Repeal Obamacare!! Ehh…Well, No.

So yesterday the Republican effort to “repeal and replace” Obamacare went down to defeat.  Well not actually defeat; it would have been defeated if the House Majority Leader, Paul Ryan had been foolish enough to call for a vote.

Nope.  No vote.

Even with a 246 – 188 the Republican dominated House could not muster a majority to pass what is being called Trumpcare.  After 6 years and 60 votes to repeal, they should have had a consensus on an alternative, an alternative program ready to go. They didn’t.

Pardon me while I laugh.

The Administration, with a majority in both houses of Congress and a Republican President suffered a catastrophic defeat in its first effort at major legislation to fulfill a signature campaign promise.

Hehe.

Trump immediately blamed the Democrats; not one Democrat was on record supporting the bill.   Trump of course never asked the Dems for their input nor made any effort whatsoever to secure some Democratic votes.  So therefore he got none from the opposition.

No.  The bill failed because of Republican opposition.

Now don’t jump the gun and assume that there has been a Lenten conversion miracle on the G.O.P.  Republicans still hate Obamacare.

Opposition arose from two directions.  Firstly, Republican moderates from states which took Obamacare money to expand Medicaid health services to the poor who cannot afford to purchase health insurance even with Obamacare subsidies, were concerned  over the loss of that money in the new bill.  They wanted to keep those funds flowing.

The second group of opponents consisted of 24 Representatives constituting the “Freedom Caucus”.  These folks are the most right wing members of the House and grew up in the Tea Party movement.

They are all for “free market” health care and no subsidies for those who can’t afford to purchase insurance.  And they want to reduce Medicaid drastically or eliminate it entirely.  They don’t want a replacement for Obamacare.  They simply want a total repeal.

Market based healthcare is life or death based on one’s ability to pay to continue to live. Choosing between bankruptcy and dying is where today’s “market” solution is.  These are the same folks who used to shout “Let em die!” in the town hall meetings.

Between the loss of “moderate” Republicans who wanted to keep Medicaid funds flowing (in effect keeping choice pieces of Obamacare) and the loss of votes from the Freedom Caucus, Paul Ryan didn’t have enough votes.  So he cancelled the vote, withdrawing the bill.

Progressives had little to do with the bill’s defeat other than to make their opposition known at G.O.P town hall meetings and ensure no Democrats supported it.  Our Senator, Marco “empty suit” Rubio cancelled his meetings with the people; no point in talking to us.  We might not be polite to him.

Being in a good mood and feeling like having a laugh I went to some conservative websites to find out what was going on among the common people.

American Spectator was a really fun read.

How can you not laugh at the lead article:  “Freedom Caucus Saves Obamacare Again!”

I had no idea that the Freedom Caucus had saved it previously.

“AHCA was pulled from the floor yet again this afternoon, and it now is probable that Obamacare will be the law of the land for years to come. This is an utter disaster for U.S. health care, not to mention individual liberty, and the responsibility rests squarely on shoulders of a small cadre of political opportunists with the effrontery to call themselves the “House Freedom Caucus.”

 

These people held out for the impossible — full repeal of Obamacare in one fell swoop — and have thus destroyed the only realistic opportunity their party will have in the near future to eradicate the law’s individual and employer mandates, enact entitlement reform, expand HSAs, defund Planned Parenthood, halt the metastasis of Medicaid, and cut its myriad taxes.

Moreover, they have made a mockery of their group’s name by perpetuating the increasingly oppressive and powerful administrative state, leaving their constituents to the tender mercies of Beltway bureaucrats whose contempt for the taxpayers who support them is exceeded only by the breathtaking incompetence with which they mismanage everything they touch.”

Oh!  The pain!

“This tiny clique has again protected a crime against democracy — and that is what Obamacare is — from the will of the voters by refusing to accept political reality. They have reneged on the promises they made to their constituents and allowed their “more conservative than thou” hubris to transform their little group into the “100-Percent-of-Nothing Caucus.” Disgusting.”

I posted a comment among the hundreds.

‘“Hahahaha!  ROTFLMAO!”

The Spectator took it down.

Too droll.

Or maybe too troll.

Now its not that I am a big supporter of Obamacare, although my youngest daughter and her husband purchased health insurance through the market website. They are among the millions in Florida who have employers who do not provide healthcare options to their employees.

As a retiree I am a member of a single payer plan.  Medicare.

Medicare works fine and I am very happy with it.

I support Medicare for all.  We’ll get there.  Someday.

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