Why is Ryancare so sick? In short, it’s a House bill written under Senate rules.
.. Under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974, the reconciliation process would allow Senate Republicans to avoid a Democratic filibuster and repeal and replace Obamacare with a simple 51-vote majority. Nonetheless, the House GOP-leadership bill excludes popular, important, conservative measures because Democrats might try to disqualify them for having a “merely incidental” budget impact.
.. Cruz added: “And even if the parliamentarian arrived upon that erroneous interpretation of the statutory language, the Budget Act of 1974 gives the authority to resolve this question to the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence.”
.. If a Trump-backed House bill guaranteed every illegal alien a free weekly visit to the doctor of his choice, Democrats would explode in rage: “Racists!” they would erupt. “Trump is Satan and the Republicans are his demons! Weekly medical visits? Why not daily? And how dare these Nazis deny undocumented employees the pleasure of house calls?”
.. If the parliamentarian agrees with the Democrats, however, Vice President Pence can ignore her advice and rule the bill in order. If so, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York may attempt to overturn Pence’s decision with a three-fifths majority. Schumer would need to rally all 48 Senate Democrats and twelve Republican senators to reach 60 votes.
.. Ryancare and its discontents could demolish the prospects for securing a 60-seat, filibuster-proof GOP Senate majority. Even worse, Republicans could shrink or even sink their House majority, perhaps returning Nancy Pelosi to the speaker’s chair. It is unfathomable that two months into a unified Republican government, such a nightmare scenario is being discussed. And yet it is, all because the highly intelligent, truly diligent, and dangerously cautious Paul Ryan has fallen victim to a virus that makes him think like a Senate Democrat.
White House moves to tweak health care bill to win over conservatives
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is working with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the hard-line conservative coalition, to strike Obamacare’s lengthy list of essential benefits that health plans now have to cover, according to a senior administration official.
Some Republicans have long argued that insurers should be able to sell skimpier coverage that, for example, wouldn’t cover maternity or mental health services.
How Democrats could bring down Obamacare repeal
Senate Democrats want House conservatives to think twice before supporting Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare repeal bill — because Democrats believe they can strip out key provisions used to woo the right when the bill comes over to the Senate.
.. They plan to argue to the Senate parliamentarian that language that allows states to impose work requirements for Medicaid coverage and prohibits tax credits from being used on insurance coverage of abortion is not allowed.
.. the so-called “Byrd Rule” that restricts reconciliation bills from “extraneous” matters and provisions that don’t affect the budget.
.. The Family Research Council has already warned Republican lawmakers that the abortion prohibition is likely to get eliminated by Byrd rules because it does not have a pure budgetary impact.
.. Key House Republicans say it will be much more difficult to support the legislation without the work requirements and the abortion restriction.
.. Ted Cruz of Texas and Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), argue that the Senate should ignore any ruling from the parliamentarian that limits red meat additions to the repeal bill. But Senate leaders appear unwilling to consider such an explosive move, which could essentially eliminate the filibuster.
.. Anti-abortion groups raised concerns that there was no way to restrict the HSA money from covering abortion and comply with Byrd rules.
Why does Trump keep making promises he can’t keep? The secret lies in his past.
the location provided a vivid case study in the dangers Trump will face as time goes on. This early in his presidency, he can still talk about the glittering future he’ll deliver. But at some point, he’ll have to reckon with what his policies have actually done and failed to do.
Trump is applying to governing the same theory that worked quite well for him in his business career. But the rules have already changed for him.
.. the Republican health-care bill will save Americans from the catastrophe of the Affordable Care Act. But it’s an odd thing to say in Kentucky, which may have fared better than any other state under the ACA. The state accepted the law’s expansion of Medicaid and saw an additional 443,000 of its citizens — a full 10 percent of the state’s population — get health coverage at no cost. The state also launched its own ACA exchange, Kynect, which was one of the most successful in the country. According to Gallup, the uninsured rate fell from 20.4 percent in 2013 before the law took effect down to 7.8
.. But hey, who needs Medicaid or subsidized health coverage if you’ve got a great job mining coal, where salaries are high and benefits are comprehensive? Trump repeated that promise, too — that once we get rid of some environmental regulations, all those coal jobs will come back:
.. In his particular corner of the business world, you really can create wealth just by managing public perception — or at least he could. This was the theory of his entire career
.. When he conned someone, like the attendees of Trump University, no matter how unhappy they were he could move on to other marks
.. It was a big world, and there were always other people who might be taken in by the next scam. But in politics, you have to go back to the people you made promises to the first time around, and ask them to put their faith in you again.
.. it’s obvious that Trump looks at his first legislative priority much like one of his buildings: What matters is that people think it’s the tallest one around, even if it isn’t. He doesn’t seem to know or care much about what’s in the GOP’s bill to repeal the ACA or what the effects would be. It’s just about getting a win one way or the other.
.. he met with congressional Republicans not to discuss the content of the bill, but to cajole and threaten them into voting for it. He told Mark Meadows, head of the far-right Freedom Caucus, to stand up while he told him, “I’m gonna come after you, but I know I won’t have to, because I know you’ll vote ‘yes.’ ” (Meadows says he’s still voting no.)
.. So what happens when Trump goes back to Kentucky in three years, and he has taken away voters’ health coverage but didn’t manage to bring back the coal jobs of yesteryear?