Former pharmaceutical executive Alex Azar was confirmed as the Secretary of the Health And Human Services by the Senate on Wednesday. His confirmation vote was 55-43, split mostly along party lines. 
Azar plans to focus the HHS Department on tackling Obamacare as it crumbles under financial strain, according to a Washington Free Beacon <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/senate-confirms-alex-azar-new-secretary-health-human-services/">report</a>. 
Azar told the Senate, &#8220;The Affordable Care Act has failed millions of Americans who have lost the plans they liked and the doctors they liked.&#8221;
Democrats criticized his stance on Obamacare, with Virginia Senator Tim Kaine claiming that he wants to &#8220;sabotage&#8221; the Affordable Care Act.
&#8220;The Trump administration&#8217;s determination to destroy the Affordable Care Act through executive action has destabilized our health care system and threatened coverage for millions,&#8221; the former vice presidential candidate crooned. 
Azar defended his position. &#8220;What I do not support is forcing 6.7 million Americans to pay $3 billion of penalties to not buy something they don&#8217;t want to buy through a mandate upon them, 90 percent of whom make $75,000 a year or less.&#8221;
Azar also touted his experience in the pharmaceutical industry, saying that he can help create policy that would lower prices of prescriptions. 
He told the Senate, &#8220;Through my experience helping to implement Part D and with my extensive knowledge of how insurance, manufacturers, pharmacy and government programs work together, I believe I can bring skills and experiences to the table that can help address these issues.&#8221;
Utah GOP Senator Orrin Hatch praised Azar&#8217;s nomination. &#8220;You&#8217;re one of the best public servants that I&#8217;ve seen in the whole time that I&#8217;ve been here.&#8221; 
Alex Azar previously served as United States Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services during the George W. Bush administration. 
Previous HUD Director Tom Price resigned in September 2017 after being criticized for using public and private transportation during his tenure.

New Anti-Obamacare Health And Human Services Secretary Confirmed

Conservatism

Democratic Party

Donald Trump

Health

Health Care

Obamacare

Republican Party

Tim Kaine

Tom Price

Trump Administration

Special counsel Robert Mueller has had a rough week as his credibility has taken a substantial hit after a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/24301/breaking-key-fbi-agent-involved-russia-ben-shapiro">report</a> revealed that an anti-Trump FBI agent was highly involved in key aspects of investigations into President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Now more questions are emerging concerning Mueller&#8217;s record, including his past use of government resources for personal travel when he was FBI director and his use of costly government resources for work-related travel that marked a significant departure from his predecessors.
Mueller&#8217;s past use of government resources for travel is relevant considering that Trump&#8217;s Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign after an investigation by <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/21/tom-price-private-charter-plane-flights-242989">Politico</a> revealed that Price took at least 24 flights on private charter planes at the expense of taxpayers to the tune of over $300,000 for work-related flights.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061102321.html">The Washington Post</a> reported in 2007 that the FBI asked Congress for $3.6 million &#8220;in the war spending bill&#8221; to ensure that its $40 million Gulfstream V jet could continue to fly critical counterterrorism missions into Iraq:
<blockquote>
But the jet that the FBI originally sold to lawmakers in the late 1990s as an essential tool for battling terrorism is now routinely used to ferry FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to speeches, public appearances and field office visits.
In fact, Mueller&#8217;s travel now accounts for nearly a quarter of the flight time for the lone FBI jet able to make international flights.
FBI officials acknowledged to The Washington Post that Mueller&#8217;s use of the Gulfstream is a marked departure from the travel practices of his predecessors, such as Louis J. Freeh, who flew commercially or used a smaller Cessna Citation jet.
</blockquote>
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) slammed Mueller for misusing government resources and asked for an explanation from the FBI, but never received a response.
&#8220;Using this FBI jet to get to speaking engagements when the plane is intended to help fight terrorism is a good way to lose congressional approval of a necessary resource,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If the FBI wanted a jet to fly the director around, then it shouldn&#8217;t try to justify the plane as a weapon in the war on terror.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/27/fbi-jets-for-war-on-terror-used-for-top-officials-/">The Washington Times</a> reported in 2013 that an investigation by the Government Accountability Office revealed Mueller used the FBI&#8217;s Gulfstream V jet for personal travel:
<blockquote>
The bureau&#8217;s state-the-art, sleek Gulfstream V jets logged 60 percent of their hours between 2007 and 2011 on &#8220;non-mission flights&#8221; that cost taxpayers $11.4 million, <a href="https://www.washingtonguardian.com/sites/default/files/fbi_jet_02-27-13_gao_report_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to an investigation</a> by the Government Accountability Office obtained by the Washington Guardian.
The travel included 88 personal trips for Holder and former Republican Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who stepped down in 2009, and 10 for Mueller, the review found. Taxpayers were reimbursed only pennies on the dollar for those personal trips under the current rules, the audit found.
</blockquote>
Mueller was added to a list of officials that were required to fly on government planes full-time &#8212; including for personal travel &#8212; but did so using the most expensive option possible:
<blockquote>
The FBI, however, had a smaller Citation jet that was used for years to transport former FBI Director Louis Freeh on business trips, as well as a Haviland Dash 8 turboprop that other officials have used. Those are much cheaper to operate. But since 2007, those smaller aircraft were used only about a third of the time for Mueller, Holder and Mukasey, as the bureau opted for the larger, more luxurious Gulfstream counterterrorism jets for executive travel, the GAO found.
A key senator said Wednesday the diversion of the counterterrorism jets for everyday travel, especially personal trips, runs contrary to the purpose that Congress approved the aircraft and costs taxpayers needlessly when cheaper options are available.
</blockquote>
The GAO found that the FBI&#8217;s Gulfstream V jet was only used approximately 40% of the time for its original intended purpose &#8212; counterterrorism missions &#8212; and during Mueller&#8217;s tenure as FBI director, the agency scrapped the economically efficient Citation jet in favor of the costlier and more luxurious Gulfstream V jet.
Grassley, who was then on the Senate Finance Committee, again called Mueller&#8217;s FBI out for the way that government resources were being wasted at the expense of taxpayers.
&#8220;They don&#8217;t have to travel in the Gulfstream if they&#8217;ve got Citations, particularly if it&#8217;s for personal use,&#8221; Grassley said &#8220;When you&#8217;re going to some private event or personal event, that&#8217;s unrelated to your government service, and you&#8217;re using these planes, you ought to take the cheapest method of travel you can.&#8221;
The Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2286109/Attorney-General-FBI-chief-spend-11MILLION-flying-luxury-jets-bought-counter-terrorism-missions-2007-2011.html">noted</a> that the GAO&#8217;s report indicated that the flights on the Gulfstream V jet &#8212; which cost $1,300 more per hour to operate than the Citation jet &#8212; cost taxpayers an average of $16,285 per flight. Based on that average, Mueller&#8217;s ten flights for personal travel cost taxpayers approximately $162,850 &#8212; of which Mueller only <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/27/fbi-jets-for-war-on-terror-used-for-top-officials-/">reimbursed</a> taxpayers $4,556 or 2.79%.
Mueller&#8217;s irresponsible spending is a relevant point to consider given the fact that he has <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/5/muellers-russia-probe-cost-32m-first-four-months/">spent</a> nearly $7 million in taxpayer funds during the first four months of his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election &#8212; an investigation that has yielded no results in terms of any collusion-related crimes committed by the campaign, during the campaign.
The Times report on Mueller&#8217;s personal travel using the FBI&#8217;s Gulfstream V jet also mentioned another costly and wasteful use of the taxpayer&#8217;s money:
<blockquote>
The FBI jets are kept at a secret location outside Washington and must be flown each time to Reagan National Airport to pick up Mueller and Holder. The cost of those brief transitional flights was $1.5 million between 2007 and 2011 &#8212; roughly 10 percent of the total cost of all their flights.
</blockquote>
Grassley again slammed the former FBI director for the FBI&#8217;s reckless spending of taxpayer money for these &#8220;positioning flights&#8221; that the agency claims were needed.
&#8220;[This] show[s] the whole ridiculousness and the waste of money in this particular case,&#8221; Grassley said. &#8220;So you keep these planes hidden, someplace close to Washington, D.C., I assume. You fly them from there to Reagan to pickup the people who are going to fly, when car travel would save these millions of dollars that&#8217;s wasted.&#8221;

FLASHBACK: Robert Mueller Used Counter-Terrorism Jet For Personal Travel, Wasted Taxpayer Money

Robert Mueller

Late on Friday, just hours after President Trump hinted that he&#8217;d have a decision regarding Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, Price resigned his position. The resignation came after the Senate&#8217;s latest failure to pass health care reform, as well as Price&#8217;s ensnarement in a personal scandal in which he utilized government jets for private travel, costing $1,000,000 to taxpayers. Price is the second Trump cabinet member caught attempting to use government airplanes for private travel &#8212; earlier this year, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was denied permission to use government jets for his honey in France, Italy, and Scotland.
But Price flew too close to the sun.
Price had been in the doghouse for weeks. He had Congressional supporters, but the administration felt humiliated, and Trump was reportedly &#8220;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/28/politics/congress-reaction-tom-price-flights/index.html">mad as hell</a>.&#8221; President Trump can abide a wide variety of sins, but he can&#8217;t abide looking foolish &#8212; and he shouldn&#8217;t have. Price had to go; even Price&#8217;s statement that he would repay the cost for his seat but not the flights themselves appeared to shortchange taxpayers. The next man in the crosshairs: EPA chair Scott Pruitt, who has apparently used government air travel to the tune of $58,000.
The White House stated, &#8220;Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his resignation earlier today and the President accepted.&#8221;

THE PRICE IS WRONG: Price Pays Price For Government-Funded Travel, Resigns As Health Secretary

In a wild, rambling, frequently political, and often funny speech, President Donald Trump addressed a massive crowd of some 40,000 Boy Scouts on Wednesday and quickly turned the event into something resembling one of his raucous and unpredictable campaign rallies &#8212; complete with chants of &#8220;WE LOVE TRUMP!&#8221; along with cheers, laughs, and applause, but also some boos, jeers, and outrage from critics. 
Among the topics Trump felt free to drop one-liners on during the 35-minute speech: his historic upset of Hillary Clinton&#8217;s terrible campaign, President Obama failing to show up in person for the Scouts, and the Washington &#8220;sewer.&#8221; In one funny/uncomfortable moment, Trump jokingly(?) threatened to fire his own Health and Human Services director if he couldn&#8217;t get Obamacare repealed. It was, well, the kind of appearance only Trump could pull off. And, of course, his critics were &#8220;horrified&#8221; over the &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; appearance of the &#8220;lunatic.&#8221;
Ahead of the event, organizers provided some <a href="http://www.summitbsa.org/details-presidential-visit-monday">instructions</a> to Scouts about how to make it a success, including &#8220;ensuring that any reactions to the president&#8217;s address are, as we state in our Scout Law, friendly, courteous, and kind&#8221; and avoiding &#8220;chants of certain phrases heard during the campaign (e.g. &#8216;build the wall,&#8217; &#8216;lock her up&#8217;).&#8221; Though &#8220;Lock her up!&#8221; and &#8220;Build the wall!&#8221; didn&#8217;t come up, the Trump standard &#8220;USA! USA!&#8221; and &#8220;WE LOVE TRUMP!&#8221; certainly did. As for the&#8221;friendly, courteous and kind,&#8221; well, those rules apply to Scouts, not POTUS, who, clearly enjoying himself throughout, let it fly.
A few highlights from Trump&#8217;s speech at the Jamboree, followed by a few reactions from the public (video of speech below, partial transcript via <a href="http://time.com/4872118/trump-boy-scout-jamboree-speech-transcript/">Time</a>). 
On the crowd size: 
&#8220;Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it&#8217;s about 200 people,&#8221; he said amid laughter. &#8220;It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today.&#8221;
&#8220;Fake media, fake media,&#8221; he said amid a mixed response.
&#8220;By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible, massive crowd, record-setting is going to be shown on television tonight? One percent or zero?&#8221; he added later. 
In case you missed it, Trump and the &#8220;fake media&#8221; duked it out over his inauguration on the size of the crowd. In this instance, according to the Charleston Gazette, Trump had it about right: roughly 40,000 people were there. 
One the Washington swamp/cesspool/sewer: 
&#8220;The Scouts believe in putting America first,&#8221; said Trump to hearty applause. &#8220;You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp, and it&#8217;s not a good place. In fact, today, I said we ought to change it from the word &#8220;swamp&#8221; to the word &#8220;cesspool&#8221; or perhaps to the word &#8216;sewer.'&#8221;
On Obama not showing up in person:
&#8220;By the way, just a question, did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?&#8221; Trump asked amid a mixture of responses, but many shouting &#8220;No!&#8221;
Obama, a former Boy Scout, appeared via video feed in 2010, not in person. 
On HHS Director Price getting senators to vote for the Obamacare repeal bill:
After Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a former Boy Scout, was introduced, Trump joked he&#8217;d better get senators to vote for the repeal and replacement bill or else he&#8217;d get &#8220;fired.&#8221; 
&#8220;Secretary Tom Price is also here today.,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;Dr. Price still lives the Scout oath, helping to keep millions of Americans strong and healthy as our secretary of Health and Human Services. And he&#8217;s doing a great job. And hopefully he&#8217;s going to gets the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare that&#8217;s really hurting us.&#8221;
The statement was followed by widespread applause and chants of &#8220;USA! USA!&#8221;
He continued, directing his comments to Price: &#8220;By the way, are you going to get the votes? He better get them. He better get them. Oh, he better. Otherwise I&#8217;ll say, &#8216;Tom, you&#8217;re fired.&#8217; I&#8217;ll get somebody. (applause) He better get Senator Capito to vote for it. He better get the other senators to vote for it. It&#8217;s time. You know, after seven years of saying repeal and replace Obamacare we have a chance to now do it. They better do it. Hopefully they&#8217;ll do it.&#8221;
On the lack of &#8220;loyalty&#8221; in Washington:
&#8220;As the Scout Law says: &#8216;A Scout is trustworthy, loyal&#8217; &#8212; we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that,&#8221; he said, referencing a theme he&#8217;s stressed often in his presidency.
On vanquishing Hillary: 
&#8220;But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn&#8217;t know what to say?&#8221; said Trump. 
&#8220;So I have to tell you what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;WE LOVE TRUMP!&#8221;
But of all of the moments that angered the Left the most, here was assuredly the worst: the crowd chanting &#8220;WE LOVE TRUMP! WE LOVE TRUMP!&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LSele0D2m5g" width="560"></iframe></div>
The reactions have been about what you&#8217;d expect: Trump critics are livid and Trump fans find the whole thing hysterical. A few responses highlighted by the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40715185">BBC</a>: 
<blockquote>
Jude Nevans Cleaver wrote: &#8220;I am the proud mother of a former scout who was sheltered from that pack of lies speech at the Jamboree. Done with scouts after you felt the need to have my kid listen to a liar stroke his ego on our time.&#8221;
Debbie S. Milligan said: &#8220;Wow, this is what you are teaching the Boy Scouts? To be disrespectful to a Past President. One that had been a Boy Scout, unlike the current President. Completely disrespectful!&#8221; 
&#8230;
Lobbyist for women&#8217;s and LGBT rights Amy Siskind tweeted: &#8220;If the Boy Scouts organization has any decency, they&#8217;ll come out with a statement tonight denouncing Trump, and giving instructions for all troop leaders to speak to these boys about what they just heard and why it was wrong.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Other critics condemned the Boy Scouts for having &#8220;violated your own policy&#8221; and said they should be ashamed of having invited &#8220;an unpredictable, ranting lunatic&#8221; to speak to the boys. 
&#8220;My son didn&#8217;t join the Scouts to be used as POTUS&#8217;s political prop!&#8221; wrote one parent. Another said they were &#8220;appalled&#8221; by Trump&#8217;s appearance, while one described the whole thing as &#8220;horrifying.&#8221; 
Trump fans cheered the chance for the president to be able to address the kids and help influence &#8220;future leaders.&#8221; 
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0"></iframe></div>
Partial transcript <a href="http://time.com/4872118/trump-boy-scout-jamboree-speech-transcript/">Time</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40715185">BBC</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/donald-trump-boy-scouts-speech/index.html">CNN</a>.

Trump Critics ‘HORRIFIED’ Over Trump’s Wild Speech To The Boy Scouts

Barack Obama

Boy Scouts

Fake News

Hillary Clinton

Media

Media Bias

The vote on the latest version of Trumpcare has been <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/15/politics/john-mccain-blood-clot/index.html">delayed</a> as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is recovering from surgery. The Congressional Budget Office&#8217;s (CBO) analysis has reportedly been <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-cbo-score-gop-health-care-bill-delay-20170716-story.html">delayed</a> as well. But if/when a vote is finally held for the bill, will Trumpcare be able to pass?
Here are seven things you need to know about the latest version of Trumpcare.
1. It features a watered down version of Sen. Ted Cruz&#8217;s (R-TX) amendment. The amendment, the &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18543/senate-conservatives-should-view-ted-cruzs-josh-hammer">Consumer Freedom Amendment</a>,&#8221; would allow insurers to offer plans that don&#8217;t meet Obamacare&#8217;s regulations so long as they offer at least one that does. However, the amendment was predicated on the notion that there would be two separate risk pools: one for sicker Americans and one for healthier ones. The version of the amendment in this iteration of Trumpcare keeps all plans confined in one risk pool, a move that would not result in lower health care costs. As <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/no-freedom-option-revised-senate-health-care-bill">Michael Cannon explains</a>, the result of the amendment would be insurers undercharging or overcharging for plans, ultimately making it easier to just offer plans that comply with Obamacare.
Further complicating the matter is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as American Commitment President Phil Kerpen <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-tweak-that-could-cost-mike-lees-vote-and-sink-the-healthcare-bill/article/2628755">explains</a>: 
<blockquote>&#8220;People can&#8217;t make sense of it because it is indeterminate until HHS makes the definition,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It really, I think, leaves the whole viability of the noncompliant plan entirely up to the ability of HHS to conduct this rulemaking in a way that is legally defensible and would create room for them to move independently.&#8221;
HHS, he said, could continue to have an index rate on the entire pool but allow adjustments in cost based on health status.
&#8220;If they want to be more aggressive, they could say single risk pool refers to an accounting actuarial unification across these two different markets,&#8221; he said, meaning that the rule could allow for market segmentation even if the single risk pool requirement isn&#8217;t repealed.
The downside for advocates of the proposal, Kerpen said, is that the rule could be redefined under a Democratic administration, putting the noncompliant plans out of business.
</blockquote>
2. It <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/14/news/economy/obamacare-repeal-senate-health-care-bill/index.html">trims around the edges of Obamacare</a>. Trumpcare would rescind the employer and individual mandates as well as the taxes on medical devices and insurers, and allow insurers to charge seniors higher premiums. There are problems with these changes when leaving most of Obamacare in place, as The Daily Wire has previously explained <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/14226/9-biggest-problems-trumpcare-aaron-bandler">here</a>.
The bill also throws a couple of scraps to conservatives by defunding Planned Parenthood for a year and allowing more contributions into Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
3. It expands the size of the federal government. Here are the important big government aspects of the bill, as outlined by <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/obamacare-40-swampcare-fixes-zero-will-lead-to-single-payer">Daniel Horowitz</a>:
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Keeps tax increases to pay for the entitlement: The revised bill maintains the two largest Obamacare tax increases: the increased Medicare payroll tax and the 3.8 percent surcharge on investment income. That <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/republicans-help-promote-obamacare-but-hey-tax-cuts">was the only aspect of Obamacare that Republicans universally opposed until now</a>.</li>
<li>Endless bailouts: In addition, it adds another $70 billion to the existing $112 billion bailout fund for insurers to further inflate the price of insurance and self-perpetuates the need for endless bailouts, which will lead to single-payer.</li>
<li>More Medicaid spending: The revised bill also throws more money at Medicaid than the previous version (not that any of the baseline rate reductions were going to take place anyway). As I <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/enough-about-medicaid-what-about-the-rest-of-us">explained before</a>, once you fail to heal the private market, we will all be forced onto Medicaid and there will be no way to reduce the program. Mitch McConnell <a href="https://twitter.com/pw_cunningham/status/885503480282046466">reportedly admitted</a> that our allegation was correct when he allegedly told a group of liberal Republicans not to worry about the Medicaid cuts because they would never go into effect.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
In other words, the Senate is mostly keeping Obamacare in place while allowing the federal government to expand through more federal tax dollars for Medicaid and insurance bailouts. The GOP leadership is doing so while trying to shield themselves from the Left&#8217;s class warfare rhetoric.
4. The bill features <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18601/latest-senate-trumpcare-bill-features-these-aaron-bandler">numerous backroom deals</a> that are reminiscent of Obamacare. They mostly involve higher Medicaid payments to Alaska and Louisiana, presumably aimed at buying off Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who are moderate-to-liberal Republicans.
5. Passing this bill would be political suicide for Republicans. Trumpcare is essentially a Republican version of Obamacare, which means the Republicans will be held responsible for the death spiral set in motion by Obamacare that will continue under Trumpcare. As <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447899/democrats-2018-election-prospects-trump-bashing-helps-them?utm_source=social&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=shapiro&amp;utm_content=trump-bashing">Ben Shapiro has explained</a>, the Democrats can win in 2018 by simply unifying in reactionary opposition against President Trump and the Republicans, and attaching them to a piece of unpopular legislation. Passing Trumpcare would give them that opportunity.
6. The bill is in a precarious position in the Senate. Two Republican senators &#8212; Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) &#8212; have indicated that they will vote against the bill. <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-tweak-that-could-cost-mike-lees-vote-and-sink-the-healthcare-bill/article/2628755">Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is undecided on the bill</a> because of the watering down of the amendment he co-authored with Cruz. Should Lee decide to vote against the bill, Trumpcare would fail in the Senate. There are <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/14/news/economy/obamacare-repeal-senate-health-care-bill/index.html">reportedly</a> as many as ten Republican senators who are wary of the bill. 
The bill might not even come up for a vote because, according to <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2017/07/17/commentary-its-unacceptable-for-any-senate-republican-to-block-healthcare-debate-amendments-and-vote-n2355137">Guy Benson</a>, &#8220;a handful of GOP members are threatening to join with Democrats to reject a &#8216;motion to proceed.'&#8221;
&#8220;This obstructionist tactic would effectively kill the legislation prior to a floor debate, an unlimited amendment process (as required for budget reconciliation bills), and a final vote,&#8221; writes Benson.
7. Trumpcare is reflective of the GOP buying into the Democrats&#8217; premise of the health care debate. Shapiro <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18648/trumps-health-and-human-services-secretary-just-ben-shapiro">took HHS Secretary Tom Price to task</a> for stating that Trumpcare would result in more people having coverage:
<blockquote>
And herein lies the problem for the Republicans: they&#8217;ve accepted the Democratic metric on health care success. They now believe that the mark of a good piece of legislation is the increase in number of insured, rather than increase in personal freedom in choosing insurance options. That means they are bound to restrict insurance choice, since it is far easier to achieve &#8220;full coverage&#8221; through regulation and subsidies than it is through allowing people to choose whether to be covered, particularly young and healthy people.
</blockquote>
By giving into the Democrats&#8217; premise, the Republicans are going to be sacrificing affordability and/or quality for universality, which means that we may never return to a true free market health care system.
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

7 Things You Need To Know About The Latest Trumpcare Bill

John McCain

Mike Lee

Mitch McConnell

Rand Paul

Ted Cruz

The Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-charges-against-over-412-individuals-responsible">announced</a> that it would charge 412 individuals with health care fraud. Those 412 individuals, including 56 doctors, are being held liable for $1.3 billion in false billings. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the following remarks at the press conference:
<blockquote>
Too many trusted medical professionals like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients. Amazingly, some have made their practices into multimillion dollar criminal enterprises. They seem oblivious to the disastrous consequences of their greed. Their actions not only enrich themselves often at the expense of taxpayers but also feed addictions and cause addictions to start. The consequences are real: emergency rooms, jail cells, futures lost, and graveyards. While today is a historic day, the Department&#8217;s work is not finished. In fact, it is just beginning. We will continue to find, arrest, prosecute, convict, and incarcerate fraudsters and drug dealers wherever they are.
</blockquote>
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/leadership/secretary/speeches/2017-speeches/2017-national-health-care-fraud-takedown-press-conference.html?press">joined</a> Attorney General Sessions at the press conference, making the following remarks:
<blockquote>
Healthcare fraud is a crime that deserves special condemnation and requires special cooperation to combat. Not only does it involve stealing billions of taxpayer dollars from America&#8217;s seniors and medically needy, but it also undermines the American people&#8217;s trust in their healthcare system and our nation&#8217;s most important public institutions.
As a physician, and as secretary of HHS, I can tell you that this distrust is misplaced.
America has the best doctors and healthcare providers in the world. But their ability to provide affordable, high-quality care to their patients is jeopardized every time a criminal commits healthcare fraud.
So it&#8217;s important to recognize that the individuals targeted with our takedown operations are in the business not of caring for patients, but of manipulating and exploiting them.
</blockquote>
According to the Department of Justice, 41 federal districts are involved in this major crackdown on health care fraud.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
National <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HealthCareFraud?src=hash">#HealthCareFraud</a> Takedown Results in Charges Against &gt;412 Individuals Responsible for $1.3B in Fraud Losses <a href="https://t.co/7eWXA2zNF7">https://t.co/7eWXA2zNF7</a> <a href="https://t.co/xsNPrCZNyQ">pic.twitter.com/xsNPrCZNyQ</a>
&#8212; Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/885500982699995137">July 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
Watch the full press conference below:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
WATCH: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Periscope?src=hash">#Periscope</a>: AG Jeff Sessions and HHS Secretary Tom Price announce plan to cut down on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/healthcare?src=hash">#healthcare</a> fraud. <a href="https://t.co/WPt0TU0KAb">https://t.co/WPt0TU0KAb</a>
&#8212; PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/885494200917250048">July 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElliottRHams/">Facebook</a>.

DOJ Levies Massive Health Care Fraud Crackdown

Department of Justice

Jeff Sessions

Democrats and their news media allies are pushing a Marxist class warfare narrative toward Republican proposals to reform federal health care and insurance regulations; framing GOP efforts as the rich exploiting the poor.

<a href="https://www.budget.senate.gov/bettercare">H.R. 1628</a>, the proposed Senate Republican &#8220;health care bill,&#8221; is being described by Democrats and assorted leftists as &#8220;mean-spirited,&#8221; with the usual suspects alleging the proposal as somehow reducing state-driven redistribution of wealth.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pushed the neo-Marxist &#8220;one percenter&#8221; narrative &#8212; popularized by the Democrat-funded Occupy Wall Street movement &#8212; on NBC&#8217;s <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-june-25-2017-n776471">Meet The Press</a>:

<blockquote>
&#8220;They&#8217;re seeing almost all new income and wealth going to the top 1 percent. &#8230;

This is a large tax cut for the wealthy. &#8230;

They are going to provide some $500 billion in tax breaks to the top 2%, to the insurance companies, and to the drug companies. Is what America supposed to be about, taking away health insurance from kids with disabilities, from people with cancer, in order to give tax breaks to billionaires?&#8221;
</blockquote>
Barack Obama described H.R. 1628 as a &#8220;massive transfer of wealth&#8221; to the nation&#8217;s &#8220;richest people&#8221;; making his case on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10154996557026749">Facebook</a> (emphasis added):

<blockquote>
The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill. It&#8217;s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.
</blockquote>
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) derided H.R. 1628 as rich predation on the &#8220;middle class&#8221; and poorer Americans; pushing his narrative with a compliant George Stephanopoulos on ABC&#8217;s <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-25-17-kellyanne-conway-sen-chuck/story?id=48254926">This Week</a> (emphases added):

<blockquote>
But the bill is just devastating. And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s making it so hard for them to pass it. Here&#8217;s what it does. It kills the middle class and gives money to the wealthy. And let&#8217;s not forget one thing, George. The hard, hard right, these thousand very wealthy people have such dominance in the Republican Party, they have had two goals for decades.
One, reduce taxes on the rich. People who make over $1 million get an average of a $57,000 tax cut. Two, destroy the social safety for the middle class of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This is the first step where they&#8217;re doing that in the Senate bill.
So that&#8217;s why there is such pressure on these Republicans, this narrow group of wealthy people with power. But the American people are crying out and saying no.
</blockquote>
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) framed H.R. 1628 as a theft of wealth by &#8220;billionaires&#8221; and &#8220;giant corporations&#8221;:

<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
But <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> is right: The GOP healthcare bill IS mean. Cutting healthcare for 23M people to give billionaires a tax break is mean.
&#8212; Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/877262177794699264">June 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Giant corporations are squealing for tax cuts &#8211; but they&#8217;re not saying a word about the millions of people about to lose their health care.
&#8212; Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/875702415504416769">June 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Speaking on the Senate floor about how 13 men are trading away women&#8217;s healthcare for tax cuts for the rich. Watch: <a href="https://t.co/jc1R7Es8hG">https://t.co/jc1R7Es8hG</a>
&#8212; Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/877628500508893184">June 21, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) derided H.R. 1628 as a boon for America&#8217;s &#8220;wealthiest people&#8221; and &#8220;pharmaceutical companies,&#8221; making his case on <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/06/25/sec-tom-price-breaks-down-senate-health-care-bill.html">Fox News Sunday</a>:

<blockquote>
What&#8217;s driving [H.R. 1628] is not health care reform, what&#8217;s driving this is a tax cut. A tax cut the Republicans insist on of about $700 billion for the wealthiest people in America and pharmaceutical companies. That is what the Republicans had to put in the plan to make it work for Republicans, and then they took the money out of health care, out of Medicaid, and that&#8217;s why we see 23 million Americans losing their health insurance. So, those at the highest income categories can get a tax break.
</blockquote>

CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash &#8212; filling in for Jake Tapper as host of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1706/25/sotu.01.html">State of the Union</a> &#8212; hyped reduced taxes for the &#8220;wealthiest Americans&#8221; as inherently problematic, asking Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price about H.R. 1628&#8217;s possible impact on his federal income tax payments:
<blockquote>
It would slash taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Looking at the bill that came out of the House, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said that your plan would reduce his tax bill by $680,000. &#8230;
So, what&#8217;s the answer? How much would you save under the House and Senate bills?&#8221;
</blockquote>
ABC&#8217;s George Stephanopoulos hyped class warfare during his introductory monologue on <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-25-17-kellyanne-conway-sen-chuck/story?id=48254926">This Week</a> (emphasis added):
<blockquote>
We know [H.R. 1628] follows the basic outline of the legislation passed by the House in May: repeal of the Obamacare taxes, those benefits flow largely to the wealthiest Americans, paid for by massive cuts, more than $800 billion, in the Medicaid public insurance program, which covers 1 in 5 Americans, 40 percent of poor adults.
</blockquote>
NBC&#8217;s George Will &#8212; who is presented as a conservative across the news media landscape &#8212; echoed the left-wing and Democrat narrative of H.R. 1628: &#8220;This is a large tax cut for the wealthy.&#8221;

None of the Sunday show&#8217;s hosts &#8212; with the exception of Fox News Channel&#8217;s Brit Hume (filling in for Chris Wallace) on Fox News Sunday &#8212; inquired about the fiscal solvency of federal &#8220;social welfare&#8221; programs that ostensibly facilitate health care. No questions were asked about free market reforms, judicious administration of taxpayer funds, or moral hazards associated with diffusion of responsibility via state-driven redistributive &#8220;social welfare&#8221; programs.

ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN all present themselves as politically objective and non-partisan news media outlets.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Sunday Shows Push Class Warfare To Protect Obamacare

ABC News

Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)

American Health Care Act (AHCA)

Bernie Sanders

Charles Schumer

Dana Bash

The most expensive House race in history came to a conclusion on Tuesday, as Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the special election in Georgia&#8217;s sixth congressional district, with 52.5% of the vote to Ossoff&#8217;s 47.5%, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/georgia-congressional-runoff-ossoff-handel">according to AP</a>.
According to <a href="https://www.issueone.org/money-behind-expensive-u-s-house-race-history/">Issue One</a>, the combined amount all candidates and political groups invested in the special election totaled $59.6 million; Ossoff raised $23.9 million; Handel raised $4.9 million. Ossoff outspent Handel roughly 5 to 1 during all phases of the campaign, which was to find a replacement for Congressman Tom Price, who was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services by President Trump.
The race in the traditionally strong Republican district was seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump and the GOP, especially as Ossoff <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/georgia-election-results-ossoff-handel-n774936">made statements</a> such as &#8220;make Trump furious&#8221; and &#8220;send a message that will be heard across the country and around the world.&#8221; Trump intervened as well, tweeting that Ossoff &#8220;wants to raise your taxes to the highest level and is weak on crime and security.&#8221;
Jere Wood, the mayor of Roswell, Handel&#8217;s home town, opined that the national coverage given to the race gave the wrong impression, arguing, &#8220;They have tried to make this a national election, but it is a local election.&#8221;
On Tuesday, Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State, pointed out at her polling place that Ossoff, who was raised in the district, lives a few miles away from the district, although Ossoff only does so his fiancé can be close to the medical school she attends. Handel had <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/handel-defeats-ossoff-win-georgia-6th-district/lO6Ewa4vM1sbftMnQE9x6L/">often claimed</a> Ossoff&#8217;s values were &#8220;3,000 miles away.&#8221;

In Most Expensive House Race Ever, GOP’s Handel Defeats Dems’ Ossoff

Congress

Georgia

On Sunday&#8217;s Meet the Press, MSNBC&#8217;s/NBC&#8217;s Andrea Mitchell pushed racial and feminists&#8217; agitation during an interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price regarding the American Health Care Act (AHCA).

Mitchell lamented what she described as too many white male Republican politicians in the White House&#8217;s Rose Garden during a celebratory event following the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16080/watch-democrats-taunt-house-republicans-after-robert-kraychik">House&#8217;s passage of the AHCA</a>.

<blockquote>
&#8220;Well, let&#8217;s talk about women. I mean, when we looked at the Rose Garden and the celebration of this on Thursday, they were mostly all men and white men at that. There was no diversity there. Women&#8217;s health issues arguably are going to be disproportionately affected.
Take a look at this. Obamacare includes maternity and newborn care, preventative care, mammograms, cervical cancer screenings, birth control, all of this under the essential package, no longer required under this House bill.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Earlier in the show, Mitchell interchangeably used the terms &#8220;health insurance&#8221; and &#8220;health care,&#8221; as if the two are synonyms.

At no point did Mitchell inquire about shortcomings of government-driven wealth redistribution efforts in order to afford welfare to persons seeking health care with &#8220;pre-existing conditions.&#8221;

Mitchell presents herself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media personality. MSNBC likewise presents itself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media outlet.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gikiy4PmJ4g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

NBC’s Mitchell: Too Many ‘White Men’ In GOP

Andrea Mitchell

Feminism

Leftism

Meet the Press

MSNBC

<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote data-lang="en">
Democratic candidate in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GA06?src=hash">#GA06</a> Jon Ossoff: &#8220;This is already a victory for the ages&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/0ZoSDZ80nb">https://t.co/0ZoSDZ80nb</a> <a href="https://t.co/fSNCj3ED8N">https://t.co/fSNCj3ED8N</a>
&#8212; CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/854544743002517505">April 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Let me tell you this,&#8221; said Jon Ossoff to a rally of his supporters late Tuesday night. &#8220;There is no doubt that this is already a victory for the ages. That no matter what the outcome is tonight, whether we take it all, or whether we fight on, we have defied the odds, we have shattered expectations.&#8221;

Ossoff is the Democrats&#8217; candidate for The Peach State&#8217;s 6th district; a vacant seat vied over in a special election following its previous holder&#8217;s joining of the Trump administration to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ossoff framed the special election in Georgia&#8217;s 6th District as having global importance: &#8220;We are changing the world, and your voices are gonna ring out across this state and across this country. We will be ready to fight on and win in June, if it is necessary.&#8221;

Ossoff sought to win the election outright with a majority of votes, falling shy of the threshold with <a href="https://decisiondeskhq.com/results/georgia-6th-congressional-district-ga06-special-election-primary/">48.1%</a> (92,390 votes) of the votes. In two months, he will face Republican opponent Karen Handel (Georgia&#8217;s former secretary of state) in a runoff election.

If past is prologue, Ossoff will have difficulty against his Republican opponent; the district has been held by the GOP since 1979.

Various news media outlets ranging from CNN to The New York Times are <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/15501/hysterical-media-gas-special-election-referendum-robert-kraychik">framing the election</a> as a referendum on President Donald Trump. Ossoff&#8217;s political fortunes, even if he fails to secure the seat with a well-funded campaign, are being framed by such news media outlets as a victory for the Democrats and broader left.

With a campaign funded to the tune of <a href="http://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ossoff-pulls-record-donations-for-georgia-special-election/MqGzLMjrzVRR8jE5YGs3rL/">$8.3 million</a>, Ossof&#8217;s political campaign funding eclipses that of his Republican opponent; Handel raised <a href="http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/04/that-time-when-karen-handel-lobbied-for-obamacare-protections/">under $500 thousand</a>. While 95% of Ossoff&#8217;s donors are from outside of Georgia, Handel claims that 90% of her donors are in-state.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

WATCH: Democrat Ossoff Says Something NUTS After Failing To Win Congressional Seat In GA-6

President Donald Trump golfed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and budget director Mick Mulvaney on Sunday to discuss a potential Obamacare replacement plan. Paul sounded positive about the discussion.
&#8220;I continue to be very optimistic that we are getting closer and closer to an agreement on replacing Obamacare,&#8221; Paul told the <a href="http://wtop.com/virginia/2017/04/trump-hits-golf-course-with-sen-rand-paul/">Associated Press</a>.
It remains to be seen if Trump and the Republican Congress have the spine to truly repeal Obamacare, but if they do, here are five ways they can do it.
1. Pass a clean repeal bill. This the most obvious way they can repeal Obamacare: the Republicans could repeal most if not all of Obamacare through the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/14313/it-really-true-republicans-cant-just-repeal-aaron-bandler">reconciliations process</a>, which should make repealing the healthcare law fairly easy. However, such a bill was <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/14850/congressman-just-humiliated-speaker-ryan-filing-ben-shapiro">proposed </a>by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) at the end of March and it went nowhere, suggesting that the Republicans won&#8217;t be passing a clean repeal bill anytime soon. There are other ways they could go about dismantling Obamacare, however.
2. Kill the most onerous aspects of the law. The regulations that are <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/03/4-reasons-why-gops-health-care-plan-is-really-rino-care">primarily responsible</a> for the soaring rise in premiums are the pre-existing conditions mandate and the requirement for insurers to charge the same premiums to consumers regardless of their health status. At the very least, these regulations along with the mandates and taxes that fund them can and should be repealed in a reconciliations bill.
3. Defund it. If nothing else, congressional Republicans can gut the enforcement of Obamacare by <a href="http://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/conservatives-and-the-fight-defund-obamacare">depriving the law of funding</a>, thus inhibiting the regulatory state from enforcing current regulations and spitting out further regulations as well as slow the law&#8217;s entitlement spending. Defunding the law would put a pause on the Obamacare death spiral and give Republicans more time to draft up a viable repeal and replacement law.
Granted, a number of congressional Republicans would likely be reluctant to defund Obamacare after the 2013 government shutdown, but the shutdown did not harm the Republican Party&#8217;s election prospects in the 2014 midterm elections. Additionally, with Republican control of both Houses of Congress and the presidency, the blame for a potential shutdown would fall solely on the shoulders of the Democrats. That&#8217;s why Trump is <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/30/exclusive-trump-unafraid-of-possible-government-shutdown/">reportedly fine</a> with a shutdown if Congress doesn&#8217;t approve of funding his wall; he should have the same approach for defunding Obamacare.
4. Alter the law administratively.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
There are 1,442 citations in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ACA?src=hash">#ACA</a> where it says &#8220;The Secretary shall&#8230;&#8221; or &#8220;The Secretary may&#8230;&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/HHSGov">@HHSGov</a>, we&#8217;ll look at every single one.
&#8212; Tom Price, M.D. (@SecPriceMD) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPriceMD/status/842758846816964608">March 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/04/heres_how_republicans_can_twea.html">Cleveland.com</a> listed some ways in which Price could cripple Obamacare from his perch as Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS):
<ul>
<li>Refusing to penalize those who don&#8217;t buy health insurance.</li>
<li>Providing waivers from Obamacare to states that can design their own programs.</li>
<li>Allowing states to add work requirements or premiums to Medicaid.</li>
<li>Modifying the services that insurers are forced to cover.</li>
<li>Dropping an appeals lawsuit that would result in insurance companies losing reimbursement funds in federal tax dollars, resulting in more insurers leaving Obamacare.</li>
</ul>
Additionally, Daniel Horowitz notes in <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/03/establishment-republicans-remain-clueless-about-health-care-time-for-trump-to-act">Conservative Review</a> that Price can &#8220;get rid of any cost-sharing subsidies and risk corridor bailouts for insurance companies,&#8221; which would &#8220;force insurers to utilize the lifting of regulations to lower prices and actually compete for business rather than relying on subsidies.&#8221;
5. Put forward a replacement plan that embraces the free market. Such a plan should include purchasing insurance across state lines, expanding health savings accounts and tort reform among other ideas, as Horowitz lays out <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/03/20-ideas-to-crush-obamacare-and-cure-americas-health-care-crisis">here</a>.
Uniting the party behind a free-market plan and then sending out young, articulate congressional conservatives to explain to the public how the plan empowers consumers and individual liberty would ultimately be the best way to ensure that Obamacare is repealed and replaced. However, it doesn&#8217;t seem like congressional Republicans are up for the task.
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

5 Things Republicans Can Do To Repeal Obamacare

On Sunday, appearing on ABC&#8217;s This Week, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price made it clear that the Trump Administration <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-19-17-tom-price-sen-rand/story?id=46223981">won&#8217;t go whole hog</a> on repealing Obamacare, asserting that it won&#8217;t be repealed without instituting Trumpcare.
Since Trumpcare is essentially a watered-down version of Obamacare, that piece of news won&#8217;t sit well with those who want to get rid of Obamacare in toto.
This Week host George Stephanopoulos said to Price, &#8220;Democrats don&#8217;t seem very willing right now. Senator Rand Paul is coming right up. He says you should just do a clean repeal like you did in 2015 and then have a wide-open debate on how to replace Obamacare. What&#8217;s wrong with that proposal?&#8221;
Price answered:
<blockquote>
Because that &#8211; what that does is place vulnerable people at risk, and that&#8217;s not something that the president&#8217;s willing to do, it&#8217;s not something that he said he would do. Certainly what he has said is that repeal and replace need to occur essentially at the same time, concurrently, and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going &#8211; that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re moving forward within this first phase.
</blockquote>
Price constantly backtracked from totally getting rid of Obamacare in the interview, protesting that Trumpcare would not leave Americans uninsured: 
<blockquote>
It makes it so that every single American will have the financial feasibility to gain access to the kind of coverage that they want for themselves and for their family, not the government forces them to buy. So, it&#8217;s an important part. It&#8217;s a first step in this process &#8230; And that may be the case, and that&#8217;s why, as it works through this legislative process, we&#8217;re looking at it and working with our legislative colleagues, to make certain that we&#8217;ve got the kind of plan that actually works for people in the real world. Something that the previous administration didn&#8217;t do.
</blockquote>
Members of the House Freedom Caucus want a total repeal of Obamacare, and are critical of the bill introduced by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who tried to put the best face on the current bill, saying in early March, &#8220;If we just repeal Obamacare, it&#8217;s not like life in the world goes back to life before Obamacare. Obamacare did so much damage to the U.S. health insurance system that it&#8217;s not as if you can go back to the day before.&#8221;

UGH: Trump’s Health Secretary Just Said Republicans Won’t Repeal Obamacare Without Trumpcare

Paul Ryan

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