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House Postpones Vote on RINOCare because the Votes Aren’t There

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Published on: March 23, 2017

House establishment Republican leaders postponed Thursday’s planned vote on the American Health Care Act, aka RINOCare because some conservatives in the House are actually standing on their principles to see Obamacare fully repealed, which the current legislation before the House does not do, despite the White House’s attempt to say otherwise.

The strongest stand against the bill comes from the House Freedom Caucus, headed by Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC).

On Thursday afternoon, Meadows said that he thinks they are moving slowly towards a deal, but there was no final deal emerging.

We have not gotten enough of our members to get to yes at this point under what we’re currently considering,” he said. “However, I would say progress is being made.  We have not gotten enough of our members to get to yes at this point under what we’re currently considering.  However, I would say progress is being made.”

Meadows had good things to say about President Donald Trump’s engagement of the issue.

“I would say that at this point, the president’s engagement is unparalleled, I believe, in the history of our country,” he said. “This is a president that wants to get things done.”

However, getting things done should be constitutional and should be to produce a free market, not a socialize, subsidized one with more bureaucracy and government control.

“This is not a personality decision; this is a policy decision,” Meadows said. “It won’t lower premiums, and until it does, I’m going to be a no, even if it sends me home.”

“I am still a no at this time,” Meadows said. “I’m desperately trying to get to yes, and I think the president knows that, I told him that personally.”

However, it appears that Trump put a little pressure on the representatives if they didn’t play ball.

“I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done,” Trump told the representatives, according to Politico’s John Bresnahan and CNN’s Phil Mattingly.

“I’m gonna come after you, but I know I won’t have to, because I know you’ll vote ‘yes,’ ” Trump said, according to several lawmakers who attended the meeting. “Honestly, a loss is not acceptable, folks.”

Indeed, a loss is not acceptable, but a loss of what?  A continuation, not a repeal of Obamacare?  A continuation of Obamacare definitely should lose, and lose “Yuge!”  My guess is that people who will vote for the House bill are going to be the ones that get targeted in 2018, not those opposed to it.

Besides, many of these men who are against the measure are pretty secure in their districts, so whether there is a real threat or not, it probably will not affect them.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) changed his vote on the bill from “no” to “hell no” on Wednesday.

Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) went into the meeting with President Trump as a “strong lean no” and emerged from the meeting still determined to vote “no.”

“My views are based on fundamentals in the legislation,” he said. “I don’t see the lower premiums in this bill.”

Rep. Daniel Donovan (R-NY)  said, “I have four hospital systems in my district; they are my biggest employers.  All of them have grave concerns about how they are going to survive if this gets passed.”

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) attacked the issue of illegal aliens who come into the country being able to claim tax credits in the GOP plan.

“I would have a hard time explaining to families in the 11th District . . . why they should be helping to pay for the health expenses of someone who broke the law to get here and has no right to those federal dollars,” he said.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) siad that GOP leaders are miscalculating support for the House bill.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), another RINO, said, “It’s our hope that we’d be voting tomorrow, after debate.”

The Washington Examiner reports:

Late Wednesday, the House Rules Committee approved a rule that will allow the committee to approve a rule for any bill reflecting a final deal, and then allow that rule and the bill to pass the same day in the House.

Normally, rules and related legislation can only be considered the day after the measure is approved by the Rules Committee.

Lawmakers are expected to pass this so-called “same day rule” Thursday evening, in a vote tentatively scheduled for 8 p.m.

House Republicans were expected to reconvene before that vote to assess the state of play of negotiations.
Meanwhile, stocks fell on Thursday following the news that the vote on the bill was delayed.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 5 points, with UnitedHealth contributing the most losses. The 30-stock index had traded about 96 points higher earlier in the session. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent, having traded 0.45 percent higher earlier, as health care and energy led decliners.

The Nasdaq composite fell around 0.1 percent after rising 0.36 percent at session highs.

The one thing that bothers me in all of this is the lack of representatives pointing to the Constitution on the issue of health care and insurance.  Where does Congress have the authority to be providing subsidies?  Where in the Constitution’s enumerated powers for Congress do they have the authority to be demanding insurance companies must provide certain elements in their insurance policies?  At least with organizations like Gun Owners of America, who are supposed to be defending the Second Amendment, we see them pointing to the words of the Constitution for why they are opposed.  I’d like to hear more language from House Republicans not about what the hospitals are going to do or those they represent, but about how both Obamacare and RINOCare are a usurpation of the US Constitution’s enumerated powers for Congress.
Finally, though virtually every article I read on the subject of the delay claims this bill “repeals and replaces Obamacare,” it does not do that.  People can say that all they want to, but it just isn’t true.  House Republicans should scrap Obamacare 2.0 and issue a full repeal of Obamacare as a bill.  Then, they should issue a simple bill, much like the one drafted by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) that would actually open up the free market.

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