Rand Paul walks out of Ryan's Obamacare meeting

[William Tell]

Republicans have reached a gut check moment: After spending more than six years vowing to fix the flagging patient that is Obamacare, it’s the GOP’s own repeal effort that’s on life support.

Undoing the health care law despised by conservatives seemed to be a straightforward proposition for the party after it won the White House and retained control of both chambers of Congress. Instead, Republicans are sniping over how much of the law to scrap, what to replace it with and when. At this moment, it's far from a sure thing any plan could get through Congress.


Consider Paul Ryan's feel-good meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday. The House speaker trekked across the Capitol to reassure senators that lawmakers are making more progress toward repealing the health care law than the media are reporting.


But not everyone was buying it. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) left before it was over, having heard enough of a conversation that he says centers around keeping Obamacare's Medicaid expansion intact and creating tax credits that he called a "new entitlement program," though a Republican in the room rebutted the notion that the topic of Medicaid expansion came up in the Tuesday meeting with Ryan.


“I hear things that are unacceptable to me,” Paul said in an interview afterward. “If they don’t seem to care what conservatives think about complete repeal of Obamacare, they’re going to be shocked when they count the votes.”


**************************************

Republicans said Price's word is as good as Trump's on Obamacare, giving him an important assignment on Wednesday. But when Price addresses Senate Republicans on Wednesday, Paul, for one, won’t be there. He’s scheduled to give a news conference at that time with Freedom Caucus members about his bare-bones Obamacare replacement.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...blicans-235020

[donnay]

Scrap the whole damn thing. Replace it with nothing! Let the free market take over.

[jllundqu]

I hope Rand Paul keeps hammering his bill.... I would love to see Rand get this passed.... would be a HUGE feather in his cap and a win for LIBERTY

[jmdrake]

Scrap the whole damn thing. Replace it with nothing! Let the free market take over.

In order for free markets to take over Obamacare has to be more than scrapped. It must be replaced. Or to put it another way, other government impediments to free market healthcare that existed before Obamacare need to be scrapped. Things like health insurance companies not being able to compete across state lines or drug patent laws that allow companies to gouge patients for life saving drugs. (Yes. Most people don't realize this but patents are a government enforce monopoly. Nothing wrong with patents to a point but the shouldn't be allowed to be abused like they were in the case of the EpiPen.) Also tax law should be changed so that individuals get the same tax break for buying private insurance that businesses get for buying insurance for their employees.

In 2009, John Mackey, then president of Whole Foods, but forward an 8 point plan to improve healthcare without adding to the deficit. The liberal response? Boycott Whole Foods.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001...42170072865070

[dannno]

Like a boss.

In order for free markets to take over Obamacare has to be more than scrapped. It must be replaced. Or to put it another way, other government impediments to free market healthcare that existed before Obamacare need to be scrapped.

lol ya that is exactly what Rand means when he says that.

[Anti Federalist]

Go Rand!

And $#@! a bunch of establishment GOP.

You $#@!ers passed a repeal bill five $#@!ing times when you knew Obama would veto it.

Just pass the same bill again, you spineless $#@!s.

[Anti Federalist]

Also tax law should be changed so that individuals get the same tax break for buying private insurance that businesses get for buying insurance for their employees.

Yes, this.

All medical expenses, including premiums, should be 100% deductible.

[georgiaboy]

Take it to the court of public opinion! Light up the talk shows and media outlets with outrage!

Time to nut the hell up!

[Matt Collins]

This is where Rand is brilliant ha ha ha:

But when Price addresses Senate Republicans on Wednesday, Paul, for one, won’t be there. He’s scheduled to give a news conference at that time with Freedom Caucus members about his bare-bones Obamacare replacement.

[seapilot]

If they only tweak this Obamacare it will eventually end up into a single payer system. Now is the time to sledge hammer it and let the free markets work.

Reminds me of the movie fast food nation. Animal rights activists opened a gate in the middle of the night to free the cows from slaughter. The cows were too scared to run free even after the activists tried to chase them out, they ran back in. Lots of cows in the GOP.

[angelatc]

“If they don’t seem to care what conservatives think about complete repeal of Obamacare, they’re going to be shocked when they count the votes.”

They'd rather work with the Democrats than us, though.

[CPUd]

https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/831937126149275650

[CPUd]

Looks like this is the only thing that has support in both the House and Senate.

https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/s...36421699129346

[Jan2017]

Healthcare freedom . . . NOT having to check the box on your 2016 Form 1040 for "Full (12 months) coverage"
or else ya'll need to include an extra payment to Uncle Sam

[specsaregood]

Looks like this is the only thing that has support in both the House and Senate.

https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/s...36421699129346

but I just read the other day that his bill has no cosponsors in the senate.

[CPUd]

but I just read the other day that his bill has no cosponsors in the senate.

They're waiting for permission from the White House.

[specsaregood]

They're waiting for permission from the White House.

Well maybe we need a tweet to start retweeting at the Donald to that effect.

[CPUd]

Soon.

[Valli6]

Rand Paul coming up on on Neil Cavuto's show (Foxnews) 2/15/17 to talk about this.

edit: Rand says he's telling them now, "We will NOT support partial repeal."
also spoke about Gen Flynn - said whoever leaked the info about Flynn's conversation belongs in jail.

[CPUd]

Looks like a fight

https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/831981870485225473

[eleganz]

[afwjam]

Like a Boss!
Liking the strong push on this issue, Go Rand!

[seapilot]

Looks like a fight

https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/831981870485225473

No Obamacare Lite, Yes to Obamacare Zero

Rand is getting a lot of positive attention for carrying the water on Obama care repeal. Paul Ryan is looking like a jack ass again.

[TheTexan]

despised by conservatives

Obamacare is the worst bill of all time, at least, the couple parts about it that I don't like anyway

Most of it is OK

[Anti Federalist]

Rand Paul Joins Freedom Caucus to Kick Off Conservative Obamacare Replacement Drive

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...acement-drive/

by Neil W. McCabe15 Feb 2017

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Capitol Hill conservatives rallied behind the bill sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Ky.) to replace the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, with a patient-centered federal policy at a Wednesday press conference at the Capitol.

“This is a big, big day for conservative Republicans,” said Paul, who was flanked by members of the House Freedom Caucus.

The senator, who has been a physician and eye surgeon for more than two decades, said that for the last six years, Republicans have promised voters that they would repeal and replace Obamacare.

In 2010, Republicans won the House of Representatives; and in 2014, Republicans won the Senate; and in 2016, Republicans won the White House–all based on that promise to unwind President Barack Obama’s landmark health care reform legislation, he said. “We owe this to the conservatives across the country to repeal–to completely repeal Obamacare.”

Former South Carolina governor Rep. Mark Sanford (R.-S.C.) said he was proud to offer the House companion bill to the 180-page Obamacare replacement bill written by Paul.

“I have long admired his stance toward liberty and individual freedom, and to maximizing both,” Sanford said. “I particularly like the way he’s taken his real life experience as a physician and applied them to bring liberty to ultimately patients and citizens alike across this country in terms of what comes next in health care.”

Paul said it is true that there are problems caused by Obamacare, but there were real problems in the healthcare industry before Obamacare that still need to be addressed.

“We are concerned about how to provide the most insurance at the least amount of cost, and that is what our replacement bill does,” he said.

For Paul the three top improvements in the bill are that it legalizes the sale of inexpensive insurance, expands the Health Savings Accounts which allow individuals to set aside money in tax-protected accounts for medical expenses, and allows Americans to band together in health insurance associations to create large pools of buyers for the purposes of driving down costs, he said.

The 11 million people buying insurance in the individual markets would be empowered with the opportunity to join one of these associations, he said.

Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus Rep. Mark Meadows (R.-N.C.) told reporters that the HFC fully supports the Paul-Sanford bill along with immediate repeal along the same lines as the 2015 Obamacare repeal bill that passed the House and Senate in 2015.

Meadows said that the 2015 repeal, which was completed through the same budget reconciliation process the current repeal is now going through — along with the Paul-Sanford bill with its two-year transition period — will bring about the repeal and replace of Obamacare, freeing Congress to tackle other projects and problems.

Because the repeal bill is part of the fiscal year 2017 budget, Congress cannot begin work on the fiscal year 2018 budget with 2017 unresolved, he said.

“It would be our preference to have a vote on this replacement within days of our repeal vote,” he said.

In January, while Obama was still in office, both houses of Congress voted to begin the repeal process with the next step of having relevant committees produce pieces of each chamber’s version. Bills using the budget track are privileged and do not need a 60-vote majority to end debate. Republicans hold a 52-to-48 majority in the Senate, making it unlikely to pass repeal through the regular order track.

The disadvantage to the budget track is that it is restricted to the taxes, penalties, and subsidies in the PPACA legislation. This means there are going to be three steps to unwind Obamacare. After repealing the financial underpinnings of the legislation, Congress would still need to address the rules, regulations, and administrative infrastructure left untouched by the budget bill. Finally, Congress needs to decide if there will be a replacement program or will it just allow the healthcare system into freefall.

Meadows said that another replacement proposed by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R.-La.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R.-Maine) is not a serious replacement because it leaves too much of the PPACA intact.

The North Carolina congressman said he welcomes all bills and all ideas, but Capitol Hill conservatives cannot support Cassidy-Collins.

“The speculation on what a replacement will look like has created an unnecessary climate of anxiety in this discussion,” he said. “I commend Senator Paul and Representative Sanford for releasing a plan so that we can move toward debating the issues at hand and ultimately keeping our promises to the people.”

The former HFC Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio) said he is not worried about the political backlash from repealing Obamacare, because Republicans campaigned against it for the last three election cycles and won.

Americans expect Republicans to repeal Obamacare, he said. “Everything they were told about this law turned out to be false.”

The House Freedom Caucus has two official positions on Obamacare, he said. The first is what is in process now, the repeal through the budget reconciliation track, just as Congress passed it in 2015. Second, pass a replacement bill that empowers patients and doctors — not Washington.

Sanford said the Affordable Care Act was well-intended, but it created some of its own problems.

“It had the government deciding what was essential, whether you or your family members thought the same,” he said. “It had the government setting up non-insurance insurance, which worked against all the math.”

A major fault in the Obamacare legislation is its failure to decouple health insurance from employment, he said. This coupling is a legacy of the wage and price controls from World War II, which were then codified in 1948.

During the war, employers were under pressure to pay higher wages for workers without pushing the workers into a higher tax bracket nor violating wage caps. Kaiser Shipyards, which built the Liberty Ships, got around these hurdles by offering subsidized health insurance, which functioned as tax-free income for the workers. Kaiser Permanente is a direct descendent of this innovation, which along with the Health Maintenance Organization, or HMO, became the routine practice in America.

The problem with this model, which Congress encouraged with tax deductions for company-based health plans, was that when a worker changed jobs, they changed insurance companies, and if the worker had a pre-existing condition, they either were locked into their current job or had to go without coverage for the pre-existing condition at the new job and its plan.

Sanford said individuals buying insurance through an association would be freed from job-lock and would be able to continue insurance with the same insurance company that covered a condition acquired with that company.

Given all the lessons learned from Obamacare, right now it the moment to fix the health care crisis, he said.

“It is an inflection point,” he said. “This is about: Where do we go next?”

[XNavyNuke]

The intelligence community is going to need to update all their files on the Freedom Caucus members. The caucus treachery cannot be allowed to go unpunished.

XNN

[GunnyFreedom]

The intelligence community is going to need to update all their files on the Freedom Caucus members. The caucus treachery cannot be allowed to go unpunished.

XNN

Glenn Greenwald needs to get right on this.

[XNavyNuke]

You bet'cha!
XNN

[Peace&Freedom]

Rand is forging the right alliance at the critical time. What both he and the Freedom Caucus should do from here is get Trump to publicly side with both of them, and perhaps join him in public rallies on the issue. That would keep the subject from being bogged down in Beltway machinations, which the establishment and MSM thrive on to stay in control of the narrative.

Instead of the meme "GOP modifies its commitment to fully repeal Obamacare" it becomes "Trump, Rand and House leaders rally public for final push to fully repeal Obamacare." Then pass a two sentence bill, saying basically "Obamacare/ACA is hereby completely repealed. Remaining transition and coverage issues will be resolved as the Secretary (HHS) shall direct."

[georgiaboy]

Rand is forging the right alliance at the critical time. What both he and the Freedom Caucus should do from here is get Trump to publicly side with both of them, and perhaps join him in public rallies on the issue. That would keep the subject from being bogged down in Beltway machinations, which the the establishment and MSM thrive on to stay in control of the narrative.

Instead of the meme "GOP modifies its commitment to fully repeal Obamacare" it becomes "Trump, Rand and House leaders rally public for final push to fully repeal Obamacare." Then pass a two sentence bill, saying basically "Obamacare/ACA is hereby completely repealed. Remaining transition and coverage issues will be resolved as the Secretary (HHS) shall direct."

This.

Paul Ryan - remember why you are even speaker? Boehner was kicked out on a rail because he was blocking conservatives! Get with the program.