The GOP Does Have A Plan To Replace Obamacare. That’s What Scares Democrats Most

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David Harsanyi:

So #MakeAmericaSickAgain is the slogan Democrats cooked up to oppose Republican health-care reform efforts. That’s because, as you may recall, before 2010 America’s streets were strewn with the bodies of the neglected and dead.

Since Democrats are focusing their campaign on the myth that Obamacare is working for most Americans, it’s imperative they create the impression no viable alternative exists. After all, it’s been nearly a week since the new congressional session started, and Republicans still haven’t produced a comprehensive plan to replace a massive federal health-care law.

The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof leaves a blank paragraph in his column to illustrate what a Republican “plan” to replace Obamacare will look like, before indulging in the customary “people will die!” scaremongering. (Kristof’s newspaper, by the way, featured a piece headlined “Republicans’ 4-step plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act” the same day his column ran.)

Now, if by “plan,” Kristof is using the contemporary Left’s definition, meaning a expensive, constricting federal regulatory scheme that forces Americans to participate through a series of mandates, then one hopes Republicans never have a “plan.” If the word “plan” still means “a proposal for doing or achieving something,” the GOP have many.

Although there may not be space in either of Kristof’s truth barrels to mention this proposal put forward by the speaker of the House, or the numerous other conservative plans that have been floated, they do exist even if he doesn’t approve. Figuring out a way to turn them into legislation that can pass both houses and meet the approval of a new populist president (who, by the way, isn’t even in office yet) will probably take more than a couple of weeks.

You can have plans. And they can change. I know this because Democrats had many big plans in 2008 but they did not have a finished bill ready to go on day one. This, even though they’d been talking, campaigning, and promising to reform the health-care system for decades. When running for president, Barack Obama (supposedly) opposed the idea of an individual mandate — the device on which Obamacare’s rickety viability hinges — yet it was only later part of the plan. While he was changing his mind, the Senate Finance Committee held 31 meetings to develop Obamacare specifics.

Democrats also had to drop the “public” option and rejigger their abortion coverage to make the bill politically palatable for the moderates in their own party — not the GOP. Even after this the Democrats, who passed the basic structure of Obamacare without having to worry about any Republican opposition, were only later forced to use reconciliation to make it acceptable for the House.

Perhaps Republicans are embracing a newfound competence by avoiding those political pitfalls. Perhaps they’re looking for consensus on timelines and specifics that will make it more feasible. Most likely, it’s going to be messy again. It’s not unprecedented.

Of course politicians grapple with the reality of power. Democrats have grappled with the failure of their policy promises for six years. Krugman, like everyone else perpetuating the myth that there are no replacement plans, act as if coverage can only exist through fake state-run exchanges or welfare.

Don’t worry, though; today’s “they have no plan!” is tomorrow’s “that plan is extremist!”

It is worth reiterating that the replacement plan doesn’t have to be conceptually or functionally similar to Obamacare, no matter how often the Paul Krugmans of the world demand it. The comprehensiveness and rigidity of Obamacare are things to avoid. So replacement plans can be passed piecemeal.

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The cry-baby liberals LOVE to create a villain, then pretend to be the people to oppose it. Health care is expensive, so insurance is expensive. How do you reduce the cost of health care without degrading the product? THAT is the question and, as we were shown, the Democrats DAMN SURE don’t know the answer.

As I proved to the denying imbecile AJ, the Republicans have many plans and have for years. The question is, though, IS there a viable, workable plan for the US government to control health care? We know the Democrats couldn’t figure it out; perhaps there IS no good solution. However, we are in it now and the disaster Obamacare must be corrected.

Who needs death panels, when you can just eliminate health insurance coverage for the 20 million or so Americans who couldn’t get it prior to the Affordable Care Act, and then let nature take its course?

So, what is this magical, mythical republican plan that will prevent that from happening, while simultaneously cutting costs to taxpayers? People making claims that republicans have one, but nobody ever seems to come forward with the details concerning what it is, or any numbers showing how it would work.

Here’s the title of David Harsanyi’s article: “The GOP Does Have A Plan To Replace Obamacare. That’s What Scares Democrats Most.” After which he blathers on for paragraph after paragraph, without saying a single thing to back that claim up. Instead, we get a bucket or two of standard right-wing ideological bilge water, wherein words are spoken while nothing substantive is being said. That, Davy boy, is not a coherent plan.

@Greg: Remember all the plans they passed in the house and senate but couldn’t get past Obama dummy? I believe there were 7 of those. Don’t you remember scoffing at their endless useless effort? DAVID MADE HIS POINT, YOU JUST HAVE A VERY SHORT MEMORY.

Remember all the plans they passed in the house and senate but couldn’t get past Obama dummy?

So, which of these 7 Brilliant “Plans” do they have in mind as a solution in reality, rather than on the stage of their Let’s Make Believe political theater? A link would be appreciated. Because when they blow up the Affordable Care Act, which actually exists and functions in reality, they’ll have to replace it with something that also exists and functions in reality—which will involve one helluva lot of small details these posturing jackanapes in 3-piece suits haven’t even begun to figure out yet, let alone come to any agreement upon among themselves. Why do they think the Affordable Care Act was so complicated to begin with? Alternatives were only simple and easy to agree upon when everyone supporting them knew perfectly well that there was no chance in hell they’d ever be signed into law.

If they fail to come up with something better, they’ll be totally screwed come election time—something they also don’t seem to have figured out yet. They’ll be amazed how quickly the people of Kentucky can do a political about-face if republicans not only fail to resuscitate the coal industry as promised, but wipe out their health insurance access as well.

The smart move would be to fix or replace what doesn’t work and keep what does. But these guys are showing very few signs of smart.

@Greg: #2

20 million is a debunked bogus number, you accept a proven lie yet you continue to repeat it as gospel.

The number of actual insured under the deplorable health care act is 2.8 million.

BTW, here is a plan that has been around for some time:

http://paulryan.house.gov/healthcare/

@Greg:

Who needs death panels, when you can just eliminate health insurance coverage for the 20 million or so Americans who couldn’t get it prior to the Affordable Care Act, and then let nature take its course?

Who needs facts when you can just tell whatever lie you want to try and make your case? Those 20 million are on Medicare. They will STAY on Medicare until a better plan is in place. Of course, you liberals did not shed a single tear for the 7 million already insured Americans that Obama lied and kicked off THEIR coverage, did you? Again with the principles that only appear when they serve a political purpose.

However, to answer the actual question within your political rhetorical lie, YOU need death panels, if you stick with Obamacare. The death panels are there and their function is to decide who gets the limited amount of health care available under a regulation-strangled system and who goes off into the woods and dies.

Obamacare is an utter failure. I can testify to that, having my own insurance turned ass over teakettle because the “Cadillac Plan” I had (you know… one that had reasonable premiums and deductibles and covered what I needed) was too expensive for the company and had been regulated out of existence. Obamacare has created a huge mess and it will not be easy to repair. However, to leave it in place and, after 10 years, spent $10 trillion dollars and STILL have 30 million uninsured (CBO assessment) is stupid. Passing it was stupid. Supporting it is stupid.

@Greg: #

U.S. Life Expectancy Drops First Time since 1993

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal agency, has reported the remarkable news that U.S. life expectancy has dropped for the first time since 1993. According to Mortality in the United States, 2015 (NCHS Data Brief No. 267, December 2016):

So greg, why did the life expectancy dropped? What part of the deplorable care act caused that?

@July 4th American: Just like Obama foolishly pulling all US troops out of Iraq, all the Democrats cared about when passing Obamacare was a headline. No thought is ever given to the consequences. The only consideration was the propaganda value.

Healthcare for everyone really cheap or free, the designers admitting the people were too stupid to see through the lies, hahaha boy did they pull one over on Pelosi and the others they bought off with pork. Did they fix what was wrong? No there was way too much wrong, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-healthcare-rural-insight-idUSKBN0GY14620140903
Once this mess is in history books as a huge failure, we need to reform the Pharma companies making patients not cures.

Curt, one would think that if there was a plan, maybe your lifted diatribe could point it out rather than just go on with ACA bashing.

@Bill… Deplorable Me

“Republicans have many plans and have for years. The question is, though, IS there a viable, workable plan for the US government to control health care? ”

So, a GOP “plan” is fine even if it isn’t viable and/or workable? Doesn’t matter if it works or if anyone agrees with it so long as someone dubs it a “plan” and you can find a few parisan hack sites to concur? And it seems the more incoherent one becomes, the more the “plan” (which from your very own admission isn’t viable or workable) is supposed to do the trick.

Speaking of incoherence and double talk to rationalize stupidity, just yesterday Paul Ryan answered a reporter with “We want to make sure there is an orderly transition so that the rug is not pulled out from under the families who are currently struggling under Obamacare while we bring relief”.

Get all that? Sounds dumber than a box full of deplorable Bills. So, he says people under ACA are struggling yet to free them from that struggle would be pulling the rug out from under them. WTF?

Rs have no plan to contend with helping these 20 million who now are covered and are obviously nervious of the backlash. They have no plan to satisfy the American Medical Association , none to satisfy what the Kaiser Family Foundation polled to be 80% of Americans, and none to even satisfy the very Republican party as their intra fighting grows (Paul, Cotton, Corker, Murkowski, Cassidy, et al).

And many are stepping up by the hour and admitting (knowing and unknowingly) that they have no clue about what to do about the repercussions of repealing ACA. They seem to be even struggling with how to even plan to get a clue.

@July 4th American, #5:

20 million more Americans now have health insurance under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act than had it before the Act became law. That’s a real number. Republicans Gone Wild are perfectly free to ignore it and repeal the law without any adequate replacement. They are also perfectly free to attempt to ignore the real political consequences that will follow.

I strongly encourage them to proceed as quickly as possible with every one of their bat-shit crazy intentions, from their multi-billion dollar Great Southern Wall project—for which they now intend to send Mexico a bill later—to their formal Declaration of Authority and Control over Female Reproductive Organs. There’s really nothing that clarifies stupidity quite so effectively as letting stupid people have their way for a while, and seeing what happens as a result.

TRUMP SAYS MEXICO WOULD PAY U.S. BACK FOR CONSTRUCTION OF BORDER WALL

Republicans embrace building of Mexico border wall, despite cost

If Mexico doesn’t pay, it will probably pay for itself. You know, like tax cuts always do, or like we were told the invasion and occupation of Iraq would do. We can do our own farm labor, which is currently performed by migrant workers for pay of $10,000 to $12,500 per year, along with all of the other sub-standard-pay jobs corporate America gets done on the cheap. No one will mind the higher prices that result. A private sector Social Security alternative is also long overdue. We’ll phase it in. Never mind the fact that no one has ever once explained how we’d finance current Social Security retirees when the FICA revenue stream from younger workers is significantly reduced. Anyway, a lot more Wall Street millionaires and billionaires would result—particularly with a roll-back of Dodd-Frank and a new round of high-end tax cuts—so who really cares? The gains of the insiders always run ahead of the consequences to everyone else, and insiders will now be calling the shots. It’s going to be GREAT. You’ll see.

@Greg: #11

20 million more Americans now have health insurance under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act than had it before the Act became law.

Pure bullshit

@Greg: #11

Barack Obama has set an economic record during his presidency, and it’s one no president would ever want.
When he leaves office in two weeks, he’ll be the first president since Herbert Hoover (who presided over the beginning of the Great Depression) to never see a year with three percent average GDP growth.
With economic growth so poor, how can Obama take credit for taking our unemployment rate below five percent? Thanks to trickery in how the unemployment rate is calculated.

@Ajay42302: THAT’S what you came up with after 4 days?

Who says the Republican plans aren’t viable? And, a plan not being viable doesn’t seem to concern you all that much; Obamacare wasn’t viable (as proven through its implementation) but you mindless liberals still cling to it.

Health care under Obamacare, with its high deductibles and tiny coverage network is like having a crystal unicorn on your mantle. You can say you have one, but what good is it? It’s worthless. So, people, forced by mandate to buy insurance policies that are worthless are struggling (something liberals don’t really care about; they just like to say they have it). Of course, no liberal website has explained that to you (don’t expect Gruber to come along and clue you in; he likes you stupid and gullible) so I understand how you remain clueless. What is surprising is that you think people that GET it are ignorant. Well, no one ever claimed liberals were rich in cognizance.

@Greg: Christmas eve, when the children exchanged gifts, my niece’s 4 year old son got a gift card. He didn’t understand the concept of the gift card; he was expecting a toy, like the other kids got. He threw a screaming, 4-year-old fit.

That’s what you whiny liberals remind me of, Greg. You were promised a toy… the Presidency… and you got something real and functional instead.

@July 4th American: Trickery?
I guess you are smart enough not to use the word “voodoo.”

before indulging in the customary “people will die!” scaremongering.
Like death panels.

We must pass the GOP plan before we see whats in it, I know you liberals democrats wont have a problem with that. I dont think it will be 10s of thousands of pages and new taxes and regulations and rules, drive clinics and hospitals out of business or force nuns into litigation, you all may never get over that.

The Commonwealth Fund Study: Repealing Federal Health Reform: Economic and Employment Consequences for States

FINDINGS ABOUT POTENTIAL EFFECTS

As seen in Exhibit 2, repeal results in a $140 billion cut in federal funding for health care in 2019. This in turn leads to about 2.6 million jobs lost that year, rising to nearly 3 million by 2021. A third of these lost jobs are in health care, but the majority is in other industries such as construction, real estate, retail trade, and finance. Nearly all are private-sector jobs.

If replacement policies are not in position, state economic losses will rise. From 2019 to 2023, there will be a cumulative $1.5 trillion loss in gross state products and a $2.6 trillion reduction in business output (combined transactions at the production, wholesale, and retail levels).

A similar warning, from an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: The Cost of Full Repeal of the Affordable Care Act

140billion loss, only to those states that fell for it. a temporary funding to expand state services then get left holding the bag.
More than 1/2 the states didnt take the worm. They were not Grubered. The rest will have to deal with being snookered, the people can move to a better run state if they have to, oh my choice freedom suck it up buttercup.
Repealing the ACA’s coverage provisions would save $1.55 trillion through 2027.
With an aging population healthcare jobs will certainly grow, invest in extended care facilities.

I strongly encourage republicans to attempt every goofball thing they’ve promised to undertake with all due haste. They’ll have the House, the Senate, and the White House. There will be no more Obama to blame or to complain about. He’ll no longer be there to veto anything. Now they’ve got their boy Donald. They should go for it all. They’ll have no excuses left, if they don’t. Let’s see what happens.

If they screw up and give us a rerun of 2007-2008, that’ll be it. They’ll be done for.

@Greg: #29

There will be no more Obama to blame or to complain about.

Oh contrare, as the country resumes normallacy, it will be more than evident at every corner we turn, of the consequences of having elected the most unqualified candidate every to have held the office. The shit stain of the obamas will be with we Americans for generations to come. Oh there will be plenty to blame and complain about.

He’ll no longer be there to veto anything.

Yea, obama managed only to veto five bills, a real veto king……Laugh

Trump is going to be standing there with a lighter and an empty kerosene tin, watching as the barn burns down, and you’re thinking you’re going to pin it all on Barack Obama?

This is the sort of prescience and stunning clarity of thought that will be responsible for putting Bozo the Clown in the White House to begin with.

RW, it is now 5:30 PM and the game starts in 1 1/2 hour and I’m informing you that my Pick is Alabama 28 Clemson 24

@Greg:

This is the sort of prescience and stunning clarity of thought that will be responsible for putting Bozo the Clown in the White House to begin with.

Yes, but Bozo’s term is now up and The Don is the man now.

@Greg: #22

Here is something we can blame on obama,

OPD officer shot multiple times outside Walmart in Pine Hills area, witness says (update: officer dead)

@RedTeam, #24:

“Bozo” would be a reference to the clown with the orange hair.

@Greg: Being the President immediately after Obama, aside from the tremendous messes and disasters left behind, will be the easiest job in the world. Looking like a great President will be easy after 8 years of the greatest failure ever placed in the office.

@Bill… Deplorable Me, #27:

There are NO tremendous messes or disasters, bucko—unless you want to count the recent election of Donald John Trump by some historically freakish misfire of the Electoral College process, with a propaganda assist from Vladimir Putin.

There’s a 1.7 percent rate of inflation, a 19,887 point Dow Jones Industrial average, and a 4.9 percent unemployment rate after 81 consecutive months of continuous private sector job growth—all on the watch of 2-term Democratic Party president who’s departing office with a 53.6 percent average job approval rating.

That’s going to be a hard act to follow—especially given the very different circumstances that Barack Obama inherited from his predecessor.

@Bill… Deplorable Me: OOOooo did you see that???!! Bucko, ya he said it, gee whats next Bub, Slacker, or some other Hamster brained name? I can almost see him puffing out his hairless chest, hiking his Urkle britches and scruffing his penny loafers. His dander is really up now a red line coming soon.
By blaming Putin he doesnt realize that he is admitting the only way she could win was to keep all their illegal, shady, backstabbing, actions secret. It is impossible to unhive his mind, without a shred of evidence he accepts what ever todays dog whistle commands.
But back to the thread Obamacare was designed to fail and after breaking the bank we were to beg for universal. I personally want government out of the business completely, repeal no replace.

I personally want government out of the business completely, repeal no replace.

Perhaps you should burn your Medicare card in protest.

You just don’t get it. But then you voted to put a blathering con man in the White House who’s preparing to oversee the greatest shakedown in the history of of the nation, and you don’t get that either.

@Greg:

There are no tremendous messes or disasters, bucko

You are, without any doubt, totally delusional. Completely and utterly separated from reality. No more can or needs to be said to you.

@Greg: #30

Did obama solve the homeless problem? I did not see that in your diatribe of faux accomplishments. Perhaps now that a democrat is no longer in the WH, the faux news media will once again report on the homeless crisis.

There’s a 1.7 percent rate of inflation, a 19,887 point Dow Jones Industrial average, and a 4.9 percent unemployment rate after 81 consecutive months of continuous private sector job growth—all on the watch of 2-term Democratic Party president who’s departing office with a 53.6 percent average job approval rating.

Fairy tales and fantasy land….

@Greg: Perhaps you should burn your Medicare card in protest.

Gee I am not on any government assistance
Barack Obama should not be arrested for his robbery of $716 billion from Medicare.Set up for the medical needs of the elderly.
Is there any demo group he hasnt screwed?

If you take a poll and ask voters how they feel about Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, you get a lot of disapproval.

If, however, you ask voters if they want to go back to routine denials of coverage for preexisting conditions, lifetime coverage limits that get you dropped cold just when you need it the most if you come up with an expensive medical problem, no parental coverage for dependent young adult children, and no income-based premium assistance, you will get an entirely different answer. Obamacare is what’s currently preventing all of that, while providing insurance coverage to 20 million more Americans than had it before.

Got a better solution? Fine. Repeal it and roll your alternative out. If republicans repeal Obamacare without a replacement that actually deals with all of those situations just as effectively, they’ll get totally blown out of the water next election. They might, in fact, even bring about a single-payer solution.

Democrats aren’t “scared.” They’re not the idiots who will soon be juggling multiple bottles of political nitroglycerin.

@Greg:

20 million more insure his a debunked bogus number. You are lied to and too nieve to know you are being lied to.

@July 4th American: That must be why Democrats are now claiming 30 million will lose their insurance. 20 million just wasn’t impressive enough.

The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. Who said that?

@July 4th American:

20 million more insure his a debunked bogus number. You are lied to and too nieve to know you are being lied to.

Of course it was debunked. The right-wing echo chamber has repeated that endlessly. So, you don’t have to worry about the political consequences of taking away the health insurance of 20 million people. Go for it. Test your propaganda meme. Repeal without replacing. Do it in the first 100 days.

@Greg:

Hey asshat, the 20 million was at best 14+ of that 2.8 million actually sought health insurance through the unaffordable act.

The balance are Medicaid receipients who had health coverage previously and will when the unaffordable act is gone.

Do you wake up stupid daily and spend the day being stupid only to go to bed stupid?