Posted on 03/05/2015 11:29:31 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
And now, Ted Cruz has offered an alternative to Obamacare. And it’s, uh, better than a tattoo of Winston Churchill.
Ted Cruz cares about people in need. Stop laughing. Okay, you can laugh a little.
The Texas right-wing firebrand (by way of Calgary, Canada) unveiled his alternative to Obamacare on Tuesday. I guess we can call it "Cruzcare" or maybe even, "TeddyCare." You see, Cruz is apparently deeply concerned about the 7.5 million Americans in 36 states who might lose federal government subsidies now provided by Obamacare to buy health insurance in a few months. That very scenario could happen if the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration in the case of King v. Burwell that was heard by the Court yesterday.
But believing that Cruz cares about anything other than getting headlines and anyone other than his far-right base is like believing Justin Bieber cares about the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
That’s why I can’t help but be very suspicious when Cruz says he wants to help people in need. I mean, just look at this guy’s track record. He was so obsessed with killing Obamacare and stripping the benefits it provides for millions of Americans that he led the charge in 2013 to shut down the government in an effort to defund the health care law. He even famously performed a one-man show on the floor of the Senate (aka a filibuster) where he railed against Obamacare. Although on the upside, during the filibuster he did read one of my favorite books, Green Eggs and Ham.
He not only fiercely opposes Obama’s proposed immigration reform that would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, he even opposes deferring deportations of Dreamers, the children of undocumented immigrants, apparently preferring they be dumped outside of the borders of our country. Add to that, Cruz bragged during his 2012 successful run for Senate that he championed the execution of a Mexican “illegal alien” while he was Texas’s Solicitor General.
This is the same Cruz who has shown little compassion for those in poverty. He has even been a leader in the fight to prevent an increase in the federal minimum wage.
But now Cruz, whose own health benefits are bestowed through his wife’s policy thanks to her great position at Goldman Sachs, tells us he wants to help those Americans who might no longer be able to afford health insurance.
So what has Cruz offered? Well, to his credit, he actually drafted a piece of legislation, titled the “Health Care Choice Act of 2015.” (PDF) This is in contrast to 2014 when Cruz promised a detailed Obamacare alternative and only gave us a tattoo of Winston Churchill. I’m not kidding. While on Fox News last April, when asked about his health care plan, Cruz responded by rolling up his right sleeve and revealing a new tattoo on his forearm of Winston Churchill. It turned out to be a faux tattoo since it was April Fools Day. But Cruz was not kidding when it came to a lack of a plan.
This time, though, Cruz has offered specifics. Well, sorta. It’s a little hard to take his 26-page bill seriously when it is intended to replace the nearly 1,000-page Obamacare law.
So what does the Cruz plan offer? Well, it repeals most, not all of Obamacare, such as the personal mandate. Although in a statement released Tuesday, Cruz made it clear he’s as obsessed as ever that "every last word of Obamacare must be repealed.”
The way Cruz’s plan will work is to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines. I get in theory that could translate into lower premiums given the increased competition. Some health care experts dispute that hypothesis. Others warn of a “race to the bottom” because once one state lowered rates by cutting services offered, other states might start to do the same. But even assuming Cruz’s idea has merit, how can a person who doesn’t have the money to afford even those lower rates without a subsidy secure coverage?
This is especially worrisome for those who now receive subsidies but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. That gap already exists for some and it would likely become worse under Cruz’s plan, callously resulting in millions losing health insurance for themselves and their families.
Even some of Cruz’s fellow Republican recognize this very problem. To remedy this, three GOP senators, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), proposed a plan that provides temporary subsidies so that people in need can “keep the coverage they picked for a transitional period.” As these senators noted in a March 1 op-ed they penned for The Washington Post, “It would be unfair to allow families to lose their coverage, particularly in the middle of the year.”
But Cruz’s plan—unsurprisingly— doesn’t offer that safety net. Why would it? It would in effect be recognizing the benefits of Obamacare and just as importantly, it might piss off some of Cruz’s right-wing fans.
The Cruz plan has no chance of becoming law. But it gives you even more insight into what Cruz means when he says he wants to help people in need. You would think as someone born in Canada he would be a little more compassionate? Perhaps he has just been living in Texas too long.
Ok, I'm just lol.
This is the same Cruz who has shown little compassion for those in poverty. He has even been a leader in the fight to prevent an increase in the federal minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage means fewer jobs - that's "compassion"?
It’s a little hard to take his 26-page bill seriously when it is intended to replace the nearly 1,000-page Obamacare law.
It's more than a little hard to take seriously someone who measures legislation by the pound.
Only a liberal idiot would think that unnecessary complexity and bureaucracy makes a law better.....what a disgusting piece of human debris this Dean Obadiah is....
“The Texas right-wing firebrand (by way of Calgary, Canada) unveiled his alternative to Obamacare on Tuesday.”
How come we never hear about Obama, the IslamoMarxist radical (by way of Kenya and Indonesia)......
[[You see, Cruz is apparently deeply concerned about the 7.5 million Americans in 36 states who might lose federal government subsidies]]
Does he care about disabled people who have steadily lost coverage of critical medical devices and supplies over the last 6 years while ILLEGAL ALIENS were granted coverage? More and m ore disabled people, seniors, and veterans are LOSING things that were once covered before dear leader took office- and they have to sit there and watch as ILLEGAL ALINS are granted more and m ore ‘rights’ and medical coverage? Are you kidding me? Does ANOYNE in congress give a crap about our LEGAL citizens who are losing coverage for critical medical needs? Answer me that Mr. Cruz!
...good question....(but of course, you know the answer....)
** WARNING **
You PRICK a blown up wild eyed moonbat.... AND...
you will get all manner of nasty words exploding all over you..
Pope Pipus I...
Trying to catch a zot? Answer me that, Bob434?
Well .. DEAN is lying big time ..!!!
TED CRUZ IS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN .. SO STOP LYING ABOUT IT.
Dean: Because you’re so ignorant .. let me inform you. When a child is born to a mother who is an American Citizen, THE CHILD AUTOMATICALLY BECOMES AN AMERICAN CITIZEN .. OKAY ..?? And, because his mother was living in Canada at the time, he was also afforded Canadian Citizenship .. WHICH HE HAS RENOUNCED.
So, if you’re going to print something about Ted Cruz .. you better get it right next time.
[[Trying to catch a zot?]]
what the hell are you talking about? I asked does anyone in congress care? Really care? That wil l get me a zot? Really? and why would that be?
and just for the record- I emailed every GOP candidate in the last election and asked them essentially the same thing- asking where they were to protect our most vulnerable LEGAL citizens, and not one friggin senator responded- not even a canned response- so I sent the same emails several times over the course of a couple of months and got no reply-
IF being concerned about our countries’ most vulnerable citizens is enough to get me zotted here, as you seem ot be suggesting it might (Why? Because I asked the question of Ted indirectly? ), then there’s something seriously wrong with this site!
One of the greatest weaknesses of Alinskyism is its inherent absense of substance.
Seems to me that no one particularly cared when about 5million people received notice that their individual policies were canceled when Ocare first reared its ugly head
Cruz’s plan wouldn’t do anything much to help those who lose Obamacare subsidies, and I’m not sure it’s meant to. The government has to get out of the business of paying for everything everyone wants. If not now then when? If we don’t tackle new entitlements then how will we ever deal with well established ones? Cruz knows that.
It’s a GREAT plan!
Only in the addled mind of a leftist could this be considered a bad thing. Next thing you know, members will be able to actually read bills before they vote on them.
You impugned Ted Cruz, not some nameless congressman,
I call shenanigans. Every time I contact Senator Cruz’s office I get a response within one business day.
Then-future President Ronald Reagan, when only a Hollywood actor, summarized the scene played out by this Administration and its Democrat Party Congressmen and Senators in their imposition of what they euphemistically called the Affordable Care Act.
Every American citizen, looking back on that Trojan Horse for socialism, should listen to Reagan's foresight and warnings in a 1961 speech: HERE.
Freedom of individual enterprise, the great principle which brought America from axes and hoes in the wilderness to space travel and from near-starving colonists to becoming the breadbasket of the world, has been under attack by men and women committed to a belief that they were "progressive" in turning the founding ideas upside down.
Such "progressive" regressives pretend to be intellectuals when, in fact, they are imperfect human beings like every other citizen, arrogantly assuming rights never delegated to them by either the Creator nor their fellow citizens.
Winston Churchill (that one whose bust no longer is welcome in the Obama White House) is quoted in William Simon's 1978 "A Time for Truth," as follows:
"I do not believe in the power of the state to plan and enforce. No matter how numerous the committees they set up or the ever-growing hordes of officials that they employ or the severity of the punishments that they inflict or threaten, they can't approach the high level of internal economic production achieved under free enterprise."Personal initiative, competitive selection, the profit motive, corrected by failure and the infinite processes of good housekeeping and personal ingenuity, these constitute the life of a free society. It is this vital creative impulse that I deeply fear the doctrines and policies of the socialist government have destroyed.
"Nothing that they can plan and order and rush around enforcing will take its place. They have broken the mainspring, and until we get a new one, the watch will not go. Set the people free - get out of the way and let them make the best of themselves.
"I am sure that this policy of equalizing misery and organizing scarcity instead of allowing diligence, self-interest and ingenuity to produce abundance has only to be prolonged to kill this British island stone dead."
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