Every Congress person should be replaced with individuals who first and foremost know that they are there as a result of the American people putting them in office, and empty words using the "we" as if these government hothouse flowers who live off our dime "care" is well, absurd. Yes, the withdrawal of the Republican bill was a victory for Democratic Congressmen, but not for Democrats.
How do we know? Because Obamacare was not a victory for Democrats. It and other Obama policies plunged the middle class into a stagnation mode from which we haven't been able to recover EXCEPT for the public employee class. It wasted our money as the Obama Administration went to court to argue that the government should pay out MORE on Obamacare entitlements in order to maintain the artificial, ever-changing "enrollment" numbers in King v. Burwell. Health insurers who watched the government bribe of risk corridors and risk reinsurance payments expire withdrew from the exchanges.
Nobody, not a single Democrat argued that Obamacare as is was amazing, because they knew it was a loser argument and would cost them votes.
So where did Congress go wrong? Congress has worked long and hard through eight years of a myopic, government-centered bureaucratic presidency of Obama to exclude the American people from government. Donald Trump came in as an outsider, indicating a single thing---Millions of Americans were onto the game of these lifelong moochers of public employment who seemingly forgot the rest of the United States.
But of course President Trump is dealing with these very people. This is not a loss for the President, this is a reminder--You have to battle for us, for citizens, the ones who put you in office because you were different from Congress and from other public employees whose lifelong accomplishment was taking money from the American people. Buddying up to Paul Ryan made no sense. Paul Ryan is a comfy public employee who is not supported for higher position, that's proven. Buddying up to some of the other extremist nuts is also not wise, those extremists have failed for a decade to take over the common sense moderate views of Americans who were willing to give Trump a chance.
President Obama also ignored the people who put him in office. He won the presidency with votes of large swaths of Americans who he then happily insulted, lectured and ultimately screwed as he embraced shutting out of the American people who put him in office and Hillary Clinton, attempting to duplicate his contemptuous con of the American people lost.
But the Republicans are misreading their tea leaves and every other indicator if they believe they "won" this year because of extremist views. The Freedom Caucus, the Tea Party, whatever, catchy names for LOSERS are NOT most of the Republican voters. Riding on Trump's moderate coattails to victory was not their win. The President himself must not ignore the swamp that not so long ago tried to prevent him from getting into office. This would be a mistake.
Repeal Obamacare. The votes are there for that. Then respond to the American public that is a little bit wiser after the trick of Obamacare and CLOSE the public employee loophole that allowed Democratic lawmakers to preserve their entitlements while imposing new restrictions on citizens by characterizing themselves as employees instead of focusing on their PUBLIC status. This neither Democratic nor Republican Congress people will do without voter pressure.
Then put pressure on the states. States have enormous governance authority over health insurance within their borders and have been utterly useless in protecting their citizens for the most part. If a state government doesn't like how many people are on Medicaid, the answer isn't to do away with Medicaid but to improve employment opportunities and pressure insurers to provide more competitive prices.
For President Trump, instead of arguing over the made up "enrollment" numbers, tighten the reins on CMS and their record-keeping. Originally President Trump said he'd go after fraud, well, neither the spendthrift Democrats nor the Republican plan included those efforts.
Instead of buying into the Democrat "win" or Republican "loss," consumers for our own sake must argue that the insurance company government partnership of Obamacare and the Republican plan are both bad because they team up against consumers.
As for entitlements, start with public employees.
