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If the Republican attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare ultimately fails, it will be a lesson in the wages of political bad faith. The current path of the Senate bill has plenty of obstacles, including the sheer inertia of the ObamaCare status quo and the fact that no one has made the public case for the Republican legislation. But the effort also suffers from a mismatch between the longtime public posture of Republicans (ObamaCare must and will be fully repealed) and their private misgivings (do we really have to do this, even partially?). It’s not just that Republicans have said...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is hedging over whether he'll back the Senate's new ObamaCare replacement bill. Johnson initially indicated he could back the measure, but told a local newspaper that he's now not so sure because of comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggesting some Medicaid cuts in the bill may not happen. "I am concerned about Leader [Mitch] McConnell's comments to apparently some of my Republican colleagues — 'Don't worry about some of the Medicaid reforms, those are scheduled so far in the future they'll never take effect,'" Johnson told the Green Bay Press-Gazette in remarks that...

Republicans are about to do something very stupid. Using bribery, threats and cajolery, they intend to pass a catastrophically unpopular bill on a party-line vote. GOP: Obamacare is unpopular, so let's pass a new health care bill that's even MORE unpopular. Normal Person: Why would you do that? GOP: No, you don't understand. Obamacare is totally imploding, so if we pass this bill now, all its problems will be blamed on us! Republicans would be better off doing nothing. They can survive the ridicule for running against Obamacare through four election cycles and then not repealing it. They cannot survive...

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who has played a central role in negotiating the Senate healthcare reform bill, says a new version of the legislation is expected to be unveiled Monday. The revised bill gives Senate GOP leaders a second chance to round up 50 votes to repeal and replace major parts of ObamaCare, after their first attempt stalled before the July Fourth recess because of divisions within the Republican conference. “We’ve got a new version that comes out today. We’ll get new scores from CBO. And there’s a shot of getting to 50 [votes]. Mike Pence breaks the tie,” Toomey,...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushes for a limited measure if the GOP's Obamacare repeal fails. McConnell argued that a smaller bill would have to focus on helping private insurance markets. The senator's comments indicate that Republicans may have to negotiate with Democrats over fixes for the health-care system.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting President Trump's suggestion on how the Senate could promptly pass its ObamaCare overhaul measure -- by immediately repealing the 2010 heath care law and replacing it later. snip He also riffed on Trump’s winning campaign slogan, saying, "It's not easy making America great again, is it?"

Senate Republicans are considering dropping a tax break for the wealthy from their ObamaCare repeal bill as they seek to secure 50 votes for the legislation. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Thursday said the bill would be changed to increase the subsidies that help lower-income people afford health insurance. The most likely way for that to happen is by keeping a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for high earners, Corker said. “We will it appears, address the issue of ensuring lower-income citizens are in a position to buy plans that are actually provide them appropriate healthcare,” Corker said. To...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday that opposing the Republican health-care bill wasn't enough and the Democratic Party should start running on a new national single-payer plan. "President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts," she told The Wall Street Journal. "Now it's time for the next step. And the next step is single payer." Polling has shown government-provided health care to be a very popular notion among Americans. Depending on whether it's described as...

(CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will delay the vote on the Republican leadership's health care bill until after the July 4 recess, two sources told CNN. McConnell told GOP senators that he wants to make changes to the bill, get a new Congressional Budget Office score and have a vote after the holiday. A White House official and a GOP aide on the Hill told CNN that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and Vice President Mike Pence invited all Republican senators to White House on Tuesday afternoon.

A group of at least three Republican senators are planning to openly oppose the newly-released Republican health care bill, NBC's Chuck Todd reported Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) released the text of the bill Thursday after more than a month of speculation. "For the past seven years, Obamacare has continued to hurt the people we represent," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "For the past seven years, Republicans have offered ideas for a better way forward. And soon, we will finally have the chance to turn the page on this failing law." But the host of "Meet...

From the 3-minute video: "If the Republican Party does not repeal Obamacare, what the hell is the Republican Party for?"

The tide is quickly turning against the new ObamaCare repeal legislation. At least 21 Republicans have said they would vote no on the revised GOP healthcare bill negotiated by centrist Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) and conservative Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). Those "no" votes include Reps. Patrick Meehan (Pa.), Ryan Costello (Pa.), Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.) and John Katko (N.Y.), all centrists who had reservations about the previous ObamaCare repeal bill that was pulled from a floor vote last month because of a lack of GOP support.

Bad move by Trump. Ryan and the globalist big government GOPe RINOs are the problem not the Freedom Caucus. Trump is supposed to be draining the swamp by now, not swimming in it. Put the interest of American citizens first! Freedom not socialism and tyranny!! Good grief! Dump Obamacare already! Should have been done on day one and we’d be way on down the road to draining the swamp by now! We the people have been demanding a full repeal for seven long years and that's the position Trump took with his original health care goal at the beginning of...

Free Republic stands for God, family, country. We generally look to Judeo-Christian* guidance on issues of law, morality, justice, freedom, life, family and civil society. And we have a Christian self-governing, self-reliant, individual accountability & responsibility, you gotta work if able-bodied and want to eat attitude on cultural and societal issues. And a Christian pro-Constitution, original intent, pro-liberty, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, restricted government, small government, states rights, individual rights, free enterprise position on political and civil matters. *Note: I say Judeo-Christian because Jesus was a Jew and referred to the Ten Commandments, Jewish law, beliefs and customs and the scripture...

Just breaking on Fox Business.....no vote.

Go Ahead...You Own It I had an "interesting" debate on Twitter last night with someone who is involved in the health insurance game in some way and apparently has cancer patients as clients. He is a strong shill for (supporter of) the "Obamacare Repeal/Replace" process by his own admission. The debate was plenty fun and decent right up until I pointed out that on the math the Federal Government spent $1,417 billion last fiscal year on Medicare and Medicaid, up from $380 billion in 1998, which incidentally was 37% of all federal spending last year -- and it's accelerating at...

A pregnant answer at 7:40 below in response to an excellent question by Tucker Carlson: How can a populist president support an ObamaCare bill that would mostly benefit the well-off at the expense of older, blue-collar, rural Americans — the very people who put him over the top against Hillary? Is he even aware that the bill does that? “Oh, I know,” says Trump, before emphasizing that everything’s negotiable. Well … yes, but all of the negotiating that’s been done so far has been designed to please conservatives, in particular accelerating the rollback of ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion by starting it...

House Republicans have finally released their legislative blueprint for repealing and replacing Obamacare. President Trump has indicated his support of the proposed legislation, while leaving the door open for negotiations. Key changes involving repeal of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and the Obamacare subsidies will not take full effect until 2020. However, the proposed replacement for Obamacare provides a path to real reform, while at the same time not throwing out the baby with the bath water. The proposed legislation would preserve the prohibition on denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or charging them more for such coverage, and it would...

Three senior Senate Republicans on Monday proposed an alternative to ObamaCare that would replace “job-crushing” federal mandates with a voluntary system led by the states. The legislative blueprint from Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Tom Coburn (Okla.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah) would eliminate all of the healthcare law’s federal rules, including the unpopular requirement to purchase insurance under the threat of penalty. But the GOP proposal, known as the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment (CARE) Act, would also weaken one of ObamaCare’s most popular provisions, by giving insurers an opening to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. The CARE Act...

Sen. Lindsey Graham announced his plans Thursday to introduce legislation next year that would allow South Carolina to opt out of parts of the new health care legislation. Graham, a Republican, presented a large prescription tablet — the “Citizens Prescription” — that he, Spartanburg physician Dr. Larry Ware and Spartanburg County Medical Society Director Robert Conner signed to show their opposition to the Affordable Care Act, which Graham referred to as “Obamacare.” Graham said during the news conference at Skylyn Medical Associates — where Ware and his wife run their medical practice — he will ask others who want to...