The GOP’s Next Strategy to Fight Obamacare

The repeal or defund caucus readies for another go, but the replace caucus has ammo for their strategy moving forward.

WASHINGTON – Still sore after the whipping administered by President Obama and Senate Democrats over the government shutdown, congressional Republicans nonetheless insist they remain committed to shutting down the Affordable Care Act.

House Republicans, especially those with ties to the Tea Party, targeted what is popularly known as Obamacare from the outset of the raucous debate, refusing to support a temporary funding measure to carry the government beyond the federal fiscal year that began on Oct. 1 unless the healthcare law was defunded.

That effort famously went up in flames when lawmakers finally embraced a settlement that reopened the doors after a little more than two weeks without killing Obamacare. Now a question is plaguing a divided GOP caucus – how does the party accomplish the commonly held objective of bringing the ACA to a quick and bloody end since the Senate as presently composed would never go along? And, even if the upper chamber agreed, the president would issue a quick veto that could never gain the votes to be overturned.

In addition, Republicans must find some way to recover from the perception that the showdown over the shutdown was their Battle of the Bulge in the Obamacare fight – that last great shot at victory.

“This is our last chance and our last best chance to do something about this,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said back in July.

But those long odds aren’t stopping congressional Republicans, particularly conservatives, from ramping up the fight. Some, like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), argue that the law’s bitter critics will do whatever it takes.

“I am inspired by the millions of Americans who have risen up,” he said. “And if the American people continue to rise up, I am confident that in time the U.S. Senate will follow the lead of the House of Representatives and listen to the American people. That is our job. That is our responsibility.”

“We’re going to restore jobs, we’re going to restore economic growth, we’re going to restore the ability of people struggling to climb the ladder and achieve the American dream and we’re going to stop the number-one job killer in this country that is Obamacare,” he promised.

Appearing a convention of the Texas Medical Association in Austin on Saturday, Cruz said the cause was lost because “Senate Republicans declined to unify and declined to support House Republicans” in repealing the law. He remains “hopeful that in the future the Senate will listen.”

Cruz has not ruled out navigating toward another governmental shutdown to push the issue when the current continuing resolution expires on Jan. 15. But apparently he will have to maneuver around Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, if he intends to do so.

“This law is ravaging our economy, killing jobs, driving up premiums, and driving people off the health care plans they have and like, in droves,” McConnell said. “Its disastrous rollout is sign of even worse things to come. And the Democrat refusal to delay it reflects a stubborn ideological obsession that will do untold damage to our country. And Republicans remain determined to repeal this terrible law.”

But they will have to accomplish that, he said, without closing the government a second time. Appearing on Face the Nation on Sunday, McConnell said, “There will not be another government shutdown — you can count on that.”

“A number of us were saying back in July that this strategy could not and would not work,” McConnell said. “And of course it didn’t.”

McConnell acknowledged that Senate Republicans “have a math problem” when it comes to getting rid of Obamacare.

“It’s the following math problem — 55 Democrats and 45 Republicans,” he said. “We only control a portion of the government, and so that limits our ability to get rid of this horrible law.”

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) concurs with McConnell, asserting that another government shutdown could prove disastrous.

“Every one of us has voted against Obamacare repeatedly,” Alexander said of Republicans. “Every one of us would vote to repeal it. But in my view the right tactic is not to shut down the government. It won’t work – Obamacare would just keep going and we would have shut down the government.”

“The best way to do it is to take over the government,” Alexander said. “Elect some more senators. Elect a president. Put in a bill. That’s our constitutional system.”

Unlike either Cruz or McConnell, Alexander, the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has a plan for replacing Obamacare. It includes providing governors with more flexibility in operating state Medicaid programs, strengthening workplace wellness programs, permitting small businesses to pool their resources and offer lower-cost insurance plans for employees, expanding opportunities for consumers to purchase insurance across state lines and providing greater access to health savings accounts.

Alexander said his plan offers “step-by-step reforms that would reduce the costs of healthcare.”

Alexander isn’t alone in advocating for a process known as “repeal and replace.” The House Republican Study Committee, a conservative group within the GOP caucus, also has offered an Obamacare alternative that it intends to continue pursuing.

“American families and businesses deserve and demand real solutions to the serious problems that exist in our healthcare system,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the committee chairman. “The RSC’s American Health Care Reform Act is a common-sense bill that will lower costs using conservative, free-market solutions which give American families more choices without the unworkable mandates and billions in taxes included in President Obama’s healthcare law.”

The 200-page bill offers $20,000 in tax deductions to families and a $7,500 deduction to individuals to purchase insurance from vendors in any state — thus, supporters say, allowing people to save money by selecting lower-cost providers.

The measure also offers altered proposals to some of the more popular aspects of Obamacare – creation of a $25 billion fund to lower costs for those afflicted with pre-existing conditions, permitting people to carry their insurance from job to job and permitting coverage for adult children up to age 26.

“By allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines and pool together so small businesses and families can get the same buying power as large corporations, we can lower costs and increase choices while removing Washington bureaucrats from your healthcare decisions,” Scalise said.

But no one seems to have developed a strategy of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a package of free market alternatives more to the liking of conservative lawmakers. Regardless, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee and 2012 Republican nominee for vice president, urged that the fight go forward.

“The way I see it, our job is to preserve our values in the 21st century,” Ryan said during an appearance at the recent Values Voters Summit in Washington DC.

“We need to completely rethink government’s role in healthcare,” he said. “That means we can never give up on repealing and replacing Obamacare.”

In an op-ed that originally appeared in USA Today, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a family physician for more than 30 years before entering Congress, insisted that “Obamacare is just the latest bad law needing repeal.”

“That’s why we fought Obamacare through this difficult debate, and that’s why this is just one round and why we must continue to fight on,” he said.

“Best thing to do now is just let it implode... the faster the better.”

I have to respectfully disagree. I firmly believe that there is no level of implosion, no depth of financial disaster that will compel Obama and his minions to admit that this crowning achievement of theirs is a failure. No matter what they will double down, continue to print money and throw money at the ACA all the while blaming everyone else for this disaster.

Has the stunning increase in the National Debt in recent years compelled any Democrat to reduce entitlement spending?

We have to fight Socialism in America now, there is no later. The 2014 election offers some hope if the Democrats can be divided and defeated.

It really will all come down to the Producers versus the Takers at the ballot box. If we don’t stop this in 2014 there may be no winnable national elections moving forward.

I call BS. The GOP-e want obamacare as much as the dems. There’s no better way for businesses to shed healthcare costs, and force people to go to a single payer system. The insurance companies make out because they can dump high risk people onto government, and the government makes out becuase if you don’t pay, they can sic the IRS on you, because the SCOTUS declared that any penalties are a TAX, not a fine. Any way you slice it, the feds and corpzilla win, the people lose, and we move further down the road to serfdom.

I firmly believe that there is no level of implosion, no depth of financial disaster that will compel Obama and his minions to admit that this crowning achievement of theirs is a failure.

I concur that No-Negotiation Nobama will hang onto Obamacare to the last Taxpayer dollar, but the Health Insurance companies have to remain willing participants.

I am popping my popcorn because this is going to be fun to watch —
* If Obama does delay the mandate, the young won’t sign up.
* If the website doesn’t work, the young won’t be able to sign up;
* If the website finally does work, and the young take a look at the prices and the deductables, the young won’t sign up. [A policy with a $10,000 deductable is worth less than no policy].
* 1.7 million of the young who would sign up are currently unemployed, and can’t sign up.
* When the young do not sign up in the needed numbers by March 2014, the insurance companies will begin to experience real losses from the sick, and their actuaries will project further losses, which will be published in their 2nd quarterly reports. Will these insurance companies remain “willing participants”?
* Obama will have to order Treasury to provide funds to make up these losses, as much as $50 Billion. These will of course be made public, just in time for the November election. This will be hung around the necks of Democrat Senators.
* The sad thing is ... people who are currently paying $400 per month with a $3000 deductable will have their policies cancelled and have to replace them with policies costing $1200 per month with a $12,000 deductable.

...*Will these insurance companies remain “willing participants”?

Of course the insurance companies aren’t going to remain willing participants. Sooner or later this nonsense will run these businesses into the ground. This really gets to the heart of why we absolutely can’t let our useless leadership just twiddle their thumbs waiting for Obamacare to “implode”. When the insurance companies begin to protest and refuse to participate they will be accused of “Corporate Greed”. Once these companies start to fail we’ll be told that there is no option but Single-Payer. It will be a “crisis”, which is the only environment this president is comfortable with.

“My fellow Americans, we will not be deterred in our battle to provide quality affordable health-care to all Americans, not just the one percent. The greedy, profit-obsessed insurance companies, along with their allies the heartless Republicans will never stop trying to sabotage our efforts, which is why I am issuing an executive order requiring all doctors and hospitals to temporarily accept the Emergency National Health-Plan cards the IRS has just issued to all citizens. This is of course a temporary, emergency measure. I look forward to bipartisan negotiations to achieve a long-term solution...”

>>> I’ve never used a HSA before. Any tips/advice?

yeah... drop your insurance all together, and put all the money that would go towards premiums into it.
You will have FAR more money at the end of the year to cover medical expenses than you will need... and at the very least this will represent far more money than what your insurance will end up providing for you anyway.

>>> It really will all come down to the Producers versus the Takers at the ballot box. If we don’t stop this in 2014 there may be no winnable national elections moving forward.

This is really what I meant by letting it implode.

Up until now, enough producers have not been fighting the fight because they havn’t felt the pain.

Thats why I say let Obamacare implode (majority of repubs and dems will feel the pain and refuse to comply... and show up to vote against DC as a result)

“Thats why I say let Obamacare implode (majority of repubs and dems will feel the pain and refuse to comply... and show up to vote against DC as a result)”

Of course it’s not a matter of letting it implode, there really isn’t much we can do to stop that. This where I think Ted Cruz is brilliant and the recent shutdown was a great triumph for our side. We have to be seen as fighting this every step of the way. No matter how big of a financial mess Obamacare becomes, once the majority of voters on some form of the Government Dole is too large to overcome there will be no stopping this “Fundamental Transformation”.

The one ray of hope I see is that the Left’s standard strategy of lying and pointing fingers doesn’t work when millions of citizens suddenly discover that their insurance policies have been cancelled and their premiums have sky-rocketed. For years the Democrats have just used the big-lie strategy - the debt isn’t a problem, Egypt isn’t a problem, the economy is doing fine etc etc. Having a compliant media repeating and reinforcing the deception has helped, and most voters can’t tell the difference, as long as the grocery store has plenty of frozen pizza and their smartphone is working. For once the truth of the situation is undeniable.

I’m terrified that the corrupt and incompetent Republican leadership is going to squander this opportunity.

>>> The one ray of hope I see is that the Left’s standard strategy of lying and pointing fingers doesn’t work when millions of citizens suddenly discover that their insurance policies have been cancelled and their premiums have sky-rocketed.

The one ray of hope I see is that Obamacare will completely and utterly destroy the health “insurance” industry.

This will cause a cascade effect on the health CARE industry, re-introducing market forces where they have not been present for 20-30 years.

In the wake of this cascade will be the downfall of the democrat party, and a major scale-down of big-brother government.

That is my one ray of hope... that what the enemy intended for Evil God will use for good.

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