Ryan counting on Trump to help steamroll House maniacs and ram through Obamacare repeal

[flamingdem]

* This is a total disaster in the making, thousands will die, millions will have worse care or none at all, insurance will cost thousands more per year, and the elderly on Medicaid will be removed from nursing homes

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/3/1639761/-Ryan-counting-on-Trump-to-help-steamroll-House-maniacs-to-ram-through-Obamacare-repeal

At a closed-door meeting with Republicans on Thursday, Speaker Paul Ryan said he plans for the House to hold a vote on the leadership's Obamacare alternative in three weeks, sources in the room told POLITICO. The White House and the Senate support the House GOP leadership's effort, Ryan added — comments many in the room took as a warning for the far right to get in line.

On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence and newly installed Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price will join Ryan in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, to pitch their health care agenda. It's the clearest display of unity yet between the White House and GOP leadership on an Obamacare replacement strategy.

Price, meanwhile, has been summoning to his office conservative agitators who oppose Ryan's draft proposal. While Price didn't try to strong-arm them into standing down, the meetings themselves send a signal that the White House is in Ryan's corner.

"We're all working off the same piece of paper, the same plan," Ryan said at a Thursday news conference when asked about conservative opposition. "We are in sync — the House, the Senate and the Trump administration, because this law is collapsing."

It looks like they're going to tell the maniacs it's this repeal bill or nothing, and after all their promises of repeal they made to their base over the past seven years, they'll have to lump it. But that depends, one "senior Republican lawmaker" tells Politico, on Trump.

Ryan is certain he's going to "go out front and … tell the conservatives … they're either for this or for keeping Obamacare." Relying on Trump might not be the safest bet, because he's Trump. There's also the problem of Freedom Caucus members not believing Ryan and Trump are in agreement. "There have been stories in the media that somehow the White House and Ryan's office are in agreement on health care," said Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, one of the maniacs. "We have not heard that [Trump] backed it or he doesn't."

There's also a problem with the other chamber.

While Ryan says that everyone is working off the same piece of paper, including the Senate, Mitch McConnell doesn't necessarily agree. "The goal is for the administration, the House and the Senate to be in the same place," McConnell said Tuesday. "We're not there yet." That was Tuesday, but given the fiasco of the hidden, super-secret bill, it's unlikely the situation has changed.

[caroldansen]

1. Let's hope that whatever they replace obamacare with will continue to help all who need it. If they

(the republicans) don't want it, why don't they just make it optional instead of mandatory? Freedom of choice. That's supposed the be the American way.

[flamingdem]

2. They are replacing it with exactly nothing. All that matters is getting rid of the taxes

on the wealthy that pay for ACA.

So they cannot leave the option open to current subscribers. The'll just cut them off. Most are in districts that are gerrymandered so no problem for their future either. Assuming that they've done the numbers they can afford a percent of angry voters and still win.