Will Pence, Paul deliver on ObamaCare repeal after a mulligan?

Source: HotAir
Published: Apr 4, 2017
Author: Ed Morrissey
Post Date: 2017-04-04 10:19:18 by Tooconservative
Views: 2247

It looked like Republican infighting drove ObamaCare out of bounds two weeks ago, but it might have gotten rescued by a few chip shots on Sunday. Sen. Rand Paul, a vociferous critic of the American Health Care Act and ally of the intransigent House Freedom Caucus, played a round of golf with President Donald Trump and OMB director Mick Mulvaney two days ago — and suddenly declared himself “very optimistic” about a deal to pass the AHCA after all.

Now, the Washington Examiner reports that the deal could be announced as early as today, even if it takes a week or two to get it passed:

The White House is expected to release the text of a new deal on Tuesday that would give states the power to opt out of certain Obamacare insurance mandates, in a major attempt to revive Obamacare repeal as early as this week.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters after meeting with Vice President Mike Pence and White House officials that he expects the text of the new compromise on Tuesday. But Meadows seemed doubtful on whether the House would vote this week before adjourning Thursday for the two-week Easter recess.

The bill could pass as soon as it’s written. When House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the AHCA vote off the calendar, it still left the bill eligible for a final floor vote at any time. Ryan could have it up for a vote before the ink’s dry on the pages, so to speak. (Does anyone use wet ink processes any more?)

However, the bigger conflict might be the expiration of the continuing resolution at the end of April, which will require an omnibus spending bill or another CR to keep government in operation. With the two-week recess for Easter, there’s not much floor time for anything else except budgets at the moment. And the longer this compromise goes, the more likely it will be to fall apart — and then it still has to pass the Senate, although Rand Paul’s blessing on it may be enough to get to 50-plus-Mike Pence.

Speaking of whom, the Washington Post gives Pence the credit for leading the effort among reluctant conservatives. But what exactly does the compromise entail?

Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney came to Capitol Hill late Monday to attend a meeting of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, days after President Trump launched a remarkable intraparty attack on the staunch conservatives who helped block the bill last month. …

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters Monday night that the administration officials offered a “solid idea” that could form the basis of an intraparty compromise.

That idea, he said, would allow states to apply for federal waivers exempting them from some health insurance mandates established under the Affordable Care Act — including “essential health benefits” requiring coverage of mental-health care, substance abuse treatment, maternity care, prescription drugs and more, as well as a provision that bars insurers from charging the sick more than the healthy.

One hang-up will be whether to overturn the “community rating” mandate in ObamaCare, which conservatives have rightly argued drives prices up so high for everyone as to make insurance worthless. They want insurers to return to pricing risk properly in order to encourage healthy people to return to the insurance markets, but that could leave people with pre-existing conditions out in the cold. Meadows points out that the $115 billion stabilization fund within the AHCA could be used to alleviate that problem:

However, the community rating mandate was a key driver for ensuring coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Without the mandate, insurers could charge people with preexisting conditions exorbitantly high prices, making coverage hard to achieve. A community rating, which forces insurers to charge the same rate throughout a geographic area, would ensure that insurers couldn’t charge a person with preexisting conditions.

Meadows said that a $115 billion stability fund that was already part of the bill that failed in March, spread out among states, could help offset any such major spikes for people with preexisting conditions. States can decide how to use the funding given to them and can use it for risk sharing.

For the last two weeks, Republicans have formed a circular firing squad over the AHCA. For the moment, they’ve put down their guns and are at least improving into a debating society. That’s a pretty good outcome for a round of presidential golf — and a lot more productive use of that time than has been seen in several years.

Poster Comment:

Interesting. Bannon, supposedly in charge of dealing with Freedom Caucus, didn't go meet with them.

Instead it was Pence with Priebus. And Mulvaney.

Mulvaney played golf with Trump and Rand Paul on Sunday. Mulvaney also endorsed Rand Paul for prez in September 2015. Mulvaney was also a member of the Republican Study Committee, the Tea Party Caucus, the Congressional Constitution Caucus and ... the Freedom Caucus. So a lot of Mulvaney intersectionality there with Rand and the Freedom Caucus bunch.

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#1: Tooconservative    To: All (#0)

Rand gave an interview to Fox News today.

He said that the way he sees the process working was that the Congress would not vote to create a new federal entitlement but would keep some of the 0bamaCare subsidies in place for now. That way, even though they couldn't claim a full repeal, no one could accuse them of creating a brand new federal entitlement, as the GOP did in 2004 with the hated Pill Bill.

He said the conservatives like FC wanted 100% repeal and the RINOs wanted 80% repeal so they should compromise at 90% repeal but avoid the creation of a new entitlement program.

Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-04 11:14:34   Reply   Private Reply

#2: misterwhite    To: Tooconservative (#0)

"The White House is expected to release the text of a new deal on Tuesday that would give states the power to opt out of certain Obamacare insurance mandates ..."

Proof that a compromise is always possible. It's an excellent solution for both sides with an added 10th amendment benefit.

misterwhite posted on 2017-04-04 11:38:15   Reply   Private Reply

#3: Tooconservative    To: misterwhite (#2)

Proof that a compromise is always possible. It's an excellent solution for both sides with an added 10th amendment benefit.

I just saw Scott Brown on FNC. He was talking about how Rand tries to go around and get deals done. He thought they should have tried it Rand's way the first time and not set a ridiculous deadline (to pass the new bill on the anniversary of the passage of 0care which, as we know, was dumb and provocative to begin with).

I found the Mulvaney/Paul/Freedom Caucus intersections interesting. Those will likely come back again with a tax bill and an infrastructure bill.

I think they'll smooth out these little bumps and be more realistic, more practical.

Pence is exactly the right person to put in that role. Universally respected in the House for his record there, highly regarded by every GOP governor. Not Priebus or Bannon, not even ex-FC member Mulvaney.

It kind of surprised me that they didn't do that the first time around. Pence was supposed to be Trump's liason on the Hill, not Bannon or Priebus who have no experience in Congress.

Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-04 12:13:07   Reply   Private Reply

#4: misterwhite    To: Tooconservative (#3)

"It kind of surprised me that they didn't do that the first time around."

You never know. Perhaps the AHCA was designed to fail in order to determine what it would take to pass.

Salesmen are taught the ABC's -- Always Be Closing. Assume the customer is ready to buy and start the process. If he isn't ready, you'll find out why. Then you know exactly what you need to do.

misterwhite posted on 2017-04-04 12:21:09   Reply   Private Reply

#5: Tooconservative    To: misterwhite (#4)

Maybe the little scrape over AHCA was somewhat unavoidable.

I think the Freedom Caucus will be a little more reasonable. I think Trump will be. And the Tuesday Group RINOs will have to be too.

With 18 RINOs and 15 FC members as known 'no' votes on the first round of AHCA, they only need half of each group to compromise and go along with it. And then it passes the House, probably with the approval of one of the leading possible no voters in the Senate, Rand Paul. Which probably means that Lee and Cruz will go along too.

With Rand's involvement, the FC feels they at least have a strong chance that the Senate bill will look fairly close to what they voted to pass. Their fear had been that some mutant thing stuffed with pork and giveaways would be what the Senate would pass once the House passed AHCA. With Paul and the others in the Senate, they don't have to worry that the Senate will go hog-wild with it and then dump some monstrous "repeal and spend" bill in their laps on a "take it or leave it" basis. They know what happened to the Blue Dogs when they made that deal with Pelosi, the Dem Senate went nuts and then, after Scott Brown's election froze the Senate version in place, it was dumped back on the House Dems to pass the Senate version without amendments. Then all the Blue Dog Dems lost their House seats along with that little fake pro-life Dem bunch led by Bart Stupak.

If they can get past this, the tax bill and the infrastructure bill will be easier.

Salesmen are taught the ABC's -- Always Be Closing. Assume the customer is ready to buy and start the process. If he isn't ready, you'll find out why. Then you know exactly what you need to do.

I think Pence is the closer. As I said, it surprises me they didn't deploy him before instead of Trump going down to the Hill. Trump shouldn't really be doing that much, maybe one or two meetings with the GOP caucus a year and a retreat or two. He doesn't want to reduce himself to their level.

Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-04 12:42:16   Reply   Private Reply

#6: misterwhite    To: Tooconservative (#5)

"Trump shouldn't really be doing that much"

It's a fine line to walk. I'm sure Trump would like to stay above the fray, but he doesn't want to give the impression he doesn't care.

misterwhite posted on 2017-04-04 13:07:16   Reply   Private Reply

#7: Tooconservative    To: misterwhite (#6)

Well, yeah. But FDR went to the Hill to get for a declaration of war (unanimous except for a lone congresswoman). Trump went to hang out with Freedom Caucus, threaten them, and have them defy him, then he goes back to the WH to announce he's giving up and moving on. But then he didn't.

See what I mean? This is beneath him, to go to them. At most, they should come to him. And not all that often either. He needs to keep a certain distance and rely on subordinates and party leaders to get the job done for him.

Ryan failed him IMO and failed him badly. Then Bannon and Priebus convinced him to fruitlessly threaten the Freedom Caucus, another bad move. These subordinates are supposed to know what they are doing and how to get things done for Trump. What else are they there for?

I think things will settle down and we might even see a bill out of the House before the two-week recess.

This situtation is somewhat analogous to any navy that sends a new ship out for a shakedown cruise. I think there would have been some dustup with plenty of blame to go around, no matter what they tried to pass first.

Tooconservative posted on 2017-04-04 13:15:23   Reply   Private Reply

#8: Gatlin    To: Tooconservative (#1)

[Rand Paul] said the conservatives like FC….should compromise at 90% repeal but avoid the creation of a new entitlement program.
WTF?
A repeal is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal, a repeal with a re-enactment (or replacement) of the repealed law, or a repeal without any replacement.
There is no such thing as a 90% repeal.

That is like the old idiom of being 90% pregnant. An impossible state to be in, because (obviously) it's a black or white deal, all or nothing.

Rand is groveling….he had his ass kicked by Trump.

Now Rand is now acting in an obsequious manner in order to obtain forgiveness or favor with Trump.

Gatlin posted on 2017-04-04 23:39:38   Reply   Private Reply

#9: Gatlin    To: misterwhite (#4)

"It kind of surprised me that they didn't do that the first time around." You never know. Perhaps the AHCA was designed to fail in order to determine what it would take to pass. Salesmen are taught the ABC's -- Always Be Closing. Assume the customer is ready to buy and start the process. If he isn't ready, you'll find out why. Then you know exactly what you need to do.
I heard the procedure referred to as, the trial close….and it is the key to a 100% close rate.

Salesmen are taught the most important thing you can do to improve your sales closing performance is to master “trial closing” techniques.

So, I am with you….I think we may have witnessed a trial close on the first round with the ACHA….that will now result in a 100% and final close this time.

Someone knew what they were doing.

The Art of the Deal….maybe?

That would not surprise me at all …

Gatlin posted on 2017-04-05 00:02:28   Reply   Private Reply