Americans who are stuck with exploding health insurance premiums hate Obamacare. Trump won the election based, in part, on his commitment to “repeal and replace” the program.
Congressional Republicans passed a repeal bill several times during the Obama years. But, somehow, now that they have a president who would actually sign the bill, it ain’t gonna happen!
Instead of simply passing the same repeal, leadership trotted out a “reform” laden with most of the crushingly expensive mandates and big government control that conservatives hated about the Affordable Care Act. It failed when “Freedom Caucus” Republicans insisted on a more genuine reform.
All the sound and fury Republican leaders made about repealing Obamacare signified nothing. They aren’t eager to betray the healthcare lobby, insurance providers, and pharmaceutical companies who worked with Congress to write the law and who paid so handsomely into campaign funds. They would rather betray voters.
The federal government sunk its talons deep into healthcare with the Affordable Care Act, and it will never let go willfully. Perhaps it can be pried loose after the system collapses.
The truth is governments do not voluntarily shrink themselves. Politicians will only get serious about reforms after a crisis forces their hands, not before.
President Trump acknowledged this truth Saturday when he tweeted, “ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!” His assurance would be more comforting if it didn’t mean another year or two (or 10?) of exploding health care premiums and doctors leaving the system.
We can’t and shouldn’t expect proactive solutions from Washington DC. The activist energy, the campaign contributions, and the misplaced confidence fuels a machine whose only output is disappointment.
In fact, conservatives could be blamed for attempting to achieve more meaningful reform. President Trump may be inclined to punish the representatives who did not support the “Obamacare Lite” bill. He tweeted, “Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club for Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & O-care!”
Trump should pin the failure on hypocrisy. Republicans, who now control both houses of congress, didn’t put forward the same repeal bill passed in prior years because they aren’t actually interested in eliminating Obamacare.
We’ve seen hypocrisy before. The Tea Party movement during the earlier days of the Obama administration pushed for lower taxes and less spending. Smiling Republican incumbents assured constituents they heard the message of Tea Partiers loudly and clearly. But establishment GOP lawmakers went back to Washington and stuck to business as usual.
It turned out Obama was not the only impediment to downsizing the government. It was the Republican Congressional Majority who enabled every hike in the debt ceiling and ever larger federal budgets. Obama took most of the blame for the massive expansion in government, but congress funded every penny of it. Much of the impetus behind the Tea Party has since dissipated.
Now the reform energy which propelled Donald Trump to the presidency may also be losing strength.
Liberty activists may get more accomplished by focusing on state governments where politicians remain more accountable. Organizations including the Tenth Amendment Center are making real progress on state-level movements to counteract abusive federal laws.
And there are actions individuals can take to shore up their own personal finances.
Health cost sharing plans are emerging as a viable option for people being crushed by skyrocketing insurance premiums. Buying physical gold and silver as a vote for honest money and as a hedge against out-of-control federal borrowing and spending is another.
Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals’ brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.
Some say the best thing is an EMP over DC but somehow, the Phoenix will rise from remote data locations to continue on destroying our country.
Federal and state governments alike will never be fixed until Christians and patriots wake up to the fact that they’ve been promoting the genesis of America’s problems as the solution–a classic case of Isaiah 5:20, calling evil good and good evil.
America was once great but not for the reason most people believe it was. In fact, quite the opposite.
Yahweh, God of the Bible, blesses nations (makes them great and prosperous) when they look to Him as their sovereign and thus His moral law as the standard for government and society, per Deuteronomy 4:4-8, 28:1-14, etc. Consequently, America’s greatness was the result of the 17th-century Christian Colonial governments of, by, and for God established upon His unchanging moral law.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835:
“They [the 17th-century Colonials] exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now presents to the world is to be found [in perfect fulfillment of Deuteronomy 4:5-8, demonstrating the continuing veracity
of Yahweh’s law and its accompanying blessings, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14].
“Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650. The legislators of Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ … copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus,
and Deuteronomy.…” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (New York: NY: The Colonial Press, 1899) vol. 1, pp. 36-37)
On the other hand, Yahweh curses nations who reject His sovereignty and replace His law with their own man-made surrogates. Thus, America began to be cursed (by God’s long suffering only incrementally at
first) when the 18th-century founders replaced the 17th-century Colonial governments with their own humanistic government of, by, and for the people based upon capricious Enlightenment traditions. Without repentance for these sins of sedition our complicity therein, it was inevitable that America would find herself teetering on the precipice of moral depravity and destruction.
For more regarding these two polar opposite forms of government, see online Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian
Perspective.” Click on my name, then our website. Go to our our Online Books page, click on the top entry, and scroll down to Chapter 3.
Then find out how much you really know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the right-hand sidebar and receive a complimentary copy of a book that examines the Constitution by the Bible.
Too wordy, Weiland, and too inaccurate. Nobody is going to read your stuff. Their time is better spent reading the Bible.
The federal corporation on DC won’t massively change until it is dissolved, because it’s already broken and has been (in international bankruptcy) since 1791, and further went down in 1861, then again in 1871, then again in 1933 and 2001.
As long as the sheeple have a beer in the fridge, a flik on the screen and food in the pantry – it can get exactly like SODOM & GOMORRA and they will go along to get along. WHY, because truth has temp humanistic consequences… the penalty is too great for the FEAR of God is NOT in their hearts as it should be… why? Because Deuteronomy 4.2
I must be deaf, dumb, and blind. America Broke when the first Socialist took office as a “Progressive”, and now even the queers are feeling the power.
It was all theater. They were more than willing to pass a repeal bill as long as they knew that it would be vetoed. Now that we have a president who will sign such a bill they are showing their true colors. Obamacare was intended to fail as a means of forcing us to go to a European style single payer system. It;s now collapsing along with many more of our government institutions but congress is not about to pass single payer. The plan has failed and now no one seems have a workable solution. It may already be too late but if there is any hope of saving our republic it lies in an article V convention of states. Wake up everyone. We are running out of time and options.
You are correct , my father told me 60 years ago national health care will destroy the country and it is happening now. The social (communists) have been planning this for years along with the welfare and the decadence of the New Age. Smart people will prepare.
Perhaps a total collapse is what it will take to allow the survivors to begin to rebuild. If a house becomes infested with vermin, wood rot and other forms of corruption the best thing to do if it catches fire is to just let it burn then hope you have a good foundation to rebuild on.
If The Federal Government would just WRITE Three simple straightforward STANDARD health insurance plans Students until age 26 would be covered as well as prior existing illnesses Gold, Silver, and Bronze Plans and REQUIRE that all 50 states allow them to be sold by any federally Vetted insurance company within all 50 states, The problem would be well on its way to a solution.
KISS Keep It Simple Senor.
Citizens would then be able to take fair advantage of the free market. For those who can not or will not buy insurance the Department of Health and Human services can provide Medical clinics at $10 per visit. Visits to hospital emergency rooms by uninsured would NOT be allowed unless a life threatening emergency existed
You are correct in that citizens should be able to take fair advantage of the free market. The problem is that it will never happen as long as the federal government is involved. I cannot find anything in the Constitution authorizing or even permitting the federal government to provide or require healthcare insurance. The states can do it under the 10th amendment and a philosophy of government we call federalism. The states are closer to the problem, more responsive (and accountable) to the people and can administer the system much more efficiently. The federal government is overstepping its boundaries here, but the truth is that its not about providing affordable QUALITY healthcare. Its about expanding the federal government and giving it more control over individual citizens. Sadly, too many of our fellow citizens have lost any sense of individual responsibility and just want the government to take care of them. Big brother is here.