“Rule of Nothing”

“Rule of Nothing”από Mish

To get the healthcare bill out of the Senate, Republicans need 50 votes, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaker vote.

The problem for Republicans is they are two votes short as Four Senate Republicans oppose draft of GOP health plan.


Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah said they opposed the draft legislation for a “variety of reasons,” but they’re still open to negotiation before the bill hits the floor.
“There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs,” they said in a joint statement.

GOP leaders are eyeing a floor showdown next week, after the Congressional Budget Office scores their plan’s affect on federal spending and coverage.

While leaders might broker a deal, efforts to appease the conservatives risk alienating moderates who want to preserve coverage for their residents.

The bill maintains the same basic outline as the House proposal, repealing Obamacare’s “individual mandate” and the health exchanges and replacing them with tax credits aimed at helping those who don’t get coverage through their jobs buy plans on the individual market.

It also provides tens of billions in “stabilization” dollars to help states transition to a GOP model and subsidize sicker and poorer Americans.

Mr. Paul said that amounts to an expensive Band-Aid on Obamacare’s core problem — low enrollment is driving up costs, deterring even more enrollees and making the problem worse. “They don’t fix the death spiral, they subsidize it,” Mr. Paul said. “That’s sort of like saying, ‘Cars are expensive, why don’t we have a car stabilization fund?’”

Mishandling Obamacare

The best way to deal with Obamacare, once it passed, was to do nothing.

The system is imploding on its own merits, as many of us stated all along.

Rule of Nothing

In any given political situation, the best outcome one can reasonably expect generally happens when politicians do nothing.

The implied corollary is: When politicians attempt to fix any problem, they are highly likely to make matters worse.

Unfortunately, politicians almost never do nothing. It's why we have a messed up healthcare system, education system, public pension system, etc..

A quick check amazingly shows no one has postulated a "Rule of Nothing", so I get to claim it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

www.fotavgeia.blogspot.com