Ted never likes the taste of the soup until he has pissed in it.
If Cruz looks like a maniac, walks like a maniac, acts like a maniac, and quacks like a maniac, one could conclude that he’s a maniac.
“TrusTED”? Looks more like demenTED.
Awful bill gets worse, AKA GOP legislating.
This is sheerly politics with Cruz trying to get his name in the works like he’s really in there fighting. In spite of the fact that it makes healthcare coverage worse.
Plus, his amendment relies on keeping aspects of Obamacare, which clearly is NOT repealing O-care but revising it and theoretically, improving it.
Cruz, if ever a weasel there was there was the weasily Mr. Cruz.
Does this make passage less likely?
My understanding though, is the Palamatarian has serious concerns about this amendment, that it won’t pass the Byrd rule, and thus close off reconciliation as an avenue.
I don’t think McConnell is there on the counts, either. Paul isn’t go along, no matter what amendments are offered. Same with Collins. Those are the two “passes”. Heller likewise is lost to him. This will do nothing to bring on Caputo or Murkowsk, and probably not Moran, either. So this picks him up two, but he is still at least 5 away, and adding this does nothing to get them on board. And of course, if the Parliamentarian says no to reconciliation, the entire bill is dead.
The problem is probably even bigger than that. Because with 5 people saying No, its quite likely more republicans will also say no, since they have the cover those 5 provide to do the electorally sensible thing, with very little fear of McConnell retaliating. The 4th of July recess was not helpful in the least, quite the opposite.
@causeforconcern It picks him up three votes (Cruz, Lee and Johnson), but makes it harder to get any more from the other wing, where he has more Nos and lean Nos. The problem Ryan had is more pronounced for McConnell. There is very little to nothing he can do to the bill that doesn’t lose votes from one side or the other.
Maybe McConnell’s calculus is that there will be an amendment to strip the language out of the bill, and he can somehow get democrats to save him.
The bit about using HSAs to pay premiums is a nice giveaway to rich people, especially healthy younger ones. They will essentially be able to fund their healthcare tax-free.
Al Franken was here in the Bay Area promoting his book Giant of The Senate, and he gave us this about Cruz.
“He’s the toxic co-worker who puts a fish in the microwave.”
He’s more like the guy who switches out the scary white powder on your letter for actual anthrax.
Can the, Repeal Ted Cruz, amendment be added in to the Cruz amendment.
Revise the redundant repeal so that they can cut the taxes needed to proceed with cutting taxes.
Its like the rules of golf, about 18 rules with a whole books worth of exceptions, exclusions and sub-rules. There is nothing new in the Republican approach but the veils.
Even Grassley figured out what this was all about.
Congress, however, will mandate that they themselves get comprehensive plans with low or no deductible.
It would appear that Sen, Cruz is intent in assuring that this repeal bill never gets passed. Why on earth would he ever align himself with Democrats?
Now that I have an HSA, I have finallly realized what a scam it is. When I have to pay for, say, dental work or prescriptions, I simply transfer money from my checking account to my HSA (takes a day of two to hit), use my card and, presto, an expense I couldn’t deduct suddenly becomes 100% deductible. That’s all it does. That’s what it does. There’s no need to set aside significant amounts of personal money that can never be used for anything except healthcare. Just transfer it as you need.
Hell, I can even charge something on my regular debit card, transfer an equal amount of money from checking to my HSA and then, once it hits the HSA write myself a check from it to reimburse myself, redeposit it in my checking account, and presto, money laundering totally legal deduction!
Congress could have accomplished the same thing by just eliminating the ten percent of AGI threshold for destructibility and making all medical expenses deductible. But that would have given the deduction to everyone and this is a Republican idea. Nope, this way the deduction only goes to people who deserve it: Non-moochers. People who can afford to buy and accept the risk of high deductible policies or who have employers who fund HSAs.
This proposal to let you run your insurance payments through your HSA, of course, only extends the scam.