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[Tom Nook Sawyer]

Fantastic article from the Washington Post about the Republican's plan (or lack thereof) for how to replace Obamacare based on a recording sent to them anonymously. Here are a few snippets, but the full article is worth reading.

Republican lawmakers aired sharp concerns about their party's quick push to repeal the Affordable Care Act at a closed-door meeting Thursday, according to a recording of the session obtained by The Washington Post.

The recording reveals a GOP that appears to be filled with doubts about how to make good on a long-standing promise to get rid of Obamacare without explicit guidance from President Trump or his administration. The thorny issues lawmakers grapple with on the tape — including who may end up either losing coverage or paying more under a revamped system — highlight the financial and political challenges that flow from upending the current law.

Senators and House members expressed a range of concerns about the task ahead: how to prepare a replacement plan that can be ready to launch at the time of repeal; how to avoid deep damage to the health insurance market; how to keep premiums affordable for middle-class families; even how to avoid the political consequences of defunding Planned Parenthood, the women's health-care organization, as many Republicans hope to do with the repeal of the ACA.

The concerns of rank-and-file lawmakers appeared to be at odds with key congressional leaders and Andrew Bremberg, a top domestic policy adviser to Trump, who have laid out plans to repeal the ACA using a fast-track legislative process and executive actions from the administration. However, these leaders acknowledged in Thursday's meeting, as they have before, that Obamacare cannot be fully undone — or replaced — without Democratic cooperation.

That and other aspects of the unfinished GOP plan prompted several wary lawmakers to urge their leaders to move more deliberately — even as the Trump administration appears to be moving ahead with repeal. Thursday, the White House ordered federal health officials to immediately halt all advertising and other outreach activities for the critical final days in which Americans can sign up for 2017 health coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) worried that the plans under GOP consideration could eviscerate coverage for the roughly 20 million Americans now covered through state and federal marketplaces and the law's Medicaid expansion: ”We're telling those people that we're not going to pull the rug out from under them, and if we do this too fast, we are in fact going to pull the rug out from under them."

Republicans are also still wrestling with whether Obamacare's taxes can be immediately repealed, a priority for many conservatives, or whether that revenue will be needed to fund a transition period.

Faso warned that by defunding Planned Parenthood in the reconciliation bill, ”we are arming our enemy in this debate."

”To me, us taking retribution on Planned Parenthood is kind of morally akin to what Lois Lerner and Obama and the IRS did against tea party groups," he said, a reference to accusations that the Internal Revenue Service improperly targeted conservative political groups for audits.

Faso continued: ”Health insurance is going to be tough enough for us to deal with without having millions of people on social media come to Planned Parenthood's defense and sending hundreds of thousands of new donors to the Democratic Senate and Democratic congressional campaign committees. So I would just urge us to rethink this."

Full Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...abdafa-e491-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

The paranoid delusion that Obama used the IRS as a weapon after Obama didn't force the IRS to release Trump taxes >_>

 

[thepotatoman]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1338403