Repealing Obamacare isn’t what it used to be … because let’s face it, “Republicans” in Washington, D.C. don’t actually want to repeal this hated socialized medicine monstrosity, they just want to win elections appearing to be against it.
The problem with that “strategery?” It doesn’t work anymore. The GOP controls both chambers of Congress and the White House – electoral victories which were secured in no small part due to the party’s repeated promises to repeal Obamacare.
In other words, they are out of excuses …
This brings us to the so-called Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson proposal to “repeal” Obamacare. Sponsored by U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Dean Heller and Ron Johnson (and endorsed by former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum), this legislation purports to repeal “the structure and architecture of Obamacare,” replacing it with “a block grant given annually to states to help individuals pay for health care.”
“This proposal removes the decisions from Washington and gives states significant latitude over how the dollars are used to best take care of the unique health care needs of the patients in each state,” the bills sponsors argue.
Not all limited government advocates are sold on the proposal. U.S. Senator Rand Paul, one of the staunchest pro-free market voices in our nation’s capital, says he cannot support Graham-Cassidy.
“No one is more opposed to Obamacare than I am, and I’ve voted multiple times for repeal,” Paul tweeted this week.
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Paul’s beef?
“The current bill isn’t repeal,” Paul added, saying he “won’t vote for Obamacare Lite that keeps 90 percent of the taxes and spending just so some people can claim credit for something that didn’t happen.”
“Calling a bill that KEEPS most of Obamacare ‘repeal’ doesn’t make it true. That’s what the swamp does,” Paul added in another tweet. “I won’t be bribed or bullied.”
Paul has been blasted for his position by U.S. president Donald Trump, who supports the watered down repeal bill.
“Rand Paul, or whoever votes against (Graham-Cassidy), will forever (future political campaigns) be known as ‘the Republican who saved ObamaCare,'” Trump tweeted.
Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government (GetLiberty.org), is no fan of Graham-Cassidy, either. His organization has been advocating for a full Obamacare repeal from the moment the bill became law seven years ago.
Having said that, Manning believes the GOP needs to show some progress in eating away at the law.
“For anyone arguing that the Cassidy-Graham bill is not good enough and needs to be better, we agree, it’s not perfect,” Manning said this week. “It’s not close to perfect. But it is the only bill that repeals individual and employer mandates, block grants funding to states and offers waivers for Obamacare regulations that has any chance of passing this year.”
Manning added that failing to take this particular bite at the repeal apple could ultimately pave the way to a pair of pernicious outcomes – Democratic control of the U.S. Congress and a subsequent push for a pure socialist (i.e. single payer) health care system in America.
“Anyone who would sacrifice the granting of regulatory relief for the states, and the destruction of two of the main pillars of Obamacare on the altar of perfection is making a huge mistake,” he said. “Passage of the Cassidy-Graham bill is the beginning of the end for Obamacare. Failure would legitimize the push for single payer as the only alternative to Obamacare for the vast majority of Americans who do not pay attention to policy nuances. The only thing most people will know is that Republicans failed to keep their promise to replace Obamacare and they can’t be trusted on health care moving forward. That would be a recipe for disaster.”
Not surprisingly, Democrats unilaterally oppose any legislation that repeals so much as a word of their signature legislative accomplishment – which has utterly failed to live up to any of its promises.
Senate minority leader Charles Schumer has derided the Graham-Cassidy bill as “Trumpcare II,” and vowed to oppose it.
What do you think? Should the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate adopt a partial repeal of Obamacare? Or should it fulfill its (many) campaign promises and take the law down in its entirety?
Obamacare should be ...
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