Great Job GOP: House May Have to Vote on Obamacare Repeal Bill Again
The stupid party.
I will never understand how the Republicans managed to screw this up so badly. And let’s be clear, this is the fault of Republicans in Congress, not Donald Trump. The talk of repealing Obamacare started years before Trump was even a candidate.
Their first attempt a couple months ago fell flat on its face. The second time, it passed in the House on a squeaker vote. Now, they may have to vote on it again.
Billy House reported at Bloomberg:
House May Need to Vote Again on GOP Obamacare Repeal Bill
House Republicans barely managed to pass their Obamacare repeal bill earlier this month, and they now face the possibility of having to vote again on their controversial health measure.
House Speaker Paul Ryan hasn’t yet sent the bill to the Senate because there’s a chance that parts of it may need to be redone, depending on how the Congressional Budget Office estimates its effects. House leaders want to make sure the bill conforms with Senate rules for reconciliation, a mechanism that allows Senate Republicans to pass the bill with a simple majority.
Republicans had rushed to vote on the health bill so the Senate could get a quick start on it, even before the CBO had finished analyzing a series of last-minute changes. The CBO is expected to release an updated estimate next week.
“Unaware,” said Representative Jeff Denham of California, with noticeable surprise Thursday, when advised that his party leaders still hadn’t sent the bill over to the Senate. Denham was one of the House Republicans who ended up voting for the measure, after earlier in the week opposing it.
“I am on the whip team and we have a lot of conversations, but we have not had that one. So I am going to look into it,” said Denham, a member of the party’s vote-counting team.
Allahpundit of Hot Air offers this brief summary of what happened:
In sum, in their rush to get the bill through before CBO rendered its verdict, they seem to have forgotten that nothing much can happen until CBO renders its verdict. (At least if reconciliation is to be used.) Not terrific! Exit question: How’s the GOP going to raise enough revenue from the bill to clear the deficit-reduction hurdle? Reportedly Republicans in the Senate are considering … desperation measures.
The “desperation measures” Allahpundit refers to will not please Republican voters.
Robert King writes at the Washington Examiner:
Obamacare’s individual mandate could stick around
Obamacare’s individual mandate to buy health insurance, one of the most controversial parts of the law, could stick around for a few years as part of a transition, a key senator conceded Wednesday.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told reporters Wednesday that he believes the individual mandate will be eliminated, but the question is when.
“My sense is yes, it will go away but we are still figuring out how to make the transition,” Hoeven said.
He said a Senate working group drafting its own healthcare bill, which Hoeven is a part of, hasn’t made any decision on how long the mandate will stick around.
“At this point, the plan is to not keep the mandate but we are discussing how to work that into the transition,” Hoeven emphasized.
People have been waiting almost a decade for this to happen.
What will it take to get it done?
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Comments
If there is anyone left on the planet who still doesn’t get that the Republicans are the “get it done” arm of the Democrats, please leave the planet. The GOP continues to circle the wagons around the Democrats even when they are the only team left on the field. What will it take for the “never say die” Republican voters to recognize the enemy?
However people feel about Trump, HE is the guy we elected and we elected him because he was the only one running on the OFFICIAL Republican platform (aka “conservatism”). Everyone else was running as “the only one who can beat Hillary!” in a primary process rigged for Jeb!. There is no
one else left to turn to. It’s our very last chance to get it right and it begins with breaking through those circled wagons.
So the “repeal” part of repeal and replace is too much trouble. So instead we’re just replacing the faces in front of Obamacare.
Had they submitted a straight repeal bill first while declaring no discussions about replace could start before then, we wouldn’t be seeing all of this casual buffoonery. They already submitted a repeal to Obama how many times? Eight years was plenty of time to get this right and FAST! Time’s up!
They presented a repeal to 0bama zero times. The house passed it many times, but the Ds never let it through the senate.
Wrong. Obama vetoed ObamaCare bills from Congress at least 60 times.
Stupid, yes. But in this case, more like Deliberately Incompetent. Ryan did more work for Obama than he is for Trump.
Isn’t the problem that the GOPe does not want to repeal Obamacare and they do not want to admit it?
Ryan is the lead liar and not very good at that either.
Exactly. The GOPe does NOT want to repeal Obamacare. There are several reasons for this, as I have previously outlined.
GOP doesn’t want to because at the end of the day there is no difference between the GOP and the Democrats. All are all out to serve themselves.
Until these clowns actually grow some balls nothing will get done. They should have adopted the Democrats approach and just like the Democrats passed the bill being damned with the consequences then the Republicans should repeal Obama care and be damned with the consequences!
Keep in mind that a consequence would be to reduce the financial burden on the people who are forced by pain of imprisonment to pay for insurance they can’t actually afford to use (there is a HUGE difference between being covered and being able to afford to pay the multi-thousand dollar excesses that comes with their insurances). That is a positive consequence.
Of course Government is bothered about positive consequences. If it means not making money then the Government can’t allow that to happen! Keep in mind that taxation is the crack cocaine of Governments!
Just one point here. Repealing the ACA will only reduce the financial burden on people who do not require healthcare services. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that healthcare insurance costs are separate from healthcare costs.
Prior to the passage of the ACA, healthcare costs had been rising at 2-6 times the rate of inflation since the early 1960s. By 2000, most people who required any significant healthcare services required some type of healthcare insurance to be able to afford those services. Also, those who suffered catastrophic injury or illness found themselves in the same position. By 2008, the healthcare insurance industry was already in a death spiral. The ACA did two things. The first was to shore up both the healthcare insurance industry and the healthcare industry, in the short run. It did this by infusing the system with federal money and forced participation. But, that federal money was designed to run out in 2017. At that point, the designers of the program felt that the populous would be clamoring for guaranteed healthcare and the government could step in and takeover the healthcare insurance and healthcare industries. The GOPe politicians went along with this, because their masters wanted it. And, with Obama in the WH, they could safely shout their desire and intention to repeal the hated ACA, knowing full well that they could not deliver on that promise.
Well, now the GOP politicians are in the unenviable position of having a President who WILL allow them to repeal Obamacare. However, their masters are still in favor of the provisions of the ACA and repeal would eliminate healthcare insurance for millions of people, making healthcare unavailable. To do that would be political suicide for a number of Republican Congressmen. So, do not look for it to happen. If they putz around long enough, the system will collapse, allowing them to ride in and save the day by, essentially, nationalizing healthcare insurance and healthcare.
It is all about protecting their phony bologna jobs.
Perfectly stated and easy to understand, if you don’t have your head … well, you know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTmfwklFM-M
But 48 D senators who will filibuster any bill that can’t be shoved into the budget reconciliation package.
You seem to forget that the only way the Dems passed the original bill was because they had 60 senators, and once they were down to 59 they had to use reconciliation. Since the Reps have only 52 senators they can only do what the reconciliation rules allow, which means it has to have a significant effect on the budget, and not increase the deficit. Those are the rules, the same ones the Dems played under, and note well that they did not simply change the rules so they could ram their preferred bill through; they were smart enough to realise that one day they’d be in the minority, so they kept the filibuster and modified their plan — which is why it ended up the mess that it did.
A repeal, of all the non-budgetary, parts of the ACA will reduce the deficit as it will reduce government funding of the insurance program. Repealing Expanded Medicaid will reduce spending. Repealing the insurance subsidies will reduce spending and the deficit. And, much of that can be done through the reconciliation process. But, the AHCA does not do ANY of that.
The Republican majority can repeal substantial parts of the ACA. They just won’t do it, because it will result in people losing their healthcare insurance and that is going to cost some Republican Congressmen their jobs.
It’s not about ‘balls.’ It’s about their agenda. You might even say the GOPe has chutzbah spitting in the face of their base.
Time for these rats to go.
You guys need another Tea Party revolution, this time to get rid of the likes of McCain et al.
just goes to show how much of a Gordian knot Obamacare really is. trying to unknot is almost impossible
Why, it almost sounds like the lying pieces of crap really don’t want anything to change!
re: “I will never understand how the Republicans managed to screw this up so badly. And let’s be clear, this is the fault of Republicans in Congress, not Donald Trump. The talk of repealing Obamacare…”
What’s so hard to understand? The GOP politicians listen to what their base wants, and then pander to that whine from the masses. Their pandering doesn’t indicate support, it only indicates that they want to be re-elected via the ballot box.
AS FOR THE REPUBLICAN BASE; they’re just as phony as their elected GOP representatives. WHY do I make that accusation? Consider how the Liberals control the real reigns of community power: school boards, city councils, universities, grass root advocacy organizations (foot soldiers). The Liberals aren’t some mythical ‘supermen’ type species, the conservatives could occupy these spheres of political power, but they don’t! The conservative base squawk ‘rule of law’ and stay home watching Netflix, while the liberal foot soldiers are out running the streets.
The conservatives are committed to personal comfort and complaining, whereas the Left is committed to seizing power. The conservatives have gotten the leadership they deserve: McCain, Boehner, Ryan, etc.etc.etc. America has been given a wonderful opportunity in President Trump, and the conservatives are going to squander it – just like a dishwasher who squanders his winning the Powerball, the conservatives have no idea how to maintain or encourage the opportunity they’ve been given.
Conservatives have actual jobs (yes, more than one for many of us) because we have to pay either for (1) crap “insurance” that doesn’t provide financial protection against anything or (2) not buying crap “insurance” and being hit with the tax-that’s-not-a-“tax”-but-rather-a-penalty-but-it’s-really-a-tax-administered-by-the-IRS
finetaxpenalty“shared responsibility payment.” We are not independently wealthy, nor do we have sugar daddies like George Soros paying us to go and rouse some rabble.Yeah got some news for you….
As a conservative with a real job I work with a lot of leftists with real jobs.
Stop defending conservatives failures to get in the political arena and fight with the excuse of having a real job.
Fact is too many conservatives don’t even try to fight.
(Censor) the CBO.
Send the bill on to the Senate with the understanding that it is a reconciliation bill. Let the chips fall where they may.
A budget reconciliation bill requires CBO scoring.
…then change the scoring method. It’s long past time they dumped that static scoring system which ASSumes that people don’t change their behavior in response to taxation.
The Uniparty is in the hands of the Marxists and the Crony Capitalists .
They want Single Payer nationalised health insurance . one wants it for the road to utopia, The other because it will shift a hefty burden off of corporate health expenses to the middle class with steady stream of healthcare tax increases.
It may be too late , Obamacare may have disrupted the market so much that the dislocations that reverting to more free market system may make it politically untenable.
AceOfSpades aptly coined this as Failure Theater to placate the base by pretending to represent the voters who sent them to D.C.
“Gosh golly we really tried to repeal ObamaCate but we just couldn’t find the votes. Drat. But if you send me more money I promise pinkyswear to maybe not really try harder next year. Suckers”
Pretending that legislation can pass over the uncompromising opposition of 41+ senators — other than through the budget reconciliation process — won’t make it true. If it were true then the Ds could have passed their version, amended it as they liked, and we’d have a different (and worse) law. The plain fact is that if the Ds had had only 59 senators instead of 60 there would be no 0bamacare in the first place.
Lashon is spot on. The GOPe gets away with this because they believe that once they are ensconced in office we will just complain and put up with it and MAYBE remember to primary them two years down the road.
If the were Dems and did this to the Left? One or three would suffer an accident, he replaced in special elections, and the rest would fall in line.
Charles Krauthammer predicts we will have single-payor government health insurance within 7 years. I agree.
The reason is that people are unwilling to have other people die for lack of health insurance, and there is no way the free market would be able to prevent that.
So we will have universal health insurance, but we won’t have universal health CARE for reasons which Mac45 has eloquently explained.
As Darth Vader would put it, pray they do not also make it illegal to pay for your own health care.
Krauthammer also didn’t “know who Obama really was.”
We and Trump will either destroy the GOPe, or abandon the GOP altogether. Can’t wait for either.
What will it take to get it done? Incumbent GOP Congressmen getting ousted by Tea Party candidates. Republicans have become a punchline thanks to the likes of Boehner, McConnell and Ryan.