Free Republic

 SEE: The GOP Establishment Wants to Run on Fixing -- Not Repealing – Obamacare ”In David Jolly's campaign, he didn't say "repeal" Obamacare. He said "fix" it. But the Republicans are taking this thing to, " No, no, no, no! He said to fix it." The Republican establishment obviously has a campaign game plan involving Obamacare, and it does not include repealing it, folks. The Republican establishment apparently doesn't want to campaign on repealing it. They want to campaign on fixing it.” What Rush Limbaugh may have missed and has been obvious to me from the very beginning is, when...

Self-shackled with a tremendously unpopular overhaul of American medicine that they passed without a single Republican vote, Democrats are now clinging to the hope that voters will offer them a chance to “fix” what they have wrought. For three major reasons, however, that hope is likely to prove futile. One, Democrats have shown no genuine interest in fixing Obamacare. Their talk about fixing it is merely that: a talking point. Two, they have no ideas for fixing it (aside from adding another metal to the list of government-dictated insurance options). Three, and most important, Obamacare isn’t fixable. Like a...

The economic case against the minimum wage exists, and has been made by me and others often enough. But there’s another, even stronger case against the rule. That is the humanitarian case. And until that case, too, receives consideration, the debate will always be a lopsided one. Consider the current employment culture. Sit down with an employment officer at the company where you hope to work, and something feels strange. After a while, you realize what it is: The party on the other side of the desk is not a company executive, it is Jacqueline Berrien, the head of the...

There are plenty of reasons Republicans can't get their opposition to the health care law straight. More and more, I think Republicans are in for a health care crack-up. After four years of promising to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, without specifying what they would replace it with, GOP leaders find themselves under increasing pressure to put up or shut up. And yet their own internal policy divisions will result either in a failure to unite around a plan, which could diminish their chances of taking the Senate in November, or in a plan that not all Republicans like, which could...

Is THE REPEAL 16 COLALITION really trying to end taxes calculated from incomes?  As stated at repeal 16.org, “The Coalition to Repeal the 16th Amendment (Repeal 16) is comprised of a broad range of individuals and organizations including the Tea Party Patriots, Americans For Fair Taxation, Americans for Limited Government, Competitive Governance Action and Free Market America.” According to REPEAL 16 ORG, its stated goal is to “end our corrupting tax system and the oppressive IRS”. They go on to ask “What is the Repeal 16 Bill?” And they answer the question as follows: ”Congressman Jim Bridenstine has introduced a bill...

The Internal Revenue Service this week will publish a final rule requiring Obamacare health insurance exchanges to hand over key personal data to the IRS, which will use the information to implement the tax aspects of the controversial health care law. The IRS rule covers health exchanges that sell insurance to individuals, and it takes effect this year. That means people enrolled in an Obamacare exchange this year will have their information given to the IRS as soon as it’s needed for tax purposes. Information to be handed over from Obamacare exchanges includes names, addresses, taxpayer identification numbers, insurance premium...

INDIANAPOLIS | Hoosiers never again would vote in a primary election for U.S. Senate candidates if the decision were up to Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller. Zoeller is among a growing number of state's rights conservatives who favor a so-called "soft repeal" of the 17th Amendment that would empower members of the General Assembly, instead of voters, to nominate each party's U.S. Senate candidates. Voters still would have the final say on who represents Indiana in the Senate. But Zoeller, a Republican, believes giving the General Assembly's control of selecting candidates could revive the idea that U.S. senators are ambassadors...

Ramesh is kind enough to cite a recent piece of mine for Forbes, describing it as a continuation of my “lonely campaign to get conservatives to drop the idea of ‘repealing and replacing’ Obamacare and instead to embrace reforming it.” But it’s only lonely if by lonely he means “shared by a large plurality of the electorate.” Let me cite the data. A Pew Research poll asked whether or not politicians should “make the law work as well as possible,” or “make it fail.” The “work” side won 30–19 overall, and 36–19 among independents. (“Make it fail” won among...

For years, we’ve heard Republicans claim that they want to “repeal and replace” Obamacare with a better set of reforms. (What those reforms would exactly be, nobody can say for sure.) But there was always one critical problem with the “repeal and replace” plan: it stands no chance of passage until at least 2017. By then, as many as 35 million people could be on Obamacare-sponsored coverage. A few Republican leaders have had the temerity to acknowledge this fact—and that’s a good thing. By committing to repeal, Republicans damage their chances in 2016 Most pundits are focused on the likelihood...

Top Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, is walking back comments attributed to her that Obamacare can't be repealed. But she's not the only one suggesting that the goal should be making changes within the framework of the health law. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, says the goal is to get the law "fixed." Apparently, a lot of Republican lawmakers still haven't read the law. If they had, they'd know the framework is corrupt. Even presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, speculated on Friday that repeal is unlikely, because it will be "difficult to turn the clock back." Nonsense....

 I am very disappointed to learn that some Tea Party Activists are now promoting Representative Jim Bridenstine’s H.J.RES. 104 as a way to “repeal the 16th Amendment and abolish the income tax”.  Additionally, donations are being asked to support this movement.  The problem is, if H.J.RES. 104 was adopted and its proposed wording added to our Constitution, the 16th Amendment would indeed be repealed, but Congress would continue to have power to lay and collect taxes calculated from profits, gains, and other “incomes”. The important wording in Representative Jim Bridenstine’s proposed amendment declares:`Effective 2 years after the ratification of this article...

Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan are collaborating on an Obamacare alternative and could announce the proposal as early as this month, according to Republican sources. Both Republicans have been regularly engaged in pushing legislation on major issues — and both have made it a habit to form cross-chamber partnerships to further those endeavors. But this particular partnership is notable given the high-profile nature of health care reform and that Rubio, Florida's junior senator, and Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin, are both considered possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Aides to Rubio and...

For Senate Democrats running this year in Republican-leaning states, their struggle with how to deal with Obamacare's unpopularity left them biting their nails a bit harder after President Obama announced Tuesday that the health care law hit its 7 million enrollment goal. While the White House continues touting the benefits of the law, polls consistently show more Americans disapprove of Obamacare -- a disconnect that's not helping as Democrats try to fire up voters in their effort to fend off a potential Republican takeover of the Senate. But at a time when the economy is overwhelmingly viewed as the most...

It has become a truism that House Republicans have voted dozens and dozens of times -- at least 50 in all -- to repeal Obamacare. They have been obsessed with repealing the Affordable Care Act, President Obama told a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington last month. You know what they say: 50th time is the charm. Maybe when you hit your 50th repeal vote, you will win a prize. Maybe if you buy 50 repeal votes, you get one free. We get it. For more than a year, Democrats and their advocates in the press have been ridiculing the...

President Obama repeatedly promised Obamacare would reduce insurance premiums by $2,500 per year. He made this promise at least 22 times. Today Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted health insurance rates will increase under Obamacare. The Daily Mail reported: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told House Ways and Means Committee members on Wednesday that she expects health insurance rates to increase as the Affordable Care Act takes full effect.

The American people realize that Obamacare is a very bad policy. But more and more conservatives agree that we need to offer a solid alternative before voters reject Obamacare root and branch. Recently, three prominent Republican senators — Richard Burr (N.C.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), and Orrin Hatch (Utah) — unveiled an alternative proposal. In this article, I would like to outline my own. The proposal I suggest would achieve four remarkable things: It would be more progressive than Obamacare, because it would involve more distribution from higher- to lower-income households. It would provide genuine protection for people who have a...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Sunday that Republicans will repeal the controversial healthcare law after President Obama leaves office in 2017. Cruz became of the face of an unsuccessful effort to eliminate the healthcare law last year that resulted in a government shutdown. Most Republicans backed off the repeal-or-shutdown position after sustaining political damage during the two-week standoff in October, but Cruz promised on Sunday during an appearance on ABC News’s “This Week” to continue trying to get rid of Obamacare during the remainder of the president’s term. “I’ll give you one scenario where it could [be repealed before Obama...

**SNIP** “The House Republican agenda feels like déjà vu all over again. As if the first 49 votes were not enough to satisfy the Republican fixation on undoing health reform, the Republican leadership is prepared to make yet another attempt – their 50th try – to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. Americans deserve better. “On the same day that Republicans gathered to discuss an alternative to the health care law, five years later, the proponents of repeal still can’t help themselves. This latest Republican proposal would drive up premiums for millions of Americans. All the while, Republicans ignore...

Secretary of State John Kerry demanded Monday that Uganda “repeal” its new anti-gay law and warned that the State Department has begun a “review” of U.S. assistance to the impoverished East African nation. “This is a tragic day for Uganda and for all who care about the cause of human rights,” Kerry said in a statement. “Ultimately, the only answer is repeal of this law.” President Yoweri Museveni signed into law on Monday legislation enacting tough prison sentences for homosexual acts, which were already illegal in Uganda. Kerry threatened to cut the more than $400 million the country receives in...

A first Democratic senator has indicated he thinks it might be time to scrap Obamacare. While legislators should work to fix the law in the meantime, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia told Beckley’s Register Herald that he would support getting rid of the law entirely. “I will vote tomorrow to repeal [the Affordable Care Act], but I want to fix the problems in it,” Manchin told an audience. He described the law as a product that the government has failed to “sell.” Manchin made similar comments in November when he said Obamacare was “more than a rollout problem —...