I missed the one last night that had Cruz, Rubio and Carson. But we're watching the one tonight. So far it's been Kasich and now Bush. I will give props to CNN for this town hall. I will look up last night's broadcast on YouTube or somewhere and watch that later. It's great to see the candidates get questions from people in the audience and have all the time they want to answer without having to debate each other. Debate is good too. But it's good to get to hear from candidates one at a time in a conversational manner rather than canned speeches or time-limited debate responses.
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I will be surprised when I watch last night's town hall though if CNN didn't try to cause controversy with Cruz.
But, to their credit, they are letting Kasich and Bush talk more naturally without trying to hit them nothing but gotcha questions.
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I agree Shane - much better way to get a feel for the candidates than the circus that the debates have become. I am pleasantly surprised how CNN has handled itComment
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Could a Trump/Cruz or Cruz/Trump ticket knock out a democratic party ticket???Comment
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Wow, I actually agreed with trump about something in regards to iraq...that's about the only thing I can say about him...Comment
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Maybe. I think Cruz at the top would have a better chance. All the polls of R's vs. Hillary or Bernie show that too. I don't expect to see Cruz and Trump on the same ticket though. One of them will likely get the nomination, and after all their fights, I would be shocked to see either of them offer the VP slot to the other. I'd also be shocked to see either of them accept a VP offer from the other. I don't see Trump accepting a VP spot with anybody, even if somebody offered it. I don't think his ego would allow it.Originally posted by JGreen31 View PostComment
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Rubio is jockeying for the VP nod from whomever gets the nomination. But Kasich could be a dark horse candidate with moderate underpinning to an ultra conservative presidential candidateComment
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Are you okay with business leaving the USA?Originally posted by Be10dwn View Post
How about border security?Comment
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I thought the town hall style last night was interesting. Jeb and Trump were........well............ok! LOL!Comment
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It was a good format. Trump was still Trump though - dodging and weaving on his record and unwiling to talk in much detail about anything. At least he was orange instead of red-faced though.
After being pressed, he did actually talk in slightly more detail than I've heard him mention before about his healthcare plan. It's still not clear exactly what he wants to do, but he mentioned a couple things last night that I'd not heard him say before.
He said, as always, that Obamacare is a disaster and needs to be repealed. Agreed. He said it needs to be replaced with something better. Agreed. Nothing new there. But when pressed for details on what he'd like to replace it with it sounds like he pretty much wants to replace it with the same thing. I guess we'd just call it Trumpcare instead of Obamacare, but there wouldn't be much difference between the two, as best I can tell.
Right now, with Obamacare, we have a mandated requirement for everybody to buy health insurance. Those that can't afford it are put on Medicaid. People that do buy insurance shop among the insurance plans within their state.
The new things I heard from Trump last night were that he does support the individual mandate that requires everyone to buy insurance, and he supports requiring plans to cover preexisting conditions. He talked again about how great it will be to open up the market to nationwide competition rather than statewide competition, and he talked about how we won't let the poor people die in the street and we'll have them all on a government-funded plan (Medicaid).
So the only difference between Trumpcare and Obamacare would be a nationwide insurance market rather than statewide, supposedly making everything way cheaper through more competition. But if plans are required to provide all the same coverages that Obamacare requires, including preexisting conditions, it can't be much cheaper (if any cheaper). There are only a handful of insurance companies that sell health insurance, and they are all already doing business in every state. Doing away with state-by-state regulation will allow us to shop nationwide among the same insurers that we already have access to in every state to begin with. I don't see how that will increase competition and lower prices at all.
The main reason Obamacare is so expensive is because of the requirement to cover preexisting conditions as well as requiring coverage for lots of things that not every person needs or wants coverage for combined with the fact that people are required to buy it, so the insurers have much more freedom to charge whatever they want to charge. The more an insurance policy covers, the more it has to cost. But the preexisting condition coverage is the biggest driver of increased costs. If Trumpcare would require all the same coverages, it would have to be just as expensive as Obamacare. It would be the same as Obamacare with the exception of being completely federally regulated rather than partially state regulated.
Certainly, there are no easy answers to the problem of rising healthcare costs. But Trumpcare doesn't sound like it would be much different from Obamacare.Comment
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I watched both and liked them both. Rubio did well as did Cruz. Kasich scored some points but not enough in my opinion. Carson did himself no favors, and I see him dropping after SC, Bush might make it to Nevada and super Tuesday.Comment
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I watched Cruz's part this afternoon. He did very well. I'll watch the others this weekend.Comment
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