FULLY Repeal ObamaCare - April 2017

Winston Churchill once said, “It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.” The reality that the future is hard to predict, but that has not stopped men and women from trying to do just that. Perhaps one of the best examples of that is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) unveiled the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the long awaited bill that was supposed to fulfill the Republicans’ promise to repeal ObamaCare.

As technology continues to digitize our daily lives, the urban-rural divide in Internet usage reaps public attention. Despite a decade of improvements between 2007 and 2017, including the near doubling of rural broadband usage from 35% to 63%, rural Americans are still 10% less likely than average to use the Internet. Much of this is attributable to low population density, which makes rural towns less appealing to Internet service providers (ISPs) than customer-packed urban centers. Broadband cable installation over the bare Midwestern and mountainous western expanses is expensive and inefficient. The cable infrastructure for some rural areas is simply too costly.

It may seem surprising to consider licensing reform a criminal justice issue, but if you get to the meat of the issue then it makes sense. Unsurprisingly, barriers to employment make it harder find a job and that can result in those who can find work returning to crime.

Breaking with the Trump administration, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ecently announced that he intends to protect the health insurance company subsidies that had previously been a part of ObamaCare. This is all in line with the Senate Majority Leader’s desire to stabilize the market which he believes is “collapsing” (in large part thanks to ObamaCare). Though reform in this field is absolutely necessary, doling out handouts to well connect insurance companies who helped write the bill are only going to help prevent necessary reform and continue a crony mindset in Washington that needs to go the way of the dinosaur.

Most of the criticisms of the House and Senate health insurance reform bills have centered around the proposed repeal of Medicaid expansion. The House version of H.R. 1628 proposed repeal on January 1, 2020. To placate moderates, the Senate version would delay repeal Medicaid expansion on January 1, 2024.

The House and Senate are in session this week.

Without any significant legislative victories and a frustrated base, Senate Republican leadership and most rank-and-file members of the Republican conference need to take a good, long look in the mirror and ask themselves this question: "What are we doing here?"