On our Thursday walk home, when I explained the difficulties the Republicans were having getting votes for their health care bill, my daughter said, “It sounds like the Republicans are in Trumple.”
Political wordplay from a fifth grader—our parental strategy is succeeding.
Millions of Americans are not in Trumple today, as they have Speaker Paul Ryan’s assurance that “ObamaCare is the law of the land” and that “we’re going to be living”—living, as in not dying because we lose our health insurance—”with ObamaCare for the foreseeable future.”
Donald Trump sounds like he’s surrendering to ObamaCare as well. He says the failure of the American Health Care Act is “the best thing that could happen.” He says Obamacare is imploding, or exploding, but he can’t believe that, because it’s not true, not true, not true, and because no responsible President would refuse to fix a problem that is supposedly hurting millions of Americans.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump “has given it his all” and “left everything on the field” in trying to pass TrumpCare. “His all” means offering lukewarm support the week Speaker Ryan introduced the American Health Care Act, warming up during week #2, then spending week #3 sending threats and mixed signals while ignoring the policy details that might have salvaged the deal. Three weeks? Heck, it takes longer than that to learn how to drive a semi.
Stack Trump’s three weeks up against the fourteen months that Barack Obama spent working to craft and pass the Affordable Care Act, and Trump sounds positively sad and low-energy.
Meanwhile at home, Congresswoman Kristi Noem just sounds vacuous:
“Today, we were given a choice: keep Obamacare or advance freedom’s cause. I am deeply disappointed some chose to push liberty to the side, but our fight is not over.” said Noem in a statement released by her Washington office.
…”I will continue to fight alongside President Trump to give South Dakotans from all walks of life greater freedom and independence.” said Noem [Mark Russo, “Noem on Healthcare Collapse: Liberty Was Pushed Aside,” KELO Radio, 2017.03.24].
I doubt Noem uses words with meaning anymore; throw up any random disappointment, and perhaps she’ll ignore fact and responsibility and shout some slogany star-spangled gripe: Teacher gave my son a bad grade? Liberty was pushed aside! Twins lost again? Liberty was pushed aside!
Those of us who believe words have meaning recognize that the only cause lost in the failure of TrumpCare was for Trump’s moneybags friends, to whom he and Kristi Noem sought to transfer more wealth. The Affordable Care Act gives millions of Americans more liberty by ensuring they don’t lose health coverage just because they get sick or switch jobs.
My daughter had it right: the only people in Trumple are Republicans like Kristi Noem who have failed—utterly, spectacularly, tremendously failed—to capitalize on their control of Congress and the White House to deliver their party’s signature promise of the last seven years. The rest of us continue to enjoy a national health care policy that beats what we had before Barack Obama, who stands as one of the most consequential Presidents in American history.
p.s.: Say, Governor Daugaard, now that we know the Affordable Care Act will remain the law of the land for the foreseeable future, we can get back to working on expanding Medicaid in South Dakota and plugging $85 million back into our state budget, right?
Sabotage is the next step, Trump has already started this by ordering the IRS not to enforce the individual mandates. He will now start putting in place doubt among insurance companies about the subsidies and such, causing insurance to start pulling out of the exchanges. Doing what is best for Americans or doing what the majority of people want has never been a priority for Republicans, here or nationally. It’s all about the tax cuts and nothing else, this win is temporary, I hate to be a wet rag but it’s how I see it.
AG Jackley should publicly call on Rubber-stamp Kristi to re-introduce the straight Obamacare repeal bill she voted for 50+ times now that there is a GOP Party President to sign it instead of veto it. If it was good enough to vote for 50+ times, it’s good enough to vote for 50+1 times, right? Should AG Jackley do this, he will expose Rubber-stamp Kristi for the game player she is, and watch her twist in the wind refusing to sponsor the same bill she claims was worthy of 50+ votes.
Trumple, indeed. We’re all in trumple.
Speaking of workplay, this one from Noem is pretty good, too: “advance freedom’s cause.” Generally, that phrase would be applied to, for example, the people that The New Trump-Putin World Order are throwing out windows, mowing down in the streets and poisoning with polonium. It would probably apply to the Turkish cleric that Trump flunky Flynn wanted to kidnap from Pennsylvania to render to the strongman authoritarian running Turkey. Instead, Noem applies that phrase to the agenda of overpaid fat cat health insurance CEOs. “Advance freedom’s cause?” Uh, no.
Yes, without Trumpcare, insurance companies will continue to be limited in how much of their executive pay they can deduct as business expenses on their taxes. Shareholders, rather than the treasury, will have to foot the whole bill (or at least most of it) for excessive executive pay. Fortunately for insurance companies, without Trumpcare they will find it easier to make money with more customers and healthier customers.
It’s not the gears in the semi preventing Thump from driving us off a cliff. With advances in truck transmissions that truck is probably an automatic. He can’t figure out how to release the brakes, which evidently causes him great frustration. Democrats willingly accept the blame for putting the brakes on.
The insurance companies will still be required to use 80% of the premiums to provide … wait for it … healthcare.
And the essentials will still be covered.
The republicans just couldn’t make their long awaited “plan” bad enough to please themselves. Amazing.
I will continue to fight alongside President Trump to give South Dakotans from all walks of life greater freedom and independence.
You know where you go fer lyin’, Ms Noem? Drumpf and his fragile ego are so far behind the front lines he couldn’t find them with a seeing eye dog. He isn’t looking at the big picture. He is simply looking for a bus to throw everyone under so he doesn’t shoulder any blame.
And, of course, yer party loyalty and hate for commoners blinds you and the rest of the wingnuts to reality in real time. Plus you are all wingnuts and everyone knows wingnuts cannot govern. They don’t know how and aren’t interested in learning.
Pray for the 25th.
OT the Putin-8 all have had connections to Drumpf or someone in Drumpf’s cabinet. Purely coincidence, I’m sure.
Yesterday republicans found out the difference between obstructionism and governing, that late back and forth on whether to pull the bill or vote on it was pure chaos and showed their lack of ability to legislate. We witnessed a complete melt down of the republican party and their leadership.
I will cut some slack to Paul Ryan for being the only republican to seem to man up, although it was done rather meekly.
And once again we were able to witness Trump giving another of his delusional press conferences where he blamed everybody but himself for his gigantic failure. His expectation now is that Democrats will come crawling to him when Obamacare explodes or implodes and want him to fix it.
There are some strong political implications coming out of this madness, especially for 2018. Will congressional republicans have trouble at home for not keeping their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare?
Most importantly is whether or not Paul Ryan can survive this failure and still hold the Speakership?
Tim, your warning of Executive sabotage is not wet-raggery; it’s an apt warning that we still have a lot of fight ahead of us. Trump won’t hesitate to create more chaos and uncertainty, even if it harms the people he’s supposed to serve.
Ror, I’d love to hear Marty take you up on that offer. Indeed, if straight repeal was good enough 50+ times for Kristi, why isn’t it good enough now?
The executive-pay deduction cap—yes ! Good detail! Not only is preserving that cap great for patients and policyholders, but it also sounds like a really good point to remind voters of in 2018: Kristi supported a plan to spend less money on your kids’ broken bones and asthma and pay rich CEOs even more. Can’t spin out of that one!
Not only do we need to “plug” that $85 million into the state budget, but you just watch, Noem will probably be our next governor and totally dependent upon that $85 million to balance her state budgets as well…. It is a good thing that her vote failed so that she can succeed in the future….. It’s a lot like the Trump voters who are still loyal to him, yet dependent upon Medicaid for health insurance…. They really do not know what is good for them as they prevail in a sea of ignorance with the help of dumb luck…..
Kristi Noem says:
You’ve said a mouthful there, Kristi:
https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/press/dr-rand-paul-comments-on-the-us-house-rejecting-obamacare-lite
“Rorschach” writes:
I’d prefer authoritarian Catholicism over a misrepresentation of traditional evangelical Christianity.
Evans comments on his gal friend, how sweet. Makes no sense, but touching..really touching.
Kristi Noem talks about freedom like we’re still up to our eyeballs in GWB’s War on Terror. You gotta be a real jack wagon to have EVER thought that Kristi is of the brainy sort.
Rural people suffer from one of the same sociological and psychological problems that the mega wealthy do: being so far removed from society that they cannot properly relate to the lives and problems the majority of Americans are living and dealing with.
Can’t we all just face the fact that smart people have been moving away from SD for decades – and they do not move here – leaving this state with a lower aggregate IQ and EQ than almost every other state in the union? Can’t we all just go ahead and say, “that’s why this is a conservative state”?
Jerry writes:
To the best of my recollection, Noem and I have never communicated. Her faith in Christ seems genuine, but her faith in the federal government and the transnational intelligence community seems naïve. I definitely don’t regard her as a political ally.
Wow! How did we get here? The real answer isn’t more Obamacare, or Trump/GOP care or whatever insurance plan that can be dreamed up. What good is the grandest insurance program, if you don’t have a doctor to go see? What good is the latest medical advances if you get them, or find someone qualified to run it?
Obamacare can’t fix the healthcare issues because it focus on insurance coverage. To fix the healthcare issues:
Comprehensive tort reform. We need to let doctors be doctors. Let them order only the tests that are really needed, not be forced to order extra tests just for legal reasons.
We need to pay attention to the costs of healthcare. I know we are reluctant to discuss money when we start talking about health care however, it is something we should start doing.
We need to take charge of our own health. (I know, I know, you’ve heard this all before) to include balanced diet, exercise, rest, sleep.
Just because a drug is advertise on TV, doesn’t mean you need it. When the side effects include:
nervousness, restlessness, excitability, dizziness, headache, fear,
hallucinations, night terrors, anxiety, tremors, suicide, unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, weakness, fever, unusual tiredness, dark/rainbow colored urine, death, memory loss, confusion, hyper-sexuality ,bad breath, short-term feelings of depression, daytime sleepiness, urge to start ‘nesting’, stomach cramps, dry mouth, blurry vision, hair loss, ringing in the ears, tooth decay, discoloration of skin and eyes (blue/green), irritability, word salad, unexplained superpowers, rash, blisters, loss of fingernails or toenails, sensitive sense of smell, the urge to start dancing
It might be best to reconsider some of your options.
If we can lower the cost of healthcare, that will lower the cost insurance.
1. ACA repeal (with bonus additional promise that everyone will have health care)
2. Mexico will pay for the border wall
3. Lock her up
And the Russian snare continues closing around his presidency.
I hope it is not only “the Liberals” who can keep the scorecard on all this.
Just because a drug is advertise on TV, doesn’t mean you need it. When the side effects include:
nervousness, restlessness, excitability, dizziness, headache, fear,
hallucinations, night terrors, anxiety, tremors, suicide, unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, weakness, fever, unusual tiredness, dark/rainbow colored urine, death, memory loss, confusion, hyper-sexuality ,bad breath, short-term feelings of depression, daytime sleepiness, urge to start ‘nesting’, stomach cramps, dry mouth, blurry vision, hair loss, ringing in the ears, tooth decay, discoloration of skin and eyes (blue/green), irritability, word salad, unexplained superpowers, rash, blisters, loss of fingernails or toenails, sensitive sense of smell, the urge to start dancing.
The drug MC just described is wingnuttery. He just forgot to say they can’t govern.
What exactly have wingnuts done to help Obamacare lower the cost of medications, doctor visits, healthcare, etc?
They consistently vote to disallow Medicaid to shop around for better drug prices. Ryan withheld federal money last fall for high risk insurance pools so insurance rates were raised right before the election. They looked the other way when Price was buying and selling drug stocks and then passing legislation that increased the value of his stock. Then the obstructed virtually every piece of legislation Dems and Obama tried to pass to keep the economy going.
O:3-0 GOP/trump. take 3 mins lazy viewing. simple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p93VULlVeeI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c6jToCZWXI
jfc :)
o… 3-0 HRC. GOP/trump no hits, no runs, errors errors errors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c6jToCZWXI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_geYDlg0Qk
jfc :)
sorry for double post…system was slow. hahaha.
posted from BLACK ELK PEAK
more simple simple factual health care mansplaining to dull republicans and others who remarkably voted for trump pence bannonn ect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ztQyzr73G4
MC seems to have taken one of those drugs advertised on tv that had the side affect of short term memory loss.
If President Obama got his way and had support from the obstructionist GOP we wouldn’t be talking about Obamacare, we’d be talking about Medicaid for all.
Yes, we should be talking about procedural costs, medication costs and all costs related to healthcare, but the republicans don’t want to do that because they don’t know how as we witnessed with their failed healthcare plan.
republicans now have control of the house, senate, and presidency so they could make a difference, but they won’t do it because it goes against their big money interests that have a stranglehold on prices.
trump said he is done with healthcare reform and will now take on tax reform, Watch Out America!!
Why do republicans continually fall back to tort reform as the solution to healthcare?
Tell president trump about it, he probably has a “beautiful” plan to fix it.
Republicans are only good at whining and complaining. That’s the brand/identity (bed) they’ve made for themselves and now they gotta sleep in it.
You gotta get swindled – made – to believe Trump was/is “The Great Deal-Maker.”
When will the shame set in?
Roger, the reason republicans fall back on tort reform is because their rank and file think of it as reforming tarts. It is clear that the republican party base is a bunch of geezers that gather ’round the tee vee screen to shout support to Billo, the tort (tart) reform is what they imagine will rid them of promiscuous young gals who refuse to pay any attention to them.
Recently, there was a doc in Rapid City that got dinged for several million on another botched surgical procedure. The victim is a young man that will be scared and disabled for life. Why should there not be measures in place for juries to understand the charges, review the evidence both pro and con and then render a verdict? Why are MC and the rest of the republicans, so afraid of what democracy and the rule of law is all about? We pay fees to doctors and hospitals for their professionalism, when they perform acts of malpractice, they should have to pay the costs of their mistakes…just like ordinary folks have too when they make errors in judgements and practices. Docs are not gods, they are supposed to be trained professionals.
The bill failed because it was a flawed bill. It did not give you more or better health insurance coverage, it did not expand the market, it did not return power to the people. It was just another version of the failed Obamacare. The elite in Washington thought, wrongly once again, they could tell the people what was good for them. It did not work. Obamacare will be gone. The elite will find they are losing power and the people will be returned their power. This will all take time but it will happen.
Stay tuned for the “wiretap” fall of the elite.
One thing that is constant is the republican want for military spending that does not go to the fighting man. How is this similar to the ACA/Obamacare you may think? With ACA/Obamacare the tax payer money does not address those with the needs such as Medicaid Expansion and the risk corridor to help offset the guaranteed issue of plans. The military buildup goes directly to the military industrial complex for complicated weaponry that no one knows how to operate, those with the most needs. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-military-budget-grunts_us_58d0459ae4b0be71dcf74bdd?
OldSarg- how exactly has the ACA failed? Millions of people have insurance that didn’t have insurance before the ACA. People are forced to choose between death and bankruptcy.
Healthcare is a RIGHT. It should not be allotted to those with the most and refused to those with the least. If you claim to be any kind of a real kristian then you know I am right. But wingnuts, as w they are configured today, are not kristian,They are the spawn of korporate greed and the antithesid of their so called lord and saviour’s teachings.
“…our fight is not over.” Thanks Kristi. What’s next? Something worse that will harm mor people and provide bigger tax cuts for the mega-wealthy ?? Will that be MORE liberty ??
Nice win, but this is no time for Dems to pat themselves on the back. They have 6 months to propose a plan to fix Obamacare, or they are no better than the GOP.
Chip, there has always been a plan to “fix” ACA/Obamacare, it is called the risk corridor. Marco Rubio bragged on the campaign trail that he was the one who put an end to that, and he was telling the truth. Put that back in as the Democratic congress wrote and also put in the Medicaid Expansion. Those two things would make healthcare affordable for all.
Mike: How did the ACA fail? Health care is RIGHT!
I think for some of us, you asked the question then answered it. I know political games are always in play for the passage of any legislation, and I also am clear the the ACA is better than “free market” of denial that existed before, but the true, best way to get to healthcare as a right is to eliminate to middleman (profiteer) of insurance and go directly to healthCARE being the right and not just health insurance being accessible. Unfortunately, that is a political fight that will always be unwindable.
I think that a risk pool would not be a terrible plan. I would tweak this one a bit though. I think a pool for catastrophic claims would be beneficial. But there would have to be concessions made by insurance companies in the way of much lower premiums. I don’t think they would go for that though.
At the end of the day, we have to get the money out of healthcare. Insurance especially, but it wouldn’t hurt to trim some of the fat from our providers either. Health insurance companies serve no purpose. They are a useless drag in the system. Our federal government needs to offer a public insurance plan. One that we can purchase just as we would a private, except that there would be nobody with their hand in the cookie jar.
We also need to work with healthcare providers and see what we can do as a country to cut costs.
We actually still have a risk pool after the ACA/Obamacare was passed and put into practice. It does not work unless you have the money to pay the premiums for it, quite high deductible, but with a reasonable drug cost program. Dakotacare administered the pool.
Health insurance companies do serve a purpose though, as administrators. If you take a look at Medicare, you can clearly see how insurance companies and the government work together very nicely. Go to any old stinker and ask them how they like their Medicare and Medicare supplement, they will tell you they love it man.
With a public plan, you still need to have it administered. In Europe, the Social Security does that. You must be a citizen of the EU in order for coverage for the entire EU, and it is administered by the Social Security of each country for across boundary coverage. If you are a dual citizenship citizen, then you are only covered in the country you have your passport issued. In some countries of the EU, if you are married to an American, then the American will be covered under the healthcare plan while in that country. Of course, the spouse must register with the Social Security of that country to get the authorization and the documents. Again, all administered by the Social Security for the public plan.
If you care to purchase private insurance and you are under 65, you can, but it is underwritten, so you can be denied coverage. So there is that. Public Medicare for all make the most sense. Republicans hate it though as you could use your national healthcare card as identification to vote, can’t have that in Putin land.
Meanwhile over at the War Toilet not one mention of the Trumpcare loss. What a pathetic blog to not even mention it.
Hey Jerry, that’s not quite the risk pool I was referring to. I was referring to a national fund set up to cover large medical bills. Let insurance companies cover the sniffles and sneezes, and broken arms. Maybe even a 2-3 day stay in the hospital. But major issues like cancer or several week long stays in the hospital would be covered by this pool. Cut the risk. Cut the premiums.
We don’t need banks to administer our healthcare. That’s all they are. They take your money and turn around and give it to someone else. That’s all they do. They don’t heal anybody. They don’t provide any services. They just shuffle money. We need to get a nonprofit to administer this. Someone like Lutheran Social Services. Are you familiar with Christian Healthcare Ministries? They provide insurance at half the cost of a typical plan. If they could tap into a separate fund for the bigger expenses, I think we would be golden.
By the way…. Hats off to Bernie Sanders for not sitting on his hands on this. I saw a clip on my twitter feed of an interview where he outlines his plans to move forward. That’s what Democrats need right now. Less back patting and more working on a solution to fix Obamacare.
That, Jenny, is what makes South Dakota’s #2 political website #2.
Leslie:
Thanks for the posts.
#2, Ror? You, my friend, exaggerate. But you and Jenny are right: if my party won power by preaching X for seven years, then failed to do X at the height of its power, I wouldn’t like talking about it, but I’d have to offer some analysis about what it meant for the country and for my party.
It’s time for the Democrats to put Medicare E (for Everyone!) on the table and see what Trump says, then negotiate down from there.