Op-ed:
ObamaCare Repeal...the Big Picture Explained
By: Diane Sori and Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots
Remember
“you have to
pass the bill, to find out what’s in the bill.” That was the liberal
standard before any Republicans could be given a glimpse of ObamaCare, and
exactly why not a single Republican in either the House or in the Senate voted
in favor of it.
It was also the very reason why some liberals...because they
had already seen what was in ObamaCare...had to be 'bribed' by the Obama administration
to vote in favor of it...a bit of history that has been all but forgotten in the
ObamaCare saga.
Once all 2,777 pages of the bill were passed without a
single Republican vote in 2010, ObamaCare became the law and was then
bolstered down the road by Chief Justice John Roberts, who was willing to alter
the language of the ACA bill to make it the law of the land. But the real
question was what were the objectives of ObamaCare? Was it to cover each and
every American and provide affordable health care, or was it something else
entirely?
To understand the objectives one first must come to terms
with the ultimate goal of Obama’s health care legislation, and that goal was a
single payer, 100% taxpayer funded health care system which is more widely known
as socialized medicine, but to get there, two primary objectives first had to
be met.
Number one...render individual, private health insurance
obsolete...destroy it by driving carriers out of the market, and then out of
business. This would be accomplished in several ways with number one being by
forcing the industry to adopt standards of coverage vastly different and vastly
unsustainable without government taxpayer subsidies. Once the health insurance
industry was forced by government mandate to alter their approach to
coverage, and placed under the thumb of the government, one by one they would
be forced from the market because they would either not be capable of meeting
the increasingly stiff mandates, or because they simply would no longer be able
to afford to continue as a viable business entity.
Number two...allow ObamaCare itself to implode...let it wither
and die as ObamaCare marketplaces collapse and as carriers of health insurance
shutter their doors, and in the process drive up the costs of premiums,
deductibles, and prescriptions well beyond what anyone could afford. As more and
more people would drop out of the system, or be forced out by the shuttering of
carrier after carrier, the pool of insured would grow evermore shallow, forcing
costs up higher and higher until, no longer viable, it would simply collapse,
leaving Americans desperate for any form of coverage and seeking a health care
savior in the form of the United States government.
If the ultimate goal was single payer socialized medicine,
and it most certainly was, there could be no better way to force the American
people to beg for it than to subsidize both the insurance industry and the insurance
consumers by increasing taxes while providing fewer and fewer options until
just one single option was left...the single payer option.
ObamaCare began with 26 marketplaces in 2014, and today
only seven remain because insurance carrier after insurance carrier have pulled
out...actually being forced out by design...and now in five states...Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma,
South Carolina and Wyoming...there will only be one lone insurance company offering
plans through the ObamaCare health insurance exchange in 2017. Aetna is out,
UnitedHealth is out, and by 2018, Humana, the nation’s largest health insurance
company, will have left ObamaCare.
Make no mistake, ObamaCare is currently on life-support and
liberals, as per their ultimate goal, have seen to it that there would be a ‘do
not resuscitate’ order hanging over the whole sordid mess.
There was also one other very important component build into
ObamaCare by the liberals who have been craving a socialist health care system
since the days of HillaryCare...the fact that once mandated to alter their
coverage plans and become beholding to the government rather than to private
individuals should the rug be pulled out from beneath it all...as in a total
repeal by those directly opposed to any sort of socialized medicine...the rug
would effectively be pulled from beneath the American people at the same time.
There is no on and off switch to health insurance. If a
simple and total repeal were to be executed now, with so few insurers
available, and their former plans mandated now out of existence, the effect
would be devastating... leaving untold millions without health insurance and with no
place to turn other than the ultimate liberal goal of a full-on socialized
system. And don’t take our word for it, Cory Uccelo, a senior fellow at the
American Academy of Actuaries recently wrote,
"Insurers are in a situation right now where they're trying to
determine whether or not they're going to participate in 2018. And part of that
depends on whether, in the long run, it makes sense for them to participate in
the market. And that long run depends on what's going to happen, not just in
2018, but in the years after 2018."
The American Academy of Actuaries has issued a dire warning
in that “a repeal of the ACA without
replacing it would be dangerous to the long-term health of the insurance
market."
While a full and immediate repeal of ObamCare is exactly what
the Freedom Caucus, and many Conservatives want...a 'wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am'
approach, they need to understand that such an approach, such instant gratification,
carries with it the law of unintended consequences...no health insurance for
almost everybody and no place to turn.
The insurance industry, or what is left of it, needs to know
that there is a significant plan in place regarding a transition away from what
they have been mandated into by ObamaCare, and back into a non-governmental
approach before they upset their apple cart again. And if such a plan is not in
place, a plan they cannot feel positive enough about, many, if not most all, will
simply quit selling individual health insurance plans altogether. Leaving even
the one redeeming feature of ObamaCare in place...the coverage of pre-existing
conditions...while defunding all the rest and doing away with the mandate...as a
full repeal would do...not only would leave vast numbers of Americans with no
insurance, it would render the coverage of those pre-existing conditions in
grave danger because young, healthy people would have no incentive to purchase
health insurance at all.
In other words, a narrow focus says repeal and nothing less,
but stepping back to see the big picture unmasks the true, insipid nature of
what liberals said had to be passed before anyone could see what was in it.
And so while many are still furious that ObamaCare was not
repealed in full as President Trump had promised while campaigning, the fact is
that it simply could not be as it involves the word ‘reconciliation’ but not
how most think.
How so...with most folks still believing that ObamaCare was passed
via budget reconciliation...which is simply a concurrent resolution passed by both
the House and the Senate but is not presented to the president and does not have
the force of law even though it ‘sets out’ the congressional budget...they now
think ObamaCare could easily be repealed the same way,. But the fact is that it
cannot for unbeknownst to most ObamaCare was not passed via reconciliation, because
as per the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, reconciliation cannot be subject
to a filibuster. And with reconciliation also being limited to budget changes
is why this procedure was not used to pass ObamaCare as the bill had non-budgetary
regulations in it as well.
And another reason why reconciliation cannot be used to
repeal ObamaCare in one fell swoop is because ObamaCare is actually a bill in
two different parts.
Two parts...as in the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act’ (ACA) and the ‘Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act’
amendment. One was an actual reconciliation bill and one was not. The ACA part
of ObamaCare was passed via a normal bill that Republicans did not have the
numbers to filibuster. And with House Democrats thinking they could negotiate
changes in a House/Senate conference before passing a final bill, they knew that
any bill that differed from the Senate bill would have to again pass the Senate
over another Republican filibuster, so most House Democrats agreed to pass the
Senate bill on condition that it be amended by a subsequent bill...as in the ‘Health
Care and Education Reconciliation Act’...which they knew could pass via reconciliation.
Two bills rolled up into one giant monstrosity known as ObamaCare...two
bills melded together inseparable by reconciliation or in being repealed in one
fell swoop...and Obama knew it as he planned it that way.
Now for a few other key facts as to why we are in the situation
we find ourselves in today...remember that ObamaCare was passed simply because at
the time of the 111th Congress, Democrats had the 60 votes needed in the Senate
to pass it without a filibuster. And how so...because Democrat Al Franken unseated
sitting Republican Senator Norm Coleman, and because in April 2009 turncoat
Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter switched his party affiliation from
Republican to Democrat. Now remember that on December 23, 2009, the Senate voted
to end debate on the bill, and that the very next day, which was Christmas Eve
and with some Senators having already gone home for the holidays, the Senate passed
the bill in a strict party line vote with every Republican voting ‘no.’
Numbers...it is all about numbers...always has been...always
will be...and with Democrats having the needed Senate numbers back then the bill
then went to the House.
However, in January, after the death of Massachusetts
Senator Edward Kennedy, the Democrats lost their filibuster proof majority when
in a special election to fill Kennedy’s seat, Republican Scott Brown won over
his Democrat opponent. And when that was coupled with the fact that the House
and Senate had ‘supposedly’ settled most of their differences before the bill
went to the Senate, which then lead to the Senate bill being passed with no
changes. And no changes meant no filibuster would be allowed before the final
vote and with the House now able to pass a second bill via the reconciliation
process. And in doing it this way the reconciliation bill...albeit being
restricted to tax, spending, and debt limit legislation by Senate rules...made
it filibuster proof.
And on March 21, 2010 ObamaCare was passed by the House
without any amendments attached to it because they could not filibuster
anything, and then on March 23rd Obama’s infamous pen signed ObamaCare into law.
Now some will ask how in 2015 did the ‘supposed’ repeal bill
HR 3762 get passed the Democrats without a filibuster if it had to be held to
the rules regarding reconciliations and then make it all the way to Obama’s
desk, where he vetoed it of course. Simply, it did so in how it was worded...as
in “To provide for reconciliation
pursuant to section 2002 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal
year 2016,” and much to the chagrin of many nowhere did it ask for a repeal
of ObamaCare. Beginning with the words that the “Affordable Care Act” is “amended”
proves that Republicans back then knew it could not be repealed by either reconciliation
or really by any means.
However, a duplicate but amended bill of the 2015 bill still
exists and was introduced by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan (R) on March 8th. but is
sitting inactive in committee in Congress instead of being voted on. But
according to some, like Texas Senator Ted Cruz, even that bill, again as it is
currently worded, does not go far enough, and he believes that any new bill
should include “excellent ideas” like
“allow[ing] consumers to purchase
insurance across state lines,” ensuring the ability to buy “low-cost catastrophic insurance on a
nationwide market,” the use of health savings accounts, and to make said
insurance “portable”...meaning you
can take it with you if you move or switch jobs. And Senator Cruz believes this
would have the effect of increasing competition and lowering costs...which it
would...something this Right Side Patriot...Diane Sori...has been saying for
years...in fact all the way back to when ObamaCare was first proposed...even
before the very first call for repeal happened just one day after ObamaCare
became the law of the land.
What I have said since day one was keep the government out
of health care in full as the 'actuals’ of health care...meaning the diagnosis
and treatment of any illness found...should be between a patient and their
physician alone and should not under any conditions involve decisions by D.C. bureaucrats.
But I also said that while there will always be bureaucracy involved to some
degree as to what and how coverage is adjudicated, a simple 4-step plan is all
that is needed...and it is needed only for those who want health insurance for
health insurance must always remain an individual choice never a mandate.
First, a cap on how high premiums can go is a must as many
were happy with their insurance plans but rightfully very unhappy with the ever
escalating yearly premium increases. A second must is the allowing of policies
to be both bought and to cross state lines...as in portability...for that in and of itself
allows for competition and lowering cost, and should be coupled with the discontinuing of premiums
being taxed. Next, pre-existing conditions must always be covered with but a
few exceptions no matter which company becomes the new insurer. And lastly, something
even Senator Cruz did not address...our veterans must be allowed to receive
treatment from the hospital and doctor of their not the government's choosing.
A simple 4-step plan...with tweaks and amending allowed of
course. And one amendment I’d like to add is that no benefits or coverage
whatsoever be given to illegals as they are criminals in the very way they came
here...as in breaking our immigration laws. But even with that one addition the fact
remains that sometimes simplicity is all that is needed to fix what seems to be
insurmountable odds.
But still the blame game remains for the Republicans new health care
bill failing, but we feel that while some are trying to place blame on Chief of
Staff Reince Priebus...who was in charge of coordinating an initial health care plan
together with Speaker Paul Ryan...who himself is being forced to shoulder most
of the blame even though he tried his best to work with what he had
especially since he knew that ObamaCare could not be repealed per se...nor should
blame be placed on Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
So who is to blame if not these men...we feel blame falls
squarely on the shoulders of uber far right Freedom Caucus who set out as
obstructionists and who succeeded in being just that. Instead of assuming a
much needed compromising attitude than it (rightfully) had under the Obama
administration, Freedom Caucus saw Republicans as the enemy even while they too
knew that ObamaCare could not be repealed in one simple step.
And
how did they do that...Freedom Caucus made so many demands
that forced the bill so far to the right that neither moderate
Conservatives nor
mainstream Republicans could fully support it. In fact, Texas Rep. Tim
Poe (R) was so disgusted with them that he quit Freedom Caucus saying
they and they alone are to blame for the
failure of the American Health Care Act. Saying that no matter what changes were made to
placate them...and know there were many...Freedom Caucus would come back
wanting more even after
telling President Trump they were done. Nice huh...
But know that the Freedom Caucus’ tactics are echoed by caucuses
on both sides of the aisle, simply because caucuses have their own agenda. And with a
caucus if you do not agree with their way of how they want something done; if
you do not agree with the timing of when they want that something done; and especially
if you do not agree with what should be in the bill they want passed; they
will try to block any given bill even if it's for the betterment of 'We the People.'
Legislators need to be able to vote on their own...to do the job they were elected
to do... they do not need to be swayed or told how to vote by caucuses.
And now Freedom Caucus is rumored to be lining up to tell
President Trump how they want tax reform done...they need to butt out or just
like with the American Health Care Act, they will be the cause of much needed tax reform failing
as well.
Remember too, that along with being an abysmal way to
provide health insurance coverage ObamaCare is also woven into our tax code,
as it is the single largest tax increase in American history. A simple,
knee-jerk repeal of ObamaCare leaves the parasite in the tax code and until
ObamaCare is dealt with, as it must be...in steps...there can be no meaningful tax
reform.
Gordon
Gray, a former Senate budget staffer and now the Director of Fiscal
Policy at the center-right American Action Forum, makes this
dire prediction...with the three-part ObamaCare repeal plan not going
through,
“lawmakers would have to offset them (ObamaCare tax code repeals) primarily
with other tax increases or general revenue raisers, not with spending cuts as
they could if the measures were included in ObamaCare repeal,” and that,
economists promise, will have a bad ripple effect on the rest of President
Trump’s economic growth plans for years to come, as well as add at least an
additional one trillion dollars to the deficit over the next ten years. Add to
that, this dire situation...if President Trump cannot get enough of his own party
to buy into a lesser tax reform package with fewer spending cuts than
promised, because of the failure of the ObamaCare repeal plan, the Freedom Caucus
will have managed to saddle America with both Obama’s socialist health care
system and his stagnant economy for the foreseeable future.
Nobody wants ObamaCare gone more than we do, but those
folks solely focused on the narrow vision of repeal now and nothing less will be
acceptable, simply are not seeing the big picture. That sort of instant
gratification will lead directly to the law of unintended consequences and
whatever is left in its wake will be an even bigger disaster than ObamaCare itself.
Because of the way ObamaCare was enacted patience is now
the key in allowing the free market of the insurance industry to realign in a
manner that will both benefit the consumer and the economy as a whole.
But, if you like your ObamaCare, you can keep your ObamaCare...and
all that goes with it including the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood by
just standing there and screaming 'repeal now, repeal now,' until you are as blue
in the face as the liberals who are licking their collective chops over the
impending collapse that will leave far too many Americans crying for the
government to save them.
It is akin to driving 100 miles per hour down a road towards
a bridge that has been collapsing for years, while demanding that the bridge be
removed at once without putting anything in its place once it is gone. What
are you going to do when you get to where the bridge used to be?
Remember...it is not the long fall, at 100 miles per hour, that
will kill you...it is the sudden stop at the bottom that will get you every time.
Copyright © 2017 Diane
Sori and Craig Andresen / Right Side Patriots
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!
Today, Friday March 31st from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori will discuss ObamaCare Repeal...the Big Picture Explained, and important news of the week.
Also, Venezuela's prices on almost all goods have risen nine times
in the mere eight years since socialist price controls took effect.
And with inflation rates now being 400% higher than that of its
neighboring Latin American countries, Maduro's socialist government
still touts that socialism affords Venezuelans access to free
health care. But what he's not saying is what good is free health care
when there's an overall 85+% shortage of medications needed to fight
and control simple illnesses and diseases as well as give children
much needed vaccinations. Also omitted from Maduro's health care
discourse is that ordinary antibiotics now cost Venezuelans twice
their minimum wage...as in a miserly wage of
a mere $6.70 per hour in a country who, thanks to
socialism, has an annual inflation rate of over two million percent
and whose personal income tax rate now stands at 34%.
So while socialism will always remain about spending
other people's money that's not really what it's all
about for absolute control is what socialism needs as it prime
calling card in order for it to not only succeed but to last. And
without absolute control...power with no questions asked...socialism
eventually collapses from within just as we now see happening in
Venezuela...just as it's always happened in other countries where true
absolute control over the emotions of the populace was never really achieved. 
RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!
