Posted on 04/02/2017 4:48:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
For eight years, I have joined my colleagues in the fight to repeal and replace the train wreck that is Obamacare. This was the call heard around the nation for years, particularly leading up to President Trump's historic victory. We promised the American people that if they supported us, help would be on the way. As a conservative, I believe that the federal government should have a limited role in our personal lives, including health care. As a cancer patient, I knew the importance of getting this bill right and replacing Obamacare with a patient-centered solution that also ensures access to care for the nearly 30 percent of Americans with pre-existing conditions. But as the American Health Care Act teetered on the edge of a cliff, it was the Freedom Caucus that helped give it the final push.
How did we get here?
A little history. The truth is that while most Americans had no idea what the Freedom Caucus was until a few weeks ago when it became the official opposition to the Obamacare replacement plan, this group has quietly existed for a while. Two years ago, the most conservative members of the House – myself included – banded together to force leadership to give conservatives a seat at the table when negotiating major legislation. Our goal was to advance the most conservative agenda possible in Congress and give a voice to our constituents who felt that they did not have one. Until this year, we faced a president who opposed everything we stood for, and a leadership that excluded us. This year, that changed.
From start to finish, Speaker Ryan has gone out of his way to be inclusive, and President Trump literally brought us to the table, listening to our concerns, agreeing to some of the group’s demands, and changing the bill to be more conservative. The caucus asked for major concessions, and the bill was changed to include some of them. At a meeting at the White House, the president even agreed to change what is considered Essential Health Benefits by amending the bill to allow states to make that decision. But the goalpost kept moving further and further down the field. It became clear to me that no matter what was included and changed, the answer would still be no. That’s why I left the Freedom Caucus even though I agree with them on most issues and consider them my friends. The bill wasn’t perfect – no piece of legislation is – but it was absolutely far better than Obamacare. Like it or not, the reality of the makeup of the House and Senate is that if you demand a purist repeal of Obamacare, it will die on the floor. This was our chance to make meaningful change.
The Freedom Caucus served as a check on a liberal administration and former House leadership that repeatedly compromised with Democrats. Times have changed. Republicans – mostly conservatives – control it all now. It is our time to lead. It is our time to unify and deliver on the promises that we made for years. Those calling for otherwise have been in Washington long enough to know that you do not get everything you want in any bill.
We can no longer allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. The American Health Care Act included major conservative reforms. It would have repealed the individual and employer mandates, reduced taxes, expanded health savings accounts, ensured access to coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ plan. It would have also defunded Planned Parenthood. Overall, this bill would have accomplished much of what we have been seeking all along, and the administration had committed to push forward what couldn’t be done in this bill separately.
I want to be part of the conservative majority that delivers solutions. Americans voted for solutions. Americans voted for help to make their lives easier and more affordable. We must give them the solutions they demand, that they deserve, and that we promised. I am encouraged that conversations have restarted within the House Republican Conference, and I hope that we can all get on the same page in the hymnal and produce a bill that delivers on our promise to the American people.
And that’s just the way it is.
A: Because it would fail in the House by 400 votes.
The Republican reasoning for why we should have passed it: Hey, at least it has corn in it, see?
I am also considering what will be the next legislation that the freedom caucus will decide is lacking in elements that they want to have included. Will they use the conservative label to claim superior motivation and oppose the Trump agenda? I am not a fan of Paul Ryan and if there is a better person in the House who can do the job of leader, let the HFC put their clout towards replacing him.
House Freedom Caucus
Everyone is gung-ho on eliminating the mandates. Yet every state mandates auto insurance except New Hampshire. Why no hue and cry over those mandates?
Bottom line is the Republicans were never really prepared for a Repeal or a Replace.....their bill should have been already prepared and ready for approval on day one just as Trump made clear throughout his campaign needed to be. Just as clearly the Republicans didn’t have their ducks in a row...neither the repeal nor the replacement.
...So now their ‘again’ stuck in a quagmire of healthcare issues...Trump has every reason to be ore than irritated with Ryan and the Republicans....not just the Freedom Caucus.
Ryancare wanted to repeal four out of the twelve Obamacare mandates.
Four out of twelve, when you control both houses and the presidency is not "good".
Never more Mr. Poe?
Well said @63
I did not like several things in the bill, but the one thing many here on FR fail to understand is how this bill would have let Tom Price take a chainsaw and a scalpel to Obamacare. THIS provision, using the language of Obamacare itself (as the secretary sees fit) was where the real dismantling of Obamacare would occur. On top of that, Trump would have time and a performance analysis on which to base the follow-on bills.
If it were up to us the government would completely be out of the healthcare business, but that won’t happen anytime soon. It had to start somewhere and putting forth an initial bill that could pass the Senate was a political necessity. Trump has earned enough trust with me to believe him when he said “it was a start.”
Adopting the attitude the Freedom Caucus did is a recipe for ending life single and bitter. There is some wisdom in Mr. Poes assessment - “We can no longer allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”
If this bill was not good (and some parts were not) do you believe Trump would not want to fix it with one of the best equipped cabinet members to provide assessment? Tom Price understands the pitfalls of Obamacare better than most and he said it would be up to him to fix what he could after the door was opened so we could focus on the areas still needing to be addressed.
Those who believed repeal with nothing to replace was the best course ignore political reality. This bill was a starting point that did not leave those with Obamacare insurance in the cold. Smaller bills after this one addressing the areas that needed fixing would stand a far better chance.
Roger that. I’d say the man has thought things through and chose to back what is doable in his opinion. I find nothing wrong with such a man.
Yup, the Speaker Ryan being inclusive part is another Poe lie.
These guys and gals are incompetent.
But, the ER is covered with as many as 40 to 50 people piled in there to see a doctor for things that ER's just should not be seeing people for. They need to screen people and determine if they can wait until the next day, then go to a primary care doctor or one of those emergency clinics dotted around the cities that do a lot of the ER stuff, runny nose, got a cold, sick tummy, etc.
The ER should be for REAL EMERGENCIES, NOT FOR I have a runny hose and coughing up gook. Every time we have to do to the ER, I simply dred going because I KNOW we are going to be there from 4 to 8 hours waiting. THESE are the type problems that are dominating our health care. People without insurance going to the ER's using them as their primary doctors because they know that the ERs will not turn them away because little Tito has a runny nose and a fever of 98.8.
Maybe someday in the future, our fools in the halls of Sodom on the Potomac might actually do something correctly and fix these idiotic crap that has the health care system destroyed. Yeah, I know, right, and one day pigs will take off from aircraft carriers and dive bomb Tehran and the nuke plants.
If you like your ObamaCare, you can keep your ObamaCare.
If you want private insurance from a free marketplace, you can have private insurance.
If you are not here legally, you cannot have ObamaCare.
No American shall be punished by taxation or fees for their insurance choices.
Private insurers may now legally provide coverage for those with pre-exiting conditions.
The parasites are still covered, Ryan can "fix" their program all he wants, the vast majority of us can escape the nightmare without penalty, illegals do not get rewarded with more freebies, and the only good aspect of ObamaCare (potential coverage for pre-existing conditions) is retained.
Sadly, the insurance companies will have to be subject to actual competition in the marketplace once again, and DC won't get to control 1/6 of the economy... but somehow, I think we can survive those issues. Ahem.
On the mark. Now the question becomes, why is this the case?
Republicans gained control under the premise of returning to rationality. Looking more and more like this Republican party truly doesn't care about such an ideology, seemingly they're actually good with the crap forced on us the past 8 years.
Well, they're out of excuses now. There's no one left to blame. They continue to run with this Russia crap as a diversion, but that isn't going to fly, not with people like myself. If change isn't implemented now, on the major issues, does it truly matter which party is in charge?
Also it would have defunded planned Parenthood for only a year.
Give me a break.
We can no longer allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
???
Huh??
Translation: My district isn’t so safe, so please, please, please RNC, don’t try to get rid of me. I’ll be good.
The President wanted a bill. I don’t know why. I don’t think he was well-advised because he let Ryan take the lead on it.
I saw Donald Trump on the campaign trail occasionally come out with really bad, stinking comments, but after a few minutes with Manafort, he would come back the same day or the next day and set it straight.
I suspect that Ryan was telling him all along that the AHCA was “coming along just fine” and the President was misled to believe all was going to be good and wonderful. And then Ryan failed and cast blame on the Freedom Caucus.
The President needs better advisors.
Just like Lincoln allowed some loser generals to advise how to proceed with prosecuting the rebellion, he eventually tossed those generals aside and found the foul-mouthed drunkard in U.S. Grant.
President Trump needs to so the same. Find a non-politically correct bastard to play hardball with Democrat Senators and get a full repeal. Once a full repeal is passed, the President has a clear slate to start fresh.
The Zero Hedge link above follows on what I wrote here on FR a few weeks back from links I found from 2012 from the NY Times and others.
The idea is to prosecute the hell out of Geithner and other democrats that stole from the US Treasury, embezzled and illegally misappropriated massive funds in order to prop up a failing Obamacare to buy votes and keep insurers onboard until after the 2012 election.
At the same time, President Trump can instruct the IRS to allow persons to check a box vouching that they have an adequate healthplan that they affirm meets their needs.
So with one hand, he slices and dices democrats over a massive scandal in Obamacare, and on the other hand he frees the population and businesses from Obamacare mandates through clever policy tricks.
Keep this up for about 8 to 10 months and democrats will be lining up to vote full repeal of Obamacare.
But what we have now is a master cluster f*ck by Ryan.
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