Here are some of the issues that will be discussed on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show.

Scott Olsen, Getty Images
Scott Olsen, Getty Images
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Walker Unveils Obamacare Replacement

On Tuesday, Scott Walker rolled out a major policy proposal that could get voters and other candidates talking. According to FOX News, Walker would repeal Obamacare and return more power to the states.

Walker said ObamaCare's backwards approach has driven up health care costs and reduced access to medical care for too many people.

The GOP contender's "Day One Patient Freedom Plan" consists of five steps: repealing ObamaCare in its entirety, ensuring affordable and accessible health insurance for everyone, making health care more efficient, effective and accountable by empowering the states, increasing quality and choice through innovation, and providing financial stability for families and taxpayers.

In order for Walker to repeal ObamaCare, he would need at least 60 votes in the Senate, which currently has only 54 Republicans. Even that number could decrease after next November's election.

Walker's plan includes providing refundable tax credits to individuals who do not have employer-based coverage to make health insurance more affordable, allowing Americans to shop for insurance across state lines, and continuing to protect all Americans with pre-existing conditions.

The plan would also return regulatory authority over health care coverage to the states. "The past five years have clearly demonstrated that giving Washington top-down control over regulating health care coverage does not work." This would include giving states the ability to run Medicaid and "reorganize it into smaller, focused parts."

Walker would also allow consumers to pool together and purchase insurance as a group.

Repealing Obamacare and replacing it should be a major debate among Republicans. While Donald Trump has been seen as the leader on the issue of immigration, Walker is smart to lay out a policy that could make him a leader on repealing Obamacare.

Perry 2016 Continues

It's a week later and Rick Perry's campaign is still in full-swing. While money problems continue to hurt his campaign, Perry is still making campaign stops and talking about the issues according to the Texas Tribune.

“This is a marathon. This isn’t a sprint,” the Republican told reporters on Monday as he kicked off a three-day swing through Iowa that is expected to include appearances at the Iowa State Fair, a legendary rite of passage for presidential candidates.

Amid a campaign in financial crisis, Perry made two stops in Iowa on Monday. Along the way, he encountered unpaid but loyal staffers, a rival contender in former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and many questions about the viability of his organization.

On the surface, little had changed with the campaign since the revelation that his campaign is in such financial trouble that staffers are no longer being paid. Perry still had an entourage and still was an adept retail politician.

“We’ll get the economic side back on track,” he said. “That, I’m not worried about.”

But Texas’ longest serving governor is in a race against time.  The task ahead of Perry and his band of unpaid staffers and loyalists is to make the case one-on-one in Iowa, and to raise enough money to keep the staff on board until the February caucuses.

In interviews with The Texas Tribune, staffers said they are loyal to the governor and will hang on with him as long as they can.

“I’m so proud of so many kids across the country who’ve been working with us,” Perry said. “They said, 'We believe in you. We believe what you’ve done. And we believe in your vision for this country. And we’re going to be working. We’re going to stick around here and be helping you.'”

Older, more seasoned consultants and aides were calm. Politics is an unpredictable business, much like the Texas oil business. And so it’s considered smart financial sense in the political consulting world to sock away money for unpredictable circumstances.

But younger staffers are not so secure, and other presidential campaigns are circling above to hire them away from Perry. And so the pressure is on Perry.

“It’s all going to depend on people’s financial needs, personally,” said campaign senior director Jamie Johnson, who is based in Iowa. “All I can say is the governor is doing his best to raise the hard cash for his campaign.”

“None of us are asking him, 'When is the money coming?’”Johnson added. “We are all working as volunteers, even though we didn’t start out that way, but we believe so much in this man that we’re not abandoning him.”

Perry indicated that help is on the way but gave no specific figure on how much he has raised, and staffers say they are still not taking a salary.

“Last week was one of the best economic weeks that we’ve had since the campaign started,” Perry said. “We had close to a record if not a record online amount of money that came in.”

He also noted that his campaign's allied super PAC, which cannot coordinate with him directly, is well-funded.

“It’s my understanding the super PAC has an extraordinary amount of dollars, they’re going to be out telling our story, so we’ll make this," he said.

That super PAC, Opportunity and Freedom PAC, raised nearly $17 million in the first half of this year, and is in a position to offer Perry air cover on television.

There were also indications of geographic consolidation. When asked if the campaign will increase its emphasis on Iowa over other early states, Johnson indicated that was a fair assumption.

I still expect Perry to remain in the race for a while. If he can get on TV more and have a great debate performance in September, people will come back around to him and the money will flow in.

Must Read Links:

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard on our KFYO YouTube page after the show and online at kfyo.com.

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