Posted on 03/24/2017 6:53:32 AM PDT by MaxistheBest
Reports from Capitol Hill today indicate rising exasperation among old-school conservatives about the shifting, raise-the-ante, refuse-to-say-"yes" demands from most members of the House Freedom Caucus, with regard to the upcoming vote on the House Republican healthcare bill.
The exasperation is well-justified.
The House Freedom Caucus is clearly driven by outside groups such as Heritage Action, which has become such an all-or-nothing, my-way-or-the-highway outfit that it makes Patrick Henry look like a compromising squish. It seems as if every concession made to the Freedom Caucus is met with a new demand.
I just returned from a barbecue place in conservative Mobile, Ala., where a longtime Republican activist stopped me and asked: "Are we going to get a health bill? Are these guys in Congress ever going to prove they can govern? Will they ever know when to get to 'yes'? Are we ever going to stop making the perfect the enemy of the good?" This was a conservative stalwart in deep-red Alabama, not a centrist Long Island inheritor – and even he was disgusted by the House Freedom Caucus' behavior.
The House leadership's original bill contained a lot of good features but doubtless left much to be desired. Its policy mix was poorly cobbled together; the political groundwork for it was nearly non-existent; and the public relations surrounding its release was slow, muted and confused. But since then, the Trump White House and the leadership team have made yeomen's efforts to improve the bill. They have listened, reconsidered, adjusted and reworked a number of provisions — especially by encouraging block grants and work requirements for Medicaid.
But the House Freedom Caucus leaders and their outside pressure groups have refused to get on board even to keep alive what surely will be the only vehicle to replace Obamacare that will come up this year. They have no respect for the reality that the budget "reconciliation" rules do indeed put real parameters on what can be included in such legislation with just 51 votes. They show no memory of how the only reason the whole of Obamacare passed in 2010 was because the Senate did meet a 60-vote threshold on Christmas Eve of 2009 and then used that vote as pretext for claiming reconciliation rules either already had been met or else no longer applied — and thus that Democrats then had an advantage Republicans do not enjoy right now.
They show no understanding that whatever they vote on in the House will absolutely be altered in the Senate and that they in the House will, therefore, get another chance to vote yea or nay on final passage. In effect, the first floor vote in the House amounts, de facto if not de jure, to a procedural vote. Without this vote, they absolutely will not be able to meet their campaign pledges to replace Obamacare. And they will make the Republican Congress and the new White House look hopelessly inept, destroy any political momentum from the election, explode comity within the House and Senate Republican caucuses, and badly hobble the entire conservative agenda in a flurry of mutual recriminations.
Yes, the whole process should be slowed down once it reaches the Senate. Senators should include House conservatives in behind-the-scenes negotiations as the Senate tries to rework the bill. The final bill should be crafted to fit as much within reconciliation rules as possible, should be accurately scored by the Congressional Budget Office before a vote, should be available for members of Congress and the public to read for a full week before the final vote, and should have parts that actually fit together rather than working at cross-purposes.
Yet all of this is best done in the Senate. Only the Senate really can determine how much to squeeze within its own peculiar reconciliation rules. Only the Senate can determine how conservative a bill can be without losing just three of 52 Republican members.
The rollcall will be available, Jim Jordan and Nancy Pelosi will both be a nay. How he explains that vote is up to him
“By evening, Trump sent his top lieutenants to a dramatic meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday night with an ultimatum: he was done talking. According to Representative Chris Collins of New York, a top Trump ally, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told House Republicans that Trump wanted a vote.”The president has said he wants a vote tomorrow, up or down,” Collins said.
Trump demands support in do-or-die Friday vote on healthcare plan (POLITICS | Fri Mar 24, 2017 |)
..I currently cannot afford insurance. Patriots like Meadows, Jordan and Gohmert speak for me and I am thankful for them. Also I believe that DJT and the caucus are natural allies, reports notwithsanding...
Do what Lou Dobbs said last night:
Kill this misbegotten bill and come up with a new one designed by Trump and his people in consultation with the Freedom Caucus.
Hang the Obamacare disaster around the necks of the Media and the ‘Rat Party.
Then promptly dump Paul Ryan and his fellow GOPe travelers.
********************
Exactly this. Let Ryan fully own this failure as it was basically “his way or the highway.”
Once this fails to pass let the Trump team put together a real repeal and free market solution.
The anger is misplaced. Blame Ryan and the rest of the “moderates” who hijacked this bill and turned it into rinocare. When they took out the no health insurance for illegals clause that did it for me. And they will be no phase 3.
So it comes down to the Freedom Caucus VS. Ryan/Trump.
If Trump wants this bill to pass so badly, maybe the Freedom Caucus should just vote for it but make clear that Trump and Ryan now own this TrumpCare bill and all the consequences that go with it. They can then promise that they will repeal TrumpCare if/when they ever get a Freedom Caucus majority in the House and Senate.
Let’s get the wall built and the tax cuts passed already.
I’d say this piece pretty accurately describes the current state of affairs. What those cheering on the Freedom Caucus rebellion don’t understand is that the GOP is not an ideologically unified party. It is deeply fractured and that means that to get anything done there are going to have to be compromises along the way. The bottom line question here is do they think the proposed bill (which is deeply flawed IMO) is worse than Zerocare? If the answer is yes, then their continued resistance is justified. If not then they need to get onboard and pass this thing so we can begin what will undoubtedly be the long process of unwinding this monstrosity.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and Zerocare is going to take some time to dismantle. It will by necessity be a multi-stage undertaking. But if this bill dies, there is a VERY good chance that we will be stuck with this disaster forever.
I LOVE the House Freedom Caucus!
Standing with Freedom Caucus. Obamacare lite is NO solution and would be a millstone around the neck of President Trump.
No rush. Get it right. Repeal and replace with an open, free market solution.
Hannity has had on his radio show several times the modelers of a solution which is quite effective and *very* affordable.
FReeRegards,
FMOKM
I’m fine to see Obamacare go down in flames. What’s the problem?
Once this fails to pass let the Trump team put together a real repeal and free market solution.
I'm on my knees praying Trump follows Dobb's advice. Passing RyanCare would be a disaster for the President and the American people.
Kill this misbegotten bill and come up with a new one designed by Trump and his people in consultation with the Freedom Caucus.
Hang the Obamacare disaster around the necks of the Media and the ‘Rat Party.
Then, promptlyin due time dump Paul Ryan and his fellow GOPe travelers.
Does anyone doubt that Dobbs and Trump discuss issues like this.
Should have simply repealed Obamacare, expiring it at the end of the year, then SEPARATELY created a replacement to start next year. What I don’t understand is why Trump is not taking lead, instead letting traitor Ryan bury him with a lousy bill.
Me too. I assumed they had a plan to install a conservative speaker when they got rid of Boner. It turns out they did not. That seems to be a common theme with much of what these guys do.
The bill presented by Paul RINO Ryan is nothing but a total sham, besides keeping premiums the same (or higher)!, keeping the mandates to cover such things as maternity care, nursing "coaching," neonatal coverage, women's "health, including birth control and abortifiicants (abortion producing Plan B drugs) and was written by insurance companies and pharmacutical companies!
Since when do senior citizens desire a plan covering breast feeding "coaching" or abortion producing drugs, or young people pay for hip replacement surgeries?
Why should conservatives walk the plank and vote for Obama care lite?
Kill this misbegotten bill and come up with a new one designed by Trump and his people in consultation with the Freedom Caucus.
Hang the Obamacare disaster around the necks of the Media and the ‘Rat Party.
Then, promptlyin due time dump Paul Ryan and his fellow GOPe travelers.
Does anyone doubt that Dobbs and Trump discuss issues like this.
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