Posted on 03/22/2017 8:48:08 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Paul Ryan’s "American Health Care Act" was modified Monday. Now the pig has rouge and eye shadow in addition to lipstick
Speaker Paul Ryan’s proposed “American Health Care Act” (a.k.a. RINOcare) got a bit of a makeover on Monday. Now the pig has rouge and eye shadow in addition to lipstick.
To be fair, some of the changes are good ones. Amendments that will be added to RINOcare on the floor of the House will;
• prevent any more states from expanding Medicaid; • allow states to impose work requirements on non-disabled Medicaid recipients; • permit states to receive Medicaid as a block grant.
He needs to talk to his fellow columnist, Herman Cain. Cain loves it.
Vets will be forced to use the VA whether they want to or not
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3537010/posts
I will financially support any credible opponent Paul Ryan faces next election.
What it needs is Comprehensive added to the title.
Comprehensive American Health Care Act.
CAHCA
However. Is PDJT smarter than we think? This is Ryan's "Apprentice" moment? If so he blew it.
Is his leadership in question and will he be challenged?
Why do I say this? I am listening to Jeff Kuhner out of Boston and he is adamant that Ryan doesn't have the votes....
If Trump has some grand strategy about this bill, when are we going to see it?
Because right now, he's mostly pulling the name off the Obamacare express, putting his name on it, and celebrating victory as it continues to speed towards a cliff.
There is a binary choice now. Either continue with Obamacare, which is on the verge of collapse, or go with its substitute, which staves off the collapse for a little longer.
The other options appear to no longer be on the table.
The obvious solution is a flat-out repeal, every line, every regulation derived from the legislation, and every agency created as a part of the legislation known as “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 20l0”. The state of health insurance reverts to what it was in 2009.
THEN, start the fix. Reform tort law, free up insurance companies so they may operate across state lines, and unshackle medical schools so they may expand to sufficient size to provide the trained medical professionals that shall be needed in coming years. And, oh, yeah, expand the application of Major Medical and tax-exempt Health Savings Accounts. Separate health insurance coverage from employment, and make it on an individual basis, much like automobile liability insurance, with electives for various levels of coverage. Or allow for self-insurance.
In the interests of putting some things to bed:
1) No, Mike Pence can’t ignore the Parliamentarian. This would be the mechanism in effect of making all bills budget reconciliation bills. That obviously is just a way to kill the filibuster in the Senate. It would not get even 10 votes. That’s why this proposal has already been dismissed as a non starter.
2) You can stop filibuster in ways not requiring 60 votes? No. You can’t. People are saying this via the Two Speech Rule. Senators are limited to 2 speeches per legislative day on a given subject. So glory be, you can require them to talk, they’re only allowed to talk twice and you shut them down without 60 votes! Bullshit. Completely wrong.
Senators are allowed to offer amendments to a bill. They can then give two speeches on each amendment. A minority can propose zillions of amendments. You CAN limit the number of amendments (NO senators like being limited in amendments) but then if you do that, senators can raise points of order and give two speeches on those. No limit on points of order.
Here’s discussion of this from 2010, when the Dems were raging at the power of the GOP filibusters.
Bottom line: THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. If there were a way around 60 votes that does not constrain to Reconciliation, the Dems would have used it. There is nothing new under the sun in all this. The GOP is not going to discover any genius maneuver. The Dems would have discovered it in 2010 if there were.
The Filibuster is what spared the country from a single payer Canada NHS style healthcare plan. Only the Filibuster and Scott Brown stopped that. You will not find even 10 votes to kill the Filibuster for non USSC issues.
Tough but fair game theory.
Start out positive and co-operative and then return attack for attack.
Also:
Thing is that Trump also seems to have in mind that doing something is better than doing nothing or doing something idealistic but doomed. Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s not. But if you look at it as that he’s doing the best he can with what he has, it makes a little more sense.
Veruca Salt conservatives want it all NOW and are willing to self destruct if they don’t get it.
Realistic conservatives understand how much of a mess this is and are willing to take every step in the right direction possible, even if they hate the current bill.
And with the current cell of RINOs, this may be the best we can do right now.
It sucks, but that’s the way it is.
Is it still illegal under AHCA to shop out of state?
Is it still illegal under AHCA to shop out of state?
I confess, I examine congressional bills, follow conservative talk radio, read political news, watch Trump rallies, watch some FOX news, and I can't figure out what the hell is going on with this bill.
I love Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, Louie Gohmert and the Freedom Caucus, but I also love President Trump and Houston, we have a problem.
I just don't know what the hell to believe on this whole situation.
For one of the few times I post on FR, I offer no opinion, but I am looking for answers.
Very sad Trump is pushing this crap sandwich on us! We supported him, voted for him, but he embraces the creeps that tried to destroy him. WTF?
Trump promised a repeal...this is NOT a REPEAL! Why can’t he see this?
It is not that I want it all now.
It is that phase 2and 3 are a lie. They cannot get 60 votes. Ever. So whatever passes through reconciliation with 51 Senate votes will be the final product. Period.
Knowing that phase 2 and 3 cannot get 60 votes, I would rather see the Phase 1 bill have everything important now. If this means you cannot use reconciliation and need 60 votes, then I am fine with the bill not passing for now.
Continue on under Obamacare and use the bully pulpit to document soaring preniums and plunging coverage as Obamacare collapses over the next 18 months. See if constituents pressure their Democrat Senators for Obamacare repeal. We only need 9 of them to cross over.
Obamacare will continue its rapid collapse, right into the 2018 elections.
Bring the comprehensive bill with all the elements needed for support by the Conservative Caucus in October 2018, while Dem Senators may be under intense pressure to support the bill.
After the election, we will know how many Dem Senators lost their seats to Republicans. If the GOP retains the Senate, then President Trump has 2 more years to fight for the bill that is supported by the Consrevatives.
If all else fails and the GOP is slated to lose the Senate in 2019, then hold an emergency session and pass RYANCare as it is now.
So we have at least the better part of 2 years to try to get 60 votes for a bill the Conservatives can support, and possibly 4 years if we hold the Senate. Meanwhile RYANCare can always be passed by a 51 vote majority in the Senate in late 2018, if that is the only chance left before the Rats take the Senate.
We should start by shooting for the moon, not start with the absolute worst fix.
Phase 2 and Phase 3 will NEVER get 60 votes. Ever. Especially since RYANCare will fix some things about Obamacare. The commie Dems will be thrilled to see RYANCare pass and then deprive us of all the phase 2and 3 fixes needed to keep it solvent. Then when RYANCcare eventually collapses, the Democrats can honestly sapy the GOP owns it 100% and slaughter them politically. Right now the commie Rats own the Obamacare collapse.
There is no phase 2 pr 3 because we can never get the 60 votes to pass them. Whatever we pass with reconciliation is all there will ever be, and that is not good enough without selling insurance across state lines, heath care savings accounts, the tax credit, etc.
I dunno about phase 3, but isn’t phase 2 completely within the power of the executive branch? Won’t need votes at all because it’s removing regulations.
That still leaves everything in phase 3, like buying insurance across state lines and health care accounts, without which phase 1 will eventually collapse.
Now that Trump stupidly has agreed to cover all pre-existing conditions, he has to find a way to pay the massive costs for that — so someone with no insurance can wait until after being diagnosed with lung cancer to sign up, and then collect a hundred thousand in chemotherapy treatment after having paid NOTHING into the system. It is beyond stupid to put people with pre-existing conditions into the regular health insurance system, rather than lumping them into a high risk pool before the fact.
That is basically Obamacare right there. Covering everybody who is sick, even when they never paid insurance premiums, so they pay nothing but collect everything.
That is not how free-market insurance works and is not solvent without massive government subsidy, which is another tax or another entitlement.
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