Posted on 03/07/2017 9:37:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Even before Congressional Republicans revealed their plan to replace Obamacare on Monday, many conservatives had expressed concerns that the bill would become "Obamacare Lite" — more a modification than a full "repeal and replace." For those unsatisfied with the health reform blueprint, President Donald Trump tweeted an answer Tuesday morning.
"Don't worry, getting rid of state lines, which will promote competition, will be in phase 2 & 3 of healthcare rollout," the president declared via Twitter.
Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Don't worry, getting rid of state lines, which will promote competition, will be in phase 2 & 3 of healthcare rollout. @foxandfriends 8:41 AM - 7 Mar 2017 8,967 8,967 Retweets 41,101 41,101 likes
Trump's suggestion that the Republican replacement for Obamacare will be a process might be a belated attempt to assuage conservative opposition to the new health plan, attacked as "TrumpCare" or "Obamacare Lite."
The attacks were vicious, and not without merit.
"The very first thing - THE FIRST THING - we were told is that we're going to REPEAL and REPLACE. The new law itself starts with 'amends,'" Joe Cunningham, a senior contributing editor at RedState, posted on Twitter. "As in, it AMENDS the Obamacare. Which is not what Republican voters have been promised all this time, now is it?"
Joe Cunningham @JoePCunningham Trying to figure out what the House ACA replacement actually fixes, because it just looks like everything is worse now. Follow
Joe Cunningham @JoePCunningham
The very first thing - THE FIRST THING - we were told is that we're going to REPEAL and REPLACE. The new law itself starts with "amends." 8:02 AM - 7 Mar 2017 31 31 Retweets 45 45 likes
RedState's Caleb Howe was even more blunt: "The House has released their plan for replacing Obamacare, and if you were expecting some kind of full repeal like what every Republican in the galaxy has been promising for the last thousand years, forget it. This isn’t that."
Daniel Horowitz, senior editor at Conservative Review, said the new health plan was even worse than "Obamacare-lite."
The first thing to understand about the GOP healthcare bill is that it is not merely Obamacare-lite or a bad “replacement” bill. It doesn’t repeal the core of Obamacare in the first place. In fact, the few parts that it repeals or tweaks within a few years will actually intensify the death spiral of Obamacare when mixed with the core regulatory structure, exacerbated by the subsidies that they do keep. And this time, the GOP will own it politically. All of it. But it wasn't only conservative bloggers attacking the bill. Three conservative Republican senators posted a message in tandem on Twitter: "2 yrs ago, the GOP Congress voted to repeal Obamacare. That 2015 repeal language should be the floor, the bare minimum.
#FullRepeal"
Rand Paul: I Will Not Vote for 'Obamacare Lite' Follow
Ted Cruz ✔ @tedcruz
2 yrs ago, the GOP Congress voted to repeal Obamacare. That 2015 repeal language should be the floor, the bare minimum. #FullRepeal 8:07 PM - 27 Feb 2017
2,171 2,171 Retweets 6,060 6,060 likes
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Utah Senator Mike Lee, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul each pushed the same message.
Follow
Mike Lee ✔ @SenMikeLee
2 yrs ago, GOP Congress voted to repeal #Obamacare. That 2015 repeal language should be the minimum. #FullRepeal @SenTedCruz @SenRandPauI 8:20 PM - 27 Feb 2017 1,015 1,015 Retweets 2,080 2,080 likes
This is significant, since any Republican plan could only afford to lose two Republican votes in the U.S. Senate and still pass.
Follow Senator Rand Paul ✔ @RandPaul
2 yrs ago, the GOP Congress voted to repeal Obamacare. That 2015 repeal language should be the floor, the bare minimum. #FullRepeal 8:17 PM - 27 Feb 2017 1,871 1,871 Retweets 4,455 4,455 likes
Paul joined North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows in calling for an immediate repeal of Obamacare, and debating a replacement later. "We own repeal. We ran on it. It is our idea. We have to pass it cleanly, now," Paul and Meadows declared in a Fox News op-ed Monday night.
"We should debate all of these replacement ideas on the same day we pass Repeal, but we will have to separate the debate into at least two different bills because there is no consensus with leadership on replacement," Paul and Meadows wrote. They attacked "Republican leadership" for supporting several parts of Obamacare:
1. Leadership wants to keep ObamaCare-like subsidies to buy insurance but rename them refundable tax credits (families will be given up to $14,000 dollars of other people's money)
2. leadership wants to keep the ObamaCare Cadillac tax but rename it a tax on the top 10% of people who have the best insurance.
3. Leadership wants to keep the individual mandate but instead of mandating a tax penalty to the government they mandate a penalty to the insurance company (can it possibly be Constitutional to mandate a penalty to a private insurance company?)
4. Leadership wants to keep $100 billion of the insurance company subsidies from ObamaCare but call them "reinsurance". (Why? Because insurance companies love guaranteed issue as long as the taxpayer finances it!)
"Conservatives don't want new taxes, new entitlements and an 'ObamaCare Lite' bill," Paul and Meadows wrote. "If leadership insists on replacing ObamaCare with ObamaCare-lite, no repeal will pass."
These two Republicans called for a clean passage of the same 2015 legislation originally supported by Republicans to repeal Obamacare.
Rather than following Trump's plan of passing a "repeal and replace" bill which really amends Obamacare, and then supporting further modifications later on in "phase 2 & 3 of healthcare rollout," Senator Paul and Congressman Meadows called for an immediate repeal, followed by a robust and open debate on what a replacement should look like.
This way of proceeding might be painful and certainly will be turbulent, but it is in the best interest of the nation — and the Republican Party. Republicans attacked Democrats for secret negotiations in crafting Obamacare, and especially condemned Nancy Pelosi's infamous declaration that Congress would have to pass it to see what's in it.
In order to really replace Obamacare, Republicans need to have a transparent debate from the beginning, not pass a faux "repeal and replace," only to amend that later, as Trump tweeted.
Ryan must be on Soros’ payroll. I hope that smug bastard contracts a painful, terminal disease soon.
It’s EXTORTION!
We don’t get the repeal, without buying the deal!
No deal!
A clean repeal, THEN try to sell us your bag of tricks!
A clean repeal, and hand it off to the free market.
Government OUT OF HEALTHCARE! NOW!
Well good, who is asking for replace anyway!? Liberals? To hell with replace my healthcare was just fine pre Obamacare. Repeal and be done with it
Because the GOP is gay, filled to the brim with liars, and can’t do anything.
Don’t do it President Trump! The slimy Republicans are trying to pull a fast one on you! Sign it when it’s all in one package and you have read it inside out. Don’t be like Nancy polosi, “ We’ll know what’s in it once we pass it” remember that idiotic statement?! Hold tight and steady...we can hang loose until a new GOOD plan is hatched!
Ryan is on Soros payroll.
Not for as much money as Sen. McCain.
Well, it won’t make his desk. That bill is loaded with horsetrading material.
It has to be, because passing nothing would be the worst disaster.
But don’t think horsetrading moves it rightward. The votes missing are in blue or nearly blue states.
Because Members of Congress can count votes like a pimp in a whorehouse can count money.
I am announcing my support for a single-payer national health system today, with a private option for people who will want it faster or better.
That's what people want, that's why there's Obamacare, that's why the GOP can't repeal it. The status quo is unsustainable, and if this bill is passed in anything like its present form the damage will be transferred from the Democrats to the GOP. All of the compromises with the insurance industry have to be undone, everybody gets a National Health Card that pays 100% of everything (everything that's "allowed", that is), taxes go up to pay for it.
It's the only way out.
Bingo. Now take the next step. CONTINUING those elements without single payer is economic suicide.
Yup. I know this sounds cold, but the sake of America, McCain should have expired when he was a prisoner.
And strong red states as well and I’m glad it is being shutdown by Paul/Lee/Cruz because the public wants it gone not a lighter liberal plan
I’ve got one kid that stayed on our plan till 26. She had to go on Obamacare for a short time after that simply because the penalty was more than the pathetic, extremely high deductible worthless plan they offered.
She then got a job that comes with insurance benefits.
But, she works in retail. It’s a very satisfying but not highly compensated job and insurance would have been a huge expense for her.
She’s no pathetic snowflake. She moved out on her own at 19 and has been very independent.
I’m no fan of any portion of government healthcare, but if they offer the benefit, I’m not turning it down.
Ha.
There are only two things the public dislikes about Obamacare - the name, and paying for it.
They're fine with the rest, in fact, they demand the rest.
Just repeal it!
This bill is better than Obamacare, but only marginally. Obamacare 2.0, as Rep. Justin Amash called it. They could do so much better.
It retains the Cadillac tax – although it’s deferred to 2025. It repeals the individual mandate, yet re-enacts it in a different form by including a 30 percent penalty when you re-insure after being uninsured. IOW, the mandate via the back door. And refundable tax credits ARE subsidies.
Way too much like Obamacare. Only marginally different. The Republicans own it now.
I don’t want to tinker around the margins. I want to get rid of it. All the more reason why we must kill the bill, and we must kill it with Republican votes.
How about re-passing the plan Obama vetoed? Apparently, it had enough support to pass, so why not pass it now when you have complete control of the government?
Even better — the Paul plan.
Fortunately, I don’t think Ryancare will pass the Senate, even if it gets out of the House. (They can lose 22 Republican House members and 2 Republican senators.) I believe there are already three Republican senators against — Cruz,. Paul, and Lee. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sasse turns out to be a no vote also.
They might not even get the opportunity, hopefully. Amash has already declared against the Ryancare plan. Hopefully, the Freedom Caucus will stand against it
Excuse me but for eight years all we heard from people here on FR was that if we took out the individual mandate it would kill Obamacare.
This takes out the individual mandate. Seems to me that goes a long way toward a full repeal.
Not me, and repeal is the only solution period. It uncinches direct government control. I’d go as far to say unfund it completely would do the same thing but the law would remain for someone to resurrect and we all know how givernment looooooves to control us
Sorry, you cannot deny with any credibility that the “individual mandate” was harped on and harped on, was the KEY to the failed USSC case, and was held up by everyone as central to the collapse of O care.
Whether “to you” or not, that’s a fact. And now it’s gone.
The bill is anything but perfect. Honestly, I doubt even this could get 60 Senate votes, though. But a more drastic bill will never get by the Senate. So this has to be done incrementally.
If indeed phase two is portability of policies, huge step. Stage three might entail some tort reform. I am in touch with a free market doctors group that has some amazing solutions here-—but in the AZ constitution it is stated there can be NO limits on torts, so that’s a state constitutional issue.
Bottom line, we ALL should treat this as a start. The Dems worked on their “bill” for 30 years. If we completely reverse this in 15, it will be a great accomplishment.
Why not a clean repeal??
Because they DO NOT HAVE the votes in the Senate to do a total repeal & replace.
We all wish it was different but that’s the way it is, folks. So you make what healthcare changes you can right now w/ the 52 Senate votes you do have.
And after that, get to work on taxes, jobs, border wall, jobs, regulations, jobs, energy, jobs, infrastructure, jobs....
Then they work again on healthcare to do more. These next things will require Pres Trump to be very active to get both the Rs & Ds in Congress to move on his healthcare agenda. He will have to threaten both groups with losing their seat to make them get in line.
This is one of the true duties of a president: To use the bully-pulpit to get legislation passed and is the mark of a great president.
There you go - being the voice of reason in this matter. Most people don’t understand insurance, and I think that most haven’t even read the proposed bill. This isn’t the final bill, I’m sure it will be tweaked. Unfortunately, most on here read headlines and other posts and jump on the bandwagon. Another unfortunate thing is that most people don’t understand insurance either. I was an agent for a number of years and it can be complicated.
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