Dear Senator Scott; how do your constituents feel about being compelled to purchase insurance on their homes and cars? Is that a “mandate” too?? Republicans and logic, never the twain shall meet.
Dear Senator Scott: You DO have a choice. You can stop breathing.
No, it’s not a mandate, because it comes from the state, rather than the federal government. States’ rights, dontchaknow.
Does the Senate GOP’s Obamacare Repeal Bill Actually Repeal Obamacare?
Hey, who cares? As long as it fucks enough people over, it’s all good.
As I said when the first iteration of the House bill came out, Democrats should stop playing into Republican framing on this bill.
It is not a “repeal Obamacare” bill. It is not a “repeal the Affordable Care Act” bill. It is a “repeal Medicaid and give the money back to the billionaires” bill.
Full stop, that is its primary legal effect. The subsequent revisions have gotten more of a hint of crippling the ACA, but the primary effect of the very first version of the bill is always the most illustrative of its authors goals. Those are to kill Medicaid, and to give massive tax breaks to billionaires.
Yep. By defunding both halves of the ACA, it effectively kills Obamacare but leaves it on the books. They’ve conceded the underlying argument, though, and conservative policy wonks have been out making happy talk about how they want to expand the exchange system, have everybody currently on Medicaid and Medicare buy (subsidized) policies on the exchanges. Only then they’d have to fund subsidies, which would mean no .0001% tax cuts, so nagahappen.
So instead of zombie Trumpcare, we have zombie Obamacare. But zombies have a way of lurching back from the grave. The “full repeal” crowd are wise to want to kill it, but they’ve already lost the moral argument on EHBs, community rating and preexisting conditions. The one proactive solution they might be able to get behind they’re unwilling to fund. So all they can do is tear it down and hope they can ride out the storm.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing health industry people talk about the inevitability of single-payer (which they’re mostly not happy about)…
Good point. The Dems usually fail at dictating the narrative of most issues. For instance, they allow “national security” be defined almost exclusively relating to military security. The Dems should hammer home the fact that national security is exactly about affordable health care, a secure/honest banking system, clean water/air, etc.
Is whether it repeals O-care or not even the point?
What matters is what is left after the dust settles. Eventually, medical coverage will be needed and payments will come due.
If you owe more and get less, that isn’t helping and that is what matters.
Even the Fscking prussians understood that 150 years ago: if your people are sick and undernourished, and your economy is riddled with corruption, you’re going to lose wars.
“The notion that you have to be compelled to buy something
because you’re breathing is something we find antithetical to our cause
as conservatives,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) told reporters earlier this
month.
What a load. The notion of universal heathcare means Timmy’s remorseless arse is less exclusive.