Posted on 11/22/2014 5:15:18 AM PST by Kaslin
It should come as no surprise to Townhall readers that the new Republican congress has no plan to deal intelligently with Obamacare. That’s unfortunate. The worst thing that can happen over the next two years is for president Obama to appear to take the high road – insuring the uninsured and fighting the mean insurance companies – while Republicans rail about the small and trivial parts of health reform.
And the worst thing that can happen is the very thing that is about to happen. So here is some unsolicited advice.
To begin with, Republicans in Congress have created their own internal gridlock on Obamacare. Even if the Democrats all abstained and let Republican legislators do whatever they wanted, the Republicans still could not agree on what to do next.
From the base there is the incessant cry for “repeal.” But as just about every Republican candidate in this last election acknowledged, there can be no “repeal” without “replace.” Otherwise, from 10 to 15 million people will lose their health insurance. However, “repeal and replace” means transitioning from Obamacare to a new system. And no matter how radically different the new system is, it will run the risk of being called “Obamacare lite.”
In fact, there isn’t a single Republican replace plan that hasn’t already been called “Obamacare lite.” And that’s before any negotiation with the other side takes place. Any repeal and replace agreement that has been negotiated with Democrats in Congress and with the White House will almost certainly be viewed with suspicious mistrust by the Republican rank and file.
Fortunately, there is a way out. In going forward, the GOP needs to make clear to its own base and to the Democrats that in any negotiation they will follow five simple rules.
Rule 1: No deviation from a simple vision. The Republican objective for the voting public should be: Keep your job; keep your health insurance; and keep your doctor. The most direct way to get rid of all the anti-job of Obamacare is to repeal the employer mandate. The most direct way to insure that people can keep insurance they like is to repeal the individual mandate. And the most direct way of insuring people can keep their doctor is to deregulate and denationalize the health insurance exchanges.
Rule 2: No backsliding. Negotiators rarely get everything they want. And whatever they get, Republican negotiators will be vulnerable to the charge that they are “helping Obamacare work better.” So here is the answer to that. Anything that leads to more job losses, more loss of insurance people want and more loss of doctors is off the table before anyone even enters the negotiating room. That is the line Republicans must not cross. Making health reform “work better” is okay so long as it moves us in the direction of the vision in Rule 1.
Rule 3: No separate deals for special interests. The reason Obamacare looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption is because it is almost purely the product of special interest bargaining. There are no principles like “justice or “fairness” that guide its content. Now that the impure deed has been done, however, we find that every single interest group wants to renege on its share of the burden.
Should we have a medical device tax? Probably not. Should labor union plans be taxed to subsidize health insurance for their non-union competitors? Absolutely not. Should hospitals have their charity care money restored? If we don’t we are going to be in serious trouble.
But remember why all those provisions are in the law. Special interests went behind closed doors and sold the rest of us out. Now they want to be relieved unilaterally from what they originally agreed to throw into the pot. That shouldn’t be allowed. They cooperated to give us mess that we are in, we need them now to cooperate to get us out of it.
So, nobody gets relief from Obamacare without helping and supporting the overall effort to reform it.
Rule 4. No provisions that produce pain with no gain. It is tempting for Republicans to try to block the system in place that subsidizes health insurance companies that are participating in the exchanges. These are provisions that protect the insurance companies against unexpected losses for the next three years. Some of the subsidies come from redistribution among the insurers themselves. But there is also an (apparently unlimited) taxpayer liability. Do you know anyone who wants to pay taxes to subsidize insurance companies? I don’t.
The problem is, this very same system of transition was adopted for Medicate Part D drug program by a Republican administration. And when Republicans were doing it, other Republicans didn’t complain.
Rule 5. No taking of political advantage, no matter how tempting. Yes, I know. The other side deserves all the political backlash it is getting. Had Barack Obama endorsed John McCain’s health plan, we would have had a better reform, a more workable reform and a more progressive reform than we now have.
But Democrats have already paid a heavy political price for that mistake. Voters elected Republicans this last time around because they want to move on.
House Republicans sue Obama administration over health care law
Published November 21, 2014
House Republicans sued the Obama administration on Friday over its implementation of President Barack Obama's health care law, saying he had overstepped his legal authority in carrying out the program.
GOP lawmakers filed the lawsuit in federal district court in Washington the morning after Obama announced unilateral executive actions to expand protections for millions of immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally. While Republicans complained that Obama had unconstitutionally exceeded his powers with those actions, the suit filed Friday did not address immigration.
One Republican official said party leaders are considering amending the suit to include Obama's actions on immigration, a change that would require approval by the GOP-controlled House. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal Republican deliberations.
This is an exerpt, the entire article is in the link
First STOP all funding.
The problem is not no plan but rather too many plans
Until the lawyers are brought to heel, no plan will be truly effective.
A 90% tax on medical related legal fees would be a big help
Disband it - and force the Insurance Companies to be competitive!
It was a lie perpetrated on the US public - and deserve no place as legal law - very “Nazi-istic” in nature and show be outlawed immediately!
Every move Barry & his Boyz have made should be reversed come 2015!
I agree completely
show = should
my kids are running around screaming after eating sugar and pancakes!....yeah - it’s Saturday...it’s their cheat day!
There seems to be a consensus to send up stand alone bills: getting rid of the medical devices tax; moving the 30 hour work requirement to be covered up to 40 hours
The Republicans have had FIVE YEARS to mess with ObamaCare...
Right now do something about AMNESTY...
“The Republicans have not had five years to mess with Obamacare”
***tell them to learn how process works.
...because Democrats have had control over the SENATE since 2010.
No matter what passes in House, it has to go through Senate to become law.
GEE Whiz...so many comments on what Republicans can or can’t do shows me people do not understand the process.
Easy peasie. They don’t have to vote it down, because OBAMA would just Veto any bill concerning OBAMA CARE. All the need to do is don’t finance it. Take the money away OBAMA CARE, and it will die on the vine. Rather than fighting OBAMA on all those “LAWS” he and the liberal politicians passed, just take the money away from it. Every time OBAMA ask congress for money to do this or do that, congress will just say “NO”
Remember that a LOT of posters are only here to attempt to influence opinion. IMO so much of the attitude of "the Rs won't do anything, ever, they're wimps, etc" is from this particular group.
We will finally have the chance to pass hundreds of bills to be placed on 0bama's desk. That is a major, major difference in how he'll have to play politics. Hell he's already begun - he's trying to overwhelm us w/ illegals, gitmo letgos and there will be more.
0bama is going to have to fold when the time comes. He can't win it like before when he had Harry protecting him. I for one will enjoy watching him continue to melt as he systematically demolishes any support he still has w/ dems on the hill and dem voters.
The sheer weight of all the lies is too much. Nobody believes him anymore. Not ever. He's thru and I relish his ridicule.
Why does this issue concern the federal government AT ALL?!!!
100% agree!
Just make sure the government's other functions are funded first. That's what 0bama is desperately trying to avoid. He has to find a way to prevent bills from landing on his desk to [for example] fund the VA or DOD. Separate bills will destroy him and return the political power to Congress. He must not allow that. I completely wonder how he will do that.
I think the amnesty order was an attempt, if a feeble one, to get the Rs off track and overreach. Didn't work - maybe it could have but he played his card too early. He should have done it the morning after the new Congress was sworn in when they could have overreached. Right now, we can't. LOL.
As I have said many times - the accumulating effect of the lies is destroying 0bama and the dems until the dems turn on 0bama and claim their part of the deception.
So, steady as she goes Rs. Eyes on the prize. Individual funding bills in the new Congress to fund the gov't piecemeal. To do that, the lame duck House must only provide short term funding. It's a two step. ANd due to the weakness of support for the lying 0, he will not be able to survive playing the same shutdown game. HA HA HA FRICKIN' HA you loser clown.
I noticed that some are intentionally undermining support for GOP...and maybe it isn’t ignorance, but actual influence of opinion...thanks.
I know. It’s like that’s everyone’s premise anymore, not just the left’s and the big gov types. It’s as if the propaganda has seeped into everyone’s subconscious, to automatically think how government should be involved in some way with everything. The result of years of hearing and saying “There oughtta be a law”.
What SHOULD The GOP Do About Obamacare? is not the question. The question in my mind is; what WILL the GOP do about Obamacare?
probably nothing. A lot of sound and fury but nothing accomplished. At least nothing that will appease folks like me. My best guess is, they are waiting with baited breath for the Supreme Court to bail them out. With the GOPe quietly hoping the court will OK the whole damn thing.
Some have high hopes for their new Senators and Representatives, but for the most part they will be corrupted by Potomac Fever within 6 months to a year.
defunding it happens in the house.
NEXT!!
Kill it!
KILL IT WTH FIRE!!
The question in my mind is; what WILL the GOP do about Obamacare?
probably nothing. A lot of sound and fury but nothing accomplished.
... yes, they are the Washington Generals, playing the Globetrotters.. all the perks of office and happy to play second fiddle while adding to the bloat of big govt and lining up thinktank/consulting/corporate jobs when they decide to move on...
ymmv
I know. Even Goodman has fallen for the “repeal and replace” unconstitutional nonsense.
Anytime an unconstitutional entitlement is properly rescinded, people on the dole are going to lose stuff. Suck it up and get on with life.
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