It is hard to overestimate the role of the Affordable Care Act in the Republican resurgence.
Over the last seven years, the GOP has won successive elections by highlighting problems with Obamacare, airing more than $235 million in negative ads slamming the law, and staging more than fifty high-profile repeal votes. In 2016 every major Republican presidential candidate, including Donald Trump, campaigned on a pledge to quickly get rid of it.
Now in total control of Congress and the White House, some GOP legislators are saying that the political assault on Obamacare was an exercise in cynical politics, and that an outright repeal was never on the table.
“We have Republicans who do not want to repeal Obamacare,” said Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., on Sirius XM Patriot on Wednesday.
“They may have campaigned that way, they may have voted that way a couple of years ago when it didn’t make any difference,” Brooks continued. “But now that it makes a difference, there seems to not be the majority support that we need to pass legislation that we passed fifty or sixty times over five or six years.”…Cue enraged base.
The Intercept
GOP Lawmakers Now Admit Years of Obamacare Repeal Votes Were a Sham
Lee Fang
GOP loves to act like they have a bunch of cojones and then when it comes time to actually govern or do anything of substance, they fall apart like a house of cards. The party of "no" does it again.
ReplyDeleteIt's too funny that the highlighted quote was broadcast on Sirius XM "Patriot" Radio!
ReplyDeleteTrump ran on "Repeal & Replace" and won.... i.e. not "Repeal"...
ReplyDeleteThe libertarian garbage in the "Freedom!" Caucus are being intransigent for only a "Repeal" and that is not what Trump won on...
So this has to play out within the GOP for now...
In the mean time we still have ACA to fall back on...
Strange how the GOP had no problem voting for this bill:
ReplyDeletehttps://theintercept.com/2017/03/29/to-serve-att-and-comcast-congressional-gop-votes-to-destroy-online-privacy/
Get something, anything passed for health care and it can never be repealed. We just keep pushing toward single payer until we get that. It is what we wanted in the first place.
ReplyDeleteACA with premiums no one can afford is basically single payer...
ReplyDeleteACA with premiums no one can afford is basically single payer
ReplyDeleteDo you post this nonsense out to stir people up (troll) or do you actually believe it?
Single-payer healthcare is a system in which the residents pay the state – via taxes in amounts determined by the state – to cover healthcare costs, rather than individuals buying from private insurers competing for their business.
If you don't buy the insurance under ACA you then pay the "fine" i.e. your "tax" and you are covered by a process where the providers bill the govt directly (like Medicare/Medicaid) for any procedures based on the fee schedules the govt publishes.....
ReplyDeleteI don't see Trump getting his "disaster!" necessarily...
GOPhers are charlatans. Always have been, always will be. Nothing new there.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I saw a video in which Trump looked straight down the camera lens and claimed in all sincerity: "I never said 'repeal and replace'". Just like he never promised to lock up Killary, or a hundred other things.
What's to say? The so-called "conservatives" are nothing more than liars, although their lies may be coming backing to bite them BIGLY in their collective buttocks by way of the town halls, but Trump is teaching them a thing or two about an art form that they thought they were the masters.
Also, Trump's speech writer just wrote an article in support of "Single Payer"
ReplyDeleteQuote:
Better still, tackle the problem now.
A do-nothing strategy leaves in place the present system that has raised prices for the insured, and will raise them more until ObamaCare collapses under its own weight. That’s a callous way to treat Americans, and reminds people that the Republicans blew health-care reform.
So what would reform look like? Here’s one that’s off the table: Ryancare, a plan only an accountant or a right-wing ideologue could love. It left 20 million Americans without health care but cut expenses. Not to worry, said Ryan, we’re going to have a balanced budget.
I can’t imagine a plan better calculated to play to the stereotype of a heartless Republican Party.
That wasn’t what Trump promised, in any event. What he said he wanted was a plan that would leave no one uninsured.
The simplest way to do this is universal health care, on the Canadian model, with a right of individuals to purchase a Cadillac plan on top of this out of pocket. And there are things that might be added, like removing the ban on reimporting drugs from Canada.
Not only would this be close to what Trump promised, but it would be a responsible response to the problem — one, moreover, that would reach across the aisle to the Democrats. Take out all the killer amendments that would give them a plausible excuse to reject it, and ask them to put up or shut up.
Here the link to the full F.H. Buckley article at the NY Post that Unknown cites.
ReplyDeleteWhy Trump should embrace single-payer health care
Good article. Let's see if the Trump team picks up on it.
If you don't buy the insurance under ACA you then pay the "fine" i.e. your "tax" and you are covered by a process where the providers bill the govt directly (like Medicare/Medicaid) for any procedures based on the fee schedules the govt publishes.....
ReplyDeleteActually, without insurance you pay retail. And the fine is only levied against a tax refund, there is no other enforcement.
Well if you can't afford the sky high insurance then you just pay he tax and go on the Medicaid type process... which is like single payer...
ReplyDelete"the residents pay the state – via taxes in amounts determined by the state – to cover healthcare costs,"
ReplyDeleteLOL!
Riddle me how that works Batman if the doctors and nurses and techs save USDs?
Riddle me how that works
ReplyDeleteIt works because it eliminates the middleman (insurance: add 50% or more in profit, overhead, obfuscation, lobbying, denial of services, etc.) and implements price controls.
Still doesn't answer my question......
ReplyDeleteHow are you going to "cover healthcare costs" "via taxes" if the Drs, nurses and technicians save any USDs??
If they save you're going to have to report a deficit and you won't "cover costs via taxes"...
Channeling your inner Bernie??
ACA is a great example of a well functioning PPP.
ReplyDeleteDeficits are irrelevant. The military budget proves it.
ReplyDelete