On July 17, 2017, Utah Sen. Mike Lee announced that he would block Senate Republicans’ effort to replace Obamacare, because their bill didn’t repeal enough of Obamacare’s regulations. But in December of 2015, Lee insisted that his colleagues bring a bill to the floor that preserved all of Obamacare’s regulations. Are you confused? So is Mike Lee.
UPDATE 1: On Monday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell published a statement indicating that the first amendment he would offer to the BCRA, if it were brought up for a vote, is H.R. 3762, the bill that repeals Obamacare’s taxes and subsidies without repealing its regulations. In response, on Tuesday, an aide to Mike Lee told Politicothat he would switch his vote to a motion to proceed.
So, if you’ve been following along: an amendment that would fail to repeal *any* of Obamacare’s regulations has now convinced Lee to vote yes to proceeding, even though his stated reason for opposing the BCRA is that it doesn’t repeal enough of Obamacare’s regulations.
UPDATE 2: Changes to Medicare can take place via reconciliation if they are consistent with Senate budget reconciliation instructions; indeed, an amendment to Obamacare using reconciliation closed Medicare Part D’s “donut hole.” This article has been revised accordingly.
UPDATE 3: The Lee camp is claiming that Sen. Lee supported H.R. 3762 insincerely as a “strategy” to pocket the defunding bill and advocate for further repeal, and that this is why he opposes the BRCA. But that makes little sense, as he could have adopted the same strategy with the BRCA, of pocketing its policy victories and advocating for further repeal. He chose not to, because by definition he believes that preserving all of Obamacare is a superior outcome to the BRCA.
ht/ c. steven tucker
It’s so difficult voting your Principles when your Donors keep changing their instructions.
Lee has been scared into quasi-liberal compliance by John Huntsman Sr.
http://dailyeb.com/index.php/2017/05/10/student-refuses-to-remove-cap-unless-muslim-women-remove-their-headscarves/
https://conservativepost.com/suicide-with-clinton-ties-remains-uninvestigated-mother-of-victim-speaks-out-video/
And mean while the economy sits back and waits on these idiots. It looks to me like the so called “Clean Repeal” is a dead loser. It has a two year sunset clause, and during that time tax payer and corporations pay for the unfunded liability. So those insurance companies Rand Paul keeps harping about will make out fine. Mean while, everyone else gets screwed.
Wasn’t Lee a Never Trumper? That knocked my opinion of him down quite a bit.
The 2018 election should be very interesting.
Being slippery is a must for pols.
I hate the thought because I know that there will be a world of problems but it’s possible the only tactic that will get anything done is to walk away from the table and let obamacare fail. If we can avoid single payer rising out the ashes, and somehow get to a free market………and unicorns…….and a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Even Trump now says Washington is worse than anyone knows.
The obvious conclusion is they don’t want to repeal ObamaCare. They sent up a repeal bill repeatedly for 7 years to Obama and now when they can get it done they do everything possible to ensure it doesn’t get done. Trump should be doing weekly rallys to keep up the pressure and get this done. They think they are screwing Trump but they are really losing all credibility and usefulness.
Congress has become an unreliable piece of fecal material. It is one gigantic Daisy Chain.
When “principles” = Right Wing VIRTUE SIGNALING
(you look good proposing something which has NO CHANCE of passing)
That’s the GOPe!
That’s Cruz and Lee (among others…*sigh*).
TRUST ME: I didn’t *want* it this way; THEY chose their own path.
What the hell do they care, anyway?! They’ve got theirs and they get vacations and Cadillac healthcare, subsidized per diem on EVERYTHING, free transportation, offices paid for, kickbacks, junkets, trinkets, so much fat off the sweat of the serfs’ labor they don’t even know where to spend it all!! How did Ryan make so much money on his public employee’s salary, huh? Huh??! Susan Rice has a $50MM bank account — same story; her only employment has been the gov’t. Where did it all come from?
These jackals exempt themselves from the crap dog food they serve up to us every day. They don’t care, they don’t have to! Assholes!
End the congressional exemption for obamacare and it will be fixed before Labor Day. Let’s get on this President Trump, make an issue out of this and it will take care of itself.
Come on AbigailAdams, give the Oligarchy a break. We need to vote ALL these bastards out.
P.S. to further your point on this money issue, now we know why they spend a bazzillion dollars to get elected to a job that pays 150K a year. Boy are we stupid.
Bad_Brad (Hey, what’s with the formality?)
Trump is right now rolling out the New & Improved Republican Party. Looks like it’s time to pluck the last crab puff off the plate and say, “I’ll be taking that.”
Obamacare is an entitlement.
There’s nothing in the House or Senate Rules on how to remove an entitlement.
That’s why all the entitlements continue forever.
AbigailAdams
I spotted Mike Lees fake conservative UNI PARTY ways some time ago. I brought it up 2 weeks ago and was called out by several robots. I notice none of them are posting on this thread.
Mike Lee was fearless in his support of the Never Trump hashtag group.