Report: Steve Bannon Says American Health Care Act ‘Written by the Insurance Industry’

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: BREITBART

URL: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/24/report-steve-bannon-says-american-health-care-act-written-insurance-industry/


Gabriel Sherman writes that White House chief strategist and former Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon has privately expressed concern that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) betrays the populist voters who put Donald Trump in the White House.

From New York Magazine:

The failure to repeal and replace Obamacare would be a stinging defeat for Trump. But it would be an even bigger defeat for Paul Ryan, who has all but staked his Speakership on passing this bill. And in the hall of mirrors that is Washington, the big winner to emerge out of the health-care debacle could be Steve Bannon. That’s because Bannon has been waging war against Ryan for years. For Bannon, Ryan is the embodiment of the “globalist-corporatist” Republican elite. A failed bill would be Bannon’s best chance yet to topple Ryan and advance his nationalist-populist economic agenda.

Publicly, Bannon has been working to help the bill pass. But privately he’s talked it down in recent days. According to a source close to the White House, Bannon said that he’s unhappy with the Ryan bill because it “doesn’t drive down costs” and was “written by the insurance industry.” While the bill strips away many of Obamacare’s provisions, it does not go as far as Bannon would wish to “deconstruct the administrative state” in the realm of health care. Furthermore, Bannon has been distancing himself from the bill to insulate himself from political fallout of it failing. He’s told people that Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn — a West Wing rival — has run point on it. (Bannon did not respond to a request for comment.)

Read the rest of the story here: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/bannon-health-care-bill.html

[Bigun]

I have absolutely NO doubt that Steve Bannon is entirely correct in saying that!  The fact is that none of the current RPT leadership actually serves anyone other than their masters over on K Street!

[Frank Cannon]

I have absolutely NO doubt that Steve Bannon is entirely correct in saying that!  The fact is that none of the current RPT leadership actually serves anyone other than their masters over on K Street!

Bingo.

[r9etb]

So many things to dislike about this article (assuming we can trust Bannon to tell the truth).

1.  Trump, like Obama, left it for others to carry out one of his big campaign promises.  (Obama to start it, Trump to replace it).

2.  Bannon is a snake in the grass, saying and doing one thing in public, and the opposite in private.

3.  Bannon is publically putting himself right in the middle of an on-going legislative initiative, in a way that suggests he's the one through whom any solution will be vetted.

Ugly doesn't begin to describe it.

[Hoodat]

Steve Bannon Says American Health Care Act ‘Written by the Insurance Industry’

The same insurance industry that wrote Obamacare.

[r9etb]

The same insurance industry that wrote Obamacare.

I don't think that's correct.  My impression of Obamacare is that it was written by various leftist interest groups; hence, the utter disregard for basic and obvious economic facts.  The insurance companies toadied up after the fact to get a piece of the pie (which turned out to be inedible).

If the insurance companies were responsible this time, then the problems are different from last time -- excessive limitations on coverage, say, rather than excessive inclusiveness.

[corbe]

   This article, if there is any truth in it, suggests to me that Bannon and the Trump Administration don't think it will pass and want to absolve themselves of all responsibility for the failure of this bill in the House.

[r9etb]

   This article, if there is any truth in it, suggests to me that Bannon and the Trump Administration don't think it will pass and want to absolve themselves of all responsibility for the failure of this bill in the House.

True enough.  But more than that, it makes Bannon look even more like a guy who wants to be the power broker for Trump. 

[Cripplecreek]

And Jared Kushner's brother Josh went into the insurance business to profit of Obamacare. I'm sure he doesn't care who has their name on it.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

You guys think you can trust BB? Why?

He could be the one pushing this for all we know, but he just wants to "save face".

Trump and his proponents are all as phony as 3 dollar bills. I don't trust any of them.

[r9etb]

You guys think you can trust BB? Why?

He could be the one pushing this for all we know, but he just wants to "save face".

Trump and his proponents are all as phony as 3 dollar bills. I don't trust any of them.

BB=Brietbart?

Anyway -- of course I don't trust Brietbart, which is nothing more or less than Bannon's personal mouthpiece.

Any credibility this story has, comes from the fact that it's quoting an article from a difference source.  If that source is accurately quoting Bannon, and accurately representing his position ... then it just makes him seem that much more worth forcing out of his position.

[endicom]

I don't think that's correct.  My impression of Obamacare is that it was written by various leftist interest groups; hence, the utter disregard for basic and obvious economic facts.  The insurance companies toadied up after the fact to get a piece of the pie (which turned out to be inedible).

You're probably right. When companies see they can't fight some legislation is when they try to make the most of it.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Bannon's an idiot.

Nobody wants to talk about the reality that the votes are not there for the full repeal that so many are demanding, and it's not because of juvenile conspiracy theories like "they all lied to us!" or "they serve other masters", or any of those ridiculous bromides.

It was obvious to anyone who has actually followed this stuff during the campaign that while perhaps 85-90% of GOP candidates fully supported repeal without preserving some specific elements, 10-15% did not.  They would not support repeal unless there were guarantees that certain elements were kept, and for the most part, those people campaigned on that platform, and are holding to it now.  And they are enough to sink any bill.

There is no betrayal.  People are doing exactly what they said they'd do all along.  It's just that now, when it is time for votes to actually be counted, we can no longer sweep under the rug the lack of consensus on a bill.   We glossed over those disagreements prior to the election in the hope that they would melt away, but they haven't.

For example, Portman is my Senator, and he's never been in favor of repealing without "replacing" with some things that are anathema to conservatives/Freedom Caucus.  I don't like it, but he isn't "betraying" anything that he didn't run on.  It was just that some people saw what they wanted to see, and heard what they wanted to hear, rather than listening to what the guy was actually saying during the campaign.