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Republicans Are Playing Pre-Existing Conditions Kabuki – Mother Jones

The topic of the day is pre-existing conditions: namely the fact that the latest version of the Republican health care bill guts Obamacare's guarantee that insurers have to insure all customers at the same price. It's what everyone is talking about.

Wait. Did I say "gut"? National Review editor Rich Lowry disagrees:

The Phrase Pre-Existing Conditions Leads to the Suspension of All Thought

The moderates are abandoning the health-care bill largely because it makes it possible for states to get a waiver from the pre-existing condition regulation in Obamacare. This is being distorted as an abolition of that regulation, with the moderates either contributing to the misunderstanding or being carried along by it. Ramesh ably explained the other day why this isnt true. But apparently all you have to do to win the debate over Obamacare repeal is say pre-existing condition, regardless of whether you have any idea what you are talking about. I dont think anyone wants to go back to the pre-Obamacare status quo on this issue, but....

The Ramesh Ponnuru post that Lowry links to is worth a read, though I think Ponnuru downplays the real effect of the waiver clause. I'm also pretty sure that, actually, lots of people would like to go back to the pre-Obamacare status quo. That's especially true of people who really understand how health insurance works. After all, once you accept that people with pre-existing conditions should be allowed to buy health coverage at the same price as everyone else, you pretty much have to accept both the individual mandate and the federal subsidies in Obamacare. You can call them "continuous coverage" and "tax credits" if you want, but they're the same thing.

But for a moment let's put that all aside, because there's a more fundamental question here. Like it or not, Obamacare does protect people with pre-existing conditions. Insurers have to accept anyone who applies and they have to charge them the same premiums as anyone else. This has no effect on the federal budget, which means it can't be repealed in a reconciliation bill.1 Unless someone kidnaps the Senate parliamentarian's dog and threatens to kill poor Fido unless they get a favorable ruling, any attempt to repeal Obamacare's pre-existing conditions ban will be tossed out of the bill. And keep in mind that Obamacare's ban is absolute. As long as it's around, insurers have to take all comers at the same price no matter what any other legislation says.

So all the limitations regarding pre-existing conditions in the Republican bill are just kabuki. What's the point?

1Oh sure, you can gin up a case where it has some small effect. But that doesn't work. Reconciliation bills are limited to things that directly affect the budget. Incidental effects don't count.

May 3rd, 2017

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Dear Republicans in Congress: You had one job, and you failed – Washington Examiner

One of the most exciting things for conservatives after the election was that they had a quasi-Republican president, and, more importantly, a GOP-controlled Congress. With House Speaker Paul Ryan at the helm the Randian wonk with a powerpoint budget plan the federal government could be a lean, mean, fiscal machine, cutting spending and shrinking the government in no time. But alas, when they had their chance, Congress failed to cut the bloated behemoth that is Planned Parenthood and didn't even slice a comma off the Affordable Care Act. This is, as they like to say, "How we got Trump."

What the GOP promised

Political Twitter is a toddler's playground wrapped in a group therapy session inside an insane asylum but sometimes it's so spot on:

Indeed, Ryan is a stud, but after shenanigans like these please wait while I roll my eyes to California and back. "Pretty is as pretty does" my mama used to say, and Ryan has failed to do as he promised the American people he would. The most fiscally hawkish of them all knows full-well Republicans as a collective group promised to defund Planned Parenthood, repeal all or most of Obamacare, and a litany of other things. We the American people are not so enraptured with Ryan's dapper appearance that we believed all those things, but c'mon now: Those were the basics. And with a Republican majority in Congress, they should be feasible.

What this means

The ACA is a complicated leviathan, but it's politicians who made it that way: You can't be a mechanic for Ford and pretend not to know the basics of how a Chevrolet works. They can tinker with partisan bills and repair what's ailing it. That's literally what they're supposed to do. No one believes this charade that it was too hard everyone thinks Republicans are either liars or wusses. Republicans had years to cobble together ideas, research, policy proposals that could replace parts of, or repeal all of, the ACA. When their moment in the spotlight came, they drove the broken-down Chevrolet to the Ford dealership and said, "We don't know what to do."

Pro-life Americans will have even less sympathy when they discover Republicans didn't bother to defund Planned Parenthood while negotiating their budget. For starters, the House Oversight Committee found two years ago the organization was sufficiently funded without the $500 million it takes in federal taxpayer funds. Second, most pro-lifers disagree with its primary activity (performing abortion) so this should have been a one-two punch: It's immoral, and it's a poor use of taxpayer dollars. Yet it too remains fully-funded. Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's CEO, is laughing so hard on her yacht right now, for a moment she's forgotten she spearheads the nation's largest abortion shop.

What Ryan should have done

Of course, Ryan's political excuse is that he won't be able to get votes from the moderate wing of the party to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare completely, so they have to negotiate with them, moving the GOP to the Left in the process. What the leadership should do is hold a hard line on these items. Republicans that don't go along with defunding Planned Parenthood, repealing Obamacare, and cutting taxes will find themselves in a primary, challenged by more conservative members of the party. Sure, the Democrats will take the opportunity to pick off some vulnerable moderate seats where a conservative challenger is able to knock off a moderate Republican, but overall it will shift the party to the Right. Then he may find it easier to accomplish some of the things they said they would do.

In the meantime, people will still ask, "How did we get Trump?" It's because politicians never do what they say they would. So the people didn't elect one, for better or for worse.

Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator's Young Journalist Award.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read ourguidelines on submissions here.

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Dear Republicans in Congress: You had one job, and you failed - Washington Examiner

May 3rd, 2017

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Trump administration, Republicans weigh in on North Korean missile test – Washington Post

Washington Post

Trump administration, Republicans weigh in on North Korean missile test
Washington Post
April 30, 2017 1:05 PM EDT - President Trump said Kim Jong Un is a tough cookie, while administration officials and other Republicans weighed in on North Korea's latest missile test. (Peter Stevenson / The Washington Post). April 30, 2017 1:05 PM EDT ...

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Trump administration, Republicans weigh in on North Korean missile test - Washington Post

May 1st, 2017

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