Free Republic

The Trump administration this week is expected to formally repeal the Clean Power Plan, taking direct aim at former President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy and delivering a major win for the coal industry. A draft proposal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s looming decision, leaked late last week and posted online, says the plan — which would have limited carbon emissions from power plants and, in the process, drastically reduced the amount of coal-generated electricity in the U.S. — goes beyond the bounds of federal law and unnecessarily hikes energy prices for consumers. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, as Oklahoma’s attorney...

Two U.S. senators from both parties are close to finalizing a bipartisan deal to shore up the health insurance exchanges created under Obamacare, the chamber’s top Democrat said on Thursday. The move, which Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said was “on the verge” of completion, would stabilize the market for individuals who buy their own insurance plans on the federal or state-based exchanges.

PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE   While far from a sure thing, the plan isn't as visceral as cutting Medicaid, and could be an easier lift for the GOP than health care. Trump is reaching out to Democrats, and may find some takers, though they generally panned the plan as a gift to the wealthy. WASHINGTON—Reeling from three failed attempts to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, Republicans are looking to score a political win before the year’s end with an issue they hope will be more unifying for the party: tax reform. President Trump hit the road in Indiana Wednesday to promote...

Facing assured defeat, Republican leaders decided Tuesday not to even hold a vote on the GOP's latest attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, surrendering on their last-gasp effort to deliver on the party's banner campaign promise

Dear President Trump, Once again it is apparent that the establishment elites have no intention to pass any part of your agenda. Why should they wish to? They are living quite well in DC on their lobbyist moola and government perks. It is time sir you use your bully pulpit to call them out but not in a way that is insulting, rather, in a way that simply exposes them. I propose that you in the most vigorous way possible challenge, no demand, that Mr. McConnell bring a bill to the floor of the Senate and have it voted on,...

Rick Perlstein said it best, “I believe politics is a team sport. That, for awful and unfortunate reasons beyond any of our control, the American system only allows, effectively, for two teams.”Is politics a team sport? The question resurfaced recently when Senator Rand Paul referred to the Graham-Cassidy Health Care Plan as — “Amnesty for Obamacare.” Rand Paul Gives Graham/Cassidy a New Name: 'Amnesty for ObamaCare' - Big League Politics https://t.co/0RN6K9g6TG — Rand Paul (@DrRandPaul) September 19, 2017 When I saw this, I immediately fired off a tweet to Senator Paul stating, “Not again! It's a team sport. Time is...

President Donald Trump said Wednesday the Republicans' last-resort "Obamacare" repeal effort remains two or three votes short, forecasting days of furious lobbying ahead with a crucial deadline looming next week. The legislation by Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina would repeal major pillars of former President Barack Obama's health law, replacing them with block grants to states to design their own health care programs. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to round up 50 votes to pass the legislation before Sept. 30, when special rules preventing a Democratic filibuster will expire. [Snip] Democrats made their...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) stunned his colleagues in the Senate when he torpedoed the Republican health-care bill with a tie-breaking no vote in July. With the GOP prepared to send its latest iteration of the health-care bill to the floor sometime next week, McCain is now poised to potentially make or break the legislation yet again.

President Donald Trump would sign the Graham-Cassidy bill if the legislation to repeal Obamacare makes it to his desk, an administration official told CNN Tuesday, as the White House launched a full-court press on Capitol Hill. The White House has been working with Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana for weeks on the new effort. A second source added that Trump himself had quietly encouraged the two senators to take another shot at health care. Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials are on Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby Republican senators on the...

ABC’s self-described “eating pizza” expert, Jimmy Kimmel was at it again on Tuesday, admittedly politicizing his son’s medical condition to push for socialized medicine. This time he was targeting Republican Senator Bill Cassidy and Senate Republicans with disgusting charges of aiming to do cruel things with the lives and health care of Americans. In all, Kimmel’s description painted the GOP as villains in a straight-to-DVD Hollywood flop. “And this new bill actually does pass the Jimmy Kimmel Test, but a different Jimmy Kimmel Test,” he declared, noting that Cassidy wanted his bill to live up to Kimmel’s situation. “This one,...

Senate Republicans pushing to replace Obamacare with state block grants are making real noise before their window to act closes, insisting they are just one or two votes shy and that President Trump can nudge their last-gasp bill to victory. “We are thinking that we can get this done by Sept. 30,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who co-wrote the bill with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Friday. Republican leadership seemed to greet the bill with a shrug when it was introduced last week, yet Mr. Cassidy said the idea “took off” during a Thursday luncheon that...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday applauded Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) new legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare through block grants. President Trump released a statement on Wednesday cheering the Graham and Cassidy bill to replace Obamacare. Graham and Cassidy, along with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Dean Heller (R-NV), and former Sen. Rick Santorum, unveiled their legislation on Wednesday – otherwise known as Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ). The legislation would repeal Obamacare’s individual and employer mandate, Obamacare’s medical device tax, and deliver health care dollars to the states so that they can design a health care system that...

The Affordable Care Act exchange is collapsing in Virginia, with the last potential insurer pulling out of western Virginia and leaving about 70,000 people without the ability to purchase health insurance for 2018. “Any individual, regardless of income, who purchased an individual policy — on the exchange or non-exchange — won’t be able to buy a policy next year,” Carilion Clinic Chief Financial Officer Don Halliwill said Tuesday. “When people think of the exchange, they think of poor people. That’s not accurate. It’s all income levels.” About 40,000 of the people affected live within Carilion’s service area. Should nothing change...

The Affordable Care Act added millions of mostly poor people to the insurance rolls. But the law is driving premiums so high that middle-class people can no longer afford insurance. Several million are expected to drop coverage in 2018. Under ObamaCare, poor lives matter. Middle-class lives? Not so much. The ACA is actually two laws glued together: a vast Medicaid expansion to cover the poor and a federal takeover of individual insurance markets, previously regulated by states. Since that takeover, individual premiums have more than doubled, and they’re predicted to rise another 25 percent to 35 percent next year. The...

With the shot clock about to expire, Republicans on Capitol Hill may have the ball in their hands again for another chance at what was supposed to be an easy lay-up. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain — who stuck a stake through the heart of the previous ObamaCare repeal effort — announced that he would endorse the only vehicle left remaining. McCain even said that he’d put aside his distaste for operating outside regular order to vote for the Lindsey Graham-Bill Cassidy version of repeal-and-replace: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he supports a newer version of an ObamaCare...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new Republican bill to replace Obamacare will be unveiled in the U.S. Senate on Monday with backing from President Donald Trump, according to one of two Republican senators who have crafted the legislation. The lawmaker, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, told reporters he was optimistic the legislation could pass before a Sept. 30 deadline. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said he will hold a vote if the bill can attract support from enough senators for it to succeed on a simple majority.

Many of President Donald Trump’s policies have met resistance in federal courts, but anyone challenging the decision to end deportation protections for thousands of immigrants Tuesday will face a difficult legal fight.... “The reality is that DACA was announced and signed by the secretary of Homeland Security,” said Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, a professor at Penn State Law and director of the school’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. “It is a policy document, so it is a tool in administrative law, but it can technically be rescinded, modified, replaced.” President Barack Obama created the program in 2012. He expanded it via...

The danger of a Republican bailout of Obamacare is mounting with every passing day. Moderate Republicans calling themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus are quietly negotiating with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to throw a multibillion-dollar lifeline to the Obamacare insurance exchanges. This bailout, of course, would be an epic betrayal by the Republican Party, which has promised to repeal and replace the financially crumbling health law. Obamacare's apologists object to the term "bailout" for this rescue package. The left prefers the euphemism "stabilizing the insurance market." They claim this is merely a payment to low-income families to help...

Comprehensive tax reform is nearly impossible with Obamacare in place For the last seven-plus years, Republicans ran on repealing and replacing Obamacare. It was a winning platform, demonstrated by their gaining seats in Congress in almost every election since Obama was elected in 2008—achieving a majority in the House in 2010, a majority in the Senate in 2014, and finally the White House in 2016. And with President Trump stating that he is anxious to sign a “repeal” or a “repeal and replace” bill into law, passage seemed like a sure thing. Yet so far the Senate has failed to...

The conservative House Freedom Caucus on Friday is planning a move to try and force a vote on an ObamaCare repeal bill. A spokeswoman for the group said members plan to file a "discharge petition," which would force a vote on a repeal bill if it gets signatures from a majority of the House. The move is usually used to go around leadership and try to bring up a measure to the floor for a vote. The plan comes as the Freedom Caucus, and some other Republicans, are pushing to keep the repeal effort alive, despite the Senate's failed vote...