Trump's Presidency IV: Stupefaction Jackson

I can't stay up any longer....guess I'll have to wait until morning.

 

Yeah, I am tapping out too. hope for a dem filibuster.

 

McCain just voted no.

Edit: McCain + Murkowski made 50 and 51 nos.

Bring out the super skinny repeal. AKA, rebrand the ACA Biglycare.

 

McConnell now whining about Democrats ... blaming them for not contributing ideas.

Remember this was a bill crafted 12 hours ago. Zero hearings this entire year. No testimonies from doctors, hospital administrators ... nothing.

 

Senators were live tweeting at 10 pm when they got an updated copy of the bill. They voted at a little before midnight. A lot of time there to do the stuff they wanted the Democrats to do.

 

The tweets that will be flying tomorrow will be incredible.

BTW. Someone needs to take the megaphone out of Bernie's hand. As soon as the skinny repeal failed, he went out and essentially vowed for universal healthcare. Maybe he is the only person who doesn't see the problem with rubbing salt in the wound and creating excellent ad fodder. Republicans struggle because Obamacare has provided access. Universal Healthcare is something they can fight against and win.

 

Multiple polls indicate that the majority of Americans want single payer...

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...overnment-should-ensure-health-care-coverage/

 

In the short term what they need to do is remove the sickest 5% with long term illnesses out of the market. Enroll them into an early Medicare program. You instantly stabilize markets and reduce premiums for the remaining 95%.

So logical that you can be sure the GOP would never agree to it. Even though they have no alternative. Putting them into high risk pools is as good as leaving them uninsured. And in the end someone still has to pay when they keep going to the ER.

GOP needs to be honest. They're either for covering the chronically sick, or they're for early death. Can't have it both ways. And if they're really serious about lowering premiums, they should be trying to strengthen the mandate, not eliminate it. Getting healthy young people into the market will lower premiums even more.

 

It's pretty transparent that the ACA "imploding" is because of their manipulations since it's inception, and more so now.

They own it...

 

TRUE hipsters have already abandoned all of that because it's WAY to mainstream! Finding hipstery things that aren't already mainstream (in the relevant age group) probably is a full time job.

 

Well there's always Borussia Dortmund. [emoji23]

 

I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy, but I can imagine that the Republicans are okay with this outcome. Much easier to complain about Obamacare than own a horrible plan of their own that kicks 20 million people off of health insurance. Collins and M - U - R - K - O - W - S - K - I called dibs on the two freebies, then McCain selflessly set himself up to be a hero again (for the first time in his Senate career), and McConnell is probably okay with it and gave it the green light.

 

I don't buy it. Don't forget that beyond the visceral need to erase any Obama accomplishment and to screw up the poorest and weakest among us, this health care charade is ultimately a big tax break gift to the riches. That is something the McConnell, Ryan and the R's in Congress believe is their mission in life! It is a big failure they can not deliver on it yet.

 

Or was it all kabuki and McConell knew how McCain was voting all the way?

 

Not to mention, Dems now have this whole shitshow, plus repeated votes by GOP members of the House and Senate and those simple/devastating CBO scores to campaign on next year.

 

If the Dems were smart, they'd immediately start proposing fixes to the ACA. Serious fixes.

Instead of congratulating themselves that the ACA survived, they should put themselves out as the serious party with ideas on this issue.

There is a middle ground between "it's great" and "let it implode".

The GOP owns this failure and rightly so, but the Dems have an opportunity. It's up to them to actually do something good with it.

 

As if the Republicans would do anything to help. Total fantasy - Republicans will not advance anything Dems suggest. They are the party of spite.

 

That shouldn't stop the left from making the proposals and publicizing it. Then, if they can muster a majority in either chamber they can start forcing the discussion.

 

The 6 months the GOP has spent on health care has made voters realize how far away the Republicans are from what most people want. Democrats should run on health care, health care, health care next election. That and tie the opposing candidate to Trump, paint him as a Trump stooge. But health care should be the primary line of attack.

 

Most people want everything for free.

 

No. See, here's the thing. There really is one thing that unifies the GOP, and that's reducing taxes on the rich. Repealing the ACA was their vehicle to do that. Then they were going to take up tax reform and do it in a revenue neutral way. Since they've already cut taxes on the rich, their version of tax reform can be fair to the 99%.

Now, that plan is shot to hell. They can't pass a tax cut because they can't get 60 votes. They can't do a revenue neutral tax reform and cut taxes on the rich, because math dictates doing so would raise taxes on the 99%. That's why they had to repeal the ACA first. They've failed, and so it's hard to see how they can do tax reform AND reward their donor base without destroying their chances in 2018.

 

Agreed, although I would rephrase that as serious extensions. Democrats should propose a true government solution. At the least, that will position the ACA as the conservative option, and prevent the GOP from thinking about ever re-launching an attack. At the most, the public will go along with that (which it might, it increasingly is favoring more govt. involvement) and we have a chance to come up with something much better.