How Republicans can regain the momentum

By Tom Quiner

Obama has crushed the Republicans.
They knew heading into the government shutdown that they will lose the PR wars. Admittedly, they have always rebounded fairly well, as they did during the Gingrich/Clinton shutdowns in the mid 90s.
But times are different today. They are up against the most formidable foe the GOP has faced since the old Soviet Union.
Barack Obama will negotiate with terrorists, anti-semites, and America haters on any corner of the earth. But he has proven his resolve in not only refusing to negotiate with Republicans, but in trying to destroy the Republican brand. Mr. Obama still has the slobbering support of the mainstream media (MSM). But Republicans now have a significant counterweight in Fox News, that they didn’t have back in the Clinton years.
However, even though the Obama Government has exposed their ineptness in trying to design and implement Obamacare exchanges, they have produced a state-of-art propaganda machine utilizing social media, Twitter, and all aspects of the internet.
I receive multiple messages each week from Organizing for Action, Obama’s 501c political action committee. They beat up on Republicans with every message. Look at Twitter. The president has 38,258,000  followers! That’s a third of all voters. They hammer on Republicans every single day.
Team Obama has out-marketed the GOP at every turn. Their PR campaigns have been powerful and effective.
Let’s face it, the Republicans make it SO easy for the liberals who have hijacked the Democratic Party. Republicans are perceived as the “party of NO.” Senator Ted “Custer’s last stand” Cruz pursued a reckless path in leading us to government shutdown in an attempt to gut Obamacare.
Obamacare IS a disaster. It will bury itself in time under its own weight. Just look at the rollout of the exchanges.
So what should Republicans do?
This blog believes the ONLY way Republicans regain the White House is by presenting a positive message of hope and prosperity.
They should do it like Reagan did, not with the phony Obama blather of stopping the rising seas.
The American public doesn’t like Obamacare. The Republicans need a spokesperson who can begin presenting a positive alternative to Obamacare.  Three men immediately come to mind:  Congressman Paul Ryan, Senator Marco Rubio, or former Indiana governor, Mitch Daniels.
Each of these men is smart, positive, and accomplished.
Here is the message they need to convey:

“My fellow Americans, the potential for this country is unlimited.
Sadly, the prosperity economy that lifted the fortunes of Americans in every single state over the past third of a century has stalled. I don’t need to bore you with facts and figures. You can feel the pain in your pocketbook.
The employment rate is the lowest it’s been since the late 70s.
Too many people are living paycheck to paycheck.
And the government seems to butt into our lives at every turn.
Let’s shoot straight. Republicans have contributed to our problems. We’ve spent way too much of your taxes on expanding government programs. True, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what our friends across the aisle have spent, but the time has come to stop pointing fingers at each other and get us back on the path to prosperity.
It can be done, and it can be done quickly.
There is no doubt that the misnamed Affordable Care Act is a huge impediment to restoring prosperity.
This law had noble goals.
Specifically, the ACA has tried mightily to get more people health insurance.
It covers those with preexisting conditions.
And it tried to lower the price of health insurance.
In order to accomplish these legitimate goals, Democrats had a choice between a “carrot or a stick” approach.
They chose the stick.
You know what I’m talking about.  The plan uses mandates, fines, and taxes to coerce Americans into buying a product they may not want.
The architecture of the plan makes Rube Goldberg blush. The bill itself was over 2000 pages. Worse, tens of thousands of new regulations are being written. One of the architects of the plan, former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.
Three years have passed. We’re still not entirely sure what’s in it.
Compelling evidence suggests it’s not working as planned.
Only 5000 people have signed up on the exchanges. Another 25,000 have signed up on state exchanges. That’s only 2,727 every day.  At this rate, it’ll take a half a century to sign up the 50 million without health insurance.
Despite the noble intentions of the ACA, way too many Americans have been overwhelmed with “sticker shock” once they were finally able to get a price from the exchanges.
The exchanges themselves have been a boondoggle, frustrating the efforts of people who have lost their current coverage, thanks to the ACA, and who desperately are seeking an affordable replacement.
Here’s what we’ve learned. The Affordable Healthcare Act is not affordable. It employs a top-down approach that that has subverted its noble goals. How many times did we hear that if you like your current coverage and doctor, you can keep it? Sadly, that wasn’t true. Chalk it up to one of the thousand of unintended consequences of a bureaucratic system.
The Republican Party embraces the goals of the Affordable Care Act. We propose a simpler, more effective system that we believe can accomplish our shared goals quicker.
We believe in using a carrot, not a stick, to accomplish our mutual goals with the American people and the Democratic Party.
We believe in a bottom-up, not a top down system.
And we believe YOU should be in control of your healthcare, not bureaucrats a thousand miles away.
The foundation of our healthcare simplification plan is simply this:
Families who purchase health insurance on a state-run insurance exchange will receive a $20,000 tax deduction toward payroll and income taxes.
For individuals, the deduction is $7500.
This plan levels the playing field for the little guy verses the giant corporations who currently get to deduct the cost of health insurance for their employees.
It is simple and clean and prevents bureaucrats from getting between you and your healthcare providers.
What about high risk patients?
Again, this a noble and legitimate goal of the Affordable Care Act. Our plan simply creates a $25 billion pool over the next decade to defray the cost for these Americans. Those with pre-existing conditions would be empowered to shift insurance without the fear of losing coverage. Premiums would be capped at twice the average cost of premiums in their state.
Unlike the ACA, our plan would expand access for high deductible health savings accounts for those Americans interested in lowering their monthly premiums.
How else will the Republican plan save you money and insure more Americans? By allowing health insurance companies to market their policies across state lines, just as we currently allow interstate commerce for life and automobile insurance.
Our Democratic friends have made it clear that they want consumers to have more choice. We share their goal. Interstate commerce is a fast and smart way to accomplish that goal quickly.
Even more, we would allow small businesses to band together and negotiate lower group rates from insurers.
We would go further than the ACA in driving down costs. How? By capping awards for pain and suffering, emotional distress and similar noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases at $250,000, unless a state had a higher cap.
In summary, Republicans offer a carrot, rather than a stick, to accomplish the same goals as the ACA, but far more effectively.
The ACA was passed without a single Republican vote. We were locked out of the negotiations. Republicans extend a hand of friendship to Democrats to come to the table and discuss the merits of our proposal.
The American people don’t like the complexity and false promises of the ACA. The Republican plan simply takes on the same goals using incentives rather than penalties to accomplish these goals.
The Republican plan puts you in charge instead of Washington.
America, it is time to unite.
Healthcare simplification is the first step to reigniting our economy and getting back on the road to prosperity.”