Here we go: Trump now ready to work with Democrats on health-care fix

[Maj. Bill Martin]

At this point the only game in town is waiting for O'care to collapse under its own weight, and since the GOPe has been fighting any kind of reform, the masses of asses will be screaming for UK/Canadian style government health care.  We're screwed.

You may very well be right.  But if so, then wouldn't we have been far better off taking "Obamacare-lite", rather than the full-on socialised medicine you say we're now going to get?

[skeeter]

It's not discouraging to me. He took the focus off of the Republicans in putting the onus where it belongs, on the Democrats.

IMO the Susan Collins and Charile Dents in the party are a worse threat than the democrats. With them around conservative reforms will never even get off the ground.

[Cyber Liberty]

You may very well be right.  But if so, then wouldn't we have been far better off taking "Obamacare-lite", rather than the full-on socialised medicine you say we're now going to get?

No, because the final train station of Obamacare Lite is the same stop as Obamacare Collapsed, only people would be of the mistaken belief things were made better.

[geronl]

He'll never be ready or willing to work with conservatives I guess

[Cyber Liberty]

He'll never be ready or willing to work with conservatives I guess

They never are, any of them.  Tell me you didn't know Ryan was going to suck donkey balls  since well before he became Speaker?  McConnell, who boasted of destroying the TEA Party?  Refusing to work with conservatives (SoCons or FisCons) is a hallmark of every Leadership Republican in DeeCee, and will continue until they're driven out, which may never happen.

All Trump just did was slip the mask for some who thought he was going to help.

[Cripplecreek]

He'll never be ready or willing to work with conservatives I guess

Trump made his feelings on conservatives known during the primary when he attacked Ted Cruz for calling angelic McConnell a liar.

[Mesaclone]

They never are, any of them.  Tell me you didn't know Ryan was going to suck donkey balls  since well before he became Speaker?  McConnell, who boasted of destroying the TEA Party?  Refusing to work with conservatives (SoCons or FisCons) is a hallmark of every Leadership Republican in DeeCee, and will continue until they're driven out, which may never happen.

All Trump just did was slip the mask for some who thought he was going to help.

He led. He led them to water. They wouldn't drink. That's on them...and by them I mean the Freedom Caucus.

The FC wanted this bill ALL their way...no compromise, no negotiation, no give to other factions within the party. In other words, no chance at ANY kind of repeal and replace simply because they couldn't get what they perceive as the PERFECT repeal and replace. There is no false premise here, just a caucus that is so arrogant and certain that it is 100% right...that it would rather have nothing (worse than nothing...as we get to keep Obamacare now)...than give in that 20% percent to fellow Republicans and conservatives not exactly in line with their thinking. That is the intransigence that has sunk the GOP for decades.

As for the President, he literally did everything right...he worked to keep an important promise, he strove to broker a deal in which the FC got some of what it wants and other party factions got some of what they wanted. And the Freedom Caucus sunk the deal. Its not that simple...of course...but then again, it really is.

[Mesaclone]

He led. He led them to water. They wouldn't drink. That's on them...and by them I mean the Freedom Caucus. Is there other blame that can be passed around? Darn right, but its crystal clear that the Lion's share rests with the FC.

The FC wanted this bill ALL their way...no compromise, no negotiation, no give to other factions within the party. In other words, no chance at ANY kind of repeal and replace simply because they couldn't get what they perceive as the PERFECT repeal and replace. There is no false premise here, just a caucus that is so arrogant and certain that it is 100% right...that it would rather have nothing (worse than nothing...as we get to keep Obamacare now)...than give in that 20% percent to fellow Republicans and conservatives not exactly in line with their thinking. That is the intransigence that has sunk the GOP for decades.

As for the President, he literally did everything right...he worked to keep an important promise, he strove to broker a deal in which the FC got some of what it wants and other party factions got some of what they wanted. And the Freedom Caucus sunk the deal. Its not that simple...of course...but then again, it really is.

[bigheadfred]

They all want single payer. They are going to get single payer. They will institute a 10-15% payroll tax to fund it. Hide and watch.

All other talk, negotiating, and debate is worthless use of air.

[musiclady]

Trump made his feelings on conservatives known during the primary when he attacked Ted Cruz for calling angelic McConnell a liar.

And when he silenced conservatives at "his" convention in Cleveland.

Why anyone would think he'd work with conservatives is a mystery to me.

Just like any other liberal politician, he can't tolerate us.

[Mom MD]

Here we go: Trump now ready to work with Democrats on health-care fix

By Allahpundit
March 24, 2017


Worth watching the whole clip below just to see how many times he circles back to the idea of a bipartisan health-care deal with Democrats. He told WaPo the same thing in an interview this afternoon: “As you know, I’ve been saying for years that the best thing is to let Obamacare explode and then go make a deal with the Democrats and have one unified deal. And they will come to us, we won’t have to come to them.” The 2019 public option is going to be really, really terrific, that I can tell you. So terrific you won’t believe how terrific!

Read more at:


http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/24/here-we-go-trump-now-ready-to-work-with-democrats-on-health-care-fix/

Why not?  He is practically a democrat himself.  Here is where we all get sold down the river and Trump and the dems get their single payor system both want

[r9etb]

He led. He led them to water. They wouldn't drink. That's on them...and by them I mean the Freedom Caucus. Is there other blame that can be passed around? Darn right, but its crystal clear that the Lion's share rests with the FC.

That's not really a fair characterization.  After all, the FC is only about 30 guys in the house -- far too small a group to be anything more than swing votes.  Which they were, this time.  The problem is that they were trying to change something that was already built, and as far as I can tell had no role in building it in the first place.

[roamer_1]

Well, he certainly tried working with Republicans...who had a once in a generation shot to end Obamacare...but they dropped the ball. At least, some of them...Ryan failed to garner any consensus, and the Freedom Caucus were too stubborn to make some compromises (and yes, politics IS the art of compromise....within the bounds of reasonable principle). The Great Ronaldus Magnus understood this, the Freedom Caucus doesn't. Thus we get failure and humiliation.

There is not a single Conservative principle that aligns with any sort of federal health care system. Not a single one. Hence there is no compromise possible within 'the bounds of reasonable principle'. And yet, here you are, blaming Conservatives.

[Smokin Joe]

It's not discouraging to me. He took the focus off of the Republicans in putting the onus where it belongs, on the Democrats.

Yep. They made this mess.

[Smokin Joe]

And when he silenced conservatives at "his" convention in Cleveland.

Why anyone would think he'd work with conservatives is a mystery to me.

Just like any other liberal politician, he can't tolerate us.

Yep!

[DB]

This is all pretty wicked. You have a law that not a single Republican voted for and that they promised to repeal. And then the GOP leadership puts up a tweaked version of it that makes adjustments around the edges and then demand Republicans vote for it essentially endorsing the bulk of the original Democratic bill no Republican voted for.

All this is just moving ownership of Obamacare to the Republicans with the results still going south in terms of better healthcare, just supposedly less quickly. And some want to call that some sort of victory for Republicans if they get it...

[Cripplecreek]

So first the coward hides behind Judge Jeanine to call for Paul Ryan's resignation.

I'm no fan of Paul Ryan but as a Federalist I am even less of a fan of those outside of Wisconsin calling for his resignation. Ask him to step down from the speakership but leave calls for him to leave office up to the people of his home state.

And now Trump decides to continue and escalate his war on conservatives.

[Smokin Joe]

So first the coward hides behind Judge Jeanine to call for Paul Ryan's resignation.

I'm no fan of Paul Ryan but as a Federalist I am even less of a fan of those outside of Wisconsin calling for his resignation. Ask him to step down from the speakership but leave calls for him to leave office up to the people of his home state.

And now Trump decides to continue and escalate his war on conservatives.

Well, if he wants to be that way, Lyin' Donny can go suck eggs.

[Right_in_Virginia]

And now Trump decides to continue and escalate his war on conservatives.

What did the President get wrong in this tweet @Cripplecreek ? 

[Cripplecreek]

Well, if he wants to be that way, Lyin' Donny can go suck eggs.

He's a lying coward attacking both RINOs and Conservatives alike.

He's nothing but a political suicide bomber the simpletons invited into the GOP camp.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

@roamer_1

There is not a single Conservative principle that aligns with any sort of federal health care system. Not a single one. Hence there is no compromise possible within 'the bounds of reasonable principle'. And yet, here you are, blaming Conservatives.

Of course there is.  If you're trying to repeal such a law, and because you lack sufficient votes can only get rid of 50% of it, then it is completely consistent with your principles to accept that 50% deal as the best that can be had at the present time.

What the FC has done is made themselves irrelevant on this issue, which is bad for all of us.  The reason they're irrelevant is that they've just shown that the only deal their willing to do is one that isn't acceptable to a majority.  Which means that if you want to cut a deal on ObamaCare, their voice isn't going to matter.  That is inevitably going to move the parameters of a deal to the left of where they would have been otherwise.

[Silver Pines]

Why not?  He is practically a democrat himself.  Here is where we all get sold down the river and Trump and the dems get their single payor system both want

@Mom MD

Right.  Trump is seventy years old; he's not going to change.  He's the man he always was.

He told the members of the Freedom Caucus that he wasn't concerned with the s**t details---or in other words, with the policy of the healthcare bill he tried to inflict on us. 

[r9etb]

He told the members of the Freedom Caucus that he wasn't concerned with the s**t details---or in other words, with the policy of the healthcare bill he tried to inflict on us.

It's worse than that.  For all his bluster about it during the campaign, he couldn't be bothered to learn the details.  He couldn't discuss them, because he didn't know them.  This was going to be Trump Care, just like Trump Steaks and Trump Wine (ew). 

Trump is the guy with the big ideas -- it's for his people to work out the details.  Interestingly, that's exactly how Obamacare happened, too.

So, when pressed, he did what he always does -- he deflected and attacked.  The details were "sh*t details," not important because not in his head.

Note, too, the role of the Freedom Caucus in that story: they were trying to do an end-around on Ryan by trying to make deals with Trump.  Think about that for a moment: how is that helpful?  How did they expect that to work out?  They make demands of Trump, Trump orders Ryan to make changes and....?  Were they hoping Trump would get his hands dirty for them?  Were they that out of touch with Ryan that they couldn't talk with him directly, and vice versa? 

[Right_in_Virginia]

The Conservatives Made a Mistake
PJ Media, Mar 24, 2017, Andrew Klavan

I fear the conservatives may have erred.

Let's accept that Paul Ryan's healthcare bill wasn't optimal. If the Congressional Budget Office was anywhere close to correct in its original estimations, the bill would have cut government spending by $12.5 trillion, cut taxes by $900 million, repealed Obamacare's tax increases, and instituted the largest entitlement reform in the last thirty years.

But yes, it's true, it wasn't full repeal. Indeed, as long as insurance companies are required to cover pre-existing conditions, government healthcare is with us, and the bill would not have changed that. And it is certainly fair to doubt whether the third phase of Ryan's three-phase plan — the phase that would have returned the free market to insurance — would ever have gotten past the Democrats.

Let's also forget about any four-dimensional chess conspiracy theories. I do not believe even for a second this whole thing was a Steve Bannon plot to destroy Paul Ryan or a Paul Ryan plot to destroy Donald Trump. I think Ryan felt this was the best bill he could get past the moderates in the house who do not want to go home and explain to their constituents why they lost their Obamacare benefits, and the conservatives, who do not want to go home and explain why they didn't get full repeal.

All this said, I simply feel that letting the bill die was such a huge mistake politically that it would have been worth eating the bill's flaws — trying to fix them in the Senate — and living to fight another day.


https://pjmedia.com/andrewklavan/2017/03/24/the-conservatives-made-a-mistake/

[Maj. Bill Martin]

The tweet raises an interesting point.  If the bill wasn't going to roll back any significant parts of Obamacare, then why are the Democrats celebrating its defeat?  If this bill was as bad as some of its critics say, then the Democrats should have been supporting it.  They very clearly weren't.