What Was the
Point of Winning the Election? by Derek
Hunter, 3/19/17, Townhall
There is an
interesting phenomenon that happens among red state Democrats in the Senate
every six years. They suddenly start sounding conservative when their
re-election bid approaches.
They talk more
conservatively. They act more conservatively. They vote more conservatively, at
least until they get re-elected and can go back to holding the Democratic Party
line in the Senate.
The same phenomenon
happens in the Republican Party. Only last year, the American people called
their bluff, put them in power, and now expect them to do what they promised.
Republicans are terrified at the prospect.
Politicians are quite
good at making promises and coming up with excuses as to why those promises
went unfulfilled. “We control only one-half of one-third of the government,” we
heard in 2011 as an excuse for why the promise of Obamacare repeal was
“impossible.”
In 2015, Republicans
were given the Senate, therefore control of one branch of government. The
refrain changed to, “No matter what we pass, the president will veto it, and we
don’t have the votes to override that veto.”
OK, fine. That’s all
true. But the problem was they didn’t even try. Congress has power as a
co-equal branch of government, yet no effort was exerted toward the promise on
which they campaigned. So now voters have given a second branch of government
to the Republicans, and what do we have?
House Republicans have
introduced the “American Health Care Act,” the legislative equivalent of
Hangover 2. Hangover 2 was a slightly different version of The Hangover, but
aside from the setting, you wouldn’t know the difference.
The biggest problem
with the AHCA is it leaves in place the concept that it is the responsibility
of the federal government to provide health insurance for Americans who don’t
have employer-provided coverage. Aside from changing tax law to allow people in
the individual market to buy insurance with pre-tax dollars and allowing for
the purchase of insurance across state lines, the federal government has no
business in the health insurance game.
A true conservative
plan would allow the states to become 50 petri dishes able to experiment with
ways to make insurance affordable. Eventually best practices would win out and
be adopted by others. But that wouldn’t empower the feds, so we’re talking
about subsidies, tax credits and a federal regulatory scheme only slightly less
arduous than what currently exists.
There’s plenty of
blame for this to go around, but the lion’s share has to rest firmly with
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. He got the opportunity he and his colleagues
have been asking for, and he gave us a bill that is only slightly better than
the system it seeks to replace. No one hires someone who says, “Make me captain
of the Titanic and I’ll make sure it sinks 20 minutes later.” Yet that’s what
the Republican plan does.
Seven years they had
to come up with an idea, and we get a tweak. For seven years, we were told they
knew the way, and we get this.
It’s not as though
Republicans are burning up the rest of the agenda, they’ve done next to nothing
since Jan. 20. After years of “hurry up,” all we’ve gotten is “wait.”
I get that Republicans
are afraid of health policy. As a health policy analyst at the Heritage
Foundation a decade ago, I briefed many of them on the issue and saw the terror
in their eyes as they waited for just enough information to be able to answer
basic questions on an issue they’ve ceded to Democrats for years. But for the
last seven years, they’ve sworn they had the answers. So where are the answers?
The AHCA is not it.
You don’t have to
understand the complexities of health insurance markets and impact of
regulations on them to understand the Constitution and the limits it places on
the federal government. That shouldn’t be a bridge too far considering they
swear an oath to it at the start of every term. One would hope they would’ve
read it, if not understood it, before they pledged to defend it.
And you don’t have to
be a legislative historian to recognize the idea Republicans have proposed of a
“three-pronged approach” is insane when even they acknowledge the second
“prong” is regulatory and easily could be reversed by a Democratic
administration and the third will be blocked even more easily by a filibuster
in the Senate. Republicans swear they need a trident to kill Obamacare when a
spear would do. Like a Band-Aid – just rip it out of existence, Senate
parliamentarian be damned.
Nearly every member of
the Republican caucus campaigned on repealing Obamacare and told voters they
were “constitutional conservatives.” Nothing they’ve done since would lead
anyone to believe either claim was true.
If there’s positive
about the process around the AHCA, it’s that so far it is moving slowly. Unlike
Obamacare’s passage, Republicans have been transparent. Unfortunately what
they’ve cooked up so far is transparently awful. It’s time to scrap the patch
and unleash the free market.
Unless the AHCA is
fundamentally transformed to the point states are free to experiment, the
market is free to function, and individuals are free to make their own choices,
everything we have been told will have been a lie, the whole thing should be
scrapped and Obamacare allowed to collapse. Both parties will be blamed, and
both parties will be to blame.
A golden opportunity
in the cause of liberty will have been squandered because, after seven years of
talk, Republicans could not do the one thing they told us they would; the
reason they were in the position to disappoint us in the first place. It’s time
to start over and do it right – if Speaker Ryan and the rest of Republican
leadership actually have it in them to do what they’ve campaigned on.
Comments
After the 3 step plan is in place and healthcare costs have
been reduced, the Congress should continue to reduce federal funding of
healthcare. I expect that at least 20% of the US population will refuse to buy
any health insurance and will be subject to setting up payment plans to
hospitals if they incur high healthcare costs. There is nothing wrong with
that.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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