When the House of Representatives passed the Trump-approved fake repeal of Obamacare known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA) last month, Mitch McConnell and his minions shot it down immediately. Not because AHCA failed to repeal Obamacare, but because it failed to keep it and make it better.
In Mitch McConnell’s world, nothing says destroy Obamacare “root and branch,” as he promised many times, like keeping most of it intact and spending money we don’t have to pay for it.
By the way, when I refer to McConnell’s minions in this piece, I’m speaking of these people:
- Rob Portman (R-OH)
- Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV)
- John Thune (R-SD)
- John Barrasso (R-WY)
- Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
- Susan Collins (R-ME).
Due to the inevitable betrayal we are about to witness, McConnell chose to dispense with the use of the protocol you’d typically get from the man who likes to brag about how the Senate “works” so well under his “leadership,” taking the matter behind closed doors instead. While Micky has kept the details secret from legislators, reporters were recently let in on the direction the Senate’s version of Obamacare’s fake repeal is taking.
Despite earlier objections, the Senate bill will be much like the House bill, pleasing Democrat-lite Republicans and Donald Trump—was that being redundant? Trump recently threw the House bill under the bus, calling it “mean” because it wasn’t big enough and didn’t spend enough.
In a report at TheHill.com, six key parts of the Senate bill have been identified.
- It will slow down the phase-out of Medicaid expansion. In other words, it kicks the Medicaid problem down the road.
- Additional tax credits to help pay for insurance, credits that will still fail to be enough to actually buy insurance.
- Keeping in place most of the Obamacare taxes because being a tax-and-spend Republican means you have to tax first.
- A brand new dedicated revenue stream to be available in all 50 states for the treatment of opioid drug addicts—adding to the Medicaid problem.
- Additional subsidies to prop up the Obamacare exchanges—which wouldn’t exist if Congress would repeal Obamacare—until 2020. Hey, isn’t that when we have the next presidential election? What a coincidence.
- Potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in new money to be given to insurance companies as a subsidy to pay for pre-existing conditions.
Even though the house bill is so terrible that a recent poll shows it opposed in all 50 states, the Senate is taking what the House passed and making it worse, resulting in a big-government healthcare plan filled with new entitlements that are sure to please Washington liberals from the White House to Congress.
Meanwhile, the inevitable collapse of healthcare continues as America takes another step in the direction of government-run, single-payer, socialized medicine which was the Democrat goal in the first place when Obamacare was passed.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative, your source for opinion that’s politically incorrect and always “right.” His articles are also featured on RedState.com.
His daily radio commentary is nationally syndicated via Salem Radio Network and can be heard on stations across America.
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