Reconciliation can demolish it, wreck it, bust it, leave it on the books in name only.
But without outright repealing the wretched thing, future Congresses ruled by democrats can revive the wreckage without passing a new law and having to go through the 60 vote rule in the Senate to end debate again.
So it must be repealed to be rid of it in our lifetime.
The problem is they can’t repeal the law meaning take the law off the books. If they use brute force in reconciliation, then the democrats will do the same the next time the control Congress.
The way forward is to get the 60 votes. The way to do that is to hit the democrats where they are weak. They are weak because they are vulnerable to criminal prosecution by those having the cajones to prosecute.
Jeff Sessions can hang them on this:
Sessions can hit democrats so hard on the above they will be begging for mercy and the mercy can come in the form of asking for a 5-year prison sentence in lieu of a 10-year one if the prosecutors are persuaded. The persuading can come with a 60 vote repeal of Obamacare in addition to other things.
That’s hardball. It needs to be done.
You sound just like the left wing crazies when Scott Brown won and erased their 60 votes. They were going to put everyone in jail, too.
Didn’t happen.
You do whatever you can with the seats you have. Ryan has been Speaker less than 2 yrs. He didn’t want the job. He didn’t campaign for it. He got it because no one else who could get a majority was willing to take it.
He has offered up a sledgehammer to Obamacare within the unavoidable constraints of Reconciliation.
Don’t salivate and leap to scream that it’s not unavoidable. You got 52 votes. You want to kill the filibuster? You don’t have the 60 votes to change that rule. YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE 50 VOTES TO CHANGE THAT RULE. The rational GOP senators, hard core conservatives, will not support killing the filibuster.
Politics is the art of the possible. Ryan has offered up a major slam to Obamacare that is possible. Nothing beyond it is.
Here’s more of the backstory with my summation:
In passing the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), the U.S. Congress had fixed the regulatory issues at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, creating a mechanism for them to be placed into conservatorship at federal government’s discretion AND providing up to $187.5 billion in funds that could be advanced to the GSEs through a purchase of senior preferred stock paying a ten percent dividend.
In deciding to bail them out, the federal government took control of the two giant mortgage GSEs, with Fannie and Freddie effectively put into government “conservatorship.”
As part of the conservatorship, the federal government effectively acquired warrants, convertible at a nominal price, which allowed the federal government to acquire 79% of the GSE’s common stock.
This resulted in causing dilution in the percentage of Fannie and Freddie common stock ownership that was left in the hands of private and institutional investors.
Congress’ intent was that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would pay back the Treasury as the mortgage giants returned to profitability.
But after the Treasury was paid back, the terms of HERA anticipated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would pay appropriate dividends to stockholders, including the federal government, leaving enough funds within Freddie and Fannie to “conserve and preserve” the assets of the two GSEs, anticipating their eventual return to a “safe and solvent” operating condition.
In 2012, the Obama administration unilaterally decided to change the terms of HERA by sweeping all the profits of Fannie and Freddie into the Treasury’s general fund.
The Obama administration took this action, the so-called “Net Worth Sweep,” without any Congressional authority to do so.
The result was that the U.S. Treasury “found” a way to sweep 100% of Fannie and Freddie profits into the Treasury’s “general fund,” leaving the giant mortgage GSEs vulnerable to the need for another government bailout should another disruption occur in the nation’s economy.
In a nutshell, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac were bailed out in the financial collapse. That they are corrupt organizations is another story. For now, as mortgage insurance giants they received a massive bailout of more than $100 BILLION.
BUT THEY PAID IT BACK, HOW?
They paid it all back by selling preferred shares to mutual funds and then they became sound and were making a profit.
SIMPLIFIED POINTS:
FANNIE AND FREDDIE BAILED OUT BY TAXPAYERS UP TO ~$188 BILLION
MUTUAL FUNDS BUY PREFERRED SHARES OF FANNIE AND FREDDIE WHO IN TURN USE BUY-IN OF SHARES TO PAY BACK BAILOUT FUNDS
OBAMACARE SHORT ON FUNDS FOR SUBSIDIES
OBAMA ROBS FANNIE AND FREDDIE OF ~130 BILLION TO PROP UP OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES
MUTUAL FUNDS LOSE INVESTMENT AND INTEREST ON FANNIE AND FREDDIE
SHORT SUMMARY:
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ROBS MUTUAL FUNDS TO PAY FOR OBAMACARE
Several laws were violated in the above. Sessions can bring a criminal prosecution that is fitting.
The takeaway is that Obamacare was doomed to fail and cannot succeed without stealing from others. In this case, Obama decided to steal because he could not get Congress to approve of the shortfall in Obamacare subsidies. So Obama decided to simply steal to prop up Obamacare for votes by stealing from entities that had investors plowing down their money. This is theft on a massive scale and there are several lawsuits with many facts in the public domain uncovered by discovery. Sessions needs to devote some financial crime attorneys on this asap.
The President and the AG can both make press statements declaring that Obamacare was only sustainable by stealing from private investors and for this reason alone it must be ended by repeal, not reconciliation, but full repeal, taking it aff the books so that it is no longer a law. President takes the moral and legal high ground.