Taylor Millard:
The public posturing over whether the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act will receive a vote is now in full swing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly interested in making sure senators decide on the bill before July 4th. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson went on “Meet The Press” today to say, he’s not in favor of the plan. Here’s NBC News’ story on the interview.
“There’s no way we should be voting on this next week. No way,” Johnson told host Chuck Todd. “I have a hard time believing Wisconsin constituents or even myself will have enough time to properly evaluate this, for me to vote for a motion to proceed. So I’ve been encouraging leadership, the White House, anybody I can talk to for quite some time, let’s not rush this process. Let’s have the integrity to show the American people what it is, show them the truth.”…
“What I find so disappointing is these bills aren’t going to fix the problem,” Johnson said Sunday. “They’re not addressing the root cause. They’re doing the same old Washington thing, throwing more money at the problem.”
He also reiterated his belief Obamacare makes things unfair for the people it was allegedly supposed to help, while blaming state governments for causing the markets to collapse.
It would be nice if Johnson explained his idea of tailoring insurance policies for people with pre-existing conditions more fully, but I somehow get the feeling it’s like paying extra for a more valuable car. It’s not a fair comparison, which is why the left has been going after him on the comments, but it’s probably the closest Johnson can come up with in the sound byte world.
Johnson’s comments on not being a “yes vote, yet,” were echoed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who hit up ABC’s This Week to say the bill won’t do anything. Via ABC News.
“They’ve promised too much. They say they’re going to fix health care and premiums are going to down,” Paul said on ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” of his party’s health care plan unveiled Thursday. “There’s no way the Republican bill brings down premiums.”
As an ophthalmologist with 20 years of experience practicing medicine, Paul argued, “Premiums have never gone down. They’re not going to go down after the Republican bill.”
Paul added, “And it’s a false, sort of over-promising to say, ‘Oh, yes, insurance premiums are going to go down but we’re keeping 10 of the 12 mandates that caused the prices to go up.’ It’s a foolish notion to promise something you can’t provide.”
There are headlines out there claiming Paul is open to voting for a partial repeal of Obamacare. The problem is the headlines are being dishonest about Paul’s full quote. Here it is in its entirety.
“What we can do is if they cannot get 50 votes, if they get to impasse, I’ve been telling leadership for months now I’ll vote for a repeal. And it doesn’t have to be 100 percent repeal. So, for example, I’m for 100 percent repeal, that’s what I want. But if you offer me 90 percent repeal, I’d probably would vote it. I might vote for 80 percent repeal.”
It depends on what’s in an 80 or 90% repeal. Paul’s Obamacare repeal bill from January didn’t touch Medicaid, but that’s such a complicated issue, it probably needs to be handled in a separate bill looking at all of Medicaid.
FreedomWorks, who is backing Johnson and Paul’s criticism of the new health care bill, is getting more specific in their problems with it. Jason Pye believes the Senate bill will end up being another government bailout.
Rand is correct and bailing out insurance companies who were complicit with the formation of the Frankenstein is shifting more wealth out of the shriveled middle class.
The root cause issue comes down to a couple of simple questions:
Why have medical service and prescription drug costs been skyrocketing in the United States?
Why has our only response been to try to come up with more an more money to pay the bill, without ever questioning why the amount due is so absurdly high in the first place?
It isn’t because of Obamacare. Skyrocketing medical costs preceded Obamacare by decades.
@Greg:
The government decades ago got involved in healthcare wading in with Medicare, and Medicaid . Rules, regulations government red tape, now its a sacred cow running well above any estimates.
The new Rinocare bill keeping 10 of 12 mandates, most of the taxes another this is what you get and you will not get a choice.