Boehner: Republicans won't repeal and replace Obamacare

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted on Thursday that a full repeal and replace of Obamacare is “not going to happen.”

Boehner, who retired in 2015 amid unrest among conservatives, said at an Orlando healthcare conference that the idea that a repeal-and-replace plan would blitz through Congress was just “happy talk.”

Instead, he said changes to former President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement would likely be relatively modest.

“(Congressional Republicans are) going to fix Obamacare – I shouldn’t call it repeal-and-replace, because it’s not going to happen,” he said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/john-boehner-obamacare-republicans-235303

[Skinner]

1. After getting constantly attacked from the right, Boehner feels vindicated.

Here's what he after Obama was reelected in 2012:

SAWYER:

A couple of other questions about the agenda now. You have said next year that you would repeal the healthcare vote. That's still your mission?

BOEHNER:

Well, I think the election changes that. It's pretty clear that the president was reelected, Obamacare is the law of the land. I think there are parts of the healthcare law that are gonna be very difficult to implement. And very expensive. And as the time when we're tryin' to find a way to create a path toward a balanced budget everything has to be on the table.

SAWYER:

But you won't be spending the time next year trying to repeal Obamacare?

BOEHNER:

There certainly may be parts of it that we believe-- need to be changed. We may do that. No decisions at this point.

[Raine1967]

32. +1

I wish he were still in DC. I'd buy him a glass of wine at Ramparts. (his old 'outside DC' bar)

[CottonBear]

2. Just what the hell are they going to "fix"?

Fix is the GOP code for taking away benefits and subsidies.

[Scarsdale]

22. Attention

Now that we have their attention, let us fight for Universal Healthcare like other SANE countries have. Get the old gop goats out of office. Orrin Hatch has a son who is a lobbyist for big pharma, so he likely lining his pockets for his obstruction of all things medical.

[CottonBear]

23. So Hatch's son is a pharma lobbyist. Follow the money.

I agree with you that we need universal healthcare like other sane countries.

I think we may have gotten their attention with the massive ongoing protests and the enormous town hall meeting attendance this year.

[pansypoo53219]

33. both in pharma pockets.

[Beartracks]

37. "Hey, this gov program is working! We gotta FIX that!"

[CottonBear]

41. Exactly.

I have subsidized ACA health insurance. I don't have health insurance through work. I have a mortgage and a young child. My state didn't expand Medicaid or set up a state insurance exchange. If they FIX the ACA then I'm totally screwed.

[Beakybird]

3. They already destroyed it

The Trump administration has ordered the IRS to not enforce the penalty for not having insurance. With healthy people being under no obligation to get health insurance, this will cause a death spiral in insurance markets. Watch prices for 2018 skyrocket. The Republicans will blame Obama and say, "We didn't do anything!"

[kiranerys]

12. There are ways for them to bring it back - that's what the Cassidy-Collins plan does

In their plan, instead of the individual paying the penalty directly, if you go without insurance for some period, the next insurance policy you get will charge you a "late registration fee" (aka the penalty), and then the insurance company will pay the penalty to the IRS.

(Edit: Oh, there was another penalty in there too, but explaining that one would require explaining the whole plan.)

It's absolutely a smoke-and-mirrors way of hiding the existence of the penalty from the voters that were groomed to hate it, but it may solve the problem.

I read their entire bill last night, because I'm a huge nerd like that, and I was actually impressed how much of that kind of slight-of-hand they managed to pull of it in it, using a lot of conservative buzzwords to describe a plan that in some regards is much more socialist than the ACA.

[keithbvadu2]

19. Democrats should STOP calling it Obamacare. --- 'Republicare'

Democrats should STOP calling it Obamacare.

The GOP has framed it as stopping Obamacare which is an evil name to their base.

Start calling it only by the name 'ACA' and local names such as Kynect which people who have it like.

Many of the base do not know they are the same.

Keep hammering that republicans want to repeal what many of their base wants to keep.

'Republicans want to cancel your ACA healthcare insurance'

Whenever they change it, such as the penalty you mention, call it "Republicare'.

They own it.

[bocaharv]

42. ACA

Call it trumpuncare

[keithbvadu2]

43. No... call it republicare, a name that will outlast trumpuncare.

That way, republicans own it even after Trump is gone.

[LOL Lib]

30. So true

Sadly the GOP has found a way to make ACA fail and make it so their constituents can't blame them for repealing it. They really are thugs who have no heart for the sick and less fortunate.

[kiranerys]

40. Politico just posted a leaked scan of their proposal, and.....

They went the route that I described above. If you're without insurance for more than 2 months, your next insurer will charge you a penalty of 30% of the normal monthly rate for each month you were uninsured in the previous 12 months. So let's say you lost your insurance, and after 10 months went to buy a new plan for your family on the individual market at $1,000/month, you would owe a penalty of $3,000.

Though they also otherwise mostly gutted everything worthwhile about the ACA, so. We're all just screwed.

[Grins]

4. There's still time....!

Still time for him to get to DC and make that same statement at the Reich-wing's annual hate-fest - CPAC!

It would be so much fun to see that!

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. I wish he was right, but he isnt. Fuckface hates Obama for making fun of him at a dinner, period.

Every single horrible and deadly thing he is doing is because of that and because he loves to be loved by ignorant white people.

You say the house or senate wont oblige him? They will even though it isnt him they are obliging; remember, the Koch bros hate Obama solely for being black and competent and they call the shots in the House and Senate.


The GOP hates it when poor people are helped in anyway, it drives them nuts. Mainly because they perceive most poor people to be black and republicans are horrible racists, but they even like to withold help from white poor people too.

Killing Obamacare is only the beginning of what they WILL do. Medicare? Medicaid? Social Security? Welfare/Food Stamps?

Gone.

They will not rest until these are all not just gone, but stolen by them.

You, Brooklynite are the one who knows powerful and rich people, surely you know the GOP has waited for this day, to have the power to destroy everything.

[Hamlette]

24. and they will never win an election again

touch Medicare and Social Security and the Republicans are done.

They didn't hate Bush because of Katrina. They hated him from trying to do away with SS.

[yallerdawg]

6. "Obamacare is dead!"

"Now - we can fix the Affordable Care Act. It was our plan to begin with!"

[still_one]

7. As bad as Boehner was, he wasn't as diabolical as those in control of the House and

Senate are now. I think his assessment underestimates the meanness and hatefulness in his party

[Lefthacker]

11. Boehner wasnt

Nearly as bad. He saw the evil direction his party was heading and got out. I still think how emotional he was when the Pope addressed congress and shortly thereafter he left. Clearly I didn't agree with him but our country as far better off when he was there compared to the sleazy
Ryan.

[harun]

15. Anyone who calls Ted Cruz a miserable son of a bitch

can't be all bad.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news-campaigns/john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer-in-the-flesh-son-of-a-bitch

[moonscape]

28. Boehner could have been a quite decent Speaker for the country,

given Republicans had the power, in a former climate of rationality. He was in a tough spot and caved to the crazy, but you could always tell he had a gun to his head.

[mpcamb]

16. "As bad as Boehner was,..." Yeah, he was a weasel. And compared to what's there now

in the WH and in Congress, a weasel does look half bad.

It's SO sad with outrage after outrage each day.

[still_one]

17. just when you thought they couldn't get worse, they did

[Orrex]

8. Sure. They'll repeal it and call it a day.

[kiranerys]

13. Not if they want to stay in office

They've promised their constituents that they have an alternative plan that will give them better care for less money, will still let people with preexisting conditions buy insurance, and will not have an individual mandate. If their answer is to repeal the ACA and do nothing, their constituents are gonna be pissed.

[Orrex]

14. I hope that's true

Faithful GOP voters surely won't vote for the Democrat, and they'll only stay home if they can be assured that the Democrat won't win. If there's a risk of a Democrat grabbing the office, then I'm confident that the GOP flock will flock to the polls like they always do, eager to vote against their own interests while blaming the ensuing disaster on Democrats, as always.

[putitinD]

26. +1

[charlyvi]

21. It's analogous to when Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and said

the Dem party had lost the South for a generation. If they repeal the ACA with no replacement, or with a really bad replacement that, in effect, achieves the same thing, they've lost most of their base.

[Rorey]

9. Nobody expected the ACA to be perfect right from the start.

The "party of no" refused to work with us to make it the way it should be. It could have been "fixed" a long time ago, but considering that working against President Obama was their intent, they wouldn't do it.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Boehner played hardball, but he was a realist

The fix is in:

I expect high deductibles and minimal if any preventive care

Making it irrelevant for most low income people

Anything Republicans do with the ACA though will hurt Big Pharma, Corporate
Hospitals, and doctors as well

Obamacare given its complexity was thought out in significant ways

[kiranerys]

34. High deductible definitely

The Republican plans will all leave the poor worse off for sure. Some less than others - for example, the Collins-Cassidy one says, basically, that states can keep the ACA if they want, or they can get the money that would have gone towards it and set up a free high-deductible plan.

[Ligyron]

18. If they screw up their base's health care, those in office are screwed themselves.

They are begin ing to realize this with the feedback from town halls.

[flamin lib]

20. Alternate headline:

After years of chasing bus, dog finally catches it. Puzzlement follows . . .

[Hamlette]

25. 20 Million people got health care under ACA, if as many as 5 million were republican voters

the GOP is in trouble and they know it.

Would be nice to know how many of the 20 million vote and how many of them vote republican. It was smart to call it something else in some states.

[kiranerys]

35. I don't think we can know party affiliation, but we can look at states

The states with the highest # of recipients are:
Florida
California
Texas
North Carolina
Georgia
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Illinois
Michigan

Yeah, uh, they may have something to worry about there.

[Skittles]

27. consevatives could have ALWAYS helped to FIX ACA

FUCK THEM

[paleotn]

29. Precisely.

[Rollo]

31. It was a Republican design from the start...

Crafted in the 1990's in response to Hillary's universal health care proposal, which was still-born...

Planned by the Heritage Foundation...

Put into practice on the state level by Mitt Romney...


The ONLY reason why the Republicans didn't like it when Obama pushed it through was because they couldn't abide the thought that a black president would be eating their lunch. Taking their plan, dusting it off, making it workable.

And while the ACA has its flaws, for the most part they haven't yet been fixed because of Republican intransigence.

Let's hope the 2018 mid-term elections show enough R's the door and the D's can take back Congress.

At this rate, with R's facing humiliation in Town Hall meetings, it might just happen.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. "Fix"? They will try to sabotage, ... and then point "oh, look it failed." . . . nt

[sarcasmo]

38. Boehner doesn't know the evil that is Bannon.

[usaf-vet]

44. If the GOP were smart they would pass a resolution that said

1. From this point forward the term Obamacare will never be used again in any congressional speeches or legislation or in TV interviews

2. From this point forward we will work with the other side of the isle to fix the problems in the Affordable Care Act.

Obamacare would be history and the ACA would get fixed to insure that 20 million enrollees would not lose their healthcare.

With Fox news on board the Republicans could make it work.

Otherwise they are...... shall we say screwed. Their voters are catching on with the fact that they have been lied to. And they are not happy. And the resistance will continue to grow. The town hall resistance is real. Even the GOP base know that the ACA (Obamacare) is better than what the GOP says it will deliver. 8 years plus and bupkis, nothing, not a single word of real reform.