So what do the Pubs do about health care now?

[KingOrfeo]

They've got a caucus, right? Why can't they get together and work out a bill all factions can agree on?

 

[RobDownSouth]

They've gerrymandered themselves into quite a predicament.

There are about 40 Republican seats that have been drawn so conservative that they will never relinquish them...these 40 bomb-throwers can go "Full AJ" without fear of repercussion from the voters. They're making life hard on the rest of their party with their constant demands for ideological purity.

Also, it seems the Republicans as a whole have forgotten how to govern as a majority...and having a lightweight like Trump in the Oval Office ain't helping.

We live in interesting times.

 

[BotanyBoy]

They've got a caucus, right? Why can't they get together and work out a bill all factions can agree on?

Because the conservative (R)'s want the shit gone...

And the corporate (R)'s want to use it to let their corporate interest fuck the working class like it was intended.


Not going to get much agreement there, it will just stay a piece of shit HC reform and dry butt fuck to the working class, legacy of corporate (D)'s.

 

[OldJourno]

The easy answer on what to do would be to let Nancy Pelosi continue to make a fool of herself talking about how great Obamacare is as state exchanges continue to crumble, insurance companies flee the premises and premiums skyrocket.
But Obamacare if strangling the economy. Best do something about it, but don't pass something that is merely going to delay the inevitable while putting GOP fingerprints all over it.
That will only serve as an excuse for Democrats to really fuck things up when they're back in power. And if the GOP royally fucks up Obamacare repeal, and at this point is there really any doubt?, you know the Democrats will be back in charge sooner rather than later.

 

[Ms_Ann]

Eliminate the mandate.

 

[LadyVer]

They've got a caucus, right? Why can't they get together and work out a bill all factions can agree on?

Because they do not give a shit about anything but their hardline let the poor die, help the rich. screw everyone but themselves platform.

 

[Hard_Rom]

They do nothing. Chalk it up as a loss and move on. If they are smart!

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

It's good that the Freedom Caucus managed to kill Trumpcare. Since it was mostly Obamacare already, it would have had spiraling out of control costs, just like Obamacare is continuing to go through. Had it passed, Republicans would have been blamed for healthcare. Since Obamacare is still around and continuing to circle the drain faster and faster, it's the Democrats problem since they voted for it.

Hopefully they'll push Ryan & his shitty bill to the trash & use Rand Paul's Healthcare alternative that will definitely lower healthcare costs.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

They do nothing.



Let the people enjoy that which Democrats are convinced is overwhelmingly popular.



Let the chips fall where they may. Let the Democrats enjoy the sweet taste of victory for the near future...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

It's good that the Freedom Caucus managed to kill Trumpcare. Since it was mostly Obamacare already, it would have had spiraling out of control costs, just like Obamacare is continuing to go through. Had it passed, Republicans would have been blamed for healthcare. Since Obamacare is still around and continuing to circle the drain faster and faster, it's the Democrats problem since they voted for it.

Hopefully they'll push Ryan & his shitty bill to the trash & use Rand Paul's Healthcare alternative that will definitely lower healthcare costs.

Agreed.

 

[james_1957]

House Democrats on Friday called on Republicans and President Trump to help them fix the troubled Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have warned is on the verge of imploding, instead of sitting back and watching it fall apart.

Democrats call on Trump to 'nurture' troubled Obamacare
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/d...to-nurture-troubled-obamacare/article/2618405

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Democrats call on Trump to 'nurture' troubled Obamacare
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/d...to-nurture-troubled-obamacare/article/2618405

*chuckle*


Good luck with that after all the name-calling, serious charges and dirty tricks...


As Trump pointed out, no Republicans voted for it, no Democrat was going to vote to fix it, so they own it now even more than they owned it before.

 

[lovecraft68]

Every plan is a joke because not one addresses the real issues of the drug companies gouging prices, forcing the health care insurance companies to charge crazy prices and most of all....no plan gives a fuck about the middle class...all the whining is 'what about the poor? fuck all of it until they get the corruption out of the real problem..oh wait, that corruption lines the pockets of both parties

 

[KingOrfeo]

The problem is, the Pubs finally have power and don't know what to do with it. They don't know what they want to do about health care or anything else. They know they want to undo everything the Dems have done since 1933, but now they're learning that actually undoing it would be political suicide in the reddest of states; and beyond that they haven't a clue. The old kind of Pub who is both capable of and interested in constructive policy proposals has been sidelined. Even W's feeble "compassionate conservatism" would be off the table in today's GOP.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

I honestly don't know what the hell Ryan was thinking when he drafted his bill. It's obvious that it was still mostly Obamacare, which is what Republicans & conservatives hated and ran to get rid of. He had to know that this would not pass.

Bizarre...

 

[Rightguide]

Wait until Democrats are being chased in the streets by angry sick people who can't afford their deductibles and after a few of them have been strung up, mosey in and asks if they need a little assistance fixing their healthcare law.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I honestly don't know what the hell Ryan was thinking when he drafted his bill. It's obvious that it was still mostly Obamacare, which is what Republicans & conservatives hated and ran to get rid of. He had to know that this would not pass.

Bizarre...

It was going to be a bait and switch all along. They kept trying to tell both moderates and the Freedom Caucus that when the bill got out of reconciliation, it would be the bill they had been dreaming of all along. Everyone knew that that claim was a crock of shit.

 

[FakeNews]

Obamacare isn't out of the woods yet

At least for the moment, the American Health Care Act is dead.

Whether on purpose or not, the Trump administration will probably weaken Obamacare on its own. But a Republican-dominated Congress will still be working, too, and recent history shows that some of their most successful anti-Obamacare moves have been smaller bites, even under the threat of an Obama veto. Enacted legislation has delayed the so-called “Cadillac tax” and other revenue-generating taxes, changed the categorization of small employers, and reduced appropriations to the Prevention and Public Health Fund. Congress could always make more of these smaller cuts to the health law. With legislation as complex and big as the ACA, each quantum of instability those measures create could have much larger downstream effects.

The tools available for Republicans in the executive and legislative branches to make Obamacare weaker are plentiful. Invariably, those moves will probably reduce the number of people covered and could further destabilize delicate and still-reeling exchanges. The degree of damage Republicans can do is as yet unknown. But an Obamacare made weaker by design could prove to be the dynamite they need to finally demolish the whole thing later. And this seems to be at least one place where the White House and the House are in accord. The only problem is Republicans might not want to be holding the dynamite when the fuse runs out.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/the-aca-isnt-out-of-the-woods-yet/520830/

 

[KingOrfeo]

Negotiating with the fringe: Trump White House still hopes to work with Freedom Caucus on health care bill.

The holdout conservatives have scaled back some of their demands.

In an interview with the conservative Washington Examiner, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows, said his group is seeking a new GOP health care bill that would remove the “essential health benefits,” services like maternity care and mental health treatment that the current law requires insurers to cover in their plans. It is also seeking to remove restrictions that prohibit insurers from charging customers more based upon their health status.

“We have come from six requests down to two,” Meadows was quoted in the Examiner as saying.

Those two requests are likely to be difficult for the rest of the GOP to accept as they are among some of the most popular aspects of the current governing law, the Affordable Healthcare Act. Freedom Caucus members say that removing these regulations would allow for the sale of lower-cost health care plans but the group’s critics say that these rules are critical to providing higher quality health care.

 

[OldJourno]

If the Republicans are smart (I know, fat chance of that happening), they will move to sever all government interference with health care for the general public.
Exceptions: VA, Medicare and a much smaller number of Medicaid patients. We'll always have a need for the VA on some scale, but Medicare and Medicaid can be phased out.

 

[KingOrfeo]

. . . but Medicare and Medicaid can be phased out.

Why should they be?

 

[BotanyBoy]

Why should they be?

Because some folks don't think it should be the federal governments job to pay for your shit.

 

[RobDownSouth]

If the Republicans are smart (I know, fat chance of that happening), they will move to sever all government interference with health care for the general public.
Exceptions: VA, Medicare and a much smaller number of Medicaid patients. We'll always have a need for the VA on some scale, but Medicare and Medicaid can be phased out.

.....and with this post, Queerbait takes an early sizeable lead over the KooKooKorean in the "GB Stupidest Post of teh Month" contest for April.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Because some folks don't think it should be the federal governments job to pay for your shit.

Then they're idiots. Look around the world -- things go much better in countries where the government does at least some of that sort of thing than in countries where it doesn't.

 

[Rightguide]

Then they're idiots. Look around the world -- things go much better in countries where the government does at least some of that sort of thing than in countries where it doesn't.

America is unique. We aren't like the rest of the world, don't want to be either.