Obamacare Fail? Trump Threatens To End Congressional and Insurance Bailouts

Arthur, This past weekend, President Trump vowed to take administrative action to end two Obamacare bailouts if Congress doesn't quickly repeal the failing healthcare law. The first bailout is the exemption that President Obama helped give to Members of Congress and the second bailout is the subsidy program Obama created for health insurance companies. And the best part about President Trump's threat is that short of passing a new law, Congress can't stop him. Please show your support for this decision by sending a letter to President Trump urging him to end these bailouts. There is no reason why Congress should have a special Obamacare exemption and there is no reason why the insurance companies that lobbied for Obamacare should get a taxpayer bailout. If the DC establishment won't take action to repeal Obamacare and provide true relief to the American people, then they should have to live under the law they passed and share the pain. Many Republican lawmakers are afraid of what the Democrats and media will say about them if they repeal the law, but that pales in comparison to what the voters will do to Republicans at the ballot box if they allow it to continue. Senator Ted Cruz was right when he said, "No party can remain in power by lying to the American people."  Please thank President Trump for being willing to end the Obamacare bailouts and urge him to make it happen. These policies are unfair and should be terminated immediately. Thank you for standing strong for freedom and for doing your part to make your voice heard in Washington. Sincerely, Ken Cuccinelli II President Senate Conservatives Action

RyanCare Media Fail--"All the Fake News that Fits Our Narrative."

RyanCare is dead

I am so glad.

The House leadership needs to work up the same moxie as President Donald Trump.

Or they need to step down from office.

Yet for all the failures of Speaker Paul Ryan, the media firestorm which erupted against the Republicans in the House is unfair and unfounded.

Check out this headline from the Washington Examiner:

GOP cave on Obamacare repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history.

Wrong.

The bill was not a repeal. Structural problems from Obamacare remained in place.

Yes, the mandates and the taxes were removed, but subsidies still remained in place, a devastating let down which does not go far enough.

But that does not mean that the Republican Party or Donald Trump broke a promise.

The Congress still has plenty of time to repeal this terrible law.

But what did Paul Ryan say in the press conference after the bill was pulled from the floor?

They uote one part of his comment: "Obamacare is the land of the land."

Notice that the more balanced, conservative sites add "for the foreseeable future" and "for now,"

It is not destined to be the law of the land forever, either.

Did you read about Donald Trump's latest golfing buddy?

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a top conservative critic of House Republicans’ failed plan to replace ObamaCare, concluded his golf outing Sunday with President Trump by saying party members are “getting closer” on a compromise repeal plan and that he remains “very optimistic.”

I am too,

So ... Republicans have not broken any promise.

They are working on a better bill that will fulfill that promise.

The truth is, the media is looking for any trashy, desperate attempt to spin a failure or a pulled bill as immanent doom for the Trump Administration.

It's all fake news.

Going back ten years, does anyone remember the press slamming the new Democratic majorities in Congress for continuing to fund the War in Iraq? The press never went after Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi in 2009 and 2010 for refusing to get "the public option" or single-payer through Congress.

The double-standard still lingers in the press, and the marginalized liberal media is lingering in turn fo relevance. They keep lying, they keep ginning up one-sided attacks against Trump. Republicans, individual liberty, and constitutional rule.

Oh, and after Trump had tweeted that he wanted to get rid of the Freedom Caucus, he released the following Tweet:

Talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017

This tweet was particularly engaging and encouraging:

Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017

If there is any promise broken. it's the New York Times motto, in which they claim to print "All the News that's Fit to Print." More like "All the Fake News that Fits Our Narrative."

RyanCare Fail: a Victory for the House Freedom Caucus

For strategic reasons, I have signed onto liberal newsletter eblasts, so that I can know what the enemy is doing in my state. After Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act (ACHA), every Democratic lawmaker, candidate, and special interest group exulted in their victory:

“Your calls made the difference!”

“We did it!”

“You saved health care.”

Uh … no.

Because Obamacare remains intact, healthcare remains in morbid free-fall. Doctors are still quitting the medical field, with premiums rising, health insurance exchanges failing, and hospitals closing. Democrats did themselves no favors in fighting against reforms. Obamacare is still an albatross hanging around their necks, and they will have to blatantly lie to voters that it’s working, or that somehow the Republicans are to blame because … they keep trying to fix the mess created by the Democratic Party.

So, should Democrats around the country pat themselves on the back for stopping another disaster? Perhaps they deserve a little bit of credit, since they were loud. The true glory and applause belong to Republicans across the country who hammered the Congressional majority to reject “Obamacare-lite.”

Yes. I wrote that.

Let’s walk through some surface realities about the bill that met a quiet death off stage rather than an ignominious demise before all. The Unaffordable Careless Act forced through Congress needs to be repealed—period. No replacement needed. This process could have been done and over with within days. All Speaker Ryan had to do was search the archive of dead bills for the budget reconciliation of 2016. That bill would have repealed Obamacare, expect for the coverage for pre-existing conditions and allowance for children to stay on their parents’ healthcare plans until age 26.

I believe that Donald Trump approved of those two aspects of the Affordable Care Act (even though they should be repealed, and the opportunity for such benefits restored to insurance companies and locally-run agencies). It’s time to get back to basics and just do the right thing, yet the leaders refused to do so. What is the matter with the Washington DC leadership in the House?

Here are my thoughts on the matter:

The House Leadership is still part of the Old-Establishment-DC-Two-Step phalanx.  Paul Ryan basically stepped on the neck of the House conference for the job. Since when did a candidate for Speaker of the House ever list a series of demands? The other leaders (and their powerbrokers) never ran for office on promises to drain the swamp and sharply limit the growth of Washington DC into Main Street. They said all the nice things that Republican voters and activists want to hear, but turned around and did the bidding of their major donors.

Now that social media and internet technology of have improved the average citizen’s watchdog role while facilitating grassroots candidates to run for office and succeed, this Mad Men/chain-smoking backroom wheeling and dealing doesn’t cut it anymore. US Senators like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul (and I will add Pat Toomey) ran on platforms dedicated to operating outside of the Big Government GOP orbit. They will not be bought, or they will lose their seats.

Also, please stop blaming the House Freedom Caucus as a bunch of stuck-up ideological Pharisees. We need more in their ranks who will demand the best for the Constitution and the American people. Yes, the “compromise critics” will roll out arguments like “The Framers were not ideologues” or “In Washington, you never get everything that you want.” 225 years later, though, the Democratic Party has embraced socialism as a foundational philosophy. They have never wavered or apologized for this false, destructive world view. Republicans want to accommodate with this anti-Constitutional world view? Not going to happen.

From this cause, a new Congressional hero stands out in Washington DC. His name is Thomas Massie, and was crystal clear about his views on RyanCare. Well, he did change his vote, but from “No” to “Hell No!” He came to the defense of our President and his country, too, acknowledging that stopping this rotten stop-gap replacement bill would save face for President Trump—and the country.

Let’s face it, no matter how many majorities or minority results that Republicans yield from election to election, the power rests with us, and more Americans are flexing their muscle. Also, pundits should acknowledge that the House bill was going to be dead on arrival in the US Senate. 

Republicans opposed this legislation, which continued too many subsidies, practically slammed the same mandate on individual consumers, and maintained the worst of Obamacare in place.

What results must spring from Obamacare repeal in the healthcare industry, so that American voters feel that they are getting what they voted for by supporting Trump?

1.       Lower insurance premiums

2.       More access to quality health care

3.       Choices

4.       Freedom

5.       Less interference

6.       No untenable waiting times

Would RyanCare have delivered on these promises? No.

Candidate Trump promised to repeal Obamacare. He also offered a health care program that he would take care of everybody. Nothing could make that happen more quickly than getting rid of Obamacare, then repealing the other mandates, regulations, and limitations which have made bureaucrats happy, but have made Americans unhealthy. Congressional Republicans don’t even have to “start over.” Back to the 2016 Reconciliation Bill, Republicans. Every time I called a House Rep to reject RyanCare, I also told them to reintroduce the previous bill. This is not a difficult process, people. US Senator Mike Lee is already on the job.

There is a silver lining to this RyanCare defeat. The Speaker may face an early retirement, just like predecessor John “Don’t Make Me Do This! It’s Too Hard!” Boehner. Principled Republicans like Dave Brat have further established their non-establishment cred, too. May their tribe increase … and again influence in Congress.

By the way, doesn’t “Speaker Thomas Massie” have a nice right to it?