Ryan’s plans
What is going to happen in the House in 2016? Well, this is what Ryan says, anyway:
That agenda, which Ryan has discussed at length since taking over as speaker in October, includes releasing a long-anticipated replacement plan for the health care law (“Just wait,” Ryan said when asked about that plan Wednesday); a tax reform proposal; welfare reform; and other major policy initiatives. The goal isn’t to pass legislation that, like health care repeal, would never be signed into law by Obama, but to set clear priorities ahead of this year’s election.
“The reason I took this job, and my colleagues know this, is we have to go on offense in 2016 and we have to offer a bold agenda,” Ryan said Tuesday night. “The people of this country who do not like the direction America is heading, which we don’t ”¦ we owe them an alternative.”
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday it was “unfortunate” Republicans were beginning 2016 by voting on “messaging” bills rather than trying to find legislation that could have bipartisan support.
Two questions: will this actually happen?
And: do you think it’s too little, too late, and an insincere effort to woo Republicans prior to 2016, an effort that will turn out to be a false hope?
I plan to watch Ryan and the others and to evaluate all of that as it unfolds. As I’ve said before, I think conservatives should try to increase the number of conservatives in Congress, but otherwise the goal is to keep Congress in Republican hands and elect a Republican president. If that happens, there’s at least a chance of turning the ship around. Without it, I see no chance.
I am neither naive nor sanguine. But I retain some hope.
No brainer to put a corporate income tax rate cut on Obama’s desk and see what he does.
Yea it is important to keep it in Republican hands because the last time we had a Republican President, House and Senate we did important stuff…like try and pass amnesty. Ooops.
Despite the hand wringing among some, I do think that Ryan can be an effective speaker.
JPJ, I am really not sure what you are talking about. could you cite the bills that advanced amnesty? Oh, maybe you mean Ronald Reagan’s amnesty plan.
Off topic. I have never finished one of Bill O’Reilly’s books. I have found what I consider serious historical flaws and bizarre interpretations in “Killing Patton”, and the Hitler one. Still, for reasons I can’t fathom, my wife gave me “Killing Reagan” for Christmas. For the life of me, I cannot figure how anyone thinks that is complimentary of Reagan. I doubt that I will finish it either.
John Paul Jones:
See this for the history of all the bills on the subject during the Bush administration, and see this for the history of which party controlled Congress when, and by how much:
The bills were defeated, as you may recall.
> replacement plan for the health care law
Oh, a *replacement* plan. Sounds like they are going to waste their time trying to fix the unfixable. What is wrong with these people.
““The reason I took this job, and my colleagues know this, is we have to go on offense in 2016 and we have to offer a bold agenda,”
… the reason
… my colleagues know
… we have to go on offense
… offer a bold agenda
There’d probably be five lies in that sentence but it ran out of room.
What chuck said. The things that need to be done to “fix” our medical care system aren’t even being considered, and won’t be. The root cause of the problem is that half of the “patients” don’t pay a dime. EMTALA needs to be repealed or clarified so that nobody gets “free” medical care at the ER. Secondly, the Fourteenth Amendment needs to be clarified to eliminate “anchor babies”. Thirdly, all the insurance “mandates” must be eliminated, but that’s a state issue, not federal. Fourthly, we need tort reform but, again, that’s a state issue. One thing congress could do would be to expand HSAs, but why would people put money into an HSA when they get “free” medical care anyway?
The government needs to just get out of the “health care” system, not “replace it”.
I am on the same page snopercod. Healthcare and education need to be pried from the corrupt, bureaucratic claws of DC.
Steny “bipartisan support” Hoyer. Now let’s see, what part did you play in the passage of that bipartisan bill Obamacare? Steny, you want bipartisanship? Sure, we’ll give you bipartisanship you big doofus.
I’m sure that most everyone else here will hate this but here goes. I think that Obamacare could be replaced with a genuine catastrophic plan which would cover everyone but would only kick in after the medical bills were over $10,000 to $20,000 dollars. The cost would be much less than traditional health insurance and would be much less attractive to meddling politicians and bureaucrats who want to turn it into a Christmas tree with gifts to their favorite interest groups.
> I think that Obamacare could be replaced with a genuine catastrophic plan
The problem is politicians. The limited plan would slowly grow over the years until it was another monstrosity. Remember Romney’s plan in Massachusetts? IIRC, it was getting padded by the legislature. The problem with these short term, good plans is that they undergo natural evolution. It’s predictable, and the founders would surely have been able to predict how things would evolve, but few these days are as well educated as the founders.
DC has broken Ryan’s mind. I doubt he has any real clue what’s going on in America, at this point in time.
Remember Romney’s plan in Massachusetts? IIRC, it was getting padded by the legislature.
That wasn’t Romney’s plan, that was the legislature’s plan who they got people to think of as Romney’s plan.
Dennis,
The healthcare system is rigged, prices are fixed, it is the playground of racketeers. There is no competition; only collusion between politicians, lobbyists, big pharm, physicians, hospitals, and the insurance companies.
I too retain some hope, but it dwindle election cycle by election cycle.
It is sad, but I suppose unavoidable, that conspiraacy theories rule the day. I do not buy them.
There are huge political divisions in this country; and I have great disdain for some of the positions, and some who espouse them. Nevertheless, I do not believe that most people in medicine, pharma, oil, or other bigger businesses are corrupt. I believe that many politicians, both those on my side of the issues, and even those on the other, are true to their beliefs.
We have a messy poiltical system–by design. I would not have it any other way.
Oldflyer,
You must be old enough to remember healthcare in the 1950s.
parker Says 11:16 pm
“Dennis,
The healthcare system is rigged, prices are fixed, it is the playground of racketeers.”
You are absolutely correct, that health care is very highly regulated, but the question is would you have it any other way?
1. Do you want your physician to have a license or can just anyone hang up a shingle and practice medicine.
2. Should the government set standards for hospitals which they must meet in order to care for patients or are you willing to go to a privately owned hospital which sets its own standards for cleanliness and standard of care. Would you be happy if the hospital owner billed capriciously so that someone who went in for an emergency appendectomy which went without a hitch were receive a bill for $1,000,000.
3. What about drugs, do you want to take drugs which haven’t been screened for side effects or effectiveness.
I would guess that most people want regulations in the health care system. The problem is that the regulators are themselves largely unregulated and have grown into a massive corrupt bureaucracy.
chuck Saysat 7:12 pm
“The problem is politicians. The limited plan would slowly grow over the years until it was another monstrosity.”
Correct.
What we have now is already a monstrosity. So what I suggest that we do is to replace an existing monstrosity with a usable alternative which would last for some years until the left gained enough power to turn it back into the monstrosity which already exists. It other words we would be buying time before some future generation would need to cut the new monstrosity back to size once again.
Old also believed the propaganda about Republicans, and did not think to question the Authorities to begin with.
That’s the problem with these old generation types. They are used to obeying the FDRs and the LBJs. They’re used to conspiracies like the JFK assassination not panning out, so they think the next generation should be exactly the same.
Well, it’s not the same.
Old should have asked himself, why if he wasn’t buying conspiracy theories, he was so easy to fool and con into believing Leftist propaganda about Republicans. That’s not the independent minded image the old generation likes to portray, but it is the truth nonetheless.
It other words we would be buying time before some future generation would need to cut the new monstrosity back to size once again.
Time that is also given to the enemy, and they have been rather more efficient at using this time than most would have expected when FDR created his social welfare system.
Dennis,
Your response is filled with strawmen. I am talking about price fixing. You are talking about the need to squash 19th century magic elixirs sold by hucksters.
A grey economy has already come into existence to supplant and replace much of the modern medical over priced tools of the trade these days. While preventative care cannot fix catastrophic tissue damage… they also don’t need to, since there’s less side effects, complications, and contamination.
The fact that people don’t know about it, but do know about the 1 million dollar priced surgery…. is perhaps a sign of the times.
http://neoneocon.com/2015/11/06/the-media-that-was-decidedly-uncurious-about-obamas-past/#comment-935227
The cold fact is that he lied; and he continued to lie. It does not matter how trivial the lie was. This will be a big story, and it will be devastating. There is blood on the water.
I do not understand why intelligent, accomplished people feel the need to embellish resumes that are already impressive. But, it happens repeatedly. Moreover, so many seem to either forget that they did so, or hope no one will notice as they enter the media spotlight. Doesn’t work well.
Dr Carson was not my choice as a candidate; but, I had great respect for him. That will continue, but there is a level of disappointment.-O
Good job “not buying into that conspiracy” over there, Old.
People who constantly fall for the Left’s cons, are the last people who should be talking about conspiracy theories.
And people wonder why I have a low view of average human capability… just look at what’s going on here, in this century.