http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/12/22/the_gop_battle_over_obamacareThe GOP Battle Over Obamacare
December 22, 2016
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RUSH: There's another story out there today that doesn't have any legs yet, but I'm telling you, if this gets a wide berth, it's gonna cause all kinds of problems. "GOP Considers Holding Off on Repealing Obamacare Taxes." Why? Doesn't make any sense here. Repealing Obamacare is repealing Obamacare, and the taxes are a big part of it. The story's at TheHill.com.
"Congressional Republicans are considering holding off on repealing some of Obamacare's taxes, according to lobbyists familiar with the discussions."
Lobbyists? What do lobbyists have to do with this? See where I'm going with this? This isn't Trump.
"GOP lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee discussed the possibility of keeping some of the taxes in place during a retreat last week at the Library of Congress, the sources say. Even if some of the taxes are not removed as part of the initial repeal bill, it does not necessarily mean they will remain indefinitely. Some Obamacare taxes could be dealt with as part of a larger tax reform bill later in the year."
Here we go kicking the can down the road, just keep kicking the can down the road. No excuses now. There's no excuses for not dealing with this. "Still, there is at least a possibility that some taxes could remain in place to provide revenue for a replacement healthcare measure."
Now, again the first thing that we have to say is this may not be true at all. It may be totally fake news. Nothing's changed where the media is concerned. The media will continue to do everything it can to separate Trump supporters from Trump and Republican supporters from Republicans. The media will do everything it can, in other words, to undermine this election, the transition, and the Trump administration. So when you hear stories like this or see it, the first reaction has to be, especially when it doesn't make any sense, "What? Is there a name? Is there somebody quoted?" No, there's nobody quoted.
"According to lobbyists familiar with the --" Well, lobbyists are not very happy right now, folks, because Trump has made it plain that they're not gonna have anything to do with his administration. They had nothing to do with his campaign; they had nothing to do with him getting elected, and he's put a ban on anybody in his administration working in lobbying for five years after they leave. So lobbyists are not the happiest campers right now.
So here we have a story at TheHill.com: According to lobbyists, congressional Republicans are considering holding off on repealing some of Obamacare's taxes. That doesn't make sense with what this campaign was about. It doesn't jibe with what Trump made clear that one of his objectives is.
Now, about repealing Obamacare. I mentioned this a couple times, and it might be worthwhile to throw it out there again at this point. There is a miniature battle going on within the Republican Party on Capitol Hill about just how to repeal Obamacare and then what do you do next. There are two versions going around of what is on the table. Repeal Obamacare going to happen. That is supposedly a given. The replacement is where all of the question marks are.
Now, there are stories out there that the Republicans don't have a replacement plan yet, that in all of this time spent as the minority, while Obama implemented Obamacare and while the Republicans were out opposing it and promising to repeal it if they ever got a chance, we're led to believe that in all of these past five years, let's say, there hasn't been a single Republican sit down and write a replacement piece of legislation. Paul Ryan says there is, they've got one, but nobody knows what it is, and that's an off-the-record comment that has been shared with me.
So we either have a replacement bill or we don't, but then the next aspect of this is when do you do the replacement? The repeal is apparently gonna happen immediately. Meaning, we're gonna go on record as repealing it, but we're not going to get rid of it right away. We're gonna replace it with something that nobody apparently has yet, either in two years or in three years. There are arguments for both.
There's also a third option: Don't replace it with anything. Just cancel Obamacare and then let insurance companies start selling insurance across state lines, bring some market competition back into this and let things fall out. And everybody on Capitol Hill is afraid to do that. They are afraid to replace Obamacare with nothing. They're afraid to let the market determine the fate of health care. They think it has to be regulated, it has to be legislated, it has to be scripted, it has to be written.
So the two-year implementation of a replacement or three-year is purely political, and it comes down to the midterm elections in 2018. Right now the Democrats have a slew of seats in the Senate that they have to defend. I think it's like 25 seats. They have 25 seats up for grabs, and it's not looking good obviously based on the election results last November. So among these 25 Democrats, there are seven or eight that are really vulnerable, because they're in red states. They're in states that Trump won.
So the argument for waiting for three years to replace Obamacare is you wait 'til after the midterms where it's possible the Republicans could literally have 60 to 62 seats in the Senate. And if the Republicans ever got to 60 or 62 seats in the Senate, then they own it, and there's nothing the Democrats can do to stop it, filibuster, you name it, as long as whoever run -- Mitch McConnell keep all 60 together, and they're thinking this is possible.
However, there's a group of thought, school of thought says, no, no, we don't want to wait for that because you don't know what's gonna happen in the midterms. Trump may screw up, it may go south on us, we may not get enough seats, we might end up losing seats in 2018. We can't wait three years. We've got to repeal it while we have the chance, or replace it while we have the chance.
So those are the arguments taking place. And it's amidst all that that this story hits in the Hill: "GOP Considers Holding Off on Repealing Obamacare Taxes." And I'm just here to tell you, the wise thing to do, based on the source being quoted here as lobbyists, the wise thing to do is punt and don't get suckered into this. They want you thinking the Republicans are gonna sell you out, folks. I know, I know, Republicans have in the past. There's a different equalizer, however, here, and that's Trump.
And right now people on Capitol Hill, whether they like it or not -- and they don't like it, trust me -- are gonna go along with Trump. He clearly has the mandate on the Republican side. He clearly is the reason they all won. He is the reason. I mean, folks, don't forget, a month out, Paul Ryan gave up on Trump. Paul Ryan was out saying, "I'm focusing on maintaining as many seats in the House as I can." A month out you had Republican officialdom thinking Trump was gonna lose, and they were in self-protection mode. They are where they are because of Donald Trump, and they know it.
So what Trump wants to do in Obamacare is what's gonna happen. But see right now we're in the transition, so all these people are out there jockeying and trying to say things that are making Trump supporters nervous and we just need to be patient.
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