MODERATE “REPUBLICANS”
As the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump folds on a key health care subsidy issue, the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will is trying a third time to repeal parts of former president Barack Obama’s socialized medicine monstrosity – Obamacare.
So much for six years of GOP promises to completely repeal the anti-competitive abomination at the first opportunity, right?
Yeah …
We’ve written extensively on this ongoing goat show, which has seen Trump turn on the very lawmakers who most aggressively supported his insurgent presidential candidacy.
We’ve also written extensively on the fundamental problem with the repeal effort – a growing ideological chasm between conservative Republicans and “moderate” GOP lawmakers who might as well be Democrats.
“Efforts to create a working majority on partial repeal were confronted by an impossible calculus on Capitol Hill,” we noted three weeks ago.
In short, any concessions made to the conservatives – a.k.a. the “Freedom Caucus” – cost votes among moderates, whereas any concessions made to the moderates cost Freedom Caucus support.
The math simply hasn’t added up.
[timed-content-server show=”2017-Apr-24 00:00:00 -0000″ hide=”2017-May-16 19:00:00 -0000″]Sponsored Content
[/timed-content-server]
The latest partial repeal bill includes several sops to the conservative wing of the GOP – including provisions that would give states flexibility in implementing some Obamacare mandates. Such flexibility is intended to lower health care costs and facilitate real competition – which has been sorely lacking under the law.
Still, with Trump’s administration caving on its vow to cut subsidies it’s debatable whether Americans will ever see a reduction in their health care premiums as a result of the bill’s passage.
By way of a reminder, Obama promised Americans his health care law would lower their premiums by $2,500 “per family, per year.”
Except the opposite happened, though … and it’s only getting worse.
Even former U.S. president Bill Clinton has slammed the law. During a campaign stop for his wife, Hillary Clinton, last fall in Flint, Michigan he called Obamacare “the craziest thing in the world.”
“You’ve got this crazy system where all (of a) sudden 25 million more people have healthcare and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Clinton said. “The people who are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little bit too much to get any of these subsidies.”
Exactly …
Of course the law doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
While the latest partial repeal bill has earned the support of the “Freedom Caucus,” many liberal Republicans are already lining up as “no” votes. And even if the House by some miracle manages to clear the latest proposal, it faces an uphill battle in the “GOP-controlled” U.S. Senate.
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: What was the point of electing Republicans again?
UPDATE: Well, well … Democrats are vowing to shut down government in the event the GOP moves forward with an Obamacare repeal bill.
Banner via iStock