s not even my job.
Moderate Republicans. Don’t get me started… OK, I’m started. The reason for the “replace” part of “repeal and replace” is moderate Republicans, from the speaker on down. Rather than stand up for constitutionally limited government, moderates ceded the concept of government manipulation of the health insurance market.
Obamacare is a failure not of construction, but of concept. A slightly more conservative version of a progressive idea is still a progressive idea.
President Donald Trump was down for whatever – as long as something passed, he’d declare victory and call it a day. Where was his bill? He’d just won the presidency on the promise of ridding the country of this colossal failure, yet he didn’t come to the table with even a framework.
He supported every version of what the House bill became. It’s easy for people to fall in line behind a leader walking a straight, logical line; it’s impossible to follow someone blowing in the wind because you never know where they’ll be from one moment to the next.
Congress is going to get only one bite at the apple. Screw it up, and Democrats will be back in control, and this time they won’t stop short of single-payer. After seven years of promises, a coherent, conservative alternative remained a bridge too far. It’s not over, it’s not too late…but it is getting close.
Democrats aren’t blameless here either. Not a single Democratic member of Congress is bothered enough by the millions of Americans hurt by Obamacare, the sky-high premiums, or the insane deductibles, to break with their party and admit their ideology’s folly. They’re Dr. Frankenstein swearing all is well while the monster destroys the castle around them.
The real problem is Washington itself. Something – maybe the air, maybe the fluoride in the water – strips people of principles and common sense. Each successive crop of politicians happily stands on the wreckage of their predecessors’ failed Utopian dreams convinced their version of those bad ideas will work because it will be them implementing them.
As the president tweets his anger at conservatives, and conservatives tweet their anger back, everyone is stuck in the mud trying to wash their hands of blame. There’s enough to go around.
Lost in all of this is a simple fact: Once a voter buys into the concept of good and charitable things flowing from government, why would anyone vote for the person offering 50 cents when they can vote for the person offering $1?
If Republicans aren’t making the case for liberty, for limited government, they’re making the Democrats’ case. No one was making an articulate case for liberty in this; making it tirelessly, in an unrelenting way.
Freedom sells. Since the failure of the AHCA, Republicans have worked harder to blame other Republicans for all the blunders than they ever did fighting for freedom’s cause.
Imagine if the GOP fought as hard against Democrats and for stripping their failed policies from the books as they have against each other. Maybe we’d all win for once.
Media’s gonna beat this dead horse. It’ll get done. May not be exactly what everyone wants initially, but Trump’s agenda will move forward.
It is utterly inconceivable that anyone on this thread would have supported Rino care had been offered up by Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and Barack Obama as president of the United States rather than by Paul Ryan and Donald Trump.
Why support either? They’re both unconstitutional.
what’s the old saying?
when thoroughbred encounter danger they circle up and kick outward - when jack-asses encounter danger they circle up and kick each other.
“Why support either? They’re both unconstitutional.”
You are right. What is required here is reframing the argument. Those who are trying to tweak the existing legislation are still trying to work within the framework that legislation set up. But once you ask the basic question, what is government tasked, by the constitution, to do special interests recoil in horror.
I’m convinced that the only thing that mattered in the AHCA was the CBO estimate of $1.2 trillion in Federal spending reductions over ten years. Even if the estimate was phony it would have stood as a benchmark for the pending tax reform battle in Congress.
Bears emphasizing and is spot-on accurate:
President Donald Trump was down for whatever – as long as something passed, he’d declare victory and call it a day. Where was his bill? He’d just won the presidency on the promise of ridding the country of this colossal failure, yet he didn’t come to the table with even a framework.
He supported every version of what the House bill became. It’s easy for people to fall in line behind a leader walking a straight, logical line; it’s impossible to follow someone blowing in the wind because you never know where they’ll be from one moment to the next.
“He’d declare victory and call it a day.”
Implicit in this statement is the now realization that this president has no real vision or really any principles. He just wants to make some “huge deal” to feed his ego. Basically he’s into twitter based masturbation.
Right. This is the Trump priority. Huge tax cuts for business.
I’m more than happy to help him with that. But not at the cost of affordable health care for American citizens.
No argument here but, while you are at it, can you convince Chief Justice Roberts?
Single payer here we come. Right back were we started from...
But don't worry, the death panels will make sure that nobody ever dies in the street.
The criticism of Trump for supporting whatever the House bill had become is really not fair. The details really didn’t matter much because the Senate was going to overhaul it anyway.
The very simple FACT of the matter is that Obamacare/Ryancare is not a function of the Federal Government as authorized in our Constitution. Because of that fact, the ONLY acceptable option is the full and total REPEAL of this unaffordable boondoggle.
And no where is this circular firing squad more apparent than at FR. It makes me sad to ponder it.
All we need is tax credits for medical expenses.
A Republican’s critical aim is never more true than when directed toward another Republican. That’s why even when they win, they lose.
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Yes, the are quick to blame each other but the fundamental reason why Republicans lose is because they have no real principles. If they did, when they had the opportunities they would have decreased the size of government and increased our liberties. But they never do that. The GOP is a phoney facade.
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Correct in that it is a long process thru many hands, committees, votes, amendments,
etc. before it even gets to somewhat of a final edition. The process, like it or not,
is what we have as our government in the House, Senate.
President Donald Trump was down for whatever – as long as something passed
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He just wanted a deal, a win. Lost in a lot of the discussion of the AHCA is that fact that only 17% of the American people supported it! That is a dismally low number, which begs the question as to why Trump was willing to go along with Ryan’s Big Adventure? Why put legislation forward that the people don’t like or want?
Come November 2020 my man Trump is going to get beat to a bloody pulp if he does not get the totally inept federal government our of Healthcare and replace it with a market based system.
That’s the only fix. Anything less is just Obamacare Lite.
I THOUGHT that Trump “got” this one little FACT. Now, I don’t know.
; At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son
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