Obamacare’s GOP Guardians

Member Group : Jerry Shenk

Democrat and Republican gentry liberals, America’s political class, are embarrassingly out of touch with the normal citizens they feel entitled to govern.

Convinced of their suitability to run the nation, Washington’s political elite are making huge errors in judgment concerning their political security and, especially, in their disdain for and apprehension about President Donald Trump’s voters.

It was Washington’s lousy governance — misguided spending, debt, immigration, law enforcement, national security, energy and social policies, among other blunders – that convinced Americans to vote for Trump.

Currently, policies on which people elected Trump are being held hostage by ineffective Republican House leadership and "moderates" led by some members of the nominally-Republican House Tuesday Group who also participate in the Problem Solvers Caucus, bipartisan House poseurs who, other than spending, have seldom agreed about anything.

In January 2016, the GOP-controlled House and Senate voted to fully repeal Obamacare. Exceeding the required 218, 239 House Republicans voted for repeal. Predictably, the president vetoed the bill.

The vote was a symbolic election year sham, because, now, with a president willing to sign repeal, some Republicans who cast repeal votes are protecting Obamacare.

Even Obamacare reform, short of repeal, became problematic after compromise legislation negotiated by one Tuesday Group co-leader and House conservatives was shelved amid Republican opposition led by the other Tuesday Group co-leader, Rep. Charlie Dent.

Dent discussed his opposition on liberal cable news channels MSNBC and CNN, saying, "Too many people are going to be losing coverage," and "I think we need to reform this bill from the center out." In other words, Dent would consult the same Democrats who formulated and passed Obamacare without a single GOP vote. Democrats own it. Other than obstruction, Democrats have nothing to offer.

Millions have already lost coverage. Obamacare enrollment has declined for years, premiums have soared and, citing losses, insurers are abandoning Obamacare exchanges. The New York Times reported that, due to high deductibles, people find Obamacare plans to be nearly worthless. Obamacare is collapsing.

The latest reform compromise included a state-by-state option to waive some pre-existing condition protections in order to lower insurance premiums, while preserving other Obamacare protections.

States could waive Obamacare preexisting conditions rules only for people who opted out of coverage. For everyone else in the category, Obamacare regulations would still apply, and insurers could not charge them higher rates.

People without access to Medicare, Medicaid, or employer coverage would receive tax credits to purchase insurance on competitive individual markets.

The only people adversely-affected by state waivers would be those with preexisting conditions who didn’t use their credits, but even they would have access to high-risk pools.

Conservatives signed on. Charlie Dent stonewalled. Dent and forty or fifty other liberal Republicans, most of whom voted for full repeal, know that House "bipartisanship" on Obamacare is a nonstarter. They don’t want Obamacare repealed, but won’t admit it publicly.

However, if the extra-legal Obamacare exemption Congress awarded itself were disallowed, there’d be a congressional stampede for immediate, full repeal and replacement.

http://www.ldnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/05/03/obamacares-gop-guardians/101244458/