Posted on 03/24/2017 8:05:54 PM PDT by ckinv368
The Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare—the American Health Care Act—finally came up for a final vote in the House. First put forward by Speaker Paul Ryan in 2009, it offered few surprises to Republicans. And the effort itself was very familiar, as Republicans had voted over 60 times to repeal Obamacare since its passage eight years ago. Yet, when the time came to exercise the prerogative of the majority and finally repeal and replace President Obama’s deeply flawed social program, Republicans came up short.
Over the past two weeks, moderate Republicans argued that they could not vote for a plan that did not keep certain fail-safe protections for the elderly in place. Conservative Republicans—many in the so-called “Freedom Caucus”—complained that Ryan’s plan kept popular portions of Obamacare on the books. They wanted a complete repeal, and many would accept nothing less. In the end, no-one got their wish. As Speaker Ryan admitted this afternoon, “we are going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.” This, in part, because the Trump Administration refuses to have its agenda held hostage. It is sidelining healthcare and moving forward with tax reform.
Democrats are celebrating Republican missteps. And the collective finger-pointing within the Republican establishment has already begun in earnest. An early contender for sacrificial lamb is Speaker Ryan.
Without doubt, Ryan’s plan was far from perfect. As provisions were added, modified, and deleted, it became less a divination of policy genius, and more a Golden Corral smorgasbord of disparate measures designed to keep factions of the Republican Party moderately happy. Deficit reduction went down. Entitlements and complexity increased. Projections of coverage availability plummeted. Was it the plan any Republican in the House could fall in love with? Certainly not. Was it a plan that could get past a centrist-Republican Senate which had expressed significant doubts? Possibly.
Some have already blamed Ryan for failing to whip the necessary Republican votes to pass the bill. Indications were that he was as few as five votes short. With additional tweaks, pressure, threats, and a hard weekend push, the bill may have gotten across the goal line. However, that effort may have created so much ill-will that it could have hobbled the President’s policy goals for the next four years.
Conservative Republicans have been quick to point fingers at moderate Republicans, saying that these “RINOs” merely wanted to pass Obamacare-lite, without “real change.” However, the reality for Republicans in swing districts is that it’s politically difficult to remove insurance from a projected 24 million Americans over the next decade. Taking entitlements away is much more painful than granting them. And, it should also be remembered that moderate Republicans were much more willing to compromise in this effort than their hard-line brethren.
While pointing fingers, conservative Republicans in Congress should look in the mirror. Maybe these Republicans meant well, in a naïve sort of way. After all, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona (a dentist) told The Washington Post that he came to Washington “to do health care right.” Rep. Louie Gohmert said that “a no vote means we save Donald Trump from a Democratic majority in 2019.” Others vehemently argue that Obamacare should be immediately repealed, but that Congress should give itself until midterms to pontificate over a replacement (all, while millions of Americans lose health coverage). Unfortunately, none of this is politically feasible. Was the American Health Care Act exactly what the Freedom Caucus wanted? No. Did it offer conservatives the best healthcare deal they may ever get? Probably. The time had come to pass a plan that could receive 216 votes in the House, and 51 in the Senate. Conservative Republicans blew it big time.
By comparison, President Trump is nothing if not pragmatic. In an interview with Robert Costa of The Washington Post, he argued that his next efforts at healthcare reform will garner bi-partisan support once Obamacare premiums exponentially increase, coverage options decrease, and the program implodes. This is good politics. But, a bi-partisan effort guarantees that the Freedom Caucus will be locked out of negotiations, with the bill too centrist for their taste. Trump said so himself. When asked whether a bi-partisan bill would free him from having to court those farthest to the Right, he replied “a lot of people might say that,” opining that such a possibility would “end up with a better health-care plan. A great plan. And you wouldn’t need the Freedom Caucus.”
There is an old saying in Texas that seems particularly appropriate: "pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered." That colloquialism pretty much sums up the predicament conservative Republicans now find themselves in. By asking for too much, being too greedy, and demanding unrealistic provisions that had little chance of surviving a Senate vote, they may have shown themselves expendable. There’s little doubt in my mind that the healthcare debate is not over. But conservative Republicans and the Freedom Caucus may be left out of the fold the next time votes are counted.
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www.cameronkinvig.com
Yep, it was the Freedom Caucus that produced a loser of a bill without getting input from, or agreements from the different factions inside the Republican party. After all, everyone knows Republicans do socialism better. It was the Freedom caucus that spent seven years completely caving to Obama. It was the Freedom Caucus that spent seven years running on repealing Obamacare “root and branch” only be caught flat footed when the opportunity arose. There is plenty of blame to go around, but this failure is not solely the fault of the Freedom Caucus.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Doing the right thing did not connect them in any way shape or form to the program that is on its way to collapse.
Except in the minds of the free traitors and other globalists.
And to think it was the Freedom Caucus that helped get Ryan in there in the first place.
The word is everything, it wasn’t going to fix everything. But it was at least headed in the right direction. But WOOHOO, you and the commie left have a lot to celebrate tonight, yeah.
I am paying more too but this wasn’t good legislation.
It’s not an end game. I don’t know if you recall but obamacare went down early too but was passed soon afterwards. There will be more legislation that comes along in the not too distant future and I believe it will be better.
Could still pull off a win if it takes down Ryan, that jackass bastard.
From what I am reading in the news, the RINO’s voted YES today and many conservatives from Freedom caucus voted NO.
The Ryan bill was nothing like what I want, as will be obvious by reading my profile. But if the Ryan bill passed, it would have got rid of the mandate, and that would have allowed me to dump my very expensive insurance and shop for less expensive insurance. Now I am forced to but coverages I do not need at my age in 70’s.
The unconstitutional mandate remained in this stupid bill.
That is why conservatives jumped Ryan’s ship.
Repeal, don’t replace.
Yes, you have made it clear that you want some remnant of Obamacare, but conservatives do not.
And then he betrayed them — stabbing them in the back— that sorry thankless bastard. Never again!!
Don’t be a dumbass. I am not celebrating anything. It was bad legislation. There are more opportunities for better legislation. It will come.
Well, the process can’t end here, even with Ryno talking as if it has. The libs did this deliberately.
We have a Country where half if not more of the Population thinks someone else owes them a Living.
They call it the Government, and it exists to make sure Life isn’t difficult and that everything is someone else’s fault.
We as Conservatives understand that the Government does not earn a living. It just steals money from the Productive Citizenry and hands it off to the modern day Loyalists who fight every day to expand its power.
My Mother always used to say, you help People who can’t help themselves, not People who won’t help themselves.
Bear in mind, her Sister, my Aunt lost her Sight to Glaucoma in her late Teens and still worked every day Sewing Clothes in what we would now call a Sweatshop.
She only stopped Working when she Married her Husband when she was in her early 40’s. Must be why I have little patience for Liberal whiners who have no idea how fortunate they are.
Liberals don’t like the term “help”. They prefer to make everything in Life a “Right”. Food, Housing, Healthcare, Job (just kidding), Cell Phones, Internet Access, the list is endless. Obamacare is just another Right, especially the part of Obamacare that’s Free, Medicaid.
Meanwhile, Productive People pay for it. Personally, Obamacare has cost my Wife and I about $30,000 since it caused us to lose our Insurance Plan back in December 2013.
We had to find new Insurance and our Premiums are over double what they were back then, costing us an additional $12,000 a Year.
The Congress critters don’t hear our stories at their Townhalls, only the Liberal whiners who say Obamacare saved their Lives like we had no Healthcare before it came along.
The secret is, we had it but they never wanted to pay for it, and they still don’t.
Sorry for the rant. Once I get started... LOL
Obamacare can not collapse, so long as the gubbermint has the money printing press. Watch the republicans fund whatever Obamacare needs.
There is no collapse. If you took the time to study the budget and how it is funded, you would know this.
It doesn’t matter what Obamacare costs. Treasury will issue bonds to pay for it. Y’all might want to stop thinking of govt spending as “the taxpayers’ money”. It’s more like Quantitative Ease money. 25% of GDP in 6 yrs was created from thin air.
Why not just kill taxes? Because that risks the narrative of normalcy.
But I digress. There is no implode. There is no collapse. The Fed has infinite money and their responsibility, as they demonstrated in 2007/8/9 is to guard against systemic risk. If Obamacare creates systemic risk, they fund the bonds that pay for it.
You guys are just delusional. You would be less so if you stopped reading blogs by other delusional right wing seekers-of-clicks and just study the budget.
The Republicans, represented by Mr. Ryan (and that is almost all of them in Congress)lost. I think Trump won. I am curious to see what he makes of it. I am happy to see him keep his promises, even where I think he is wrong, because if or when it comes up a clunker he will change it rather than double down on a failure.
But maybe you can answer my question did any of the FC members vote for Ryan as speaker?
Including the GOP bills to fully fund Obamacare?
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Yep. The GOPe was talking a tough game like they wanted to do something but really didn’t. That’s why they pushed an obamacare lite bill.
Yeah, you keep believing that. It’s over, your side gave the left all they needed to ruin what could of been a great thing.
Oh, and in the context of “it was a bad bill” . . . well, if you can’t get a majority then it probably was a bad bill.
But none of the wackos offered up anything else that could get through the Senate.
And for God’s sake stop with the “we passed repeal only bills 5 times!!!” crap. You know damn well no one took those seriously because Obama would not sign them. They were a waste of time, but the GOP donors had to be fed red meat. With Trump prez, putting those bills up would have failed the House far worse as all the NY and Cali guys would say no. There are 33 competitive districts. No way in hell they would say yes. That’s more No’s than the Koch funded Freedom Caucus had. And of course no way to get 60 in the Senate. Hell, not even 50, with Collins out there and worse Flake won his seat with only 46%, and Heller is in a solid Blue state now and up in 2018, too.
You could not even get 50 with that crap.
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