“Make no mistake, the ACA does need fixing. "
I believe we’ll see Senator Heller’s opinion get some fixing shortly.
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And that’s the sign to keep flooding them with phone calls.
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I wouldn’t dare try to assign odds, but I would note that a very, very powerful whipping argument in the House was “oh, well, we’ll just send SOMETHING to the Senate and they’ll fix it over there”. The House moderates didn’t have to worry about that exact bill becoming law.
If the Senate passes this turkey, that’s going to be it. I am not going to be surprised if this thing is actually, factually as dead as hundreds of thousands of Americans would be if it passes.
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Maybe. McConnell can afford to give 2 votes away, and Heller is in a more obvious position of need than most others. I won’t hold my breath waiting for other shoes to drop, but I’m happy to be wrong.
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Well Manchin still will not criticize Trump. The problem those three have is that Trump is very popular in their respective states and as such they cannot be seen as obstructing the president, they need to be “bi-partisan”. Not that it will save them, when was the last time you saw a “Blue Dog” in the House? Those drop their pants for George W. Bush and they still got swept from office.
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It seems like we’re caught between the opinions that either McConnell is some sort of Machiavellian mastermind (Kabuki Theater Theory) or that he’s running around twisting arms in the desperate hope that he’ll get lucky. It may be wishful thinking on my part but I kinda think it’s the second bit myself. So, I’m in your camp, Plucky. Here’s hoping he’s not a Machiavellian mastermind!
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Jesus Fucksticks McTwinkledick…STOP REPORTING THIS SHIT LIKE THEY’RE BEING HONEST!!!
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They always cave. They give two shits about their constituents, or anything else other than winning at all costs.
I do think Mitch’s secrecy gambit backfired. The secrecy made Heller more unpopular in NV and prompted a solid Dem challenger (Congresswoman Jacky Rosen from NV’s swingy 3rd district). That made Heller less flexible. I also think Murkowski is a pretty solid No because she doesn’t depend on far right votes to win. She gets a lot of Indies, a fair slice of Ds and center-right Rs.
So Mitch is at 50. While I give him a good chance to keep it there, he has not put himself at a higher risk of a loss. This is the time to apply the pressure.
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The phony GOP infighting is the pretty magician’s assistant distracting us as Congress spirits billions from the pockets of American workers into the pockets of filthy rich donors.
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Here’s my question. What if it does not pass? How much have they messed up the current healthcare environment? My guess is … a lot. Also, they’ll continue to chip away at the ACA (like abortion rights), so I can’t see how any of this is salvaged.
In addition, if they don’t pass it, they can continue to scream about Obama, while undermining everything as they’ve always done. McConnell doesn’t really give a shit about passing it - they’re already meeting on their tax cuts.
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I don’t think he’s a mastermind, but he’s seen exactly what we’ve seen - when push comes to shove, republicans fall in line even when many of us think to do so would be suicide on their part. Their decisions time and again to not publicly excoriate DT for any number of things are Exhibit A.
It could very well be that they’ve heard enough from their constituents, particularly people who voted for them, that it really does look like political suicide. What greatly concerns me is that that’s been going on since long before this bill was introduced. It could have been dispatched pretty quickly if a few senators had said, “Hell, NO” as soon as it was introduced.
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Maybe McConnell prefers the environment in which the GOP can campaign against “failing Obamacare?”
Can someone explain the legislative steps for me? How many votes will it take to pass the bill?
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lots of pressure as Trump does nasty tweets
As I recall, it was Trump’s leg humping that got the House to line up. Tweets are bearable, leg humping not so much.
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It’ll last until McConnell and his henchmen approach him in a quiet moment and threaten him with primarying him in his State. If he is a real statesman, he will tell them to go pound sand and go right ahead, and then (with the tape recording of that meeting), go public with the threat.
Otherwise, he’ll cave as soon as the rider to fund a major project in his State is added to another bill, making its way through.
Sorry, this is all posturing.
51 votes, with Pastor Mike as the tie-breaker.
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No no no…you don’t have to be a mastermind to understand that if you’re a GOPer, you can lie your face off and the press will first carefully report it like you’re being honest and then stretch like a dick in a vacuum pump to draw false equivalencies with the Dems when it’s finally revealed that the GOPer was lying.
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Yes. Trump already destroyed the ACA with his waffling on whether to withhold funding just as insurers were setting next year’s rates. ACA is damaged goods at this point. Politically, for dems, it might actually be better for Trumpcare to pass…
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Susan Collins’ MO,at least when it came to Devos, was to support her in committee and then use a McTurlte pass to vote AGAINST her on the floor, when it didn’t matter. Collins could have stopped Crucifix Barbie dead i her tracks in committee, but spun some bullshit about voting to let her through so that the full Senate could make the decision (of course, she stonewalled Garland like a good Pubbie).
It’ll be interesting to see how she handle the very public, very rushed vote on the steaming pile next week.
What does it take to get her vote? My guess is that it is a rollback of the Planned Parenthood throat-slitting in the bill.
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At the very least, it’s the expected fallback position, and I see no reason to think the villagers will do any better a job at correcting misinformation (where they aren’t actually manufacturing it) after a failed vote than before. I heard pretty much a stenographer account of Barasso’s position (“Freedom!”) on NPR yesterday.
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