and buffet loves “insurance companies,” they provide him with huge amounts of cash-flow and known risks.
And they even occasionally get the Federal Government, to force everyone to buy their products and use the IRS to enforce it, at the barrel of gun.
(let us not all forget... the SCOTUS ACA decision still stands, Trump can choose to not enforce one tiny bit of it, but it’s still a precedent setting decision, and we haven’t seen the last of it. The Feds still control “healthcare,’ make no mistake.)
the SCOTUS ACA stands until 2019. This year will be the last. Even the idiots at CNN made a point of it.
“The Feds still control “healthcare,’ make no mistake.”
Correct. Since the GOP did not repeal the ACA (thanks to McCain who is currently enjoying his government paid Mayo Clinic medical care) as soon as there is a Democrat Congress and Democrat president, the ACA will be modified to make it impossible for a GOP president to modify its most intrusive requirements through executive orders or bureaucrat regulations.
Notice the GOP Congress has totally walked away from repeal of the ACA. It will be interesting to see what issues our GOP Congresscritters and Senators run on in 2018:
1) The wall? No way. At most it will be the soft term “border security”.
2) Health care. Likely they will avoid the subject.
3) Federal deficit. It appears they will run supporting a “balanced budget amendment” which they can’t hope to pass in Congress. Plus they have zero credibility.
4) Planned Parenthood defunding? After having passed a spending bill funding Planned Parenthood to the tune of $500 million, they have zero credibility.
5) Taxes. They’ll take credit for tax reductions, but won’t be proposing simplification or an end to the special “carried interest” provision that benefits private equity partners and other wealthy donors. The Democrats will be pounding them on giving too much to the “rich” as well as fiscal irresponsibility.
6) Infrastructure. Vague promises to spend on infrastructure but no plan to pay for it.
7) Trade. No platform for this because the GOP is divided. Protectionism hurts various constituencies such as midwest farmers which affects individual Congressmen and some Senators. Likely they will be downplaying trade.
8) Second amendment. The Democrats are clearly going to run with the Parkland students. It appears the GOP has at best decided to play defense instead of offense which equates to caving on more regulations of firearms by the state and federal governments.
The truth is the Republicans in Congress have no unifying platform. The voter base is tired of being lied to and many of the big donors are globalists who hate the conservative voter base. In the past the GOP has appealed to the base during the election year with promises they never intended to keep (ACA repeal, real border security and tough immigration, tough trade policies, fiscal responsibility). During the Bush years the base saw the party go soft on immigration and fiscal responsibility. Since the 2010, 2014, and 2016 elections the GOP base has seen Republicans in Congress immediately ignore their campaign promises when assuming office and have witnessed inept leadership. It appears once again the underlying GOP campaign can be summed up as, “Vote for us, we aren’t as bad as the other liars. We represent the slow track to big government socialism.”