Obamacare repeal is not ABOUT health care. It’s about whether Trump’s buddies get a tax cut or not.
okay, where did I put it? Okay, here it is:
Ahem:
"What Did You Think They Were Going To Do?"
What the hell would hospitals know about health care, or its cost, or its effectiveness?
Just a bunch of clueless busybodies, IMHO…
This is great, but what we need is “Or else each and every one of us will put up signs telling our patients who is killing them and our staff who is putting them out of jobs, and contribute to your opponents, even your nutbar rivals in the republican primaries.”
Once upon a time, hospitals saying “YOUR HEALTH CARE BILL IS TERRIBLE, IT STINKS ON ICE” would have been, if not politically poisonous, at least something that might slow down passage for, oh I dunno, a week or two.
Thank goodness Mitch McConnell has streamlined the process!
oh gee - it stinks! - duh! that is exactly what happens when you get a bunch of surly little boys hiding out in a secret room with no adult supervision - they start showing off and trying to see who can be the most vulgar - be the biggest potty mouth and describe the most offensive things to do and say - and from that kind of environment emerges this crap re-write of the health care bill… what a shock! it became a contest to see who could nudge this thing closer and close to truly heinous
[quote=“maximus, post:4, topic:57963, full:true”]
What the hell would hospitals know about health care, or its cost, or its effectiveness?
Just a bunch of clueless busybodies, IMHO…
[/quote]Yeah, what do they know about tax cuts?
And of course this will sway the Republicans… (rolls eyes)
Hospitals, and healthcare providers have to rain holy hell down on these assholes (and uncork massive ad campaigns against the GOP and this bill) for it have any impact.
In another example of pathetic GOP flailing about…
There’s no time for that! If we don’t pass this tax cut now, we won’t have time to pass another tax cut next year. And if the >$250,000 set doesn’t get two scoops of tax cuts, the <$50,000 cohort who think they’re the 1% will be furious!
@maximus Mr. Nutter Butter > coal mine CEO
“Medicaid cuts of this magnitude are unsustainable and will increase costs to individuals with private insurance.”
That’s how it worked in NC. The Republicans’ refusal to accept Medicaid expansion was a major driver of the 100% premium increase I experienced when I was on the Exchange from 2014 until I chickened out and took a job that provided health insurance. Because paying for the care of the uninsured was always one of the main drivers of provider cost inflation.
Both parties and most Americans are still fighting the wrong battle. This shouldn’t just be some big argument over providing health insurance, it should be primarily about lowering the demand for health care services. How do we do that; by getting Americans to take far more personal responsibility for their own health. Along with that, we need the government to subsidize super foods (rather than corn and dairy) so that kale, spinach, beets, garlic, beans, onions, broccoli, etc, are damn near free. The message that our screwed up health care system is sending is this: Hey, Americans, go ahead and consume tons of sugar, tons of animal protein, tons of fat, gallons of soft drinks, packs of cigarettes, tanker fulls of hard liquor, and the medical/pharmaceutical industries will make it all okay…for a massive price. Given the horrific diets most Americans eat, and given the fact that poor people are forced to eat crappy food because good food is expensive, it’s no surprise that we have totally out-of-control medical costs in this country. Of course, there are people who fall ill and need medical care, but what can be called “elective disease” (eating to excess, smoking and drinking too much) is a great part of why medical costs are so high. Lower the demand for health care and the price will fall accordingly. Watch FORKS OVER KNIVES and see the massive savings we’d have if even a moderate number of Americans worked harder at being healthy. We’ll never get out of this vicious rising spiral of medical costs until people don’t need as much medical care for preventable problems.
Republicans have gone from “What would Jesus do” to What have the Kochs paid us for.
The Jesus part was lip service, the Koch part they’re serious about.
Yah I don’t see the Koch’s or Addelson kicking back any money to them
You know, if Mitch had held Committee hearings, and heard from the interested parties…
Oh they give the Kochs lip service too, if you know what I mean, and I think you do!
Sadly, this tax cut won’t even help the >$250,000 set.
You know, I advised against getting into the weeds, but this is where the way Republicans have managed to frame things has eaten away the foundation of liberal democracy and set us up for oligarchy. Hearken to me children, for I have a secret to share: the “capital gains tax” is, not, in fact, a tax, but, rather, a mere income tax break.
One of the great animating beliefs of conservative mythology is that capital gains are a special kind of super-duper secret sauce job-creation turbocharged vitamin-enriched income that is somehow so economically superior to other forms of income that it deserves to be taxed at a lower rate than every other kind of income.
Wages, tips, commissions, gambling proceeds, Publisher’s Clearing House jackpots–all of it gets taxed at the same rate. But not capital gains! Earnings on investments–dividends, bond interest, net profit on the sale of property are special! A Very Special Kind of Income Deserving of A Very Special Lower Tax Rate. Because clearly, Cyrus Worthington Moneybag III’s passive dividend gain create jobs while selling stuff in a convenience store doesn’t.
(Some of you may remember Charlie Goodman going after Obama in a 2008 debate to make sure the crazy head liberal black guy wasn’t going to “kill the goose that lays the golden eggs” by raising the capital gains rates.)
Yeah, even Reagan didn’t buy it. Killing the capital gains rate was a centerpiece of his tax “reform” bill that he gave some oddly Democratic sounding impassioned speeches on. Instead, Republicans brought it back in during the Clinton Administration, and, yeah, Bill went along with it.
So, as a result, rather than taxing the profits Worthington’s broker made him when he sold some of his stock at a profit as ordinary income at Worthy’s top marginal rate of 39.5, it gets taxed at the long term capital gains rate of 20%.
But then evil Obama comes along and imposes a 3.8% surtax on investment income that exceeds 200,000! And this oppression cannot stand! Imagine, the very idea of having to pay 23.8% on capital gains over 200K! Imagine the horror of only getting a 15.8% break on your stock sales in excess of 200K net rather than the full 19.6% that is your divine right! If they have to kill every moocher in America, this will not stand! It cannot! And think God for the Russians’ intervention in this sorry “democracy” nonsense in time to nip this outrage before it takes further hold!
“Unfortunately, the draft bill under discussion in the Senate moves in the opposite direction.”
That’s fucking inspiring. I’m almost tempted to frown at the Senate for moving the wrong way.
C’mon, you jackasses. Get your hospital directors/presidents/whatevers on local TV news and start talking about how this bill will affect people right in that city/town/county. Get personal. Get graphic. Describe scenarios that the locals can identify with. Don’t go along to get along in public, and then hope you can get some small favors with private lobbying.
You know this bill means that hospitals will, for financial survival, go back to not-so quietly discriminating against patients on the basis of insurance. Do you know what that does to the people on the front lines who have to carry out those policies on individuals?
Stir some shit up.
Wow. You solved everything didn’t ya?