Posted on 01/30/2014 11:58:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Calling Obamacare a “Rube Goldberg-like contraption” that has caused more people to lose their health insurance than those who are enrolled in the exchanges, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) revised his previous assessment that once the government subsidies kicked in, it would be “ impossible to repeal Obamacare” because Americans would become “addicted to the sugar.”
“We are seeing the fruits of the battle that so many millions of Americans engaged in last fall to stop Obamacare, and I think the direct result of that fight was to elevate the national debate over the harms that Obamacare has caused,” Cruz said during a Wednesday conference call with reporters and bloggers. “And as a consequence, I think the terrain has changed and I believe we will repeal Obamacare."
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Cruz noted that “momentum was building” to repeal President Obama’s signature health care law even among groups that had previously supported it.
“I believe that the American people have grown to understand what an absolute disaster this law is, that it is killing millions of jobs, forcing millions into part-time work, has already resulted in over five million people losing their health insurance and that it is producing skyrocketing premiums for people all over this country.
“And I think as a result of so many Americans speaking out and really highlighting the consequences, we’re seeing the popularity of Obamacare plummet. We’re seeing it becoming increasingly unpopular with young people, with Hispanics, with independents, with Democrats.
"And as long as we keep the focus on the manifest failures – the people who are being hurt because of Obamacare – the case will continue to be made that it has to be repealed.”
Pointing out that President Obama “did not say a single word to the five million people whose health insurance polices have been cancelled because of Obamacare” during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Cruz said that “if the purpose of this law was to extend insurance to 330,000 people who were uninsured, it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper to just write a check to each of those 330,000 people for a million bucks apiece.
“If we had done that, it would have cost only one-sixth of what Obamacare is going to cost and it wouldn’t have caused over five million people to lose their health insurance, it wouldn’t have caused millions of people to lose their jobs or be forced into part-time work, [or] to see their premiums skyrocket.”
Cruz said he was “still looking at the details” of a plan to replace Obamacare proposed Monday by Senators Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ,Richard Burr (R-N.C). and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would eliminate the federal mandates, and instead use tax incentives based on age and income to encourage individuals to buy health insurance and business owners to provide it.
“What was most striking was that within minutes of the plan being announced, the White Hosue immediately began attacking it….Given that the plan had been announced moments before, they were blasting the plan without reading the details,” Cruz said.
The Texas Republican held a 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor last September in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Senate Democrats from funding Obamacare on a straight party-line vote.
Wow! That's powerful. God Bless Ted Cruz.
I hope it can be repealed.
I hope it’s just repealed — period — and not replaced with some other stupid idea, especially from the Republicans.
The likely scenario:
1. This little budget helper for the insurance companies to prevent failure....will be attacked and cut (maybe not a lot, but enough). This speeds up the collapse process.
2. By summer of 2015, shock over the January 2015 rate increases, and the new rates for 2016 will be released. Most everyone who makes over seventy thousand a year will question now....why they need to pay out $12,000 a year for the insurance and deductible costs. More folks will decline to stay with insurance.
3. By January of 2016, whatever number of uninsured we had in 2008....will be almost doubled. News journalists will try hard to get around the story, but health insurance companies will be noting massive cancellations and fewer customers....which means less profits....which means higher costs for January of 2017. The number one topic for all of spring 2017....will be how to fix this mess. Forget the budget problem (which ought to be number one).
Why can’t other Republicans talk like this? Every sentence is dagger of truth plunged into the political hearts of democrats.
Beavis and Butthead, Bonor and McCornhole, won’t repeal it. The two clowns need to be ridden out on a rail.
I know it’s premature . . . but I’m really starting to think “Cruz for President.” ‘Cause no one else is speaking truth to power like he is these days.
Because the other Republicans have embraced the Tao of Republican Orthodoxy.
IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY GOVERNMENT.
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| The Tao of Republican Orthodoxy [Direct Link] |
The Modern Democratic Party & You [Direct Link] |
Though he got his numbers a little off, didn’t he? Wasn’t it supposed to be 30 million uninsured, not 330,000? But the idea is the same. It would have been cheaper to just give those folks a free ride.
A Dem friend (I keep trying to convert her; she actually owns a brain) asked me what I would have done rather than Obamacare. I see the use of our emergency rooms as a walkin clinic by our uninsured as the major part of the problem. I tolk her I thought it would have been cheaper and better just to build a sliding-scale clinic right beside every emergency room in the country. When Joe Uninsured walks in with his hangnail and sees the triage nurse, she would make the decision to either have Joe continue on into the emergency area, or deflect him next door, to the clinic, where he could wait six hours to have his hangnail looked at. Then people with heart attacks etc. would actually go to the emergency area.
I’ve never seen this idea in print anywhere, and I was just wondering what our Freepers think of it.
Sounds about right to me. Similar to “sick call” in the military. I also foresee some crafty entrepreneurs stationing used cruise liners or purpose-built ships just outside the US territorial waters and doing everything from heart, plastic, gastric-bypass and liposuction to back surgery for dimes on the dollar and you get something of a “vacation” thrown in for the overall price. What do you think of that?
I would go further and have somebody on site at all times to teach you how to treat your own non-serious condition, so you don’t have to go to the hospital all the time if you,know what to,do.
bfl
Cruz said he was “still looking at the details” of a ****plan to replace******* Obamacare proposed Monday by Senators Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ,Richard Burr (R-N.C). and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would eliminate the federal mandates, and instead use tax incentives based on age and income to encourage individuals to buy health insurance and business owners to provide it.
Because they believe in big government as well, but think they can "run" it better when it's their turn to feed at the trough.
I also foresee some crafty entrepreneurs stationing used cruise liners or purpose-built ships just outside the US territorial waters and doing everything from heart, plastic, gastric-bypass and liposuction to back surgery for dimes on the dollar and you get something of a “vacation” thrown in for the overall price.
* * *
I have a friend who is self-insured, who got colon cancer. He went to India for his treatment, stayed there for four months to be treated, and had a helluva vacation. I believe he said the price for the surgery and all the follow-ups was about $30K. He was quite enthusiastic about the vacation part of his experience. So that put me in mind of your idea. The only problem I see with the cruise ship idea is that this might raise hackles in the U.S. and Congress might start passing laws to prevent citizens going there or something. Clinics in another country have the advantage of their own government to protect them.
and instead use tax incentives
“I hope it can be repealed.”
No! Wait for it to “implode”! /sarc
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