This is really well written. Thanks Alice Ollstein.
The Freedom caucus argument that this is NOT full repeal hints that there are demons in healthcare legislation that the GOP cannot overcome. I think it’s like the way they respond to any congressional support for Planned Parenthood with the claim that it would be federal funding of abortion.
When you tell them about they Hyde amendment they say, “We disagree on that point then.”
I wonder if any “repeal” would be full enough for people who don’t know what ACA really is or who believe Medicaid is evil.
NYT has a district-by-district whip count of House GOP: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/20/us/politics/health-care-whip-count.html.
Not close, by their reckoning. I expect the bill to be pulled on Thursday or, in a classic Boehner move, brought up and voted down.
It has been so hard to characterize or find historical parallels to what the current GOP congress envisions. Trumpian economics seems to be a sort of neo-mercantilism based on bilateral arrangements where the strong side writes the rules and dictates terms of performance. On social policy, there is simply nothing in the modern era (in Western cultures at least) sufficiently egregious to match what is happening.
England’s Tudor Poor Laws on vagabonds and beggars for dealing with the displaced bottom of society perhaps come closest, but even they show a bit of heart.
A series of laws was introduced by Parliament in 1563, 1572, 1576, 1597 and 1601. Each Act carried a different emphasis and often reflected the current climate. The 1597 Act, for example, laid down stricter guidelines for vagabonds and beggars in response to the economic crisis of the 1590s. But the undeserving poor, particularly those who showed no signs of changing their ways, were given harsh treatment. The 1563 Act reaffirmed the policy of whipping able-bodied beggars. Later Acts stated that vagabonds should be burned through the right ear and, if they persisted, could be imprisoned and even executed. The policies of ear-boring and execution remained in force until 1593. The 1597 Act required each town to provide a prison for these groups, paid for by local taxes. Beggars caught offending were punished and then returned to their native parish.
The term “ear-boring” was new to me. The Wiki is no more helpful:
In addition to creating these new imposed taxes, the Act of 1572 created a new set of punishments to inflict upon the population of vagabonds. These included being “bored through the ear” for a first offense and hanging for “persistent beggars”.1 Unlike the previous brutal punishments established by the Act of 1547, these extreme measures were enforced with great frequency.
In any case, Tom Price might want to look into this practice before the bill moves on to the Senate.
Here’s their problem. They lose now if the bill doesn’t pass. They lose later if it does. Either way they are toast in 2018, either from the right or from the left, or both.
HOLY CRAP.
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned.
It really is. Give her a “like” up top.
Gasp!!
Trump is soooooo fucked.
My respect for Russian oligarchs’ decision making is plummeting.
Reading this I stopped counting how many times I heard/read the subtext of those defending or advocating voting for this bill: Party over Country… Party over Country…
As mardam444 says above - this is a Lose now/ or lose later vote for the GOP.
Next excuse: the campaign itself was peripheral. It was never serious to Trump. That’s why he doesn’t know Paul Manafort.
Holy crap is right! This is unbelievable.(And it’s an AP story to boot.)
The one thing this bill won’t do is lower premiums. Anybody who has looked at it realizes it will explode premiums for a lot of the Republican base.
Isn’t this just another snap shot of our big beautiful country? Some GOP want every little piece of the PPACA gone and back to 2008. Some have heard their constituents and that hey this law has helped my constituents, but at the expense of my donors, hmmm which do I choose? Some GOP have don’t like the “personal mandate” piece because FREE MARKETS G-D IT!!! And then there are those who point out that they’ve been working for so long and so hard to get rid of it even after hearing the stories of how it has helped their constituents, and we must uphold our promises even after circumstances have changed.
This is a full blown GOP personality breakdown.
“But at the same time, our primary objective remains unchanged, and that is lowering premiums. Until we can be convinced that it will do that, we are still a no.”
What does that even mean? They detest the individual mandate and demand it’s removal. Rates will never go down without it.
I do love the smell of republican fear in the morning.
The Republican congressman from Texas is worried about not voting for the dumpster fire that is the Ryan/Trump Deathcare bill because it will make the leadership look bad. It’s nothing like how badly his constituents will suffer from losing their healthcare–and not just those on Obamacare. But Americans don’t matter: what matters is that no should know that Ryan isn’t mentally capable of passing Math for Dummies and that Trump really, really hates working Americans. After all, why else would he have built a career on stiffing them?
This reminds me of the 1950 drive to repeal Social Security and replace it with the original Townsend Plan. Social Security was attacked by the RepubliKKKlan Party exactly the same way Obamacare is now. That 1950 vote to kill Social Security failed by a hair.
But the pessimist in me thinks that this is all RepubliKKKlan Kabuki Theater and in the end every Republican will fall in line to kill the ACA.
And what really depresses me is looking at what Bevin did in Kentucky. He killed Kynect and yet the voters there love the RepubliKKKlan Party even more.
Religion sure makes people stupid!
. > ear-boring
I would love it if that were why pirates wore earrings 
.