The Milwaukee Post

By KATHERINE MICHALETS Conley News Service WAUKESHA — Two days after new and returning con- gressmen were sworn in, Republicans were busy set- ting the stage for when Donald Trump becomes president Jan. 20. One of the first things on the agenda was putting into motion the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, the sig- nature piece of legislation from President Barack Obama's two terms in office. On Jan. 5, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, spent a few minutes answer- ing questions from Conley News Service. CONLEY NEWS: I knew that the new Congress was going to hit the ground run- ning, but I was surprised at just how fast you got to work with creating a resolution to repeal Obamacare. What is that process going to look like? How will a replace- ment plan be created? RYAN: What we are pass- ing right now is what we call a budget resolution, which gives us the ability to follow up with later legislation — which is called reconcilia- tion — that cannot be fili- bustered in the Senate. What this is, it's a procedural move. We're passing the process that gives us the ability to later bring legisla- tion repealing Obamacare through the Senate without a filibuster to get on President Trump's desk. All the while, we are working on our transition and replace- ment plans. There are three points I'd like to make: No. 1: Obamacare is failing and failing quickly. People got hit with another round of double-digit premium increases; the deductibles are so high that it doesn't even feel like you have insurance in the first place, and there are very few choic- es. Many insurers have just pulled out. A third of the counties in America only have one choice, which is a monopoly, not a choice. So, we have got a serious prob- lem on our hands and what all of the insurers are telling us are that more pullouts are coming in 2017; it's going to get worse. We have got to step in and prevent chaos from continuing with Obamacare. And we have already shown you what we intend to replace it with, you can go to better.GOP (online) and look at our plan that we have already shown is what a better system looks like that gives people actually lower cost and more choices, a patient-centered system. And we will clearly have a transition period so people don't have the rug pulled out from under them while we get away from the Obamacare debacle. CONLEY NEWS: Do you think it will be pretty easy to work together for a common goal, a common vision? RYAN: We as Republicans have that, and again we ran on it. We ran on a replace- ment plan for Obamacare. The problem is the Democrats are doing every- thing they can to keep Obamacare. I see this as more ideology than health care policy. I think they are clinging to the ideology that health care should be gov- ernment run, but with gov- ernment- run health care, no one can afford it and every- one is losing their choices. So Obamacare is just a series of broken promises. If you like your plan, you can keep it — that was not true. It will lower your premi- ums by $2,500 — the opposite is true. We have had huge premium increases, massive deductible increases. You have plenty of choices — that is also not true. Obamacare is basically col- lapsing under its own weight. It's a string of bro- ken promises and we have shown exactly what we intend to replace it with and we are going to be moving on doing just that this year. People should be rest assured that there will be a suitable transition so that the rug will not be pulled out from underneath anyone. CONLEY NEWS: The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act is another focus at the start of the new legislative year. Why is this a priority when there are only 82 bills each year that this would affect? RYAN: Eighty-two bills exceeding $100 million in cost are being imposed on the American economy and on families. It is again one of the issues that we ran on, which was to restore the Constitution, which was to restore self-government and to maintain the separation of powers. We don't want a system where unelected bureaucrats are writing laws that affect our economy and our livelihood without our elected representatives having a say. This is impor- tant to reclaim representa- tive self-government. Our lawmakers who are duly elected should be the ones writing our laws, not unelected bureaucrats. What is happening — 82 is a perfect example — 82 regula- tions which are laws that impose on our economy in excess of $100 million in costs, many of them are much higher than that. These things should be voted on by people in Congress who are elected, not being put in by decree by unelected bureaucracies. CONLEY NEWS: Creating legislation that helps America's veterans is another focus for the new Congress. What can veter- ans and their families expect? RYAN: We have to clean up the VA. The VA gave us long waiting lines, it gave us cover-ups, it gave us Tomah. And so we have got to over- haul the VA system so it does offer our veterans the world-class health care that they were promised and that they deserve that they are not now getting. But it's going to take time and it's going to take a new Veterans Administration run by peo- ple who can clean the place up. And so we have had a lot of legislation that we could- n't get through with Obama — making sure that the vet- erans help line is actually answered. There are things like this that we have been working on for a long time to make sure that the veterans get 21st-century health care that they deserve and that they are not now getting. CONLEY NEWS: What will your focus be in 2017? What do you believe the goals of Congress, and the U.S. government as a whole, should be? RYAN: My focus is to basi- cally be the mailman — to deliver on the promises we made while we ran in the election. It is to deliver on the goals of the new Trump administration with this Congress, which is to increase jobs and economic opportunities, to restore self-government, to rebuild our military, to repeal and replace the health care law so that people can get better choices at better prices and to keep us safe. This is a very dangerous period we are in with respect to terrorism. And our foreign policy is in shambles and our military needs more tools to do their jobs. So our agenda that we ran on is precisely what we are working on executing and putting into place. There are (several) things that I am working on right now, this year: secure the border; fix health care; reform the tax code to get jobs; overhaul the regulato- ry system again for creating jobs; and fixing infrastruc- ture. Those are things we are talking about. Photo by Caleb Smith/Office of the Speaker Vice President-elect Mike Pence, left, is seen with House Speaker Paul Ryan at a Jan. 4 news conference. Ryan said Senate Republicans have been in daily contact with the incoming Trump administration to discuss legislative plans. Ryan prioritizes delivering on GOP promises in 2017 See RYAN on Page 18 January 13, 2017 • Milwaukee County Post • 3 PACKARD PLAZA MALL - In Cudahy 5656 S. 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