Earlier this year, Marco Rubio commented that we should dispel the myth that House Speaker Paul Ryan, “Knows what he’s doing,” regarding the ongoing impasse over Trump’s plan to replace Obamacare.
Now, after two failures to push Trump’s bill that is meant to replace the Affordable Care Act- the president’s support base is turning a critical eye on Paul Ryan and his traction-less performance. Ryan has now failed twice to secure enough republican votes to complete the installment of the bill which would relieve millions of Americans from paying monthly premiums that rival, and often exceed, the average cost of a mortgage on a home.
Veteran pundit and former Washington insider, Dick Morris has called Obamacare, ‘nothing more than an extension of the welfare system.’
The ACA grants, essentially low quality- but free, health care to persons who fall under a certain economic stratum. These, of course, are the poor including minorities and single mothers- AKA the basis upon which Democrats attempt to guilt the rest of the country into voting their way.
But those who receive free health care under the ACA are not just emotional leverage for people to vote left- they are the primary voting base for the Democratic Party. What’s more, the ACA is funded by force—much like the national treasury—by middle class and upper middle-class Americans who are legally obligated to either pay for their own health insurance outright or sign up for the ACA.
Another way of looking at it is Obamacare is a tax that forces those who are able to support themselves to pay for the medical expenses of those who cannot. It is, unambiguously, a system designed to force conservatives to give their resources to people who vote against their interests.
Republicans and conservatives are traditionally opposed to the idea of redistributing wealth. The conservative party is the party of personal freedom, property rights, and respect for the sovereignty of the individual.
In last year’s elections, the Republican Party effectively won back the entire country, taking the majority in every branch of government. It was an almost complete turnover of power from liberals to conservatives. Therefore, it should be a piece of cake for House Speaker Paul Ryan to convince Congressional Republicans to vote Trump’s replacement health care bill into action.
So the question remains, why is Ryan unable to get the job done?
Well, Senator Rubio floated one important possibility, the possibility that Ryan may not be competent to do his job. This is not an implausible idea. The job of the House Speaker is to wield influence, and it would appear that Ryan does not have a great deal of that. He has failed to secure the votes needed to replace a bill that conservatives should be unilaterally opposed to, not once but twice.
Now he is getting ready to make a third attempt and there is not a great deal of confidence in his ability to pull it off this time. It may be fair to give him one last shot, to see if the third time is, in fact, a charm. Given Donald Trump’s larger than life personality, he may be so disposed. Trump has expressed confidence in Ryan, but we also know that he has never shied away from trimming the fat when people are not pulling their weight.
Another possibility is that Paul Ryan is not there to do a good job. Ryan was an outspoken member of the GOP Never-Trumpers throughout much of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He only changed his tune after Trump was elected and started picking his cabinet members.
At the time, there was a conspicuous lack of commentary on this flip from other conservatives like John McCain who has also always been stridently opposed to the Trump presidency.
In an administration that has been so wildly successful in restoring American jobs, reviving the country’s manufacturing base, and defeating an entrenched Democratic party that would have almost certainly dragged the country into a nuclear conflict with Russia, it seems strange that the progress of the health care bill would remain such a sticky problem.
Certainly, it is understandable that the Democrats would use their seats and their influence to resist Trump on every front. But they are running a ghost ship, having lost the majority in every branch of the federal government.
If this were a road trip; Trump is in the driver seat, the GOP is riding shotgun, and the DNC is strapped into a child’s seat far in the back. So how does Ryan not have more influence than them? It is a very serious question.
~ American Liberty Report
