GOP Failure Watch Part IV (the Majority in Congress edition)

Oh, I'm not suggesting the dems do anything like that now, just pointing out that they did attempt to get buy in from the gop when they had the majority.

 

Some of you may like this. It's a storify of a tweet storm that attacks the idea that Ryan knows anything about policy, or that he's anything other than a top notch salesman for modern conservative budget priorities.

https://storify.com/DemFromCT/jh-weissmann-on-paul-ryan-as-policy-wonk

 

Those of us who dork over spreadsheets remember Paul Ryan's first claim at being a policy wonk, when he made his magic forecast numbers work by plugging 5% GDP growth into the equation. Well, not true ... he didn't do it ... somebody putting the numbers together for him did that, and when that was discovered, Ryan quickly yanked the spreadsheet down.

So, the GOP's greatest budget policy wonk didn't even realize the basic assumptions behind the model that he was presenting. A metaphor for the future, that was.

 

Doesn't know or doesn't care? Hard to tell the difference. Probably both.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/...s-obamacare-repeal-replace-secret-pact-236507

Politico is usually very reliable at the type of journalism whose ethic is, find out what important people want to be in the media and then publish it. So I'd bet this article is dead on.

Jim Jordan got most but not all of the HFC to agree not to make separate deals with Ryan or Trump. By acting as a bloc they gained a ton of leverage.

 

Interesting stuff. The Tea Party has always excelled at exerting influence that is disproportionate to its size.

Not sure that the FC tanked the bill, though. The Senate was always going to be a challenge.

 

I think it is sort of important to keep in mind what actually happened here. The bill didn't come close to making the Senate, it failed in the House.

Not only that, it didn't fail as in "came up short of clearing the bar;" it failed as in "never even got off the ground."

 

I saw an article calling the group the FC ultras, and I thought of all you guys.

 

Yeah, Like President Dewey would have done any better!

 

@VFish , I don't understand your desire to be so rude. You spent years attacking the way Obamacare was passed. Yet you see Republicans doing many of the same things to try and repeal the law. Where is your outrage?

 

Much as I think Obamacare was a mistake and needs to be replaced, I am glad that this fiasco occurred. You are talking about 18% of our economy and something that for good or ill, people are now relying on. Some thought needed to go into it.

I believe that a portion of the GOP backed themselves into a corner on this.

 

By failing to prepare you're preparing to fail. They had 7 friggin years. They're useless as far as crafting policy that assists the majority of Americans.

 

Look, I agree with you. And I would argue it was more than 7 years, it was 22. The GOP won the 1994 election in large part due to the fiasco of Hillarycare and at first introduced some good partial measures to address healthcare (HIPPA, the Mothers and Newborns Act, MSAs). And we had the experience of Romneycare in Massachusetts as well as TennCare in Tennessee. All of these experiments should have lead to some sort of But then what exactly? They got tired of it I guess and it was easier to make grand gestures than actually govern.

One of the reasons I gave up on the national GOP (also one reason I tend to like governors to run for president, they actually need to get things done that need to be done).

 

How was Obamacare a mistake and what do you propose we replace it with?

 

It didn't go far enough and lots of the states were too stupid to take the free federal money that would have helped a lot of people.

 

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The original sin at the heart of the AHCA is that its goal was never ever ever to improve our health insurance. The goal was to cut taxes on the rich by almost a trillion dollars. If you suck almost a T out of health insurance, of course the end result is going to be awful.

It's Ryan's brainchild, and it's arguably the most internally incoherent bill proposed this millennium. Ryan is a policy dunce. The sooner the Gang of 500 accepts that reality, the sooner we can stop the slide into being an ungovernable county.

 

This is one of the most sneaky-evil phrases ever concocted, and it needs to be killed.

 

Twas about a week ago.

Well, Romneycare is Obamacare, but point heard.

 

It was not Healthcare Insurance, it was Wealthcare Insurance.

 

To think that I almost had the pleasure to shake this scumbag's hand when he was campaigning at my voting precinct...

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article145942934.html

“My actions and my presence in government is now a distraction to my colleagues, the legislative process, and the citizens of our great State,” Artiles wrote. “I am responsible and I am accountable and effective immediately, I am resigning from the Florida State Senate.

“It’s clear there are consequences to every action, and in this area, I will need time for personal reflection and growth.”

Negron forced Artiles to apologize on the Senate floor Wednesday for his alcohol-fueled racist and sexist Monday night tirade against Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville. But black lawmakers outraged at Artiles for calling Gibson a “bitch” and a “girl” — and for referring to some Republicans as “**********s” — said saying sorry was not enough: They formally sought his expulsion from the Senate.​

 

Oh, Florida politics...

 

So, erm, how do you guys feel about an RNC contracted marketing firm negligently exposing the personal details of 200 million American voters?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40331215

 

You can buy this stuff for $60,000 already thanks to Google. The damage was done long ago.

 

Stupid rules and regulations, if they didn't exist we wouldn't do stuff like putting the information on a public server.

 

The only reason the GOP stuck with Trump these past six months was to get their agenda passed.

Their agenda is dead.

What will they do next week when Trump is reported to have been at that meeting?