This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In which, we take out back and shoot the idea that if everyone hates what you are doing, you must be doing something right.

Breitbart News Leads The Charge Against GOP Health Care Bill — Michael Calderone | Huffington Post

"The pro-Trump site is directing its fire at House Speaker Paul Ryan, not the president. ...

" ... Breitbart News has noticeably blamed Ryan for any problems with the Republican bill to replace Obamacare, knowns as the American Health Care Act. The site has portrayed the bill as part of an effort by the speaker to mislead the president into supporting legislation that betrays conservative principles. ..."

The CBO reveals Republicans' health-care cruelty — Washington Post Editorial

"When it comes to understanding the Republican obsession to undo Obamacare, this number is about all you need to know: 24 million. That is how many people would lose coverage under the GOP's supposedly choice-enhancing, access-increasing replacement plan. What possible justification can there be? ..."

" ... CBO analysts projected 28 million Americans would already lack coverage under the Affordable Care Act. So the Republican plan advancing through the House would leave a total of 52 million people without health insurance.

"Stop and reflect on that number: 52 million.

"It's not a monolithic figure. It's made up of 52 million living, breathing people.

"Children. Parents. Friends. Neighbors. Without health coverage.

"Under the Republican plan to replace Obamacare, their number will increase from 28 million to 52 million.

"Bishop needs to return to Northern Utah and explain why he considers that acceptable. ..."

The Republican health-care plan isn't about health care at all — Catherine Rampell | The Washington Post

"Let's abandon the pretense.

Republicans' 'health care' bill is not really about health care. It's not about improving access to health insurance, or reducing premiums, or making sure you get to keep your doctor if you like your doctor. And it's certainly not about preventing people from dying in the streets.

"Instead, it's about hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts — tax cuts that will quietly pave the way for more, and far larger, tax cuts. ..."

"Of all the arguments to make for repealing and replacing Obamacare, the very worst is that people don't need health insurance.

"Yet this is a Trump administration talking point. ...

" ... This is a strange rhetorical tack for officials in an administration led by a president who pledged to cover everyone. Nor is it substantively or political defensible. ..."

" ... If Republicans are successful at passing their Obamacare replacement, then millions will lose coverage, millions will be plunged into economic anxiety, and yes, many tens of thousands of Americans will die prematurely.

"Again, it raises the question: for what purpose? So Republicans can tell their supporters they followed through on their promise of repealing Obamacare — even though those same voters are likely to suffer the most if repeal and replace occurs? ..."

" ... In the past, accusations of care-rationing have been a favorite attack on the Affordable Care Act by Republican leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Yet Republican efforts to cap and cut Medicaid make pretty clear that the strategy is to pay for tax cuts that largely benefit the highest earners by forcing governors to become rationers-in-chief—making painful choices regarding how to best ration or deny health care to those in nursing homes, with disabilities, and/or near the poverty line (and that's in addition to the 14 million Americans who are projected to be completely denied Medicaid coverage over the next decade under the Republican proposal). ..."

Keep Utah children healthy and families strong: Protect Medicaid — Jessie Mandle and Bill Cosgrove | For the Deseret News

" ... When children do not have access to comprehensive medical coverage, we see ripple effects. Children who are sick or in pain undermine classroom learning and student success, for themselves and their classmates. The productivity of their parents is also adversely affected. But when children do have access to needed care, we see the benefits to our economy and society. ..."

"The Congressional Budget Office's assessment of Republicans' plan to replace Obamacare is a description of one of the largest, most significant income redistribution programs the US government has ever considered — from the poor to the wealthy rather than the other way around.

"The plan, the CBO concludes, would take more than $1 trillion away from programs targeting poor and middle-class families, to fund an $883 billion tax cut targeted at the wealthy. It is upward income redistribution of a truly massive scale. ..."

The CBO report demolishes the GOP's edifice of deception — Greg Sargent | The Washington Post

" ... It should be noted that many Republicans support the priorities embedded in the GOP bill for reasons grounded in real principles. Many sincerely believe redistributive policy is morally wrong; that less-regulated markets are the best way to increase access to affordable coverage and won't foster dependency precisely because it isn't an entitlement; that insurance should be more minimal than ACA proponents think it should be; and so forth. And they often make general versions of these arguments. ..."

"It's an attack on the poor."

— The GOP Just Made Its Bait and Switch on Health-Care Reform Explicit — Eric Levitz | Daily Intelligencer

" ... Here's Paul Ryan making the case in his official response to the CBO's findings.

" 'This report confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care. CBO also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit, and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation.'

"Okay, so the first sentence here is a lie — unless you tack "for young, affluent people" to the end of it. (One of the more bizarre aspects of AHCA is that even as it drastically reduces the amount the government spends subsidizing health care, it increases subsidies for middle-income people who can afford to fund their own insurance. It also allows insurers to shift the costs of premiums from the young onto the elderly.)

"But the second sentence is entirely true. The bill gives the wealthiest people in America a $599 billion tax break. ..."

" ... The drop in spending on Medicaid helps explain why the C.B.O. estimated that the G.O.P. reform would reduce the deficit by three hundred and thirty-seven billion dollars—a fact that some Republicans seized upon. But why, you might ask, would the deficit be reduced by just three hundred and thirty-seven billion dollars over ten years when spending on Medicaid would fall by eight hundred and eighty billion dollars? The answer is that the bill would take most of the money that is saved from reducing Medicaid and hand it out to rich people in the form of tax cuts. ..."

The Original Lie About Obamacare — David Leonhardt | The New York Times

"You hear it from Republicans, pundits and even some Democrats. It's often said in a tone of regret: 'I wish Obama had done health reform in a bipartisan way, rather than jamming through a partisan bill.'

"The lament seems to have the ring of truth, given that not a single Republican in Congress voted for Obamacare. Yet it is false — demonstrably so. ..."

Trump Should Ditch Freedom Caucus, Seek Bipartisan Plan — Christopher Ruddy | Newsmax

"As a conservative, I have a real problem with the so-called 'private health market.'

Healthcare is regulated by states, and many states have allowed private insurance companies to operate like a racket.

"In many states there is no free, competitive market for health insurance since they limit the number of operators, creating near monopolies. ..."

Trumpcare: Fiction and Fact — Steven Rattner | The New York Times

"Watching administration officials play cat and mouse with Sunday talk show hosts is a hoary Washington tradition. But yesterday, Trump spokesmen offered a remarkably large number of flat out untruths as they attempted to defend the Republican health care plan. ..."

" ... For women and low-income Americans who rely on Planned Parenthood for reproductive health care, Trumpcare would pose an imminent threat to access to contraception, STI treatment, and cervical and breast cancer screenings. The plan blocks Medicaid patients' access to Planned Parenthood–affiliated clinics for one year, cutting off the more than $400 million the organization usually gets from providing care to these patients. CBO estimates that this would leave 15 percent of people in low-income communities and areas that are slim on health-care options without the ability to get birth control. ..."

Best health-care plan for Republicans? Wait — Megan McArdle | Bloomberg View

" ... Most policy ideas are bad. If you simply blindly oppose everything that anyone ever puts forward, you'll end up being right most of the time. ..."