Rob Bluey writing in the Heritage Foundation's Daily
Signal
* * *
* *
Conservatives have waited more than five years to deliver
an ObamaCare repeal bill to President Barack Obama’s desk. And until this week,
it appeared that Republicans were about to squander what many conservatives
believed was their best shot since the law’s passage.
That changed Monday night.
* I'M HOPING AND PRAYING... BUT I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN IT
ACTUALLY HAPPENS...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
In a closed-door meeting with his Republican colleagues,
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scrapped a House-passed bill and
conceded to conservative demands to make the repeal package stronger.
* WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF INSTEAD OF
"CONCEDING," MCCONNELL WAS "BEHIND" CONSERVATIVE DEMANDS?
(*SIGH*)
Sources on Capitol Hill and in the conservative movement
credited the change to two factors: Sen. Mike Lee’s persistence on using the
budget reconciliation process and Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin’s victory last
month after campaigning against his state’s Medicaid expansion.
(*NODDING*)
McConnell, who hails from Kentucky, promised to rip apart
ObamaCare “root and branch” prior to Republicans’ capturing the Senate in 2014.
But when GOP leadership stymied an ObamaCare repeal vote in July and the House
passed a watered down reconciliation bill in October, it appeared that momentum
was on the wrong side of the repeal movement.
* MCCONNELL IS A DUPLICITOUS PIECE OF $HIT WHO CAN'T BE
TRUSTED...
* STILL... I'LL HOPE FOR THE BEST...
(*BITING MY LOWER LIP*)
Now, as the Senate advances a bill that cuts far more of ObamaCare
than the House bill, conservatives say it’s a lesson in staying true to their
principles and forcing GOP leadership to live up to campaign promises.
There’s also the home-state factor for McConnell.
Bevin, a conservative who ran against the senator in the
2014 Republican primary, made ending Kentucky’s ObamaCare exchange and stopping
the state’s expansion of Medicaid a top issue in his gubernatorial campaign. He
won a decisive victory at the ballot box Nov. 3.
* EVEN THOUGH THE MSM DID ALL IN ITS POWER TO LOWER
CONSERVATIVE EXPECTATIONS (AND THUS TURN-OUT) BY PUBLICIZING POLLS PREDICTING
EITHER A TIGHT RACE OR AN OUTRIGHT WIN BY THE DEMOCRAT.
(*SHRUG*)
* FOLKS... NEVER TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE MSM AT FACE VALUE;
THEY'RE SCUM.
A senior Republican aide familiar with the Senate’s
budget reconciliation debate said it was almost certainly a factor in the
decision to strengthen the ObamaCare repeal bill.
“Matt Bevin ran on a promise to end Kentucky’s Medicaid
expansion,” the GOP aide told The Daily Signal on the condition of anonymity.
“When Mitch McConnell realized it was politically viable in his home state of
Kentucky, he conceded it could be done in the Senate.”
* AGAIN... FOLKS... EVEN IF MCCONNELL IS AT THIS POINT
ACTING IN OUR INTERESTS... HE'S BEING DRAGGED KICKING AND SCREAMING TOWARDS
DOING THE RIGHT THING.
McConnell, who said in July that “we’re certainly going
to consider using budget reconciliation for repealing as much of ObamaCare as
is reconcilable,” will now do that this week, when the Senate is expected to
pass a bolder repeal bill.
Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, said the majority
leader always wanted a broader bill repealing as much of ObamaCare as possible
under Senate rules. While acknowledging that Lee’s role was helpful, Stewart
called The Daily Signal’s characterization of the Kentucky governor’s race
“flat wrong.”
* STEWART IS A LIAR WHO WORKS FOR A LIAR.
(*SHRUG*)
* NEVERTHELESS... TIME WILL TELL...
“He wasn’t led to this decision. He led the effort,”
Stewart told The Daily Signal of McConnell. “He said for months that we should
do a broad bill. The House chose a different bill, and it passed
overwhelmingly. But that was their bill. Our bill is different.”
* OH... MY... GOD...!!! WHAT A FAKE, PHONY, PIECE OF
HUMAN GARBAGE!
(*SNORTING*)
Conservatives have long argued that the best way to
repeal ObamaCare is the same way Democrats passed it in 2010: through the
budget reconciliation process with a simple majority of 51 votes in the Senate.
That was conservatives’ goal heading into 2015 with a
54-seat Republican majority and a Republican-led House able to accomplish the
feat. Conservatives wanted to show Americans that a Republican-led Congress
could undo all of the Affordable Care Act in 2017 with a Republican in the
White House. All it would take is a single sentence repealing the law.
But it wasn’t that easy.
* OH... IT WAS... TRUST ME! MCCONNELL COULD HAVE WRITTEN
THAT SENTENCE HIMSELF... INSERTED IT INTO A STAND-ALONE VOTE BY HIMSELF...
PUBLICLY FOUGHT FOR IT'S PASSAGE...
(*PAUSING*)
* BUT HE DIDN'T. (HE DIDN'T BECAUSE HE'S A LYING, PHONY,
PIECE OF CRAP...)
Some Republicans preferred to use reconciliation for
other priorities like tax reform. It took a high-stakes showdown in July
between GOP leadership and Lee to solidify support for using the reconciliation
process to repeal ObamaCare.
* AGAIN... FOLKS... SORRY IF I SOUND LIKE A BROKEN RECORD
- BUT THIS $HIT IS IMPORTANT! NOTE... "LEE." NOT MCCONNELL!
* FOLKS... HAD BEVIN NOT WON THE GOVERNOR'S ELECTION IN
KENTUCKY... MCCONNELL WOULD HAVE NO DOUBT CONTINUED TO BLOCK REPEAL/DEFUNDING
EFFORTS. (UNDERSTAND: HERITAGE AND THE DAILY SIGNAL ARE BENDING OVER BACKWARDS
TO TRY AND PORTRAY MCCONNELL AS NOT A TOTAL SCUMBAG. THIS EFFORT IS SIMPLY
THEIR DESIRE TO OFFER A "CARROT" TO MCCONNELL FOR THE SAKE OF PARTY
"UNITY." IN OTHER WORDS... SIMPLE POLITICAL PRAGMATISM. BE AWARE OF
THIS REALITY!)
During that July debate on a highway funding bill, Lee
was planning to offer an amendment to repeal ObamaCare with 51 votes until
leadership forced him to drop the amendment in a move that infuriated
conservatives.
* FOLKS. MCCONNELL IS "LEADERSHIP."
(*SNORT*)
(*SMIRK*)
Lee’s plan would’ve spared Republicans the need to even
use reconciliation, but instead he was excoriated by leadership in a private
meeting of senators.
* FOLKS... GOP WASHINGTON "LEADERSHIP" IS A
STAGE THREE CANCER vs. THE DEMOCRATS REPRESENTING STAGE FOUR CANCER.
(*SIGH*)
But the Utah Republican was still able to use the
situation as leverage to secure McConnell’s commitment to repeal ObamaCare
through reconciliation.
* FOLKS. REMEMBER HOW MCCONNELL FLAT OUT LIED TO CRUZ?
MCCONNELL'S WORD MEANS NOTHING. NOTHING! (AGAIN... HAD BEVIN NOT BEEN ELECTED
IN A LANDSLIDE...)
(*SIGH*)
The two senators issued a joint statement July 28. “We
will continue our effort to use reconciliation,” McConnell said, “to fulfill
the promise we made to our constituents.”
But months later, when the House began drafting its
reconciliation language, significant parts of the Affordable Care Act were left
in place.
(*SMIRK*)
The House bill repealed four provisions: the individual
and employer mandates, the Cadillac tax on health plans, and the medical device
tax. It also cut a sizable portion of federal funding for Planned Parenthood
for one year.
* THE PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTION SHOULD BE SEPARATE; THAT'S
MY VIEW.
House Republicans cited Senate rules as an impediment to
doing more, but Lee didn’t buy it.
* HOUSE REPUBLICAN "LEADERS."
(*SMIRK*)
* THE SCUMBAG RINOs... THEN THE BOEHNER RINOs... NOW THE
RYAN RINOs.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Lee teamed with Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio,
R-Fla., to denounce the House bill on Oct. 22, a day before the House voted on
it.
* WHERE THE HELL WAS RAND PAUL...?!?!
* OH... NEVERMIND...
(*SIGH*)
“Each of us campaigned on a promise to fully repeal ObamaCare
and a reconciliation bill is the best way to send such legislation to President
Obama’s desk,” the senators wrote in a statement. “If this bill cannot be
amended so that it fully repeals ObamaCare pursuant to Senate rules, we cannot
support this bill.”
At the time, the opposition of Lee, Cruz, and Rubio
appeared to be too little, too late.
* AGAIN... RAND PAUL...???
(*SIGH*)
The House passed its reconciliation bill Oct. 23 on a
mostly party-line vote of 240-189 — with one Democrat supporter and seven GOP
defectors, including only a few who said the bill didn’t go far enough.
Conservatives, who had spent more than five years
plotting their strategy, feared that the bill set a bad precedent that a future
Congress would need to follow. But in reality, the trio of Lee, Cruz, and Rubio
put Senate leadership in a bind. With more liberal Republicans already balking
at the language to defund Planned Parenthood, McConnell could afford to lose no
more than three senators to get the 51 votes needed.
While the three conservative senators stood firm,
Kentucky voters went to the polls Nov. 3. Bevin, who trailed in public polling
prior to Election Day, convincingly defeated the state’s attorney general,
Democrat Jack Conway.
* SO MUCH FOR "SCIENTIFIC POLLING."
Bevin’s opposition to ObamaCare and insistence on ending
Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion played a central role in his campaign.
“The fact that we have one out of four people in this
state on Medicaid is unsustainable, it’s unaffordable, and we need to create
jobs in this state, not more government programs to cover people,” Bevin said
while campaigning in February.
Bevin’s triumph at the ballot box, Capitol Hill insiders
say, was an eye-opening moment for McConnell.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
“It all comes down to Kentucky politics for Mitch
McConnell,” a former Senate staffer told The Daily Signal. “When he sees the
political winds changing, he’s quick to react.”
* YEP. F--K INTEGRITY. F--K THE CONSTITUTION. F--K VALUES
AND PRINCIPLES. FOR MCCONNELL IT'S ALL ABOUT... MCCONNELL. THE MAN IS A TOTAL DIRTBALL.
And that’s what happened Monday. McConnell outlined a
plan that goes much farther than the House’s reconciliation bill. The new bill
repeals ObamaCare's premium subsidies and Medicaid expansion, as well as most
of the taxes.
In doing so, McConnell appears to have won over the three
conservative holdouts: Cruz, Lee, and Rubio.
* WHERE'S MCCONNELL'S LONG-TIME SUPPORTER RAND PAUL...???
Without those three conservatives, Republicans likely
lacked the 51 votes needed to pass the reconciliation bill and deliver a repeal
measure to Obama’s desk.
Until the final vote is cast later this week, anything
could happen. But for conservatives who mounted their years-long quest to
repeal ObamaCare, things are moving in the right direction.
* WE HOPE... WE PRAY...
* GOD BLESS YOU TED CRUZ! GOD BLESS YOU MIKE LEE! AND...
WHAT THE HECK...
(*PAUSING*)
(*DEEP BREATH*)
* ON THIS ONE... GOD BLESS YOU TOO, MARCO RUBIO!
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