Burr Bucks Trump to Support Subsidies For Insurance Companies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – When President Trump suspended “cost sharing” subsidies to insurance companies that had been illegally approved by the Obama administration to try and mask the true costs of Obamacare, Democrats and weak-kneed Republicans were aghast.

Now, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is cosponsoring a bill to give cover to the unconstitutional Obama payments and extending those subsidies for at least two years.

From CBS News:

“Two key senators on Thursday announced that the bipartisan proposal they’ve crafted to fix Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments has a total of 24 original co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, reached an agreement with his ranking member, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and it’s backed by 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

The short-term deal would extend CSR payments for the next two years and would eliminate the question about whether paying them is legal. The agreement would permanently amend Obamacare to give new flexibility for states to create insurance policies that have a larger variety and lower costs and it also would continue CSRs during 2018 and 2019.

“This is a first step,” Alexander said on the Senate floor. “Improve it, and pass it sooner rather than later.””

Burr has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill. Instead of making genuine efforts to repeal the premium spiking monstrosity that is Obamacare, the good senator seems more willing to keep it going by offering billions in taxpayer money to insurance companies.

Trump has come out publicly against the plan, tweeting that he could never support bailing out companies that have made a fortune on Obamacare.