Krauthammer: AHCA Defeat A Philosophical Victory for Obama

breitbart.com ^ | 24 Mar 2017

[Helicondelta]

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that the American Health Care Act’s defeat was a philosophical victory for President Obama, and “The country has changed. There is now the generalized expectation that there is an entitlement to universal healthcare.”

[butlerweave]

or it’s a plan to bring Obama out of hiding ,LOL

[dhs12345]

Ocare is owned Democrat and Obama now. If Republicans had changed it, they would have been responsible for the eventual outcome.

We need to keep the MSM and Democrat focused on the fact that they own it and no one else. Republicans tried to fix it but Democrats prevented it... should be the mantra.

[Rennes Templar]

What a bunch of horsesh*t.

[headstamp 2]

What locked this (Obamacare) in was the huge Medicaid expansion.

[nathanbedford]

Part of a reply I posted earlierbefore I read Dr Krauthammer:

As to the reconciliation process, I see nothing that prevents the solution offered by Ted Cruz to the president in their conference of the White House or by Senator Lee publicly to the effect that the Senate parliamentarian is friendlier to a broader bill than we have been led to believe by the Rinos and I see nothing to prevent the matter being entirely solved by the vice president. Although much of this has now been mooted by the withdrawal of the bill, the solution nevertheless is presumably still available to a Republican coalition determined to undo this disaster.

That, I think, is the root of the problem. Yes, Paul Ryan deserves heaps of blame and he is getting all he deserves, but the problem is structural not personal. The Republicans simply do not want to be seen taking away an entitlement. They fear the votes of those who did not vote for them in the elections since 2010 more than they fear losing the votes of those who did vote for them.

Donald Trump is not entirely blameless in this affair either, one can make a very good argument that the Ryan plan is necessarily distorted in order to accommodate the campaign trail promises and instructions of Donald Trump to retain the parts of Obama care which doomed it to failure in the first place.

I have argued since the nomination that the Republicans should not have gone near this tar baby because the problem was insoluble so long as Republicans found cutting benefits to be radioactive unless they utterly plundered the treasury to pass the costs of the retained features of Obama care onto the next generation. Now we see Donald Trump making overtures to the Democrats which raises a specter which I have warned against for some time, that the president might well make a deal with the Democrats just to get the matter behind him. His fidelity to our conservative principles concerning fiscal sanity and health care liberty might give way to his impulse to cut deals. All this remains to be seen, of course. The fact the Trump did not initially sign on with conservatives but with Ryan, that Trump threatened the conservative faction with primary opposition, that Trump has shown no enthusiasm or even acknowledged the reconciliation solution of Cruz/Lee, leads one to suspect that he will not be steadfast in support of conservative coalition values in cutting such a deal.

Applying these motives to a tax cut should play out in favor of cooperation all around because the Republicans who are loathe to be seen cutting goodies have shown themselves to be quite willing to bankrupt the next generation to award goodies. Likewise infrastructure spending-an examination of much of that which has been proposed looks like pork.

In sum, we are in the same lockbox with a Republican President (whether a Bush or Trump) with a Republican Congress as we are with a Democrat President and a Republican Congress, a government willing to spend OPM but unwilling to tax or otherwise pay up. That is because most Republicans and President Trump have calculated that it is political suicide to cut entitlements.

As to Trump's state of mind, if I am correct he has calculated that the country is rushing headlong toward a fiscal and/or an economic disaster which cannot be halted politically by breaking rice bowls or cutting entitlements but which must be averted by energizing the economy so that income approaches spending in time to restore confidence in world markets. I see this as a foot race between his plans to stimulate the economy with tax cuts, regulatory reform, trade reform and capital repatriation, and the looming reckoning. The failure to get the costs of Obama care under control, including its drag-weight on hiring and the economy overall, means that we are running the foot race carrying a heavy burden, one which Trump probably expected to offload and which makes winning the race less likely.

[qam1]

Yeah blaming the previous guys in charge is always a winning strategy and shows real leadership. That’s why we love Reagan, he was so good at blaming Carter and Lord knows if Obama only blamed Bush more maybe he could have had a more successful presidency!

Bleah!!

The Republicans are in charge now, they have been running on repealing and fixing Obamacare since 2010, they own it now.

[Blennos]

Krauthammer doesn’t understand the greater significance of the failure of this bill. It was not because most people want a health-care entitlement. Rather it was because it was not promoting free-enterprise health care. The conservatives killed this dreadful bill. They want the government to get out of the way.

As a bonus, we may be rid of Ryan as Speaker.

[tennmountainman]

Yep. Full Blown Obamacare is here to stay.
And if it is on the verge of collapse, RINO’s and RAT’s will join forces
and vote to continue funding it. They have the votes to do it.

So where is the victory for those against RyanCare?
Where is the victory?

[McCarthysGhost]

Hammer is a liberal who likes to dress up as a conservative for tv.

[Magnum44]

Very well stated. You should be published. I say that sincerely.

[Sacajaweau]

Yup....and all those people were having their Medical expenses paid by the government already.

The reality is that these folks have no large deductible like "paying" folks.....and no premium.

Let's take a look at the demographics....oh, never mind.

[ecomcon]

Krauthammer is a UniParty tool. He is capitulating to the very tactic the Democrats said they would use.

[PGR88]

Sometimes bad ideas and people win, Charles. What’s the point?

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Krauthammer....a former speech writer for Walter Mondale.

[dhs12345]

Proof that once you establish a nanny-state entitlement it is impossible to get rid of.

Also, would they actually be able to get a full repeal through the Senate? My understanding is that they would need 60 votes which they clearly don't have.... at least not until the next midterm election when more Democrat seats turn over and when they might have a chance.

Not withstanding, the Republicans who didn't support Ryancare, of course.

BTW, I am for a full repeal but I am realistic.

Bottom line: so yes, the Democrats own this mess and Republicans have been trying to clean it up.

[Fhios]

Charles has been on again off again. The US sure could use his help in not adding to the liberals russian bull carp or dissembling over whether Trump was tapped or not.

This is not a victory for Obama, if it is It’s pyrrhic victory. It’s still called Obamacare and it’s still falling like an anvil. There will come a point where the Democrats will simply have to try and negotiate a replacement plan.

[kenmcg]

let’s face it Krauthammer is usually full of $5it! This is the same dude that gave Trump zip, zero, nada chance at becoming the nominee and later the POTUS.

[No.6]

Absolutely stupid (not you, Krauthammer, but this isn’t new to him)

CK was never with Trump and always with the nevertrumpers, and at the first possible excuse he reverts back to ‘the nation wants socialist medicine’ when in fact all that happened is that Ryan pushed a bad bill, badly.

I guarantee none of the Trump voters have suddenly fallen in love with 0care nor with Hillarycare.

[WhatNot]

Yup, everybody including President Trump is a Uni-party tool, everybody but Freedom Caucus members that is. But isn't it funny how we still have Odummy care to live under, for the rest of our natural lives, because of no one else but Freedom Caucus Hypocrites?

Matthew 24:51
And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.