Two years ago, Donald Trump said John McCain’s five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam didn’t qualify McCain as a hero “because we was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Having captured McCain’s vote today on opening debate on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in the Senate, President Trump now calls Senator McCain “a very brave man” who “made a tough trip” from Arizona to Washington, D.C.
If I’m reading the roll call right, today’s procedural vote was technically on the Republican House health care bill, H.R. 1628, the “American Health Care Act” that Kristi Noem and 216 fellow Republicans (one less than half the chamber) passed on May 4. Thus, technically, this afternoon, our Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds joined McCain and 48 other Republicans (including Vice-President Mike Pence, who had to break the tie caused by the defections of Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) voted for the bill that the CBO told us two months ago would result in 23 million fewer Americans having health insurance and millions of other Americans paying more for insurance that covers less, the plain opposite of the promise the President made to provide ““insurance for everybody… much less expensive and much better.”
Of course, practically, Thune and Rounds simply voted to forge ahead with debate on a bill that has not yet taken shape, that has not been through the normal committee process, and that has not been scored by the CBO or any other reliable agency to give us a reasonable estimate of the fiscal, economic, and public health impacts that their wild amendment mystery meat may produce.
This is not good policy-making. This is not humanitarian politics. This is not open, transparent government. The only guiding principle at work in this health care redeform process is Trumpublicans overriding mania for erasing anything with Barack Obama’s name on it.
Round Mike and Silent John will do what McTurtle tells ’em to do. We are so screwed.
So very disappointed in Thune and Rounds.I will never forget their treachery to the people of this state.
Well then, here we go. 8 years of debate that was just so the cult could tell us that they hate Obama, so now they bring in a guy with no brain to vote to debate. Wonder what kind of debate a guy with brain cancer can bring to the table. In the meantime, it may be prudent to squirrel away some of your hard earned cash as we may be in for some turbulence. Cult republicans should be as proud as Hitler was when he entered Stalingrad.
Mr. H ends his blogging with a very good point. If the libbies point is to keep Mr. Obama’s name on Obamacare, the fight would continue. If they truly believe Obamacare as we have it today is the best we can ever get, they should agree to change the name. Call it something else.
Because Mr. Obama just crammed Obamacare down everybody’s maws without taking input from the other side, he caused this fight and made Trump be your president.
Thune: “I don’t think it would necessarily be $200 billion [for meicaid wraparound], but there would have to be some allocation,” he said.
But a new study says that figure would not be enough to fund private coverage for people who would lose insurance because of a halted Medicaid expansion.
http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/92226/2001455_200billion_bcra_finalized_0.pdf
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us and I don’t think anybody’s taking anything for granted,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). “If we can get something by the end of this week through the Senate it would at least position us so that we can get to conference with the House.”
Mental health professionals want todiagnosetrump.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mental-health-media_us_59775640e4b0e201d57844e6?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Mr. grudznick, I am very sorry to hear that you have been so out of sorts sir, that you have not heard what the so called “Obamacare” name really is. Sir, it is called the Affordable Health Care for America Act (or HR 3962) Cult republicans then took it upon themselves to start calling it Obamacare. I, for one, have always noted this healthcare coverage as ACA/Obamacare so that those who were not exactly up to date would get the drift. I am sure now that you will recollect that bills passing into actual law in 2010, just 7 years ago, or in cult republican slobber, the end of the world.
I have heard many Democratic and Republican people call it “Obamacare.” I have heard Mr. Obama call it “Obamacare.” That fellow from Arizona with the brain tumor just called it Obamacare on the floor of the senate and the Democratic fellows clapped for him.
But I have been rather out of sorts, Mr. jerry, so thank you for your thoughts in that regard. I feel a bout of the agonies may be approaching.
https://www.thenation.com/article/mitch-mcconnell-wants-you-to-be-confused/
McCain, in the middle of treatment by some of the country’s best health professionals, flew across the country to vote on a process that, if successful, will deny that same health care to millions of Americans…
Jerry,
Thanks for reminding grudz that the official name of Obamacare is the Affordable Care Act.
I too wondered how he could possibly have missed that.
Former House Speaker John Boehner still believes the replacement part of this new bill will be mired down in the details and may never be replaced.
The devil is in the details and the republicans have no idea what the details are.
McConnell and Trump want to bring Democrats to the table to discuss and iron out these details, but the question should be can Democrats trust republicans do anything above board.
Truth to tell, Thune, Rounds, and Noem can celebrate this procedural victory all they want, but they still can’t tell us what they are celebrating.
first of all Grudz the ACA wasn’t “crammed” down our throats. Read the story below
https://www.romper.com/p/how-long-did-it-take-for-obamacare-to-pass-the-gop-delayed-it-for-months-46898.
How can they vote to debate a healthcare bill when THERE IS NO BILL? That is cramming a bill down your throat.
What’s really sad is the people posting on Facebook saying I’m responsible for my family and nobody else. Basically saying the poor are nothing but lazy bums.
I’m guessing that these same people go to church every Sunday and call themselves good Christians
Mr. reitzel, I do not go to church, as it is for the weak minded among us. I do, however, find it as interesting as you do that they can debate and vote on a bill that doesn’t exist. I suppose it is a fetus bill, ready to grow and develop, or perhaps it is a virus waiting to mutate like bacteria from The Borehole. We will have to wait and see.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/25/16027528/john-mccain-speech-health-bill-yes-vote
McCShame gives a speech denouncing the bill he just voted to pass. I think someone removed the gray matter and left the tumor.
Clint Eastwood debating an empty chair was better theater than wingnuts debating something that technically doesn’t exist.
Drumpf thinks Americans wanted to be saved from the ACA. He ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
I submit to you this. I think it speaks truth to the injustice we are now witnessing in an America that has slipped and fallen in the eyes of the cult republicans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0lokLbSZX8
We can expect nothing from Thune and Rounds. I’d be shocked and amazed if anything reasonable ever came out of either one of them. Party Hacks, the both of them.
The “Republican’s Vietnam” continues on with the help of Senator McCains vote today. I do not know if that is symbolic, ironic, or both, that a true Vietnam War hero like Senator McCain would be instrumental in helping to continue this Republican saga, but in either case, it reminds me of a time when Congress would question America’s policy in Southeast Asia, while at the same time continue to fund it.
Now in defense of Senator McCain, he did admit today that he was only supporting the debate of health care and not the current Senate health care bill itself. But when it is all said and done, let us hope that this Republican victory today is the beginning of an eventual dialogue with Democrats to fix what is wrong with ObamaCare and not just to dismantle it. And hopefully, this potential fixing will demonstrate to the American people that the Republicans did learn something from Vietnam and this is that you are eventually just suppose to pull out and claim victory, which a “skinny bill” which only enhances the risk pool for insurance companies that are involved in the exchanges and leaves everything else more or less intact would best demonstrate.
And have you noticed that Republicans no longer talk about allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines as some great panacea to this health care debate in America, and why is that? It is most likely because Republicans really are not interested in competition amongst health insurance companies, because they would rather maintain the fiefdoms that these companies enjoy in each state, especially if ObamaCare was dismantled, which speaks to the greater reality from day one, that the Republican’s true intent with the House and Senate versions of health care reform have been really nothing more than tax cuts for the rich and the dismantling of Medicaid as we know it, with no true sincere intent in helping Americans to get better and affordable health care whether it be guaranteed or even just access. And it is this true intent, which now confronts Republicans and challenges them to prove to the American people that they really do care about health care for all Americans, and that they learned from the lessons of Vietnam as well, lessons which Senator McCain is best positioned to enlighten his fellow Republican colleagues on, I might add, and his current support only for debate further demonstrates….
GRUDZ – total BS on your part as to the process by which the ACA was passed. there were 8 months of hearings and 118 Republican amendments are included in the law.
Democrats should have no part in any further healthcare debate or fixing Obamacare or whatever.
If either the House or Senate version of the proposed healthcare bill passes, let the republicans totally own the impending disaster.
2018 is right around the corner.
ACA/Obamacare allowed the sales of insurance across state lines. That has been in effect since 2010, but cult republicans insist that it does not exist because they do not want to read or think that anyone else should either. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/pdf/PLAW-111publ148.pdf
The fact is that by selling across state lines, you cannot control the results of the pool you are trying to do the actuarial work on. In other words, the pool is too risky and too much of a moving target that gets confusing with the other states laws. Wyoming has had this law in place before the ACA/Obamacare and the result…no takers.
States that set up compacts with other states to sell across state lines have not worked because the insurance companies have no interest in doing so.
This piece although a bit lengthy describes the efforts well.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/out-of-state-health-insurance-purchases.aspx
Meanwhile NOem continues to claim allowing selling of insurance across state lines will lower premiums. I’m not sure if she is toeing the party line, is clueless or both.
The country is in a crisis. The White House has been infected with a terrible disease. And all or state’s representateves can do is fall in line. Absolutely disgusting.
NOem could not find her behind with both hands, talk about clueless, she is that. NOem does have an appetite for whatever her handlers feed her though. Thanks to her and the rest of the cult, we now have 7 major hospitals that have shuttered in the US since Jan. 1, 2017, the closest in Omaha, Nebr.
Selling across state lines was and still is one of her dumbest ideas yet as it takes away money from the State of South Dakota via insurance taxes on premiums collected. Where I live and breathe, we call that income. How the hell can she consider being a governor when she does not know where the money comes from?
A group health insurer has just announced its departure from the state due in part to the Washington NOem/Thune and Rounds failures as stewards of the state. They note that it was not the ACA/Obamacare, but of the failures of the cult republicans http://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_peoples_press/news/local/article_b049628a-681d-50b7-981f-2331f5611e73.html
TRUMPCARE will now be branded forever on the heads of these losers who hate women, yep you too NOem as well, veterans, poor, people of color, the elderly and disabled, etc. They now own it as a cult republican failure. Am I happy? Hell no. They disgraced the country and their state and all are unfit to serve.
They always want to wait two years so they can get reelected before people get a chance to see the results.
Yesterday I received a call asking if I would like to take part in a telephone town hall with Noem. I said yes. I can tell you I have never heard so much disinformation and outright lying in 30 minutes in my life.
I so much wish I knew I was going to get this call. With 15 minutes of research every one of her statements could be destroyed.
She doubled down on the healthcare lies, the death tax, regulation and yes the repub’s plans will make our economy grow at 9.1%. I’m beginning to believe she is a better liar than el trumpo
She also wants to break up the IRS. I apparently missed that one.
One of her supporters called in to say we should just get rid of taxes and yes she would like good cheap health care too.
Going to be a good year for magic and pixie dust.
Absolutely embarrassing to watch our SD heros interviewed on TV. Mikey was arguing “alternative facts” with Chris Hayes and the CBO. Big John kept going in circles when interviewed on CNN by Jake Tapper who wanted to know what he will tell folks back home about voting to uninsured MILLIONS of folks. Back to the talking points. I would love to tell these gents what I think of them and their policies, but all that does is get me a “Thank you very much for contacting us” reply. Party over country and to hell with the 85% that don’t agree with you!
Will Sanford and Avera follow the lead? Even Wellmark??http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2017/07/26/anthem-could-pull-out-more-insurance-markets-unless-washington-settles-policy-debate/512547001/
Maybe there will be an enormous bang as cult republicans finally pull their heads out of their behinds when they find out that insurance companies are leaving the markets due to NOem/Thune and Rounds. Think of it, these three bozoheads are the fault of the collapse of healthcare. Get ready for the thunder and the loss of oxygen as their heads come out so they can breathe! trumpcare sucks!
A US Senator that is being treated for cancer, traveled twice and more the distance to vote..NO on trumpcare.
“She got no standing ovation. She got no mainstream media lauds for her heroism. She got no kudos for leaving home, a much longer journey than that other senator, the one from Arizona, to get to DC, and there are no mainstream media stories on it that I can find… I only found out from a friend who spotted it on Twitter.
She didn’t do it for publicity.
Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii was just doing her job as a good politician, voting not to repeal the ACA so as to protect her constituents. She has Stage Four kidney cancer — that means scarce chances of survival — is recovering from a second surgery to remove part of a rib, and made sure she got to her seat in the Senate Chamber to vote “no” to whatever Republican wealth-care crap was thrown at her.
But you’ll only find out about it on social media. Because she’s not a pale male, maybe?” True that, she is the real hero.
Good point about Senator Hirono, Jerry. She and all Dems need to reclaim the spotlight and make sure voters remember who’s really watching their backs.