Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 26 March 2017

I liked what Sen Cotton had to say, on FTN, this morning, on the failed bill....it’s timing, roll out, leadership/votes, etc...

Senator, welcome.

In “The Washington Examiner,” Philip Klein writes, where the headline to his piece is “GOP cave on Obamacare Repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history.”

What is your reaction to that judgment?

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: Well, John, first, let’s say the president is right that the Democrats gave us Obamacare, and the failure of the bill this week doesn’t solve the problems of Obamacare.

It is continuing to get worse. And our health care system is groaning under the weight of Obamacare. So we have to revisit it. We now have the time to do it in a more deliberate and careful fashion, but ultimately I don’t think you can lay the defeat of this bill last week on any single faction in the House of Representatives.

Some conservatives opposed it. Some moderates opposed it. Even chairmen of powerful committees opposed it. I just think the problem was with first the bill and tent process. Health care is a very complicated issue. To release a bill that was written in secret and then expect to pass it in 18 days, I just don’t think it’s feasible.

DICKERSON: So, you said written in secret. Well, that is on Paul Ryan then. He controls that process.

So, are you saying basically that the House leaders, the House speaker did it, and the process was poorly handled?

COTTON: I think you can’t expect to try to solve a problem that addresses one-sixth of the country’s economy and touches every American in a very personal and intimate way in 18 days.

When the Democrats came to power in 2009, for 60 years, at least, they had been pursuing a national health care system, yet they didn’t introduce legislation for eight months. They didn’t pass it for over a year of Barack Obama’s first term. So it went through very public hearings and took testimony, developed a fact-based foundation of knowledge.

President Obama traveled around the country, hell town halls. He spoke to a joint session of Congress. I am not saying that we needed 14 months to do this, but I think a more careful and deliberate approach, which we now have time to do, because we are going to have to revisit health care anyway, would have gotten us further down the path towards a solution.

I believe that both conservatives and moderates in the House made a lot of concessions already. And I have friends like Jim Jordan in the Freedom Caucus and Charlie Dent in the Tuesday Group. And I know that they are both good men. They want to work together. They want to try to find a solution that both they and everyone in between can agree to. With time, I think we can do that.

DICKERSON: So, your judgment, just so nobody mistakes, your message is that the House rushed it?

COTTON: I think the House moved a bit too fast; 18 days is simply not enough time for such major landmark legislation.

DICKERSON: The president this morning, though, is actually pointing fingers at the Freedom Caucus.

He says — quote — “Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of the Club for Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. “

What do you think about that?

COTTON: Again, you know, it wasn’t just conservatives in the House.

In fact, I think more non-conservatives than conservatives opposed it. And when you lose the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful positions, the problem really is not with a specific faction in the House. I think it is with the bill.

DICKERSON: Let me get your experience from that town hall that everybody saw. There was a woman who stood up and said that she would be dead were it not for Obamacare.

The president has said that he is going to wait for Obamacare to explode and collapse, and then it will get fixed. How would that go over with that woman at that town hall or the other people?

COTTON: Well, I think the president is simply stating a fact, that Obamacare continues to get worse. Premiums continue to go up every year when you get to new open enrollment system.

Many counties across the country have only one insurer, which means an insurance has a monopoly over your care. Now, what can happen in the short term, while the Congress is continuing to deliberate about health care, is what was being called phase two. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price can undertake regulations designed to lift some of the worst harms of Obamacare and try to give some people relief.

Later this year, we have must-pass health care legislation that is coming up, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It is very important to a lot of Democrats. By that point, I hope that we can reach some kind of consensus where we can try to do away with the worst problems of Obamacare that can only be addressed by legislation.

DICKERSON: Here is what I wonder about, is the people at the end of these policies and that you dealt with in those town halls, is when they hear the president say, I am going to let it collapse, and then the Democrats will beg me to fix it.

When people who are out there nervous about this who have Obamacare, who don’t have Obamacare, people who are straight-up nervous, isn’t that a nervous-making thing to hear?

COTTON: Well, as I said to all my town halls, say, any time Obamacare comes up as topic in Arkansas, I know that some people were helped by Obamacare. There’s no doubt about that.

But many more were hurt by it. And those are the people who we need to keep in mind when we are trying to solve the problems for people who have benefited from Obamacare, without causing — putting, imposing all of the costs that Obamacare did.

And the president is simply stating a fact, that the entire health care system is growing under the weight of Obamacare. We don’t have a choice to revisit or not revisit it. We have to revisit it.

I believe Sundance is correct regarding many Repubs - I’d like to think he’s wrong about some, like Brat & that’s why I wanted you to see what Brat had to say as a counterpoint. It’s hopeless if Sundance is totally correct & personally, I need hope.

.....To release a bill that was written in secret and then expect to pass it in 18 days, I just don’t think it’s feasible.....

I cannot wait to find out if Nancy Pewlouise was behind closed doors with Lying Ryan.

I was talking about Wall-Ass Rod...sorry!
Should have specified!

LOL...no kidding. It was the NancyRyanCare bill.....secret til passed.

I have not read about any leaks on Ryan’s secret mission... Got to wonder if President Trump has ended the ‘hammer’ contracts.

“The youngsters surveyed had more conservative views on [...] drugs”

Conservatives opposed the first Prohibition and the current one, as beyond the competence or legitimate authority of government.

Probably both, but I was referring to Trump

As a further example, are you personally receiving social security or medicare ? Those programs are essentially bankrupt and thus you are receiving money that someone's grandchildren have to pay.

The SS system was a ponzi scheme from the git go. Too many articles to mention have discussed this for all to digest and regurgitate over and over. BUT you are correct no one is going to touch it until the money runs out and then those who are in the receiving line will get a PAY reduction. Then we start inter generational CW 3.

Ryan can never be trusted again.

We knew that going in. He was Romney's running mate, after all. What we didn't know is that Trump would support this awful bill and then blame conservatives when it failed. The explanations for that have been all over the place--and none are convincing.