GOP about to pass secret health care bill while they think no one’s paying attention

[Cutlass]

Ah. So you're a mind reader then?

Why bother? It's called 'revealed preferences'. Look it up.

 

[Cutlass]

Senator John McCain said Friday he’ll vote against the GOP-only Obamacare repeal proposal, becoming the second Republican to oppose the measure and possibly dooming the ability of party leaders to enact it.

“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," McCain of Arizona said in a statement. "I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social


Another GOPer effort done for no other reason than partisan politics fortunately only can get 49 GOPer senators to kill their own constituents.

 

[Zkribbler]

Another GOPer effort done for no other reason than partisan politics fortunately only can get 49 GOPer senators to kill their own constituents.

Not partisan politics. The GOP desperately needs to deprive 10s of millions of Americans of their affordable health care so that they can fund massive tax cuts for their plutocratic overlords.

 

[El_Machinae]

You know, so much of that is because people mistake Trickle Down for Supply Side. Like, so so sooooooo much.

 

[Ajidica]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social


Another GOPer effort done for no other reason than partisan politics fortunately only can get 49 GOPer senators to kill their own constituents.

Do you really think Rand Paul will be the deciding vote against Graham-Cassidy? The one area I could tolerate him on, opposition to security service overreach, he sold his soul, not for Wales, but for a chance to be a presidential nominee.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Do you really think Rand Paul will be the deciding vote against Graham-Cassidy? The one area I could tolerate him on, opposition to security service overreach, he sold his soul, not for Wales, but for a chance to be a presidential nominee.

Have Murkowski or Collins weighed in on their positions?

 

[Ajidica]

Have Murkowski or Collins weighed in on their positions?

BBC is reporting Collins is "leaning against the bill" and Murkowski has not commented while Graham and Cassidy are rapidly trying to sweeten the deal with extra funding for areas the demographically just happen to exactly resemble Alaska.
I can see Collins voting for it because, as far as I am aware, Graham-Cassidy basically shifts all of the potential repeal stuff to the states leaving open the option for the state to keep the parts of the ACA they like. Block grants vs. payment gets complicated very quickly so she could punt on that and claim the bill won't leave Maine any worse off, but has the added benefit of returning control to the states, which is a concept that tends to play well among centrist Republicans, and presumably in Maine as IIRC they tend to have an anti-establishment preference.
Similar to Murkowski, but with the caveats that it comes down to whether Graham and Cassidy can load it up with enough sweet spots to win her over, and whether her inner moral disgust as being bought like that comes into play.

Unlike McCain, Collins and Murkowski are both going to run for a second term so they have to worry about conservative backlash in primaries. Murkowski perhaps not so much as she mounted a third party run after she lost the primary to a Teahadist and won handily, but I'm sure she doesn't want to go through that again.
McCain can get away with voting against it because he has the "old, crotchety elder statesman" effect going on. Murkowski and Collins don't. I don't buy for a second Paul or the other Moran, Portman, or Sullivan (who are holding out to extract concessions or for image cred) will willingly be the vote to sink Graham-Cassidy, and I presume Murkowski and Collins are under all the political pressure to switch their minds, especially after causing the high-profile collapse earlier this summer. If they can keep their basic dignity, I'm pretty sure Graham-Cassidy fails. Otherwise, it gets rammed through in method that would make Great Comrade Stalin they were abusing the rules a bit.

 

[Cutlass]

You know, so much of that is because people mistake Trickle Down for Supply Side. Like, so so sooooooo much.

No. They're both the same thing. And neither one is legitimately economics.

 

[dutchfire]

BBC is reporting Collins is "leaning against the bill" and Murkowski has not commented while Graham and Cassidy are rapidly trying to sweeten the deal with extra funding for areas the demographically just happen to exactly resemble Alaska.
I can see Collins voting for it because, as far as I am aware, Graham-Cassidy basically shifts all of the potential repeal stuff to the states leaving open the option for the state to keep the parts of the ACA they like. Block grants vs. payment gets complicated very quickly so she could punt on that and claim the bill won't leave Maine any worse off, but has the added benefit of returning control to the states, which is a concept that tends to play well among centrist Republicans, and presumably in Maine as IIRC they tend to have an anti-establishment preference.
Similar to Murkowski, but with the caveats that it comes down to whether Graham and Cassidy can load it up with enough sweet spots to win her over, and whether her inner moral disgust as being bought like that comes into play.

Unlike McCain, Collins and Murkowski are both going to run for a second term so they have to worry about conservative backlash in primaries. Murkowski perhaps not so much as she mounted a third party run after she lost the primary to a Teahadist and won handily, but I'm sure she doesn't want to go through that again.
McCain can get away with voting against it because he has the "old, crotchety elder statesman" effect going on. Murkowski and Collins don't. I don't buy for a second Paul or the other Moran, Portman, or Sullivan (who are holding out to extract concessions or for image cred) will willingly be the vote to sink Graham-Cassidy, and I presume Murkowski and Collins are under all the political pressure to switch their minds, especially after causing the high-profile collapse earlier this summer. If they can keep their basic dignity, I'm pretty sure Graham-Cassidy fails. Otherwise, it gets rammed through in method that would make Great Comrade Stalin they were abusing the rules a bit.

My Twitter feed has a slightly different read on the situation:
Murkowski has historically faced more of a challenge from the right than from the Democrats in the general. Democrats came close in 2004 when she was an appointed incumbent, but that's a long time ago in electoral terms. Joe Miller primaried her and she won as a write-in in 2010, then Joe Miller ran as a Libertarian in 2016. I believe polling shows that she mainly won with the independent/democrats. For example, in 2016 Hillary won 36.5% and the Democrat for Senate only won 11.6%. That's a lot of missing votes that probably helped Murkoski against Miller.
So voting to keep Obamacare is in line with what her voters want.
She's also up for re-election only in 2022 so electoral pressure is not too bad now, and I don't think she's particularly fan of the cut and untax extremism of the Republican party.

For Collins, I've heard rumours she might be aiming for Governor at some point. Blowing up the health care system is probably a bad idea for that. Also, even though Maine hasn't expanded Medicaid yet due to vetoes by Paul LePage, there's a referendum there this November and LePage is term limited in 2018, which makes it plausible that Maine will expand Medicaid. In that case voting for a bill that hurts state that expand Medicaid could hurt politically.

Overall, I find it difficult to read the Republican efforts. They're all playing a very delicate game of balance between their primary electorate, their favorability with ultra-rich donors and their general election electorate. One might imagine that some Republicans are hoping to look busy for their primary and the donors while secretly hoping and making sure the plan doesn't make it, for their general election.

 

[Cutlass]

Another one bites the dust.

Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday abandoned their latest campaign to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, conceding that their plan lacked key support. But they showed little interest in moving swiftly to shore up the seven-year-old law with the crucial funding it needs.

The official collapse of the Cassidy-Graham health-care bill once again leaves the party short of fulfilling a signature promise, which some Republicans worried could inspire a backlash among their base heading into the 2018 midterm elections.

And the failure of that alternative to the ACA, combined with the GOP’s reluctance to fix weaknesses in the existing law, leaves states, insurers and millions of consumers who rely on its coverage with substantial uncertainty. Enrollment begins in barely a month for 2018 health plans in marketplaces created under the law.

The Senate leaders said they would turn their attention to their next major legislative undertaking. “Where we go from here is tax reform,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters after holding a closed-door policy lunch with members of his caucus.

Republicans already are bracing for the political fallout from the measure proposed by Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.)., which McConnell had hoped to bring to a vote this week. They said the pressure to pass a tax overhaul bill was higher than ever and hoped the Republican base would give them a bit more time to take another shot at repealing the ACA.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...ifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.61048d3e318e

 

[stinkubus]

We're just going to be sweating this nonsense again in 2018 as the senate seats which are actually in play are highly unfavorable for Democrats.

 

[metalhead]

The GOP already made up their minds that not passing some kind of R&R bill is worse for them than passing one, regardless of how bad the bill is that they pass. It might not be a very sensible position to have taken, but it's clearly the one they've settled on. So they WILL keep trying.

 

[onejayhawk]

The GOP already made up their minds that not passing some kind of R&R bill is worse for them than passing one, regardless of how bad the bill is that they pass. It might not be a very sensible position to have taken, but it's clearly the one they've settled on. So they WILL keep trying.

I think it's the other way around. The GOP cannot make up its mind, which might be worse.

Now we are stuck with ACA for another year, which is definitely worse.

J

 

[FriendlyFire]

Now we are stuck with ACA for another year, which is definitely worse. J

Can Republicans just sabotage ACA faster ?
Then we can have that Trumpcare that will cover everyone that will be so easy.

Anyways Republicans had what 7 years to come up with a replacement.
Iam sure the GOP can come up with something by next year in time for the election

 

[Commodore]

Iam sure the GOP can come up with something by next year in time for the election

Maybe they already have something and are just saving it for the election while all these other antics are just smoke and mirrors to lull Democrats into a false sense of security?

 

[FriendlyFire]

Republicans are currently blaming RINO swamp people for holding up Trumps healthcare plan for everyone that will be so easy and telling the Deplorables to vote in even more right wing candidates
This probably will work, along with the usual GOP bag of dirty tricks to win the next few elections before reality burst the bubble

 

[stinkubus]

`LOL the Republicans don't have alternate plans. Everything they've tried so far was so monstrous they couldn't get their own people in line to vote for it. Each proposal they made would have cost 30+ million people their health insurance. The only purpose of the Republican party is to secure tax cuts and slash regulations for their donors. They aren't EVER coming up with something better than the ACA.

 

[tuckerkao]

Can the Republicans just repeal the health care laws for the red states? The blue states perform well with Obamacare.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Maybe they already have something and are just saving it for the election while all these other antics are just smoke and mirrors to lull Democrats into a false sense of security?

All, not some... all of the Republican antics are smoke and mirrors. There's no substance there whatsoever its just a bunch of malarkey from top to bottom. And if the Democrats are feeling any sense of security... its false.

 

[Ajidica]

Can the Republicans just repeal the health care laws for the red states? The blue states perform well with Obamacare.

That is sort of what they tried to do with Graham-Cassidy. Shift everything to block grants and let the states determine minimum quality of coverage. A lot of GOP controlled states also intentionally hamstrung the ACA by refusing to expand Medicaid. Unfortunately, anyone who has looked at public policy knows that block grants for open-ended commitments are rubbish for any purpose other than forcing cuts to services.
So no, the federal ACA can't be repealed state by state, and Graham-Cassidy tried to backdoor in de facto state by state repeal.