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Impotent Republicans Can’t Fulfill Promise: “Clean” Repeal of Obamacare Dies in Senate

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Published on: July 28, 2017

The Republicans are demonstrating why they may often have better ideas, but implementing them is where they have the most difficulty.  On Wednesday, a “clean” repeal of Obamacare died in the Senate, opening the door for more compromise and more sustaining of the unconstitutional and totalitarian legislation.

Seven Republicans voted against the repeal.  Not surprisingly, six of those Republicans backed repeal in 2015.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

The Washington Times reports:

Seven Republicans, including six who supported it two years ago, voted against repeal. Fellow Republicans said they broke their promise to voters.

The party’s defectors said they wouldn’t commit to repeal without knowing what would replace it. The two-year grace period that party leaders wrote into the repeal proposal wasn’t enough of an assurance, they said, and millions of Americans could lose coverage if an alternative plan wasn’t in place.

With their backs against the wall, Republican leaders are floating a last-ditch “skinny” repeal. Details are still being finalized, but Republicans described it as ditching Obamacare’s unpopular mandate requiring individuals to hold insurance, its rule requiring large employers to provide coverage and its tax on medical device sales.
That’s not a “skinny” deal.  Like the bill put forth before, this bill leaves the majority of Obamacare intact.
Furthermore, where is any authority in the Constitution for Congress to demand that employers provide insurance coverage?  I thought these were the guys that believed government should be smaller and stay out of your business and personal responsibility.  So much for that rhetoric.
Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) said, “What you’re really voting on is to try and keep the discussions alive with the House and Senate. It’s not the policy itself.”
They can tell the American people that all they like, but talk is cheap.  Republicans have been talking about this since it was signed by Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah in 2010.  They’ve voted on full repeal bills numerous times, but now that they are in power, we see quite clearly, as most of us already knew, that they repeal votes were nothing but political grandstanding.  They have no intention of repealing Obamacare.  They simply want to rebrand it with an “R” and control it.
Republicans promised to rip out Obamacare “root and branch,” but as everyone can see, they can’t even cut a limb.
“Today’s vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican. “We still have a long, long way to go both in health policy and in honesty.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has been part of the problem in all of this, couldn’t even muster 50 of the 52 seats Republicans control behind the plan.
“This certainly won’t be easy. Hardly anything in this process has been,” McConnell said. “But we know that moving beyond the failures of Obamacare is the right thing to do.”
Moving beyond the failures of Obamacare?  These guys can’t even move beyond their own!  They are impotent in dealing with this, and Senator Churck Schumer (D-NY) says exactly why that is.
“It’s a ruse to get to full repeal,” he said.
Republicans actually believe that nonsense.  Democrats rammed Obamacare through intact.  They didn’t need one single Republican vote in the House or Senate.  Why can’t they do a full repeal in a similar manner?  Why won’t they alter the rules of the Senate and play ball like the Democrats?
I’ll tell you that it isn’t because they are just being nice guys here.  In many cases, these guys are controlled opposition.  They bark loud when they aren’t in power and they are like neutered dogs when they are given power.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who pushed for a “clean” repeal said speaking of the “skinny” bill, “I think if we go to conference, it’s just going to get built back up to the monstrosity that we just voted down.”
Sadly, that is what is being reported on Thursday.
The Hill reports:

Republican senators said after a closed-door lunch on Thursday that House GOP leadership has agreed to go to conference on legislation repealing ObamaCare.

“Mitch McConnell told our conference that he had spoken with Paul Ryan, and Paul Ryan intends to go to a conference,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, added he has “been assured by the Speaker that they are preparing to go to conference.”

Other RINOs like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he won’t support a “skinny” bill.

“I cannot tolerate our skinny bill being the final answer on health care. … No way. If you passed it as a standalone proposition it would destroy the insurance markets and we would own the failure of Obamacare,” Graham said. “I’m a no” if it’s not allowed in conference.

Meanwhile ten governors have written a letter opposing a “skinny” bill.

The Republican governors who signed the letter are:

  • Brian Sandoval of Nevada
  • Charles Baker of Massachusetts
  • John Kasich of Ohio
  • Larry Hogan of Maryland
  • Phil Scott of Vermont

The following Democratic governors also signed it:

  • John Hickenlooper of Colorado
  • John Bel Edwards of Louisiana
  • Steve Bullock of Montana
  • Terry McAuliffe of Virginia
  • Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania

“The Senate should also reject efforts to amend the bill into a ‘skinny repeal,’ which is expected to accelerate health plans leaving the individual market, increase premiums, and result in fewer Americans having access to coverage,” they said in a letter Wednesday to Senate leaders.

“True, lasting reforms can only be achieved in an open, bipartisan fashion,” they added.

Really?  Obamacare is still with us and it was anything but bipartisan.

“The bill still threatens coverage for millions of hardworking, middle class Americans. The bill’s Medicaid provisions shift costs to states and fail to provide the necessary resources to ensure that no one is left out, including the working poor or those suffering from mental illness or addiction,” they continued.

No, it does not.  Continuing down the road we’re on, or altering it with more Republican socialism will threaten not only coverage, but the insurance industry and the health care market as a whole.

If you ask me, it’s like Republicans don’t really care about fulfilling their promise to repeal Obamacare at all.  It seems they just want to hold onto it and make it a political football rather than doing the right thing and fully repealing it.

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