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Rand Paul at the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce | Photo by Mary Alford/The News-Enterprise

By Mary Alford | The News-Enterprise

Despite failed Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act last week, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says its not over.

Continuing his search for the best health care options, Paul met Monday morning with community leaders in Elizabethtown to hear their stories and concerns with health care and to make a push for his association health care plan, which would allow Americans to join large groups across state lines for less expensive health insurance.

In addition to local government and community leaders, the crowd at the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce building included several small-business owners. Mondays meeting is one of many recent visits Paul has made to the area to discuss the Senate health care bill with Kentuckians.

I dont think it is, Paul said about the Senates efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I am talking to several people who voted no, to see if there is any way they can get to yes. Well see, maybe there is some way.

Paul, who has been advocating for the repeal of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, across Kentucky, was denied by three Republicans last week in the GOPs effort to pass a skinny repeal of the act.

At least three Republicans senators John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against the bill, which needed a simple majority to pass.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky described Fridays vote as a disappointing moment.

We have to get behind the situation differently if we are going to get everybody on board. I dont think its over, Paul said. Part of the problem was Obamacare was all Democrats and no Republicans. Same could be said for the repeal, its all Republicans and no Democrats.

Paul said if he was going to assign blame on the repeal not passing, he would direct the blame on those who said they would vote to repeal and then didnt.

My disappointment is mostly with those who promised to vote for repeal and then didnt vote for repeal, he said.

Paul also said he is looking to use executive orders from Republican President Donald Trump to push his idea of association health care forward in the wake of the GOP failure.

I would like to see more coming out of the executive branch, he said. He has the power to legalize nationwide insurance. Im going to talk to him about it again this week.

Paul said the hope is Trump will use the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a law from the 1970s that governs how private companies provide benefits, to push his national insurance plan forward.

Overall, Paul said he received good feedback at the small gathering.

Every time I come to these meetings, I hear good ideas, he said, noting they talked about how legislation could expand the Kentucky Health Association through something called self insurance.

Self insurance is an innovation that has kept prices down for people, Paul said. I learn something every time. I sense frustration with the current system and I also sense they want us to get it right.

The rest is here:
Rand Paul: Health care battle not over - Insider Louisville

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday on The Laura Ingraham Show that some members of the Republican Party have lost their way, as Sen. Jeff Flake said on Sunday, but that it has nothing to do with the populism, xenophobia or protectionism and nothing to do with Donald Trump.

Paul said the party has lost its way because it embraced establishment principles.

If youre going to say, Oh, the days were so much better when we had George Bush versus President Trump, Im not so sure I agree, hecontinued. I think the Cabinet that Trump has put in place is more conservative than even Reagans Cabinet. I think that Trump appointing Gorsuch to the Supreme Court is better than we could have ever hoped from either Bush.

We have given in to nativism and protectionism, Flake said on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday. And I think that, if were going to be a governing party in the future, and a majority party, we have got to go back to traditional conservatism, limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility, respect for free trade. Those are the principles that made us who we are.

In response, Paul pointed to GOP senators' repeated betrayal of the Republican Party's campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, as well as the GOP establishment's opposition to President Donald Trump's sweeping tax reform proposal.

"I think there are differing opinions on whether we've lost our way," hesaid. "I think some in our party have, who are less conservative. We promised to repeal Obamacare and then people voted against repealing. So I think there's objective evidence to that."

Paul went on to say that Trump's appointments have "exceeded" his expectations.

"As far as the party losing the way, yeah there a quite a few people who used to be for repealing Obamacare and then voted otherwise. And yeah that concerns me."

Paul noted that the GOP has failed repeatedly to live up to its campaign promises after the American people used the 2016 elections to vote Republicans into the White House and into majorities in both the House and the Senate, and that the GOP has shamelessly squandered the chance the voters gave them.

"My perspective is we need to be true to our conservative principles, and that that's the real danger," hesaid. "I spoke to the Young Americans for Freedom last night. We had about 500 kids. And I started out and I asked them, I said, 'Some people are saying if you like Obamacare you can keep it. These are Republicans saying this. How many of you want to keep Obamacare?' And of course, there's not one hand in the whole audience."

"And yet, some of their politicians up here are saying things like that. Republicans. 'If you like Obamacare, you can keep it,'" Paul continued. "And then there are some who are saying they're no longer for repeal. So yes there is a problem, a problem of people not being true to what they said. People ran entire campaigns saying they would repeal Obamacare, and then came up here and didn't vote to repeal."

When Ingraham asked himif he believed Trump and the GOP leadership members could push the president's tax reform proposal successfully through Congress, the Kentucky senator expressed his doubts that establishment Republicans would fall in line.

"This is once again where you've got conservative versus establishment. The president has put forward a tax cut $2 trillion tax cut that would rival Ronald Reagan's first tax cut. And I think we would unleash enormous growth in our country," Paul said. "It comes to the Hill, and the establishment on both sides says, 'Oh no. We want a tax-shifting bill where we shift the taxes from, you know, one side to the other, but really there's no tax cut.'"

"It's a revenue-neutral bill. And if I tell people that's what we're for, I might just go home because that's not what we ran on," heconcluded. "We ran on cutting taxes, making government smaller. And if government's going to remain the same size and take the same bite out of everybody's check, I just don't know if that's worth it."

(photo credit, homepage and article images: Gage Skidmore, Flickr)

Read more:
Rand Paul: 'Some in Our Party' Have Lost Way Because They've Caved - LifeZette

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Tuesday that Republicans will be pursuing the "repeal and delay" strategy on Obamacare once they vote Tuesday to debate a House-passed healthcare bill.

"This morning, @SenateMajLdr informed me that the plan for today is to take up the 2015 clean repeal bill as I've urged," he said on Twitter. "If that is the plan, I will vote to proceed to have this vote. I also now believe we will be able to defeat the new spending and bailouts."

GOP leadership is expected to call for a vote on a procedural motion that would start as much as 20 hours of debate on the House-passed healthcare bill, the American Health Care Act. If that motion gets the 50 votes it needs, assuming a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence, the House bill would be stripped out and a new bill would be swapped in.

On Monday, several senators said they were uncertain which bill would be considered. Paul's tweet suggests that bill would be the "repeal and delay" strategy that Republicans sent to former President Barack Obama's desk in 2015, which he vetoed.

The bill, formally called the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, would repeal Obamacare's taxes, mandates and spending but leave in place regulations on insurers and give lawmakers two years to come up with a new plan. Conservatives such as Paul favor that route.

Paul said if the bill did not pass, Republicans likely would look to repeal whatever they could, including the taxes and mandates in the law.

Read more:
Rand Paul says GOP will vote on Obamacare 'repeal and delay' - Washington Examiner

"I guess what disappoints me most about the Republicans who said they were for repeal, voted for it, and then no longer are, is that they've sort of forgotten," Paul said on the "Sean Hannity Show." "They think this is about actuarial tables and insurance, and all this stuff. No, this is about freedom. This is about whether we as Americans should be free to buy what kind of insurance we want. What's best for us and our families. And it's about whether the individual knows best or government knows best. Are we too stupid that President Obama has to tell us what kind of insurance? Does he think Americans are too dumb to make their own decisions?"

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated an additional 22 million people will become uninsured by 2026 under the proposed replacement for Obamacare which the Senate voted down this week (and which Paul voted against). The CBO estimated that 32 million would be uninsured under a bill to partially repeal Obamacare without an immediate replacement that Paul voted for but which also failed to pass the Senate this week.

"Are we gonna give up our freedom and say to the government you decide what kind of insurance I get and what it covers," continued Paul. "It's a freedom issue. It really isn't about actuarial tables. It isn't about all the ins and outs. We have always taken care of those who are sick in our country. We have never, ever turned anyone away. I'm a physician. I've operated in hospitals for 25 years. I have never, ever seen anyone turned away who needed care."

"But the people who are saying thousands of people are gonna die," said Paul. "That is such hyperbole and ignorance and over-the-top statements that I think they lose credibility by saying things like that. No one is going to die in America, we haven't let people die in America for hundreds of years because doctors take care of and hospitals take care of all comers."

He later added, "So it hasn't happened in generations and in fact even before Medicare and Medicaid people did not die in our country for lack of care."

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Sen. Rand Paul: Health care debate about 'freedom,' not 'actuarial tables and insurance' - CNN

Sen. Rand Paul (R KY) has blocked a motion by majority leader Mitch McConnell (R KY) to advance the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the massive military spending bill, saying that the bill should instead face debate and possible amendments. This sets the bill back for 6 weeks, at least.

In particular, Sen. Paul is seeking two amendments, one which ends NDAA authorization for indefinite detention of suspects,and another related to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), something that was added to the House version but later quietly removed by the Speaker.

Pauls protest is expected to delay the NDAA vote through at least the August recess, meaning a vote is unlikely until September. While this gives plenty of time for amendments to be debated, its not clear the Senate leadership will allow that no matter how much time theyre given.

Indeed, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. John McCain (R AZ) was critical of any delay on any grounds, insisting the bill and its huge spending increase are a solemn obligation for the Senate to pass without delay. Other Senators have repeatedly been angry with Sen. Paul for not getting their way on bills, but the military spending bill is such a large one its likely to be particularly unpopular to debate, as quietly slipping it through is the way these things usually go.

See the article here:
Rand Paul Blocks DOD Authorization Until September - Antiwar.com