One of the false narratives peddled by establishment RINO squishes like Reince Priebus in order to get principled conservatives to act like liberal Democrats is to spew the phony premise, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Priebus said as much to FOX News’ Chris Wallace Sunday when he said, “We can’t be chasing the perfect all the time.”
It was intended to be a slam against the House Freedom Caucus, which insisted that Republicans keep their promise of fully repealing Obamacare, something the failed American Health Care Act (AHCA) did not do and kept in place the entire Obamacare apparatus and many of the regulations that caused health insurance premiums and deductibles to unnecessarily skyrocket.
But as House Freedom Caucus founding member Jim Jordan told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday, House GOP leadership didn’t come anywhere close to perfection when they crafted Paul Ryan’s health care bill behind closed doors, the bill dubbed Obamacare 2.0, Obamacare Lite, RINOCARE, or Swampcare. Far from seeking perfection, the bill “wasn’t even good.”
“Mr. Priebus was talking about don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Well, this wasn’t even good.”
“When no one likes the legislation, you have to do it different,” Jordan said. “It wasn’t going to bring down premiums — it had a host of problems. And frankly, the key promise we made to the American people in the 2010, 2014, and 2016 election[s] was we would repeal Obamacare, this legislation didn’t do that. And that was the fundamental flaw in this entire process. So let’s get back to work and let’s do what we said we would do.”
Jordan went on to say that the House Freedom Caucus was completely united on the 2015 clean Obamacare repeal bill that was passed in both the House and Senate and was sent to Obama’s desk.
But instead of starting with the “perfect,” Paul Ryan and his team of RINOs stupidly crafted a turd sandwich behind closed doors first and somehow thought it would pass muster with principled conservatives who were excluded from the writing of the legislation.
President Trump, as the author of “Art of the Deal” should know, this is exactly the opposite way a negotiation should have been constructed.
Notice Jordan saying here that the House Freedom Caucus was united on starting with the 2015 bill passed in both chambers and then following up with another 'replace' bill.
But Ryan refused to offer the House the same bill written by Tom Price. Because it was the RINOs who wouldn't vote for it again. The Freedom Caucus was ready before and is still ready to vote for the 2015 Price bill.
What's the difference between the 2015 Price bill and what Trump proposed? Nothing.
Fine. Bring it back for a vote and we'll find out who the chickenshit hypocrites in the House GOP really are. I'd bet the Freedom Caucus people would have no problem voting for it again. It's the RINOs that wouldn't vote for it. I think it was likely the RINOs that were going to spike it if it came to a vote.
On the Wall Street Jornal Report, an hour show on FNC on Saturday, one of their younger (fortyish) reporters had followed this and had a lot of contacts with House aides (he claimed). He said the RINOs were unhappy with it all along with a number of them looking for a reason to desert. As the Freedom Caucus kept insisting on the various repeal provisions (as they had all along), the RINOs got madder. The reporter said that by the time Ryan called Trump to let him cancel the bill, they didn't even have 100 votes left in favor of it. It wasn't just a loss by a few votes in the House, something they would have tried for like they did with the Pill Bill in 2004. It was an utter humiliation because they wanted to pass their own 0bamaCare but one that screwed a lot of working-class people in Red states to punish them for being dumb enough to trust Republicans would do what they campaigned for.
"The reporter said that by the time Ryan called Trump to let him cancel the bill, they didn't even have 100 votes left in favor of it."
How would that be any different than if the Freedom Caucus got their way and wrote the bill? That's what you want, right? Hardcore repeal and replace, slash and burn, out with the old and in with the new?
How would that be any different than if the Freedom Caucus got their way and wrote the bill? That's what you want, right? Hardcore repeal and replace, slash and burn, out with the old and in with the new?
Just bring back the Price bill from 2015 for a vote. That's all.
It passed both chambers then. And again in a veto override attempt.
"Just bring back the Price bill from 2015 for a vote. That's all."
The 2015 Price bill is no different than what Trump offered. If it was, I'd agree with you. But it's not.
Republicans voted for the Price bill and 53 other similar bills because they knew Obama would veto them. Even if the 2015 Price bill was flawed, who cares? It's not going to pass anyways.
But when the 2015 Price bill was turned into a real bill by Trump, the Freedom Caucus got cold feet.
The list of changes is quite extensive. High-risk pools at the state level, extensive support for medical savings accounts, VA reform, tort reform, association plans (for self-insured and small businesses), and more.
That. Pass that. Like they did twice only 14 months ago.
