Good lord, the radio airwaves and the newspapers over the weekend were filled with various opinions on what the Republicans should do on the Senate version of the House bill.
There are five Republican holdouts, and I must say that if they vote ‘no’ and the bill fails, their Senate careers are toast. I don’t understand why they can’t see that. We will personally call all the holdouts and verbally beat them about the head and shoulders. One in particular, Dean Heller, who used to be my Nevada Senator, is on the target list.
The objections are that it’s not a perfect bill. No it isn’t, and if you want to read it, go to budget.senate.gov. and read both the summary and the actual bill.
There are some things missing we in the business community would like, such as tort reform and portability of insurance, and the income levels before subsidy seem a little bizzare, but at least the latter are in the bill. It’s also not clear if businesses have to sign up for this thing, but we are guessing not, because the individual mandate is gone.
It seems to us that this thing should be voted on by the Senate, should get 51 votes (Rand Paul is just a lost case), and pass it. If Heller, Lee, Johnson, Cruz, et. al. have to hold their noses to vote yes, so be it. They can mouth off later. There’s always the next session next year after the senators get back from goofing off (vacation, constituent visits)
Then by God, we can be on the tax reform although here again, the Trump folks should just push a rate cut and reduction in tax categories. And then work on tax reform next year.
So, guys, get to ‘yes’ on the Republican healthcare any way that you can.