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House approves Senate budget resolution repealing Obamacare

The House today approved the Senate budget resolution repealing Obamacare’s tax and spending provisions.

The House voted 227-198 Friday to approve the resolution a day after the Senate voted 51-48 to clear it. Nine conservative House Republicans voted against the measure: Justin Amash of Michigan, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Walter Jones of North Carolina, John Katko of New York, Raul Labrador of Idaho, Tom MacArthur of New Jersey, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Tom McClintock of California.

The resolution, which is nonbinding, sets budgetary and spending levels for Obamacare. It will act as a vehicle for Republicans to craft legislation that would gut Obamacare via the reconciliation process.

What the article does not note is that the Democrats voted 100% against the bill, once again demonstrating their steadfast marriage to this disastrous law. The Republicans who voted against the bill did so because they are sincerely worried about its budgetary impact. The Democrats who voted against it did so because they have become close-minded on the issue, and will defend this law no matter how many voters they offend.

When the next election comes we should remember this and remove more of these fools from office, if only to finally get the Democratic Party to wake up and abandon this bad policy.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • Des

    Millions of Trump supporters would lose their insurance if the law is repealed and not replaced. Despite 6 years to do it there is no agreed upon Republican plan to replace it. The disastrous early implementation of ACA marketplaces made it an easy target to blame for all the problems of the American healthcare system. The plan to repeal the law but keep it in force shows that it is easy to criticise, much harder to actually fix the healthcare system.

  • I want my readers to note how Des conveniently avoids mentioning why the repeal will only repeal part of the law. This is not the choice of the Republicans. If they had their way, I am pretty convinced they would repeal it entirely, and start clean. They can’t because the Democrats in the Senate will filibuster any such attempt. The Democrats are blocking a sensible repeal. The Democrats are forcing us into this situation, since it is quite obvious to anyone who has paid the slightest attention since Obamacare was passed that the law is not working and is causing great harm.

    It was the Democrats who forced this bad law upon us. It has been the Democrats who have fought every attempt by the Republicans to put forth numerous proposals and plans for replacing it. (Des is either illustrating his ignorance or is lying when he claims the Republicans have no plan to replace Obamacare.)

    It is the Democrats now that are standing in the way, all for the sake of partisan power and the love of a terrible law that they have an almost religious belief in.

    But Des can’t mention these facts. To him, it is always the fault of the Republicans. The law is wonderful! How dare anyone question it!

  • Cotour

    Long term one of the functions that the Obama presidency may well serve is to be the catalyst in arriving at a reasonable and functional healthcare system. This Democrat mess forces the actual solution, its going to be messy and disruptive to certain degrees, but if this is properly focused on long term it has the potential to work out.

    Lets all understand and agree that this Constitutionally offensive law was designed as a matter of political strategy to push the limits of Constitutionality to the max, they got away with what they could when they could. However, on the rebound as the power shifts the actual acceptable Constitutional solution will appear. It will not be perfect, but it will appear.

  • PeterF

    Des.
    We can’t know what the republican replacement plan is yet because they haven’t passed it! They have to pass their replacement plan before we can find out what’s in it. We already know that democrats are comfortable with that strategy and we are confused that they don’t appear ready to accept it without question…

    Bob,
    The turtle head that is the Senate majority leader just SAYS he is afraid of a filibuster but we all know he isn’t going to force the clowns to actually stand and talk until something unpleasant happens. That would be just too juicy! (pun intended). But that would DEPEND on their preparation!

  • Edward

    Des,
    Obamacare as implemented is to pay for healthcare insurance that rarely pays for itself. The only ones who get any benefit from it aren’t the ones who are occasionally seeing a doctor but those who have catastrophic accidents or illnesses, and the catastrophic policies of the pre-Obamacare regime were better and cheaper. Even people with preexisting conditions are still finding difficulty in affording Obamacare.

    Even Congress and their staffs have difficulty affording healthcare under Obamacare. If those well-paid people can’t afford it, what chance do the rest of us have?

    The disastrous early implementation continues to be disastrous today, and there is no end to the catastrophe.

    The healthcare system isn’t hard to actually fix. It is politically hard to fix, because now everyone expects someone else to pay for their healthcare insurance. That expectation is part of why Obamacare is such a disaster. It relies upon other people’s money.

    A return to the free market system will put great pressure on doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies to provide superior care and service for reduced prices. Right now, Obamacare puts so much onerous requirements and regulations on everyone that it is expensive and limited in its service. In a continually failing attempt to reduce costs, Obamacare continues to reduce services and benefits. As it is now, it is unAmerican and unpatriotic.

    A return to the free market system would be American and patriotic. It would put the responsibilities back on the correct people and organizations. This current socialist healthcare system works almost as well as any other socialist system, except that it has run out of other people’s money very quickly, despite the great amount of OPM available.

    Millions of Trump supporters may lose their insurance, but millions of Americans lost their insurance when Obamacare was implemented. You are reading the rant of one of them. We couldn’t keep our doctors; we couldn’t keep our plans; it costs far more, not $2,500 less; it requires tremendous deductibles with vastly increased co-pays, and we can’t afford to pay the premiums and still eat. As you may suspect, Des, eating is the more urgent health concern, so I have lost my insurance in favor of meals.

    Obamacare may coerce millions more people into buying insurance that they cannot afford and will rarely get to use, but at what cost?

    Obamacare is so expensive, it fails to be the kind of health insurance that all but the seriously ailing need — and it is far, far more costly than the policies available prior to Obamacare. Financially more costly, socially more costly, and economically more costly. It is even likely to be the reason that the American life expectancy decreased in 2015, for the first time in decades, and that would be yet another cost.

    Even after paying the costly premiums, the benefits do not kick in until after a high deductible, then there is an onerous co-pay. Add in the cost of the premium and the actual benefit of Obamacare is lost for tens of millions of Americans, they effectively have no healthcare insurance at all. There is yet another cost for you, Des.

    Yet you, Des, are worried about a mere few million who will have to go out and buy their own cheaper policies that have better benefits. I’m trying to work up some tears, Des, for those poor, poor souls. Give me a minute …

    It is only those for whom the insurance is mostly or entirely paid by someone else who benefit financially from this hideous excuse for insurance, but this benefit is at the cost of that someone else.

    Obamacare prohibits the possibility of any alternative options. This is why the free market system would be vastly superior to any system that we have had since the invention of the disastrous, insolvent Medicare system.

    If I sound mad at you, Des, it is because I consider people with your bad attitude to be a major reason for my plight, and the plight of millions, if not tens of millions, of people like me. I apologize for all the bad things that I thought about you during the writing of this rant. On second thought, I take back that apology. You are those bad things, and you deserve being called them.

    I consider you to have been Grubered.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRj8OsgfqEk (2 minutes)
    Jonathan Gruber was talking about you, Des, when he said that the stupidity of the American voter was critical to getting the thing to pass, and now I am one of the ones suffering. Gruber wasn’t talking about Republicans or conservatives, who were adamantly against this piss poor excuse of a law. He was talking about the people that he could get to support this monstrous law. That turned out to be you, Des. Gruber considers you to be stupid for believing his tripe and for supporting his sick healthcare law.

    You, Des, continue to believe the intentional lies that were said in order to convince you to support this stupid turd of a law. You are one of the reasons why it is so politically hard to fix the healthcare system. As long as there are people who refuse to take personal responsibility for their own actions and lives, we will be stuck with people for whom a diaper safety pin is the appropriate symbol.

    Yep. Still no tears.

  • Jim Jakoubek

    When I think back on what it took to pass this disaster to begin with I shake my had at this notion that
    we have to “replace” the ACA.

    I remember Obama “inviting” the Republican leadership to a conference to talk about it and then
    telling them that he would do as he wished and that it was his way or the highway.

    The ACA had to be passed so we could find out what was in it according to Pelosi.

    The rules in the Senate had to be changed to pass it by a simple majority and even then the votes needed to do so were had when two states (Nebraska and Florida if I recall) could opt out of the thing all together.

    Then came the raiding of MediCare to pay for it, the “adjustments” to the law to prevent some of
    the mandates from enacting made illeagly by Obama himself around election times and the roll out
    of the website which was its own carnival of errors.

    Not to mention that premiums went through the roof along with deductables for next to worthless
    policies and the steady collapse of the exchanges over the past several years.

    All this for a law that was not designed for universal coverage to begin with but raise those covered
    into the lower 90%’s leaving millions still without coverage.

    And this is what the Democrats defend? Amazing.

    This thing needs to be repealed right down to its roots and instead of replacing it things go
    back to pre-ACA days and for the poor that can not afford coverage go through some combination
    of MediCare/Ade.

    Any other way and we are inviting single-payer and if anything we see what would happen if that
    ever came to pass after the last six or seven years of government interference in the healthcare
    system.

    Want it to be more efficient? Root out all the fraud that runs through the system right now.

  • wayne

    Many good points by all.

    I do differ entirely with what Des puts forth.

    I would take this opportunity to slam McConnell & Ryan, and Boehner as the x-speaker. (and…he’s back.. he makes $5 million/year as a lobbyist.)
    >The RINO-CRONY’s love all this Statism and are fully & equally complicit in all this.
    Whatever they end up doing—it will be just as stupid & expensive. They have baked billions & trillions of spending/borrowing into all this, and neither side wants to give it up, ever, unless they are stopped from outside of D.C.

    http://www.conventionofstates.com

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