GOP (?) US Senator Explains to State Party Her Opposition to Obamacare Repeal

US Senator Susan Collins is very unpopular.

She is under attack from every angle, especially the Republican base in her own state. While she was busy dancing the Potomac Two-Step, making nice with Democrats and trying to play the centrist card and hold onto what power remaining in the center of US Senate politics.

The Maine GOP released this statement on their eblast:

We are pleased to pass along this communication to you directly from Senator Susan Collins. To my fellow Mainers,   I wanted to explain to you directly why I opposed the Graham-Cassidy health care proposals. First, I want to assure you that I understand the flaws in the ACA (also known as Obamacare). In fact, one of the main reasons I opposed the ACA when it was passed by the Senate without a single Republican vote in 2009 was because there was nothing affordable about it. Today, too many Americans are burdened with skyrocketing premiums, unaffordable deductibles, and limited choices, and small businesses across our country are struggling.   Notice how Collins talks about "flaws". The whole law is completely flawed. The whole law needs to be scrapped. A total repeal is essential.   Obamacare is not working for many Americans, but in trying to solve the problem, it's important that we not make matters worse. Unfortunately, the Graham-Cassidy proposal would have done just that.   Repealing Obamacare would solve plenty of problems. What is the problem with those who do not understand that handing out government dollars to provide health care is not providing health care at all?! Like Obamacare, Graham-Cassidy would have done nothing to address the budget busting and unsustainable costs of health care. And it was a bad deal for Maine. Here are just some of the problems:   Maine would lose $2 billion over the next ten years and billions more after that.  Numerous studies confirm this fact. The National Association of State Medicaid Directors said that Graham-Cassidy would be “the largest intergovernmental transfer of financial risk from the federal government to the states in our country’s history.” Medicaid is turning into a Ponzi Scheme. Collins should be militantly fighting for the state of Maine to hold onto its tax dollars. The bloc grant program would have been a more efficient way for holding money within the state and getting rid of the untenable individual and employer mandates.   Premiums would have increased. One of the authors of the bill acknowledged this to me directly. Individuals between the ages of 50 and 64 would have been particularly hard hit. Premiums are already increasing, and they have gotten worse because of Obamacare.   People with pre-existing conditions would not have been adequately protected. If you have a pre-existing condition like asthma, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, use a pacemaker, or have had a heart attack or stroke, or suffered from mental illness, you would pay even higher premiums or be subjected to annual or lifetime caps on your insurance in some states.   Maybe we need a Washington leadership that stops acting as though the government can provide everything, that the state can cover for every single health care need, including the pre-existing conditions matter. How about we start treating American voters like adults and allow them to have liberty and responsibility over their lives, including their health care and health insurance.           Millions more people would not have had insurance coverage. When the uninsured get sick or hurt, we all pay.            Maine’s hospitals would suffer, and rural hospitals and nursing homes could have been forced to close.    Maine rural hospitals are already eliminating services, such as obstetrics, oncology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. In addition to hurting medical services for Mainers, the proposal would have led to job losses at hospitals and health care providers, which are often the largest employers in the rural communities they serve.  The rural areas are losing money will the big cities, run by Big Labor Democrats, are taking all the funding. How about ensuring more quality care and control through more local control and privatization?!   One other major flaw with the Graham-Cassidy proposal is that it made one of the same mistakes that the Democrats made when they jammed through Obamacare – the bill did nothing to address the soaring cost of health care.   Yes it does! By repealing the individual and employer mandates, the costs of health insurance will go down. More jobs and productivity will abound, too.   Here is what we need to do going forward: Take action to address the cost of health care, including looking at the spiraling cost of prescription drugs, increasing transparency, and giving people more control to manage their health care. Create invisible high-risk pools such as we had in Maine under PL 90 to provide reinsurance to help control premium costs. (Rand Paul wanted to help with that) Act quickly to stabilize the insurance markets. (Government intervention is precisely what is creating the instability!) Carefully review and repair the other flaws in Obamacare. (NO! Repeal. Period)   One final note – some have suggested that Anthem’s decision to withdraw from the individual market in Maine was because the Senate failed to pass Graham-Cassidy. That is just not accurate. Anthem strongly opposed Graham-Cassidy. The Big Business lobby wants government and government subsidy. Many of them will play up their investment in government interventions of all kinds. They are not pro-free market. They are pro-self interest and profit, at the expense of the individual consumers. This is one of the biggest, most fallacious arguments pushed by the Democrats in their drive for higher taxes and regulations. "But this business and that business want this!" So what?!   Health care affects each and every one of us and comprises one-sixth of our economy. We do need reform, but the Graham-Cassidy legislation was not the answer as was demonstrated by the fact that just last weekend the sponsors issued a fourth hastily drafted version of their bill, just days before the vote would have occurred.   I appreciate your reading this message and invite you to review the various studies and letters that are hyperlinked in this email.   Best wishes,   Susan Collins

The grassroots conservatives in Maine have had enough of their RINO US Senator. She was able to cruise on her liberal-leaning credentials as long as she continued voting in concert with the rest of her caucus. She was playing games, however, as she knew that any legislation passed out of the US Senate would die on President Obama's desk.

Collins must be in big trouble, and she knows it, precisely because she had to explain her opposition to Obamacare repeal of every sort.

This woman is in big trouble, and she knows it. She might become another cross-over, just as Arlen Specter had done in 2009. There is one lesson, however, which these centrist-liberal Republicans need to realize: in both states, the Republican brand has not only gotten stronger, it has gotten more conservative. Witness the success from Republicans to take over one chamber of the Augusta state house, the Governor's mansion, and to gain back a House seat for the first time in nearly two decades.

Collins has missed out on this conservative wave, and she is going to get washed out. Her continued opposition to repealing Obamacare, especially after having voted for repeal multiple times in the past, will be her undoing.