7 years ago, you replaced the roof on your home.  You were told that this roof was going to be inexpensive and provide a better protection for your home than your previous roof.  The cost of upkeep on this roof was going to be lower than your previous roof.  As far as the materials used?  You were told not to worry, that everything was under control and that you needed to first install your roof in order to find out the materials from which it was made. The installers seemed like they knew what they were talking about, but you later found out that none of them had ever installed a roof before.  Like EVER.

Imagine your complete lack of surprise when this roof, in the first several years, leaked like a sieve.  Sure some parts of your house were better protected than others, but the once very dry areas of your home now were riddled with holes and leaks.  The costs of upkeep were astronomical;  The roof is bigger than you wanted, protects portions of your property you don’t need protected, and you’re told if you take any portion of that roof down, you’ll be fined. If you could go back to your old roof, you would, but you don’t want to look like you’re replacing the new with the old.

You now consider replacing the new roof, with a newer roof, improving on the mistakes of both the first and second. Would you trust the decisions to a bunch of fast-talking amateurs again?  HELL NO. You’d be calling the best roofing contractor you could find.  You’d explain to him the issues and how you’d want it repaired and let him use his expertise to solve the problem.

Well if you haven’t figured it out we’re talking about healthcare, and the Republican proposal to replace Obamacare, which at this point is a big stinking pile of excrement.  If your goal is a smaller-government, free-market, approach to healthcare,  Why aren’t you consulting with the resident expert on smaller-government, free- markets, who happens to be a friggin’ doctor!?

The Analogy Continues…

Your fast talking contractors are telling you the repairs they are going to make to your roof, but most of them sound like horrible ideas.  The local roofing contractor is in the neighborhood and offers to stop by the give his opinion.  Except he can’t.  There are police at the end of your street telling him he can’t come down to even look at your roof.

Yes, that happened. Dr. Rand Paul attempted to simply READ the bill and was turned away.  Senator Paul even went as far as to relentlessly mock the GOP House on Twitter with this “Scavenger Hunt” for the document, with his trusty side kick Copier.   Guess what he found?  Not a thing.

The Unravelling Narrative

Republican Leadership continues to give us lame and misleading reasons as to why we need to go with their bill.  Among the reasons we need these additional “phases” is because we have to cover for the garbage that Obamacare left in its wake.  Namely, as the CBO puts it, is the 14 Million who go without Obamacare coverage.

Sounds pretty alarming. When nearly 5% of the nation suddenly will lose coverage.  End of the world and the Republic sort of stuff!   Except those figures ignore some pretty glaring issues:

1. How many of those people aren’t “losing” anything?  Several million people bought policies as opposed to being fined from years 1 to 2, being forced to purchase something they may not want, nor need.  How many people purchased insurance under the threat of being fined to begin with? You can hardly call it a loss, when they didn’t sign up for it in the first place.
2. How many of those people who “lose” their policies may be able to find a cheaper free-market policy after the insurance pools are opened? In other words, if they “lose” their Obamacare policy, but are able to find a more affordable option through whatever replacement occurs, are they losing anything?
3. Of course people who are getting free (or highly subsidized policies) are going to lose coverage.  Healthcare is not health insurance.  It isn’t even access to healthcare.  If anything, Obamacare provided a false hope for people and then limited their access to that care.  You can’t add several million people to an insured pool, not add a single doctor or hospital (in fact, incentivize them to leave the field altogether) and not expect a supply problem.  Economics 101 anyone?
4. The CBO that is putting out this information is the same CBO that told us that 24 million people would be getting Obamacare.  As of this year, only 11 million have.  Though the CBO is the measuring stick for legislation like this, let’s at least be honest about how accurate those estimates have been previously.

At the very least, the House GOP feels threatened that they will be branded as horrible people for causing the “loss” of insurance for so many people. Anytime, you act on fear rather than logic or reasoning, is a bad action.

The Only Way Forward

No more of this.  Anything short of a full repeal of Obamacare and the opening of healthcare to the free markets will solve this issue.  Rand Paul and a few of his colleagues in the Senate are prepared to fight and die on the repeal hill and we should let them.  Dems are so ready to attempt to hang the loss of insurance on Republican’s 2018 chances.  We should be equally ready to hang Obamacare’s failures on them.  Either they repeal it, or they know they are attempting to keep something they know will hurt more Americans.  Make them own it, and make them go back and explain to their constituents that they want to keep it.

Put Senator Paul in charge of drafting the repeal for both Houses.  Give him carte-blanche to handle the negotiations.  Who knows, he might even be able to get some Dems on board where others wouldn’t.  When those in charge haven’t ever had a role in shrinking the size of government, why don’t we trust the one guy who has been reliably preaching this for years?

At this point, there really isn’t another viable option.  Senator Paul should be given the opportunity he deserves, has earned, and is most qualified for.  Let him Repeal Obamacare.  Let him work out the replacement (if any).  Let him find the solutions that will fix this.

As for me and my house?  There’s only one person I want putting on the roof.