Free Republic

So I'm 'Negative Nancy' Eh? Stop the inane folks. Seriously, stop it. (Snip) Health Care including VA (which I exclude in my current postings) was $850 billion in 2012. Last fiscal was $1,417 billion or nearly a double in five years. That's the same acceleration in spending that has been going on since the 1980s. This cannot continue. It must stop now. I have been writing on this incessantly since 2007 here in The Market Ticker, been raising hell about this since I was an Internet CEO in the 1990s and been doing presentations on it to so-called Conservative groups...

It took weeks of debunking, exposing, and analyzing to cut through the grease of what many of us have known all along: Republicans love Obamacare, at least the core elements that destroyed insurance in America. They just enjoyed using Obamacare as a talking point for elections while in the opposition. This revelation should serve as a teachable moment, demonstrating to conservative voters once and for all that Republicans don’t share our values on almost any issue, let alone health care. The entire GOP is a massive scam PAC designed to use conservative issues as a flag to raise money, accrue...

The White House is expected to release the text of a new deal on Tuesday that would give states the power to opt out of certain Obamacare insurance mandates, in a major attempt to revive Obamacare repeal as early as this week. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters after meeting with Vice President Mike Pence and White House officials that he expects the text of the new compromise on Tuesday. The compromise would allow states to opt out of forcing insurers to cover 10 essential health benefits in plans, including maternity care and hospitalization. The...

Nearly every human culture has a folk tale -- or more than one -- about an unending source of wealth. Sometimes it's spinning straw into gold; sometimes it's a goose that lays golden eggs or that gives golden feathers; sometimes it's a magic hand-mill that will grind out your heart's desire; sometimes it's a magic purse that's always full no matter how much you spend. I starting thinking about these stories the other day when I read about the single-payer plan being proposed by state Senators Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) for California. It sounds wonderful:...

It looked like Republican infighting drove ObamaCare out of bounds two weeks ago, but it might have gotten rescued by a few chip shots on Sunday. Sen. Rand Paul, a vociferous critic of the American Health Care Act and ally of the intransigent House Freedom Caucus, played a round of golf with President Donald Trump and OMB director Mick Mulvaney two days ago — and suddenly declared himself “very optimistic” about a deal to pass the AHCA after all.Now, the Washington Examiner reports that the deal could be announced as early as today, even if it takes a week...

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more poorly designed program in the federal budget than Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans. The costs are shared between the states and the feds, which means that the more money a state wastes under Medicaid, the bigger the check Washington writes to the state. No wonder the program costs keep spiraling out of control. Obamacare added nearly 20 million people to the Medicaid rolls, and the left considers that a policy victory. Federal and state budgets are swelling. Oh, to return to the days when taking people off of welfare --...

President Donald Trump golfed with Sen. Rand Paul this afternoon, together with White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. “We had a great day with the president. Played some golf, and we talked and we talked about a little bit of health care,” Paul told reporters after the game. “I continue to be very optimistic that we are getting closer and closer to an agreement on repealing Obamacare.”

Chris Wallace Interview of Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan: "Let's accomplish what the people asked us to do when they sent us to Washington . . . let's find a plan that is consistent with what the American people told us to do when they elected us."

President Trump brought Republican Sen. Rand Paul to Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on Sunday to play golf with him, a little more than a week after the party's healthcare bill failed. "They're discussing a variety of topics, including healthcare," White House deputy press secretary Stephanie Grisham said. Budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former leading House conservative, also joined the two.

For eight years, I have joined my colleagues in the fight to repeal and replace the train wreck that is Obamacare. This was the call heard around the nation for years, particularly leading up to President Trump's historic victory. We promised the American people that if they supported us, help would be on the way. As a conservative, I believe that the federal government should have a limited role in our personal lives, including health care. As a cancer patient, I knew the importance of getting this bill right and replacing Obamacare with a patient-centered solution that also ensures access...

Complete Headline: Obamacare Implosion Now? Since Obama Siphoned GSE Dividends To Prop Up, Can Trump Simply Halt 1st Qtr Sweep? Earlier this month, Harvard Ph.D. Jerome Corsi of InfoWars (@jerome_corsi) and a CPA "who worked for two years for a major U.S. accounting firm as an outside auditor for Freddie Mac," confirmed a 2012 scheme hatched by the Obama administration to funnel hundreds of billions in dividends from Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prop up the failing Obamacare program - by paying subsidies to insurers to remain in the system. [Snip] The conclusion reached by...

[Full title] MEADOWS: The Obamacare mandates, there are 12 of them. Mark Meadows says Freedom Caucus will go along with AHCA if it kills community rating and EHB regulations In the debate over repealing and replacing Obamacare, Republican leadership complains that conservatives have been moving the goal post. And Mark Meadows says they're right. "Well we have," the Freedom Caucus chairman admits with a sigh during a sit-down interview with the Washington Examiner. "We've moved it much closer. All they have to do is kick a little chip shot through the goal posts...." This comes after weeks of intense negotiation...

Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows laid out his conditions in an editorial board meeting at the Washington Examiner Thursday. The Affordable Health Care Act repealed the employer mandate and the individual mandate. That's two of Obamacare's 12 mandates, by Meadows' count. "The Freedom Caucus has asked for two [more] to be included in the repeal," Meadows said, "which would bring us to a total of four of the twelve Obamacare mandates. That's our ask: These Obamacare mandates repealed in exchange for Yes votes." The Essential Health Benefits and "Community Rating" are the two regulations the Freedom Caucus wants dead.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he fears that President Trump will ally with Democrats if Republicans fail to come up another plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. “What I worry about is that if we don’t do this, then he’ll just go work with Democrats to try and change ObamaCare and that’s not – that’s hardly a conservative thing,” Ryan told “CBS This Morning” in an interview that aired Thursday. The Wisconsin Republican said an alliance between Trump and House Democrats, who opposed the GOP’s American Health Care Act, would only dilute the measure. “I want a patient-centered system. I...

If you keep your eyes focused on Washington, D.C., you might think the great divide in America is partisan. I admit: I'm often guilty of doing just that, even though I live 1,500 miles outside the Beltway. But the more disturbing divide that is ripping the nation apart is a cultural one, complicated by economics and education. I grew up in a working-class family with a father who had a ninth-grade education and was often unemployed, and a mother who worked in restaurants and retail. I escaped that world thanks to education -- in part funded by federal grants, loans...

Though the Freedom Caucus is under assault from all sides, some of its members who have spoken to the media or made public statements are standing strong — insisting that they are willing to work with President Trump to keep the GOP’s promise to repeal Obamacare. The media has used the failure of the American Health Care Act — Republican leadership’s phony repeal bill — as an excuse to attack conservatives in Congress. The Tea Party members of the Freedom Caucus, who opposed the legislation on grounds that it would not improve the American health insurance market, have been...

MEMO FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: WHERE IS TRUMPCARE?Throughout the campaign you said that: 1. You were not a politician, you were a businessman skilled in negotiating. 2. Despite the claims of your critics you said that you were not a liar, that you would make good on all your promises. 3. You promised the country that you would repeal and replace Obamacare and repeatedly made the following statements to that effect: a. “We will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare - and nobody can do that like me. We will save $'s and have much better healthcare!” b. “I’m going to work...

Mine is a two-step plan (and you don’t have to do the second step, so it’s really a one-step plan). STEP 1: Congress doesn’t repeal Obamacare! Instead, Congress passes a law, pursuant to its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, that says: “In America, it shall be legal to sell health insurance on the free market. This law supersedes all other laws, taxes, mandates, coverage requirements, regulations or prohibitions, state or federal.”

President Trump’s appointment of former GOP congressman John Fleming, M.D., to newly created health technology post could portend ONC downsizing and MACRA changes. The new HHS healthcare technology top official's plans are still unknown, but signs point to possible changes to ONC that could weaken the agency's regulatory authority. The new HHS healthcare technology chief -- a longtime associate of HHS secretary, fellow physician and former GOP congressman Tom Price -- nonetheless also mentioned that ONC "may be reorganizing." Few in the capitol, other than his fans, want to comment publicly about what Fleming's ascension to the top HHS healthcare...

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...