Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Now, this looks like a very good pick

Put this one in the getting-one-right column:

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) has been the tip of the Congressional spear in the battle against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for the past six years.
Today, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the agency that over-sees and administers Obamacare. (WaPo)
As HHS secretary, Price would be the incoming administration’s point person for dismantling the sprawling 2010 health-care law, which candidate Trump promised to start dismantling on his first day in the Oval Office. The 62-year-old lawmaker, who represents a wealthy suburban Atlanta district, has played a leading role in the Republican opposition to the law and has helped draft several comprehensive bills to replace it. The GOP-led House has voted five dozen times to eliminate all or part of the ACA but has never had a chance of accomplishing its goal as long as President Obama has been in the White House.
As many Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, wavered in their attitudes towards Trump during his campaign, Price was a devoted foot soldier. In May, he organized a joint statement by nine GOP House committee chairs, pledging loyalty to Trump and calling on “all Americans to support him.”
Price has been far from “all talk and no substance” when it comes to calling to repeal Obamacare. In fact, as Chairman of the Budget Committee Price has proposed various “Repeal and Replace” bills that have stalled with President Obama’s veto pen looming at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
In fact, as recently as May 2015 Price put for the “Empowering Patients First Act” which would have provided more free-market solutions to the skyrocketing costs of health insurance, and health care.
“Under Obamacare, the American people are paying more for health care and getting less – less access, less quality, and fewer choices. The status quo and its defenders are empowering Washington and harming patients and doctors. With real, patient-centered reforms we can build a more innovative and responsive health care system – one that empowers patients and ensures they and their doctor have the freedom to make health care decisions without bureaucratic interference or influence.
“The Empowering Patients First Act puts patients, families and doctors in charge by focusing on the principles of affordability, accessibility, quality, innovation, choices and responsiveness. Those principles form the foundation of the solutions in H.R. 2300 – solutions including individual health pools and expanded health savings accounts, tax credits for the purchase of coverage and lawsuit abuse reforms to reduce the costly practice of defensive medicine. The solutions in the Empowering Patients First Act will get Washington out of the way while protecting and strengthening the doctor-patient relationship.”

I think movement on the health-care front is going to be immediate and exciting next year.


4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Immediate & exciting! An 8 syllable phrase for shock & awe? I hope your ilk garners more Dem votes than Dems did Pub votes for ObamaCare, because, in hindsight, ramming a largely unread and misunderstood "tax" up the American people's posterior (all the people, including the great mass of the non-voting who actually won the Election of 2016 which had the lowest voter participation since Clinton beat Dole and we were all introduced to that giant sucking sound by that rich dude from Texarkana), was, in retrospect, the beginning of the end for the Dems this cycle. Yes indeedie, it feels so good to get giddy about this alleged mandate for power, so shocking and awesome they can even likely fiddle with the Constitution to get 'er back to where she once belonged a couple centuries ago, But 2 short years of a mandate could turn into a blind date with Dems regaining control of the legislature. It's happened before. Welcome to the show, the show that never ends, unless it's a Donald Trump marriage.....

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  3. I'm only "giddy" about a "mandate for power" to the extent that it serves conservative interests. I have to say that I am surprised at how that's coming along on fronts like the health care that is the subject of this post, as well as education (DeVoss) and the environment (Myron Ebell).

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  4. We'll see, because this is still a government of laws, not tweets.

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