Sen. John Thune (R-SD) Looking to Carper’s Help Repealing the ACA as Early as January
Republican Senate leaders said Tuesday that they plan to charge through with their plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act as soon as the new Congress convenes in January. “Obamacare repeal resolution will be the first item up in the new year,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said at his weekly press conference after the GOP caucus lunch.
Either the GOP thinks it has Carper’s vote in the bag, or they want Obamacare repeal to fail YET AGAIN in order to be able to keep it in place in order to run against it YET AGAIN in the next mid-term.
Flip a coin. Both outlandish explanations make sense in the up is down world of Trump’s America.
If the answer is Carper’s vote is in the bag, we will be hearing about “budget balancing” as the vote draws near.
Thune said that Republicans will be attacking the ACA through budget reconciliation, a method that only requires a bare majority vote in the Senate. It is a method that Carper has previously supported when it entailed trading off “entitlement cuts” for debt reduction in what came to be called the “Grand Bargain.”
“I’m hopeful that we will have both Democrats and Republicans, our colleagues in the House and here in the Senate, and the President-elect and his team working together in a way that moves us in a better direction,” Thune said.
Contrary to what the CBO and many economists say, Thune has attempted to make the case that cutting the ACA is a budget balancing measure.
Carper has long held “balancing” the federal budget as a superordinate goal that should unite Democrats and Republicans. He has also indicated that he will fight for the ACA, this will be the first test of Carper’s will to protect the ACA when budget “balancing” is the GOP’s stated goal.
Please tell me when Carper has waffled on ACA, please tell me. He may not be your style of Democrat, I get it. But you can’t start hitting the guy on something he hasn’t done and he’s demonstrated he will likely not do.
Thinking a little more about this. It may be that Mcconnell wants to jam it through on a 51 vote Republican majority in order to send it to the house. That way if it gets bogged down and fails, it will be the house that gets pilloried for the failure. Remember that everything is about electoral strategy for them, and nothing is about governing.
Bottom Line: The only way they get their half-baked catastrophes into law is with the help of two or three “moderate” Dem Senators, one of whom is named Tom Carper.
Your conclusion that Senator Carper’s belief in budget balancing could or would lead to his vote in support of repealing the Affordable Care Act is a leap.
Senator Carper is well aware that many thousands of Delawareans who were previously unable to afford health insurance now have it due to the exchanges and the government credits. He knows that many more thousands who were able to afford health insurance but were denied coverage due to “pre-existing conditions” now have coverage. He also has been informed that citizens of our state who had coverage and came down with conditions that cost a million dollars or more for lifetime treatment and were faced with insurance coverage limits, can now concentrate on wellness since the ACA removed such caps. The Senator has spoken to many people as he has traveled the State and learned of parents who were able to keep their children on their health insurance to age 26 because of this law. He has met women benefiting from the mandatory coverage offered for women’s health and the prohibition of discrimination against women on offering coverage and setting premiums. I do not believe any of Delaware’s federal delegation would support repeal of this flawed, but vital law.
HMM,
Carper has earned the nickname, “The Republican’s Favorite Democrat” I didn’t give it to him. Like everyone, I’m looking at who is the Dem most likely to vote with the GOP on this stuff, and Carper’s name rises to the top of the list.
Mitch, Carper is on record as being willing to sell out social safety net programs if the result is a “balanced budget” (what ever that means).
This is not a time to be naive.
Mitch, since you seem to be in touch with Carper’s thoughts, why can’t he say any of this for himself? Now would be the time.
Good point. If Carper, Mr. Bipartisanship Ubber Alles” came out forcefully it would change the texture of the discussion. That ain’t happening though.
Puck- I am not privy to the Senator’s thoughts, just aware of his knowledge. I also know that he spoke strongly in defense of the ACA while in conversation with a friend of mine at Return Day.
I’ve picked the wrong year to go self employed and have to buy my own insurance
Carper consistently talks, I mean, obsesses over balancing the budget, yet he consistently votes with the pharmaceutical companies to keep drug prices high. He opposes bargaining for the lowest possible prices, and he supports longer patent control on drugs, which also keeps drug prices artificially high.
He’s a phony who only considers how policy impacts his corporate backers, and never worries about how his votes impact ordinary people. Lower prices on drugs lowers the cost to government of providing medical care to those on Medicare and Medicaid.
Mitch, it’s not what he’s ‘aware of’, it’s what he does.
Why not ask him how he obsesses about balancing the budget while shilling for the highest drug prices possible, which ends up costing the government literally billions?
You’re on top of the game. Thanks for shgarni.