The insurance companies spent millions of dollars lobbying for Obamacare. They loved the individual mandate that made people buy their product. They loved the Obamacare subsidies to the insurance companies to cover risk corridors, i.e., to offset losses in 2014 and 2015. Currently, the USG owes the insurance companies $8.3 billion to cover these losses.
Obamacare is imploding. Doing nothing is not a option. The GOP must get its house in order to repeal and replace the system. They must also deal with the reality of what they can and cannot do given the current Congressional rules and the slim majority they hold in the Senate.
No, Waiting for ObamaCare to Implode is Not an Option Either…
"On October 21st, 2015, the Freedom Caucus backed Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House of Representatives. (LINK) A week later, October 28th, 2015, the same Freedom Caucus voted to approve a $2+ trillion dollar Omnibus spending bill, a massive continuing resolution, and removed the debt ceiling restrictions (link). Two days later, October 30th, 2015, at 3:00am in the morning, the Omnibus CR bill passed the Senate (link).
This was yet another year without a federal budget, and a specific decision to fund all of Obama’s spending priorities for 2015 and 2016.
It has now been 9 years since a federal budget was signed into law; the last one was September 2007 (FY ’08) by George W. Bush.
The 2015 Omnibus spending bill, used in place of an actual budget, extended spending of all programs, all of Obama’s programs (every.single.one), through April 1st of 2017.
President Trump’s budget proposal will not kick in until the beginning of fiscal year 2018 which begins on October 1st 2017.
That means there is a period from April 1st, 2017 until October 1st, 2017 without a financing mechanism. Hence, Secretary Mnuchin tells congress they need to raise the debt ceiling April 1st, to cover their own previously authorized and approved federal spending…. which they voted to do on October 28th and 30th 2015.
This is not a RINO issue; this is not a RYAN issue; this is a republican congressional issue of their own creation. President Trump didn’t have anything to do with their decision in 2015 to authorize two years of spending, essentially without limits.
They own that vote and that decision. However, now those same voices claim it would be against their principles to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling that is fundamentally required because of their own previous decision.
See now, why their credibility is less than?
This is the mindset behind what I call the “Crony Constitutional” crowd. Those who claim political fiscal purity and litmus tests, yet give a standing ovation to Speaker Paul Ryan at CPAC in February 2016, only three months after passing a two-year continuing resolution, $2+ trillion Omnibus spending bill and removing the debt ceiling. clap-clap-clap.
clap-clap-clap “Muh Ted Cruz”, “#NeverTrump” clap-clap-clap
Now, lets move on to the Healthcare proposal known as RyanCare. Yes, it sucks. Quite a bit of it sucks. However, the Muh Freedom Caucus voted for Speaker Ryan to lead the House of Representatives (Again – Link). So, don’t allow them to play mental gymnastics with you.
Additionally, many in the House Freedom Caucus are now complaining that RyanCare’s tax credits are a new entitlement. However, two years ago, 13 of the Freedom Caucus’s members, including chairman Mark Meadows, co-sponsored an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill offered by then Representative Tom Price. That Freedom Caucus legislation included… wait for it….. yup, refundable tax credits. Go figure.
These are your abusers.
Two years later, Representative Tom Price is now HHS Secretary Tom Price, and has created the road-map with the three step plan to get the best possible financial solution through both the House and Senate.
It contains an almost identical framework to the prior proposals which were in the repeal-and-replace bills. Heck, it should – Price built the plan. Just ask President Ted Cruz, or President Rand Paul, or President Marco Rubio; no, wha, huh… wait. What?
As the fog is removed from the “talking points”. People begin to shake off the battered conservative syndrome and realize that all plans are moot if nothing is passed through both the House and Senate. There are only about 30 to 40 Senators willing to vote for a repeal bill. Teeth gnashing, shouting into the radio microphone, railing against the system etc. doesn’t change that.