The Murderous Freedom Caucus

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The Freedom Caucus is a group of hardline ideologues for whom markets are not a means but an end in themselves. They ignore a library of economic literature (including at least for Nobel prizes) that markets can actually fail, instead simply pretending that they can solve all problems. Regulations invariably impose costs, never produce any benefits. Government is always the problem, never the solution.

This has led them to propose a whole host of scary deregulation proposals including silly stuff like:

• Abolish the rules for healthier school lunches, despite the fact that 97% of schools have implemented the regulations that should steer them towards healthier pupil lunches and snacks and most parents behind the efforts, there could indeed be some cost attached. But aren't the cost of the obesity epidemic and other health consequences of bad diets orders of magnitude higher?
  
• Abolishing rules that oblige food companies to add info on labels on stuff like sugar content. Yes, there are some cost attached to obliging food companies to specify the ingredients on food packaging, but don't customers have a right to know what they're buying? Doesn't a well functioning market economy depend on well informed consumers?
  
• Abolish rules that oblige food companies to prevent (rather than react to) outbreaks of food poisoning. While there are cost attached to the 'intentional adulteration' rule, don't consumers have a right that food companies do everything they can to prevent food poisoning outbreaks rather than just react to them?
  

Either they are blind ideologues or they are in the pocket of the respective industries, or both. From the above examples you might already have guessed that their sweeping deregulation approach can have real consequences for people's health. 

I mean, the US suffers from an obesity epidemic, but that is supposedly all the result of massive amounts of people suddenly becoming more irresponsible with respect to their diets? Their own responsibility, right? How we produce food and market it has nothing to do with that, right?

The US also suffers from a massive opiate addiction epidemic, but that has nothing to do with pharma companies pushing supercharged opiate painkillers aggressively and downplaying their risks, right?

And now they want to simply repeal Obamacare. Get on with it:

The House Freedom Caucus, a conservative wing of congressional Republicans, voted Monday night to support a swift and aggressive repeal of the Affordable Care Act, complicating GOP efforts to unite around a plan to repeal and replace the healthcare law better known as Obamacare. According to reports, the Freedom Caucus said it would not back a repeal if it did not include all of the elements of a repeal bill that debuted in 2015. It also said it wanted to quickly repeal the law, even if no replacement bill was ready.

The 2015 repeal bill, which was passed by the GOP in Congress but vetoed by President Barack Obama, included repeals of the individual mandate, the Medicaid expansion, and the taxes to fund premium subsidies that aid people in paying for coverage.

What kind of effects will this produce, if implemented:

In fact, studies show a straight repeal would cause between 24,000 and 44,000 deaths a year. Research shows that high rates of uninsurance tears at the fabric of a neighborhood. It makes the uninsured feel dehumanized; it makes residents feel like their neighbors are less trustworthy and benevolent. Instead of blurring the differences between people we see on a daily basis, it brightens them. And some research even suggests that as we're exposed to these signs of impoverished people in our communities, we become less willing to help them. We become less generous.

How repealing Obamacare could splinter neighborhoods - Vox

Yes, between 24,000 and 44,000 deaths a year. To hell with them. To hell with the 

Hey, but these Freedom Caucus people are good Christians, right?

"it's in my understanding that the ACA mandate requires everyone to have insurance because the healthy people pull up the sick people, right?" she said. "As a Christian, my whole philosophy in life is to pull up the unfortunate. So the individual mandate, that's what it does, the healthy people pull up the sick." 

Bohon also criticized a proposal favored by Republicans that would put sicker people in high-risk pools for those with preexisting conditions, saying "we are effectively punishing our sickest people" by using the pools. Bohon pointed to previous state high-risk pools, which have exhibited high costs and poor coverage. Bohon asked why the government doesn't just "fix" the ACA or provide Medicaid for all instead of repealing the law.

GOP lawmakers get blasted at Obamacare town hall in Tennessee - Business Insider

Good Christians let the strong pull up the weak. The Freedom Caucus wants exactly the opposite:

There is one fact that is both central to the debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act yet strangely absent from explicit discussion about it. One of the main ways the ACA makes health insurance affordable is by providing families earning less than 400 percent of the poverty line (i.e., less than $85,000 for a family of three or less than $47,550 for a single person) with tax credits to defray the cost of purchasing insurance. 

Giving people money helps make things more affordable. President Obama and the congressional Democrats who wrote the law didn’t find the money for those subsidies hidden in a banana stand — they did what Democrats like to do when paying for things and raised taxes on affluent families. Republicans do not like this idea.

They dislike the idea of raising taxes on wealthy households so much that back in 2011, they pushed the country to the brink of defaulting on the national debt rather than agree to rescind George W. Bush’s high-end tax cuts. In December 2012, they tried to insist that they wouldn’t let Obama extend the portion of the Bush tax cuts that everyone (including rich people) got unless he also extended the tax cuts that only rich people got. 

All of which is to say that despite Democrats’ occasional protestations of bafflement as to why the GOP would so uniformly oppose a market-based approach to universal health care that Mitt Romney happily adopted in the mid-aughts in Massachusetts, there’s no real mystery here. Subsidizing the health care costs of working-class people is expensive, and while Democrats want rich people to pay the freight for doing it, Republicans do not.

The hidden reason Republicans are so eager to repeal Obamacare - Vox

But at least all that deregulation will be good for growth and jobs, right?

A repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is popularly known, could reduce job growth by almost 1.2 million in 2019, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute. Although Republicans, who voted in favor of a repeal, say that cutting taxes associated with Obamacare would stimulate the economy, the report found that cuts for the ultra-wealthy are simply not enough, and would actually slow economic growth. 

The job losses would be the result of a reduction in low-income and middle-income Americans’ disposable income. When Americans don’t have to pay higher subsidies and out-of-pocket health care expenses, they tend to spend more. More than three-fourths of the jobs gained by the expansion of Medicaid were not in the health care sector.

Report: Obamacare repeal could cost the United States 1.2 million jobs

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Yes, less insured people, a host of which will experience anxiety and negative health consequences, even preventable death. But that's all worth it, right?

Republican efforts to build a more laissez-faire health system are “doomed to fail,” conservative health policy writer Philip Klein admitted in a candid column last month, unless they are willing to state an uncomfortable truth: Republicans must acknowledge that they “don’t believe that it is the job of the federal government to guarantee that everybody has health insurance.”
A handful of GOP lawmakers are now taking up Klein’s charge — with one of them even claiming that a Republican plan that leads to a higher national uninsurance rate would be a good thing.

“If the numbers drop,” Rep. Mike Burgess (R-TX) said Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, “I would say that’s a good thing.” He went on to argue that more people without health care would be a positive thing for the United States because it would mean that “we’ve restored personal liberty in this country.”

GOP congressman says fewer people with health insurance is a ‘good thing’

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The Freedom to die!

"So why do Republicans hate Obamacare so much?":

Death and Tax Cuts, by Paul Krugman, NY Times: Across the country, Republicans have been facing crowds demanding to know how they will protect the 20 million Americans who gained health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act... And after all that inveighing against the evils of Obamacare, it turns out that they’ve got nothing. ...

After years to prepare, Mr. Ryan finally unveiled what was supposedly the outline of a health care plan. It was basically a sick joke: flat tax credits, unrelated to income, that could be applied to the purchase of insurance.

These credits would be obviously inadequate for the lower- and even middle-income families..., so it would cause a huge surge in the number of uninsured. Meanwhile, the affluent would receive a nice windfall. Funny how that seems to happen in every plan Mr. Ryan proposes.

That was last week. This week, perhaps realizing how flat his effort fell, he began tweeting about freedom, which he defined as “the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need.” Give me consumer sovereignty or give me death! And Obamacare, he declared, is bad because it deprives Americans of that freedom by doing things like establishing minimum standards for insurance policies.

I very much doubt that this is going to fly, now that ordinary Americans are starting to realize just how devastating loss of coverage would be. But for the record, let me remind everyone what we’ve been saying for years: Any plan that makes essential care available to everyone has to involve some restriction of choice. ...

So yes, Obamacare somewhat restricts choice — not because meddling bureaucrats want to run your life, but because some restrictions are necessary as part of a package that in many ways sets Americans free.

For health reform has been a hugely liberating experience for millions. ... So why do Republicans hate Obamacare so much? It’s not because they have better ideas; as we’ve seen..., they’re coming up empty-handed on the “replace” part of “repeal and replace.” It’s not, I’m sorry to say, because they are deeply committed to Americans’ right to buy the insurance policy of their choice.

No, mainly they hate Obamacare for two reasons: It demonstrates that the government can make people’s lives better, and it’s paid for in large part with taxes on the wealthy. Their overriding goal is to make those taxes go away. And if getting those taxes cut means that quite a few people end up dying, remember: freedom!

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They strike again, not happy with the final plan:

The big issue: Obamacare's tax credits. Freedom Caucus legislators had lobbied hard against a bill that continued to provide advanceable, refundable tax credits to purchase coverage in the individual market. And while the subsidies in this bill are much smaller than those in Obamacare, the subsidies are still there. We don't know at this point whether these legislators will eventually stomach some level of subsidy — which GOP leadership seems intent on pursuing — or cause a major obstacle to moving the bill through the House.

Today in Obamacare: The GOP replacement bill is out. Here’s what you need to know. - Vox

Basically, they want healthcare that only the rich can afford, damn the rest.

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The American Health Care Act, the House GOP leadership's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, may have hit a serious roadblock Wednesday evening. Rep. Mark Meadows, who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters that he has enough votes to block the AHCA in a vote in the House. According to reports from CNN and BuzzFeed, Meadows told reporters as many as 40 to 50 members ready to vote "no." And 20 more are on the fence, he said.

House Freedom Caucus votes against AHCA - Business Insider

Cutting 24M people off of healthcare in return for tax cuts for the rich doesn't go far enough for the Freedom Caucus.

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It is just staggering how heartless these people really are:

While it was easy for the conservatives in Congress to pass straight-up Obamacare repeal legislation when they knew Mr Obama would veto it, crafting legislation that the party has to stand behind - and explain to voters in coming elections - is much trickier. During a Wednesday night televised town hall forum on healthcare there was a telling moment when Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price listened to a cancer patient lament that he would lose his medical coverage under the Republican plan. Mr Price's response was to criticise past Democratic promises on healthcare.

Have Republicans forgotten how to govern? - BBC News

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After conservatives in the House threatened to block the GOP's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) released an amendment Monday night aimed at cutting even more benefits for the poor. The Republican plan would now make enrolling in Medicaid even more difficult, with states encouraged to add a work requirement for adults who want to get insurance. States would also now be allowed to accept Medicaid as a block grant—a system that would allow state governments to offer fewer health insurance benefits.

Ryan's changes have the support of President Donald Trump, but they apparently don't go far enough to appease right-wing activists. Heritage Action, a prominent conservative advocacy group tied to the Heritage Foundation think tank, announced Tuesday that it is still doesn't think the GOP plan goes far enough in repealing Obamacare. The organization says it plans to pressure house Republicans to vote against the bill when it comes to the floor. (The vote is currently scheduled for Thursday.) Michael Needham, Heritage Action's CEO, said on Twitter that the group "will be key voting against" the bill in its annual scorecard for members of Congress. To translate that into non-Washington speak, the group will downgrade its rating of any lawmaker who votes for the GOP plan.

Trumpcare 2.0 Still Isn’t Cruel Enough to Satisfy Conservatives | Mother Jones

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A familiar group of conservative rebels stands between House Speaker Paul Ryan and his goal of passing an Obamacare repeal measure on Thursday: the House Freedom Caucus. The group said Tuesday it has enough votes to block the measure, arguing that it’s not a complete enough repeal of the health-care law, and Thursday’s vote could be the first sign of whether the caucus will be able to enforce its conservative principles in the age of Donald Trump.

Representative David Brat, a Republican caucus member from Virginia, said that while Trump called him personally last week, he was still opposed to the bill. For him, the Freedom Caucus’s goals haven’t changed just because the president has.  They still “want to move this bill toward free market solutions, not the federal government running one sixth of the economy,” he said. “Everything’s exactly the same, same logic.”

Ryan Confronts Familiar Foe in Health-Care Fight: Conservatives - Bloomberg

Note to Freedom caucus: THERE ARE NO FREE MARKET SOLUTIONS FOR HEALTHCARE, at least not ones that lead to anything near universal coverage. So for the sake of ideology, these guys are willing to let tens of thousands of people die, and many more suffer.

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For the Koch brothers, kicking off 24M people off healthcare coverage isn't cruel enough:

A powerful network of conservative donors, backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, have vowed financial support to House Republicans in their 2018 reelection races — if they vote against the health-care bill backed by the Trump administration. The seven-figure reserve fund by the groups Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, announced Wednesday night, will be spent on media advertising, direct-mail fliers and grassroots canvassing, and may appeal to on-the-fence Republicans worried about President Donald Trump’s veiled threat that they’ll lose their primary races in 2018 if they oppose the bill.

Koch-backed network vows to fund Republicans who reject health bill - MarketWatch

This might be one of the modifications that will appear to ram through Trumpcare in order to get it through the House and the Freedom Caucus

Conservatives in the House are upset that the AHCA doesn't do enough to remove insurance regulations imposed by Obamacare, and therefore doesn't do enough to lower premiums. So they want to eliminate the "Essential Health Benefits" (EHB) rules that say what health insurance plans have to cover, in hopes this will make insurance more customized and less expensive. Repeal of the EHB rules was included a leaked "discussion draft" for the health care bill in February. Its exclusion from the final bill was something of a surprise.

That said, there are some plausible reasons Republicans backed off the effort to repeal EHBs — and why reinserting the repeal at the behest of conservatives could create new problems for the already-troubled bill. Many EHBs are pretty essential Obamacare names 10 EHBs that all health plans must cover, and they're not exactly bells and whistles. The first benefit deemed essential is outpatient care — that is, doctor's visits. The second is visits to the emergency room. The third is hospitalization.

AHCA tweak could eliminate Essential Health Benefits - Business Insider

One has to read the second article in whole, as there are really serious consequences involved. These legislators are willing to shaft millions of people, kill ten thousands of them, just out of an ideological need to repeal and 'replace' Obamacare

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Rep. Mo Brooks of the hard-line Freedom Caucus told CNBC on Friday the House Obamacare replacement plan is the worst bill he's seen in 30 years of public service. The Alabama Republican said on "Squawk Box" he'll vote "no" when the measure comes up for a vote, which President Donald Trump demanded take place Friday. Brooks blasted the GOP's American Health Care Act (AHCA) — backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump — as "the largest welfare program ever proposed" by Republicans. "It's not a repeal. It's a marketing ploy," he said. Brooks is calling for a straight repeal of former President Barack Obama's 2010 health-care law, despite the long odds of ever getting the Senate to go that far. "We can either go bankrupt as a country or do the right thing," he said.

Freedom Caucus member: Health bill is GOP's biggest welfare program ever