Comments on: Reconciliation and Obamacare: what goes around comes around?

By: MollyNH

MollyNH — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 02:19:25 +0000

Richard the republicans *claim* they offered alternatives but they were dumped by Harry Reid who would not let them come to the floor !

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 02:12:02 +0000

The problem with Republicans attempting to repeal Obamacare is that being against something is not the same thing as being for something. I know Neo has written about Republican health care reform proposals before, but the bottom line is that this is not what the majority of Republicans talk about prominently and repeatedly. Instead they talk about being against Obamacare. It’s much harder to get people to follow you when your message is negative (I’m against X) then positive (I am for Y). The Republicans barely mention the idea of putting the consumer in charge, disconnecting heatlh care from employers, introducing free market reforms into the system, etc. The reason they don’t talk about these things is that they are more interested in posing against Obamacare than they are interested in actually fixing anything. They had the House, the Senate and the Presidency when health care was a mess before and they didn’t do shit. I have no confidence that they are going to do anything to fix it now any more than they fixed it then. It’s going to be more “Go Team Red”, “Go Team Blue” partisan bullshit and little effective action.

By: SCOTTthe BADGER

SCOTTthe BADGER — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 11:03:31 +0000

Mitch McConnell is a coward, and will never stand up to Obama.

By: parker

parker — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 01:33:53 +0000

The medical system is rigged, and it has been ever since DC stuck its corrupt finger in the pie. Get government out of medicine and apply anti-racketering laws to the medical providers and insurance companies and med care prices will nosedive. Its a rigged system. As usual goverment corrupts, and the solution is put DC in a tiny box with very few responsibilities.

By: MollyNH

MollyNH — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 00:15:12 +0000

@ Matthew M You don t have to just hope you stay healthy, there are some books out there geared to
medical self help, *Take care of Yourself * by Donald Vickery is available on Amazon (used versions are
available for cheap, like one cent ! Just pay postage I guess) Not much to lose !

By: Matthew M

Matthew M — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 22:18:29 +0000

Next week I will find out how much my individual policy is going up. The premium is already twice what it was before Obamacare–for a plan with double the deductible and out-of-pocket max. I am bracing for the possibility of not being able to afford insurance and going without. I will not buy a similarly overpriced but horrible Obamacare plan. Hope I stay healthy.

I wish they had simply taxed my existing plan 100%. I would be screwed monetarily but still have a plan I liked. Now, I get neither. If I was a praying man, I would be asking for fires in the proverbial warm corner of hell to get stoked up in anticipation of the likes of Obama, Reid and Pelosi. If human life is the standard of value, they are evil. If there is a hell, they are bound for it.

By: james

james — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:58:20 +0000

The big strategy of the last 4 years has been to prevent any Democrat from having to vote on: Obamacare, Keystone, Amnesty.

Reid effectively shut down the senate to limit the number of votes that Democrats had to make.

Repubs in charge will bring forth bills that Dems have to vote on one way or another. Even if they can’t kill Obamacare, it will be a breath of fresh air in Washington. How many dems will vote to kill Obamacare after their partners in crime lost their elections? It will be interesting to see – if we get that far.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:42:51 +0000

Blert for Speaker of the House AND Senate Majority Leader 🙂 !

By: blert

blert — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:41:03 +0000

At the top of the list: restricting 0-care benefits that Barry wants to shower onto illegal aliens.

They would be very hard to defend once they were standing alone.

Other clauses could be merely confirmed: such as no tax rebates for states that didn’t have their own exchanges. (most of the nation)

Since that’s the way the law was written, Barry would have media work to do.

Of course, as written, the law blows up the economics.

The GOP can also make sure to take away any second dipping on the part of the Insurance Cartel. As it stands, those boys look upon 0-care as a no-lose proposition — for them.

By: blert

blert — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:37:03 +0000

What they mean by reconciliation is:

They are going to tag on a little bit of sting with EACH bill that goes through — after it’s reached a threshold of inevitability.

This salami technique is EASILY performed while ‘in reconciliation.’

The classic situation would be any bill that the President simply must have… which then comes with a stinger that’s too small to veto the entire bill over.

With both houses under their control, the GOP would be in total control of the reconciliation process.

This was the exact mechanism used by the Democrats to get 0-care through the system.

In their case, they were dancing around their ability to avoid Brown’s vote.

A reconciliation bill is not subject to filibuster, the 60th vote was not needed.

%%%%

It’s going to be very hard for Barry to hold the line against the salami cutter — as long as the GOP slices it properly.

Classic salami slicing would aim to repeal all of the ex post facto adjustments/tweaks made by the maladministration… really too many to list.

One may find that taking the statute back to its roots even gathers enough votes to make a given bill veto-proof. (rare)