It’s never a good feeling when you’re in the middle of a catastrophe and no one in charge knows what to do or—even worse—knows what needs to be done but lacks the courage to do it. I’m feeling that way about how Republicans who told use that they ONLY needed to control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House and the Obamacare nightmare would be made a historical footnote.
They got the control they asked for and instead of doing what they promised they turned the entire process into a game of centrifugal bumble-puppy. RedState’s Patterico called it the “worst political betrayal in modern political history.”
I guess congratulations are in order. Congratulations, Barack Obama. Your signature big-government achievement: ObamaCare — the biggest step towards socialized medicine in this country in over forty years — is now beyond challenge. We now know that it will never be repealed. And we have Republicans to thank for it.
And it’s being treated like just another news story. Well, it’s not. It’s the worst political betrayal in modern political history.
I’m still unclear whether it was a malevolently calculated betrayal or the pathetic kind, like when someone lies on their resume then panics when their new employer suddenly has an unexpected need for their rattlesnake milking skills. I’m leaning toward the latter.
Meanwhile, instead of providing leadership President Queeg is threatening to make Alaskans pay because Lisa Murkowski stole his strawberries.
Early Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to express displeasure with Murkowski’s vote. By that afternoon, each of Alaska’s two Republican senators had received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska’s future with the administration in jeopardy.
The response follows Trump’s no-holds-barred style of governing, even when it comes to his own party. It is his first strike of retaliation against Murkowski, however, despite her tendency to stray from the party line and the president’s priorities.
Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a “troubling message.”
“I’m not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop,” Sullivan said.
This is where some numbskull inevitably says, “Well, politics ain’t beanbag.” It’s not. It’s more like cornhole, and the American people are the ones providing the holes.
Had it been another Obamacare-Lite plan that got voted down, Trump would almost certainly be issuing the same kind of threats against Freedom Caucus members again. It’s because he doesn’t really know—or care—why Obamacare is a disaster. He just knows that he alone can fix it.
Now the health insurance companies are speaking out against the latest iteration of the Republican plan. Who can blame them? They actually had the federal government pass a law that requires people to buy their product or face the wrath of the IRS. It’s the mother of all sweetheart crony deals. Naturally they’re going to fight anyone who wants to take it away.
The scaled-down, “skinny” repeal bill would repeal ObamaCare’s mandate for people to have insurance, which insurers and other groups warn would lead to a sicker group of enrollees and spiking premiums.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association warned of “steep premium increases and diminished choices that would make coverage unaffordable and inaccessible.”
You got that? Repealing what made health insurance unaffordable and and inaccessible will make health insurance unaffordable and inaccessible.
“Eliminating the mandate to obtain coverage only exacerbates the affordability problem that critics say they want to address,” said Dr. David Barbe, president of the American Medical Association.
The AMA is a leftward tilting organization whose PR has succeeded in convincing most Americans that they speak for all doctors. They don’t. Most doctors I know would recognize that it’s crazy to tell someone that eliminating the primary cause of a problem will make the problem worse.
The Left is succeeding in selling their doomsday scenarios in which people will be dropping dead in the street unless they pay a fine for not buying the insurance they’re not buying right now. The Right has no counter to it because the only part of the media they have speaking up for them is more worried about helping President Trump get a “win” on healthcare so he can move on to tax reform than they are about promoting a free market based health insurance system with minimal government intervention.
Let me know when I’m supposed to be tired of winning.
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