Reading between the lines from a Robert Costa piece, they don’t have the votes. Mitch is looking to see if he can make any progress this week. If he can, the vote will be delayed to finalize terms and then vote after the recess. If there is no improvement or it’s going south, I think he’s going to bring up the bill and let it die, or simply not bring it up and let it die. Given the events of this weekend, with the Koch Bros and Johnson now against the bill, chances of failure have gone up.
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A bill wanted by pretty much no one, and it’s still likely to pass, since it is a tax cut on the rich and it strips the poor of health care.
Unified GOP control of the US government, ladies and gentlemen.
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While sadism drives some Republicans (Ted Cruz, for example), the reality is the only driving force for them is cutting taxes on the rich. How they fund it is merely incidental – except they will never cut the military. The poor being screwed is just a side benefit for GOP sociopaths like Cruz.
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Like my Grandmother used to say…“It’s hard to know what a good cheery pie is until you’ve had a bad one”. I think the fix for healthcare in America will rise from the ashes of a bad plan. This GOP plan. So let it go. Let them vote for it. It won’t take America long to see what gives. My Grandmother was right but she left out that the only way you’ll know what’s a bad cheery pie is to have had a good one.
The GOP bill is not about healthcare. It’s about undoing what after time would likely prove to be a huge Democratic success. It’s also illustrative of how bad things can get when a political party has entrenched itself so deeply with gerrymandering, voter restrictions and access to big money that they no longer have to be responsive to the real needs of the American people.
We aren’t going to have a good healthcare system in America for some time. But it can’t stay a political issues forever. It’s going to become a life or death one and then things change.
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It will pass…and millions will lose health insurance and the Republicans will prove to the Democrats how to actually create a program that kills Americans including millions of war veterans!
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Mao genocide 25 million of his own citizens to death by starvation, while he shipped grain to Russia for military supplies.
The US Senate will pass a bill that beats Mao’s killing spree within fifteen years.
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“Cornyn told reporters at a Koch brothers retreat in Colorado” Eh? Isn’t that a bit embarassing? What would the Mercers say?
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting around. It’s not going to get easier,” Cornyn told reporters, per Politico" Double Eh? Please dish, why? Is someone’s life depending on this, excluding those that actually have their lives depending on this of course.
“It’s hard,” he said, per CNN. “But there’s no excuse for failure. … When people want to get to ‘yes’ you can have good faith negotiation and get them there.” Did that make any sense at all?
“We’re trying to hold him back a little bit,” he said, according to Politico." Really? So are the rest of us. And Putin will be pissed.
“The bill faces opposition form a group of four conservative senators, as well as from more moderate senators like Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).” Pretty firm dividing line. Conservative versus Moderate but all Republican. Might I suggest Conservative Bat Shit Crazy versus normal Republican.
Cornyn: Hold my beer!
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Agreed, I have been saying the Republicans will accidentally create true socialized medicine.
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Sure dude, the Koch Brothers are against it, but they do seem to have many employees posing as US Sebators that support it. Odd, no?
Yeah, right after the voters punish them for holding a SCOTUS pick in limbo.
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very round, back of the envelope stuff:
say this bill saves $250bn over 10 years.
let’s say 25mm will lose insurance and be put at risk of death over 10 years.
so, $1000 per old/poor life (and with the time value of money, actually less in today’s dollars).
that, according to McConnell and his people, is “better.”
it’s better because each of those lives (poors and olds) is worth less than $1000 to Mitch.
they are, in fact, worthless to him, so it is a 100%, $250bn windfall to those he likes (the rich).
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I am jsut saying they are going to fumble this so badly that by the time they finish patching it together, they will not realize what they created.
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Genocide:
“the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.”
How does this not apply to the Senate bill?
Why do we flinch from using this word when describing our opposition to it?
No Democratic “leader” has used the word. No big time opinion columnist,
What say you Josh Marshall? I’m afraid I must call YOU out on this.
I say this is genocide.
yup. it’s basically a warped application of the doctrine of double effect.
edit: for those unfamiliar with DDE, wiki has a good entry on it. Here, it would require republicans to believe that tax cuts for the rich is a morally good act (check!). example from wiki:
The principle of double effect is frequently cited in cases of pregnancy and abortion. A doctor who believes abortion is always morally wrong may still remove the uterus or fallopian tubes of a pregnant woman, knowing the procedure will cause the death of the embryo or fetus, in cases in which the woman is certain to die without the procedure (examples cited include aggressive uterine cancer and ectopic pregnancy). In these cases, the intended effect is to save the woman’s life, not to terminate the pregnancy, and the effect of not performing the procedure would result in the greater evil of the death of both the mother and the fetus.[4][5][6]
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The GOP has been riding the Repeal/Replace bandwagon for 4 election cycles, now, They’ve not only enraged their base, who will primary house and Senate GOP offenders if they fail, but also, over time, I believe, the GOP caucus has come to believe their own twaddle.
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I think those who want more severe cuts can be appeased with a promise of future cutbacks. If the Senate version is too draconian, it messes with the reconciliation process.
Cornyn told reporters at a Koch brothers retreat
Didn’t I see fantasy ‘concern’ reporting that said the Koch’s were ‘opposed’ to the ‘bill’s’ meanness?
I think that’s a huge factor in all this. How many times have you seen otherwise reasonably sensible people do obviously disastrous things because they simply wanted to, and couldn’t be talked out of it? Kicking over the ACA just feels right in their hearts, even if their heads say “you’ll regret it.”
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Sure it will be close–There are 48 D/I members. But every last R will vote for it, public “protestation” notwithstanding.
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No, they don’t know for sure, but they are getting more and more nervous.
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