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The statesmanship of Rand Paul Conservative Review In the ongoing health care debate, Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., has emerged as the most consistent champion of and advocate for real repeal of Obamacare. One of the select few conservatives in the U.S. Senate pushing against the current GOP health care ... Trump suggests just repeal Obamacare, then try to replace itTribune-Review Senate asks for CBO score on Cruz's healthcare proposalThe Hill Trump wades into healthcare fight amid wavering Republican supportWashington Examiner Slate Magazine (blog) -KOLO -Politico all 142 news articles »

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The statesmanship of Rand Paul - Conservative Review

"There's still quite a bit of disagreement," Sen. Rand Paul says. | Getty

Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday morning that he and his Republican colleagues remain at an impasse on striking a compromise on Obamacare repeal legislation and suggested that the only way to appease the moderate and conservative wings of the GOP might be to split the bill in two.

"I still sense that we're at impasse," Paul told Fox News Fox & Friends, adding, "There's still quite a bit of disagreement."

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Paul , of Kentucky, is one of at least eight GOP senators who have said that they oppose the repeal-and-replace legislation introduced by Republican leadership in the Senate last week. Some lawmakers, including Paul and other conservatives, have opposed the bill because, they say, it does not go far enough in repealing Obamacare, while other, more moderate members, like Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, Susan Collins of Maine and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia argue the bills cuts are too severe.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hoping to have a new deal at least in principle on the health care bill as soon as Friday, after GOP leadership was forced to pull a procedural vote earlier this week due to the lack of Republican support. Some details have started to emerge about a potential compromise, including adding at least $45 billion to address the opioid crisis and allowing consumers to use Health Savings Account money to pay for their premiums.

But Paul said a solution is to split the GOPs health care agenda into two bills: a clean repeal to appease conservatives by completely undoing Obamacare and a second bill focused on spending that could be hashed out between Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Do the repeal, which no Democrat will vote for, repeal the taxes, repeal the regulations, and fix the Medicaid that helps to pay for everything, Paul said. No Democrats will vote for anything good like that. But Democrats will always vote for spending. So the big-government Republicans that want more spending take the spending and put it in a bill that the Democrats will vote for.

Paul said he had suggested his strategy to President Donald Trump on Wednesday during a conversation about the health care legislation and that the president seemed open to the idea. The Kentucky senator said such a plan could benefit from Trumps leadership and that the president has the force of personality and the bully pulpit of the presidency to force it through.

The schism among Senate Republicans is similar to the one their House colleagues managed to bridge in May with the passage of repeal-and-replace legislation that the White House celebrated with a Rose Garden pep rally. But even in the House, where the Republican majority is wider than it is in the Senate, GOP members struggled to find compromise and managed to narrowly pass their health care bill by only a handful of votes on a second attempt.

In the Senate, Republicans can afford to lose just two GOP votes and still pass their measure. Any legislation passed by the Senate would need to be reconciled with the House version before going to the presidents desk.

Well, see, the typical way in Washington that they fix things is they give everybody money, and I think that's what's going to happen now, Paul said of the negotiation process. Half of them want more money, and half of them want less money. Thats why it doesnt work to have one bill, because every time you stuff more money in it for the moderates, it offends the conservatives.

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Rand Paul says GOP still 'at impasse' over Obamacare repeal bill - Politico

Rand Paul and Donald Trump together helped kill the original GOP strategy for repealing Obamacare but delaying a replacement. Now they are trying to bring it back. Photo: Ron Sachs - Pool/Getty Images

Back in that dreamy period for Republicans between November 8, 2016, and Donald Trumps inauguration, when all things reactionary seemed possible, the consensus plan for dealing with Obamacare was called repeal and delay. It involved using the budget-reconciliation process to quickly repeal those elements of the Affordable Care Act that were not strictly regulatory in nature, but with delayed effective dates so that a full Obamacare replacement plan could be worked out at leisure, quite possibly with some Democratic support given the ticking time bomb of full repeal. This strategy had the great merit of letting congressional Republicans quickly keep their promise to bring down the great white whale of Obamacare, without immediately facing the consequences in terms of people losing insurance, or facing higher costs for skimpier coverage. And it also protected Republicans themselves from their own vast internal disagreements over the ultimate shape and structure of the health-care system.

But the agreement over repeal and delay quickly collapsed, with the key moment being a conversation between Trump and a U.S. senator on January 9:

Senator Rand Paul let the world know that hed gotten a phone call from President-elect Donald Trump wherein the mogul expressed agreement with Pauls argument that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced in a single action.

Other senators began expressing concerns about repeal and delay, and Trump delivered the coup de grce in his first post-election press conference when he talked about an Obamacare-replacement bill being passed most likely on the same day or the same week but probably the same day could be the same hour as repeal legislation.

Nearly a half-year later, with legislation to partially repeal and partially replace Obamacare teetering on the brink of failure in the Senate, the idea of a repeal and delay strategy is suddenly being promoted by wait for it Rand Paul and Donald Trump.

To be clear, Paul is not talking about the sort of very extended delays in consideration of a replacement bill (some thought until after the 2018 midterms) the original repeal-and-delay promoters contemplated. At one point he hints a bill extending the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP), needed later this year, might be the appropriate vehicle.

What Pauls 180-degree turn on repeal and delay signifies, though, is the realization of some conservatives that insisting on simultaneous repeal and replacement was a big strategic error. It encouraged Republican moderates to fight for retention of some key elements of Obamacare in the replacement bill and thus eroded support for anything like a full repeal.

With respect to Trump, though, its anyones guess what, if anything, his sudden support for two different actions on health care means. He could be reacting very immediately to the prospect of total failure on health care, which is what still another Republican senator was talking about in proposing a two-bill approach, as noted by Jonathan Cohn:

Trumps tweet seemed to be endorsing an idea that Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) floated minutes earlier on Fox News and, according to the The Wall Street Journal, in a formal letter to the White House that if Senate leaders cant assemble a majority by July 10, they should try a different strategy: Vote to repeal the bill outright, or at least strip its funding, and then spend a month in non-stop hearings and negotiations to hammer out a deal on a new coverage scheme.

In any event, the immediate reaction from Mitch McConnells circle was chilly, as Caitlin Owens reports:

Senate Republican aides quickly shot down President Trumps tweet this morning, which said that if Senate Republicans cant pass their current health care bill, they should repeal the Affordable Care Act first and then replace it later.

Not going to happen, said one senior GOP aide. 15 votes for that strategy. Which is why we are where we are.

Bingo. The logic of repeal and delay is no better or worse than it was in January, when Trump and Paul successfully opposed it. Perhaps the worst sign for Republicans on health care is that they are now clearly going in circles.

The suspect was reportedly a former employee and physician at the hospital. He killed at least one person before turning the gun on himself.

McConnell is reportedly giving moderates more opioid funding, larger subsidies, and fewer tax cuts while giving far-right dissidents little.

California, Virginia, and Kentucky are among the states to tell Trumps voter fraud czar, Kris Kobach, to get lost.

A new initiative starting in September will offer a diversion program as an alternative to criminal penalties.

It could strip away some of the red tape to help the MTA move faster. But its not a long-term solution.

The Houses budget draft would slash $200 billion from entitlement spending 20 centrist Republicans say theyre reticent to support it.

Days after Trump was presented with military options against North Korea, he says Pyongyangs aggression will be met with a determined response.

The sort-of method behind the apparent madness.

The high-stakes tabloid showdown brokered by Jared Kushner.

Rand Paul and Donald Trump helped kill the original strategy for repealing Obamacare and enacting a replacement later. Now theyre both reviving it.

The council was established by President Obama to ensure gender equality in policy proposals.

Cardinal Pell and the risk Francis took.

Returning to one of the America First preoccupations of his campaign, Trump is on the brink of imposing steel tariffs on China and other countries.

One day after Trumps Twitter attack, Joe and Mika declare the president unwell and say the White House threatened them with bad tabloid coverage.

Chancellor Angela Merkel cleared the way for parliament to consider legalization, but she voted against it.

The jihadi group is losing land and resources. Defeating its nihilistic philosophy remains a much taller order.

Though the Trump administration reversed its stance on fiancs at the last minute, Hawaii still challenged its definition of close family.

A new Wall Street Journal report means the president has lost the benefit of the doubt.

A GOP opposition researcher says he tried to obtain missing Clinton emails for Flynn and intelligence reports support his tale.

The design of the Senate health-care bill is to slowly introduce Medicaid cuts that will grow much larger as time goes by.

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The Return of the Repeal-and-Delay Strategy for Killing Obamacare - New York Magazine

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Thursday that it could be possible to get the GOP healthcare bill through the Senate if you split it in two.

On MSNBC, Paul compared the stalled healthcare bill to the Compromise of 1850 that saw Congress pass several separate bills related to disputes between slave states and free states. He said that could be a way around current hurdles in the Senate, where conservatives want a bill that's much closer to repeal of Obamacare, while moderate Republicans are worried that the bill takes away too much money from Medicaid.

"Remember Henry Clay's compromise of 1850," Paul said. "It couldn't pass, they broke it into four pieces and they passed them individually."

"I think if we take this bill and split it into two pieces," Paul said of the healthcare bill. "We pass one that is more ... looks like repeal that conservatives like, and then the other one you load up with all kinds of Christmas ornaments and gifts and money, just pile money on it that the Democrats will vote for, and some of the Republicans will vote for. Then I think both end up passing."

"It may not be completely good for the country, but you at least get the repeal that way," he added.

Paul said a longer-term answer for insuring the 20 million uninsured people that Obamacare left behind is to let them join a co-op and get lower prices by signing up together. But he said for that to work, Obamacare must be changed so less expensive policies are available.

"You have to legalize inexpensive insurance," he said.

He added that the problem with Obamacare's Medicaid expansion was that it was essentially free insurance that the government now has to pay for. He said under the GOP bill, funding for Medicaid expansion would continue to increase, but at a slower rate, and it would require states to pick up some of the tab.

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Rand Paul: Healthcare bill could pass if you split it in two - Washington Examiner

Fabio Ostermanns office in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre boasts a bookshelf with rows dedicated to Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises. On top sits a copy of the American Declaration of Independence, a ukulele and a cartoon blow-up doll of Brazils former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, dressed in the black-and-white stripes of a prison uniform, sporting an inmates number.

Over the former presidents mouth, it reads Menos Marx, mais Mises less Marx, more Mises, the latter referring to libertarian pioneer Ludwig von Mises.

Ostermann, 32, is a key player in Brazils growing libertarian movement, which has risen against a backdrop of the countrys collapsing left. Hes led youth groups on college campuses, co-organized some of the countrys largest-ever protests which may have helped impeach the countrys leftist president, Dilma Rousseff. Now, hes the president of the Social Liberty Party in his home state, which he is reforming to defend classical libertarian ideals.

He ran and lost for mayor of his hometown of Porto Alegre, but now has his eye on a lower house seat in 2018 and on launching a larger campaign in next years presidential and congressional elections to occupy the political vacuum created by the lefts disintegration with a rebranded, youthful, American-influenced libertarianism. Ostermanns brand of libertarianism calls for widespread privatizations, deregulation of the economy and open trade markets. Hes pro marijuana legalization and favors gay marriage. Sound familiar? For Americans, it should: Ostermann was trained by the United States most influential libertarian organizations the Cato Institute, the Atlas Network and the Charles Koch Foundation. The latter, a grant-distributing organization, was founded by Charles Koch, one of the famous Koch brothers, who own the second-largest privately held company in the U.S. and are best known for using their vast fortune to support right-wing political causes.

It Americanizes our political debate.

Camila Rocha, Ph.D. student studying the emergence of libertarian think tanks in Brazil

Ostermann, once a left-leaning law student (like many young people at the time, as he puts it), found his way into the D.C. think tank scene, as he says, after finishing university in Brazil. He took a course on libertarian theory with Cato and earned a Koch summer fellowship to work at the Atlas Network. Newly evangelized, Ostermann returned to Brazil in 2009, where he co-founded Estudantes pela Liberdade the Brazilian chapter of Students for Liberty, another U.S.-based libertarian group.

The organization had matured in time for 2013s mass protests over increasing bus fares, dissatisfaction with government services and Rousseffs reelection. We saw an opportunity, he says. From that came the Free Brazil Movement. They started rallying hard to impeach Rousseff. On March 15, 2015, Free Brazil and other organizations mobilized 3 million people to protest in 229 cities across the country the largest protest since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1985. The rest is history. Free Brazil remains controversial, in part for protesting Rousseff so heavily without levying the same criticisms against right-wing President Michel Temer. Ostermann has since left. The group has splintered, and he reflects that the group became too partisan, with some of its leaders cozying up to traditional political parties.

This makes Ostermann part of an increasing number of Brazilians who are coming of age in the image of American libertarian think tankers. Atlas, for instance, holds an increasing presence in Brazil, where it offers several online and in-person seminars in Portuguese. Skeptics see the ideological cultural exchange as nothing new. I think its just continuing a tradition; Americans have always manipulated us, says Juremir Machado da Silva, a columnist and radio show host, citing the U.S. alignment with Brazils military dictatorship.

Camila Rocha, a Ph.D. student at the University of So Paulo whos studying the emergence of U.S.-style libertarian think tanks in Brazil and Latin America, says Atlas teaches young Brazilians how to found think tanks, manage libertarian organizations, develop an internet presence and, crucially, become what she calls a polemista (a polemic figure) via op-eds and media appearances. Between Atlas and Cato, theyve trained many of the leaders of Brazils new right wing. It Americanizes our political debate; it brings those proposals to the Brazilian context, Rocha says. Libertarianism itself is something that never even existed in Brazil, this ultra-individualist vision. She cites the calls for privatization sans regulation. And they call for privatizations of sectors in Brazil that have always had the consensus they should be public and free, like education and health care.

But American-imported or not, Ostermann speaks about policy in his national context. If elected, Ostermanns first policy order of business would be the mass privatization of Brazils $70 billion-plus social safety net. He supports voucher systems for private schools and health care. I dont think the government has the competence or capacity to manage these services in a country as chaotic as Brazil, he says, though hes happy to let the government spend on sanitation, security and basic infrastructure. (That doesnt include soccer stadiums, he adds, in sardonic reference to some $25 billion spent on the World Cup and the Olympics in 2014 and 2016 though that number is frequently contested in Brazil.)

When talking marijuana legalization, he situates his pro stance in response to Brazils bloody drug landscape, where drug crime causes near-constant violence in urban centers. In 2015, Brazil had more than 56,000 homicides, landing it the worlds highest murder rate in terms of absolute numbers, which in large part is due to drug-related crimes. In turn, Brazil also has the worlds fourth-largest prison population. To leave drug traffickers and cartels to have a monopoly over marijuana is a crime against society and an ineffective way to spend taxpayer money, he says.

Ostermann defends this latter stance despite the fact that it may have lost him his race last year. Its his obsession with ideological purity that might keep him and his party from finding success. I think Brazil isnt prepared for this Brazilian politics is very polarized right now. Its black and white, right or left, says da Silva. To voters, I think he comes across as too in the middle; he wants to be both at the same time this discourse in Brazil doesnt stick.

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Brazil's Rand Paul: Can Libertarianism Fix Crime and Corruption? - OZY