Under the Obama Administration, Republicans attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) a total of 52 times.
The repeal bills easily passed both the House and the Senate and then were predictably vetoed by President Obama.
Now with a Republican in the White House who would sign any repeal bill put in front of him, Republicans in Congress all of the sudden have no ability to repeal ObamaCare despite controlling both the House and the Senate.
What type of wizadry is going on here?
How did Republicans members of Congress all of the sudden lose the ability to pass a repeal bill after pulling it off 52 different times?
They didn’t.
Establishment Republicans never wanted to repeal ObamaCare.
For the last seven years, they knew that Obama would never sign a repeal bill. They also knew that “Repeal and Replace” was a beautiful wedge issue that could be used for years against Democrats.
Most importantly, the Finance, Health Care and Insurance industries are the GOP’s biggest backers (and the Democrats).
In the 2016 campaign season, the Insurance, Finance and Real Estate sectors contributed a massive $1.1 billion to candidates, parties and outside groups. Of that billion, 55% went to Republicans.
The Health Care Industry piled on another $268 million.
In the House of Representatives alone, candidates raised $554 million in 2016 for their campaigns . . . with the bulk of the funds being raised by incumbents.
In 2016, the Health Care, Insurance and Finance sectors contributed $118 million to House Republicans. That’s 21% of the campaign contributions.
It’s needless to say that if someone donates 21% of your revenue, you’re going to make them happy.
Why else would they be donating?
One question may remain about this industry influence over Congress. That is, do those industries benefit from ObamaCare?
An astounding, YES!
Take a look at the stock price of just about any company in those industries since March of 2010 (when ObamaCare passed).
Amgen (AMGN), which donated $1.5 million in 2016, had a stock price of $60. Today the price stands at $164.
United Health’s (UNH) stock went from $32.91 to $170.
The list goes on and on, and doesn’t even include the corporations who donated through industry associations such as the American Medical Association that donated $1.8 million or the American Hospital Association that also donated $1.8 million.
Paul Ryan and other Establishment Republicans showed their hand in the past weeks by proposing a bill that was nothing more than a reworded version of ObamaCare, while trying to confuse the public about their real intent.
It didn’t work.
Instead, they showed their hand and flat out proved that they never intent to repeal this $1.72 trillion entitlement program.
Angry yet? Comment below.
