Ever since Republicans took control of Congress in 2014, the party leadership has been working overtime finding ways to betray the conservative base that made their success possible, while becoming a rubber stamp for Obama’s fundamental transformation of America agenda.
The latest example? The complete surrender in repealing Obamacare. You remember Obamacare, don’t you? That’s the healthcare law that Mitch McConnell promised to repeal “root and branch.”
According to Lamar Alexander (Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee), Obamacare will be changed through a series of bipartisan adjustments instead of an outright repeal:
“I think over the next four or five years it’ll be changed step-by-step toward a healthcare system with more freedom for people to find policies, more choices and hopefully lower prices.”
Four or five years? Hopefully lower prices? Way to commit to your principles, Lamar.
During the interview on C-SPAN, the Tennessee Republican said the recently enacted Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the failed No Child Left Behind law, could serve as a model for how to deal with Obamacare.
Talk about your terrible ideas. In a statement on the ESSA by Senator Ted Cruz, he had this to say about the bill recently signed into law:
“The Every Student Succeeds Act unfortunately continues to propagate the large and ever-growing role of the federal government in our education system — the same federal government that sold us failed top-down standards like Common Core. We should be empowering parents and local school districts instead of perpetuating the same tired approach that continues to fail our nation’s children… “
So, is Lamar advocating that we need a large and ever-growing role for the federal government in our healthcare system? It sure looks like that’s what he is saying.
The biggest failure with Obamacare, besides the government control part, is finding the money to pay for the “free” stuff it’s supposed to provide. Alexander said that over the long-term, Obamacare revenue might need offsets as Congress tries to “fix” Obamacare:
“We’re going to have to change this, and we’re going to have to do this carefully so we don’t hurt people more than they’ve been hurt … we can’t do it in a partisan way. I like the No Child Left Behind [model] fix.”
Bipartisanship. Doesn’t sound much like repealing it “root and branch,” does it? In fact, it sounds like surrender.
David Leach is the owner and publisher of The Strident Conservative, where you will find news and opinion that’s politically-incorrect and always “right.” He is also a frequent contributor at RedState.com.
His political commentaries can be heard daily on KLZ560 AM at 5pm MST and on other Crawford Broadcasting stations throughout the day.
