Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has been under fire from prominent conservative voices in recent days related to the American Health Care Act (Ryan’s replacement bill for Obamacare). Stalwart defenders of the Constitution like Congressmen Thomas Massie, Jim Jordan and Justin Amash, following the lead of Senator Rand Paul, were some of the first and most vehement critics of the Speaker’s plan.
GOP Establishment is now running ads targeting House conservatives who oppose Obamacare 2.0. I always enjoy watching the Establishment 🔥 💵. https://t.co/q14LxyxxfM
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) March 9, 2017
Republican Rep. @Jim_Jordan says he doesn’t want a “binary choice,” wants to influence, change GOP healthcare bill https://t.co/tWsanYD1ny
— New Day (@NewDay) March 10, 2017
Stop Obamacare Lite and demand full repeal and replace: https://t.co/qDFhLqxGi0 pic.twitter.com/XayhZCXrdQ
— Rand Paul (@DrRandPaul) March 10, 2017
Ryan quickly fired back with an appeal to “consensus” and a “big tent party;” words that many conservatives see as liberal appeasement wrapped in Reagan-esque language.
Look, when you are a governing party getting consensus among your wide, big-tent party, not — everybody doesn’t get what they want, but we are getting much better policy here,” said Ryan. “Let me put it this way: Obamacare is collapsing. If we just did nothing, washed our hands of the situation, we would see a further collapse of the health insurance markets. So we feel an obligation to step in front of that collapse and replace this law with one that works, that has more freedom.”
What is Paul Ryan actually doing? Is someone pulling his strings? Why isn’t he pushing for a full repeal of Obamacare; replacing it with market based solutions like conservatives (and Republicans at-large) campaigned on? Senator Rand Paul, a medical doctor, already has such a plan ready and available to be implemented. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that Paul Ryan was being pushed at conservatives (by the establishment) as some sort of heroic fiscal champion because of his (slightly less horrible than president Obama’s) budget plan? Did he change; or was he never really a conservative to begin with? And what about the president? Where will his loyalties ultimately lie on this issue?
What do you think? Is Paul Ryan’s plan really just Obamacare 2.0; or does it have some merit to it? What about his claim that the system will collapse without passing his particular bill — is this fear-mongering? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.
