I haven’t had a chance to fully digest the House health care bill. I’m just beginning the process of learning more.
Trump supports the bill broadly, subject to some negotiations. And is promising a round 2 and round 3 of more market-oriented reforms.
It appears that much of this procedure is driven by the desire to repeal Obamacare as a technical matter by the means through which it was passed — the “reconciliation” process. That avoids the possibility of a Senate filibuster by Democrats, but also limits what can be done.
I’ve seen many of the statements rejecting the bill, even if modified somewhat, from the conservative side (I’ve tuned out what Democrats are complaining about). The overall point, as I take it, is that the House bill institutionalizes the key concept of Obamacare – that the federal government not markets will drive health care.
I would have liked to see a truly conservative alternative. But in order to do that we should have elected a truly conservative president.
That’s not a knock on Trump — he is what he is, and as pointed out during the primaries he never has been an ideological conservative. There are many things he believes and already has done that are conservative, but it’s not his nature. He’s always believed in big government, but big government that seeks to make America great again, not big government that seeks to make America weak again.
Ideological conservatives had their chance in the primaries. They lost. We lost. I supported Ted Cruz, but he couldn’t pull it off.
It may be that we ended up with the most conservative candidate who could be elected president, as unsatisfying as that may be.
There is a chance to move the window of the health care bill towards conservatism and free market solutions. We should do that.
But I think it would be a mistake to jettison a version of repeal of Obamacare that does not fully meet our expectations just because it does not fully meet our expectations.
It’s said that you go to war with the army you have.
We’re going to war on Obamacare with the president we have. There isn’t going to be another chance.
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