“Obamacare’s Demise Can Lead to Immigration Reform”

There is a small cabal of ultra-conservative Republican members of Congress that are loudly proclaiming they will not support Speaker Paul Ryan’s foundational deconstruction of “Obamacare” as promised by every Republican congressman who has run for office since 2010.
On the Senate side two particular senators are declaring that the Ryan bill is dead on arrival and that House members should vote no on the Ryan Bill.
How stupid.
This is the same tiny group that managed to shut down the government for a few days over spending that had no base in reality. Led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Republicans suffered at the next election for the simple reason that the shutdown was counter-productive and made Cruz and his small support cohort look like idiots, political and otherwise.
Joining Cruz is Kentucky Senator Rand Paul who shouted himself out of the Presidential primary of 2016. He is an ophthalmologist and uses his profession to suggest he knows more about healthcare and insurance and is better equipped than Senator Cruz who is just another lawyer.
Where he insults the congressional process and the Constitution is his proclamation to House members to vote down the bill. All revenue inducing bills must originate in the House per the Constitution. Successful bills that pass to the Senate must then be handled by the Senate as a bill to concur with, to amend, to pass or defeat. Senators are expected to use their best judgment and do not enjoy being told by House members how to vote on the bill.
The Senate is entitled to add or subtract provisions of the bill as they see fit. Once they pass the Senate version, it goes to a conference committee of House and Senate members; it is the conference that works out any differences and issues a report to both houses and each house can vote the negotiated bill up or down.
This is where Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are off base. They should remain quiet like most of their senate colleagues until the House votes for or against the proposed junking of “Obamacare.”
When the bill reaches the Senate they can try to add their views into the bill; that is the proper way to do their senate-duties, not just jabbering like excited teenagers whose brains have not matured.
This bill and its passage is important for two reasons that this precinct finds to be extremely valuable in a philosophical sense.
Number one, the ultimate issue for any and all real conservatives is that this is the most important pro-life bill in decades, since at least, legislative efforts to outlaw last-minute abortions in the 7th, 8th or 9th months of pregnancy. Obamacare flagrantly violates religious freedoms – and pro-life issues — that are guaranteed in the 1st Amendment. The courts have so ruled (Hobby Lobby) and those rulings are welcome.
The second reason to support the proposed health insurance Ryan bill is that the House Republican leadership needs to cement its leadership of the House majority it enjoys. It cannot allow a rump group of self-proclaimed “conservatives” to run the House. We rule by winner-take-all and majorities. We are not an uncivilized parliamentary banana republic.
The congressional process must be honored and senators should stick to their house and House members should stick to theirs.
This is more than a health care/insurance issue, for if the Ryan leadership wins this issue, it and the White House can get their heads together to hammer out some immigration reform that the cabal of ultra-conservatives will oppose as is their nature but will lose.
The 2013”Gang of Eight” that crafted immigration reform that passed the Senate with 68 votes can add Paul Ryan’s leadership group to its numbers and we can have a veto-proof majority “Gang of 20” in both houses to handle immigration like rational adults not like an irrational group of losers as they will appear if Ryan wins the health vote.