Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Everybody saw this coming.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It) / “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated”

“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated”

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Hillary Rodham Clinton raises a glass to the memory of Harry and Louise.

NYMag, “GOP Leaders Bet Wavering Republicans Don’t Have the Guts to Stop Obamacare Repeal“:

For seven years, Republicans campaigned and won on the message that Obamacare must be repealed and replaced as soon as possible. One month after unexpectedly finding themselves with a Republican in the White House and a majority in both chambers of Congress, it’s become apparent that Republicans aren’t going to quickly coalesce around a plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system. The conservative House Freedom Caucus has vowed to oppose any repeal measure that’s less extreme than the one passed in 2015, while other Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about forging ahead with a repeal plan that could leave millions with no coverage — especially after enduring raucous town hall events during last week’s recess…

But according to The Wall Street Journal, GOP leaders now have a plan to get around that: set repeal legislation in motion and bet that rank-and-file Republicans won’t have the guts to vote against killing the Affordable Care Act.

GOP leaders hope to embark on this road as early as this week. The first step is passing legislation currently being crafted in the House that does away with key elements of Obamacare. As the Journal explains, the initial bill would contain some elements of a GOP replacement plan, but much of the new system would be worked out after the Affordable Care Act is no more…

Republican leaders hope to pass the initial legislation via the reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority — but it’s still a risky move. If the measure loses more than two votes in the Senate and 22 in the House, it will fail. The House Freedom Caucus has roughly 40 members and at least half a dozen Republican senators have expressed reservations about repealing Obamacare without a coherent replacement plan…

These guys, on the other hand…

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    “We have come up with a solution that’s really, really, I think very good.”

    Just say no to illness.

  7. 7.

    Aleta

    How can health care be any harder than using lawyers to cheat contractors and licensing one’s name to rent out hotel rooms?

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    @jeffreyw:

    The letters have piled up — from the county prosecutor, the former postmaster, the car dealer, the Rotary Club president. In his note, Richard Glodich, the athletic director at Frankfort Community High School, wrote, “As a grandson of immigrants, I am all for immigration reform, but this time you have arrested a GOOD MAN that should be used as a role model for other immigrants.”

    This is an uncomfortable stance for a place like West Frankfort. This county, Franklin, backed Mr. Trump with 70 percent of the vote, largely on hopes, people here say, that he could jump-start the coal industry, which has receded painfully here over decades. Illegal immigration was by no means the most pressing issue for this overwhelmingly white area, residents say.

    Well, at least Trump will bring back the coal jobs, though.

  18. 18.

    Feebog

    I don’t think this FUBAR plan the House leadership has cooked up is even going to get out of the House, much less get through the Senate. I’ll bet ZEGS can’t whip up the necessary votes and we see it go down in flames.

  19. 19.

    greennotGreen

    I think “Tick tock, motherf*ckers” should be a new tag. It will be used often in the months and years ahead.

  23. 23.

    Tick Tock Motherfuckers

    Politico reports on what the Orange Joker has in store:

    Even as he re-upped his commitment to repealing and replacing Obamacare during separate gatherings with governors and insurance CEOs, Trump appeared to nod to the grim political reality of yanking away the increasingly popular law.

    “Let it be a disaster, because we can blame that on the Dems that are in our room — and we can blame that on the Democrats and President Obama,” Trump said in remarks to the National Governors Association. “But we have to do what’s right, because Obamacare is a failed disaster.”

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-nobody-knew-that-health-care-could-be-so-complicated-235436

  24. 24.

    greennotGreen

    If the Repubs weren’t such strong adherents to Cleek’s Law, this would be easy. Simply repeal “Obamacare,” tweak the program where it has known issues, rename the individual mandate “personal responsibility,” and pass the all new, completely Republican Patriotic Homeland Health Security Act. So much better than that lame, freedom-killing ACA!

  25. 25.

    weaselone

    @jeffreyw:

    But.. but Carlos is one of the good ones! Town right down the road from me, in a county that voted 70% Trump, shocked, shocked, that he did what he said he would do.

    Except that per the most general criteria, he is not in fact one of the goods ones.
    1. He’s not a US citizen and stayed in the country illegally
    2. He’s got a criminal record courtesy of some DUIs

    That makes him a prime candidate for a speedy deportation, regardless of his being a stand up member of the community and father.

    This is the fucking point that we anti-american, elitist liberals keep trying to make. Nearly all the immigrants in this country, both legal and illegal make a positive contributions to this nation. They’re almost all fucking Carlos. They might not be on every charity board in town, and provide free catering to the local fire and police departments, but they are still raising children, working hard and contributing to their local communities. That’s the reason for the Dream Act, why Obama prioritized enforcement of immigration laws against criminals, and why most of us nasty women and dirty hombres want some sort of path to citizenship, but what the hell does us clueless libtards know?

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @Feebog:

    It removes the pre-existing protection, so there’s sure to be a real ruckus. Imagine how fast they’ll be running then!

  30. 30.

    Debbie1

    @Major Major Major Major: TR*mp doesn’t even understand that coal is not only losing out to renewable energy sources, but that many jobs in the coal industry itself are being replaced by machines. So, Pres. Obama’s policy of providing opportunities to retrain workers made more sense than pinning one’s hopes on coal’s comeback.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Actually, I think they’re setting it up so that the people taking the blame are other Republicans. The Freedumb Caucus will blame the RINOs who refused to repeal Obamacare root and branch, while the RINOs will blame the Freedumb Caucus, and the ones in the middle will blame them both.

  32. 32.

    delk

    “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

    I learned three things when I was 21 years old.

    1) It doesn’t matter how good you feel when you go to sleep because you can wake up with a serious medical condition.

    2) You have no idea how shitty your insurance is until you have a serious medical condition.

    3) Health care is ridiculously complicated.

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:
    It’s new in that they aren’t even going to be able to pass repeal through Congress, rather than passing it expecting an Obama veto. It’s really more like “fail to repeal Obamacare and blame the other wing of the Republican party for the failure”.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Debbie1:

    So, Pres. Obama’s policy of providing opportunities to retrain workers made more sense than pinning one’s hopes on coal’s comeback.

    Moving on to the next industry almost always makes more sense than trying to protect one that’s losing out to technology.

  39. 39.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Roger Moore: “retrain and move” is always a loser at the ballot box, of course. I’d call them lazy assholes who expect the government to provide a good job without their doing anything first but that’s the sort of rhetoric we reserve for minorities.

  40. 40.

    sigaba

    @weaselone: Triggger Warning: Godwin.

    Himmler was quoted as saying: “There are 30 million Germans, and each one has their Good Jew. Those others are trash, but the one I know is first-rate.”

    It’s this sort of rationalization that can be exploited, if people are convinced that the “Good” ones have some route to safety.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    Did you ever go to the replica coal mine at the Museum of Science and Industry? That tiny, interminable elevator cage!!

  49. 49.

    Baud

    I’m watching The Revenant this evening, which I hadn’t seen before, and I think it skillfully puts the lie to the need for socialized medicine.

  50. 50.

    Cain

    Meanwhile in Oregon

    Rogue townhall meetings because Greg Walden isn’t showing up for townhalls. They are doing their own. Fucking awesome. I love my state, I love it in every way. Hell I love our conservatives too. I’ve always been treated well everywhere I go (as a nonwhite) and never felt anything until I crossed the damn border into Idaho. (I am from Indiana, and I can turn reaaal folksy when I want to.. they are my people, I’m the strangest indian you’ll ever meet)

  51. 51.

    Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire

    “…..really, really, I think very good.”

    What. The. Hell.

    Nobody could have predicted how complicated grammar is. *facepalm*

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @weaselone:

    He’s got a criminal record courtesy of some DUIs

    Serious question, what’s the statute of limitations (assuming there were no casualties from either of the DUIs)? Because according to the linked article, it’s been 10 years.

    (Not excusing the seriousness of a DUI, but a decade seems excessive.)

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @amk:

    It amuses me that they all look sour and disgruntled, like somebody just told them the parade was yesterday and they missed it.

  57. 57.

    Shalimar

    Is this the first time ever that Trump has shown any sign of realizing he doesn’t know everything about everything?

  58. 58.

    weaselone

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    He’s not a US citizen and is in the country illegally. There’s no statute of limitations on that. I’m not sure what sort of limitation there is in using old convictions. The articles I have read, aren’t exactly clear.

  61. 61.

    Wapiti

    @SiubhanDuinne: Last time I was in a Smithsonian museum, we saw a big exhibit on the Chilean mine disaster and rescue. They pulled the miners out, one by one, in a capsule that fit into a 2′ wide borehole that was about 2000 feet deep. I guess I could only be a miner if I was so poor that any claustrophobia didn’t matter.

    I pointed out at the time the Chileans were saving their 33 miners, Blankenship wasn’t saving 29 of his.

  62. 62.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Trump is clearly ignorant, but Mr IOL and I have been debating whether he’s stupid, in the sense of having a low IQ. I argue that he’s crafty and may have the potential to be smart, but at some point, ignorance make it impossible to be smart because you don’t have anything to reason with. Mr IOL says if you have the potential to be smart, you reach for knowledge.

    In the long run, it doesn’t matter, I suppose. It’s like the evil/stupid argument. Both are true and it doesn’t matter which one came first.

  63. 63.

    dr. bloor

    @jeffreyw:

    But.. but Carlos is one of the good ones! Town right down the road from me, in a county that voted 70% Trump, shocked, shocked, that he did what he said he would do.

    I don’t know what’s dumber–thinking that Trump was going to give a Bad Hombre like Carlos a pass, or thinking that the Tangerine Shitgibbon could actually bring back jobs in coal.

    Honestly, these people should just set fire to themselves.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @weaselone:

    He’s not a US citizen and is in the country illegally.

    That makes me insane. First of all, entering the country illegally (without documentation) is, as I understand it, just a misdemeanor, not a criminal offense at all. Personally, I don’t think it should be considered illegal in the first place (“Give me your tired, your poor, etc….”). But as long as it is, I still don’t get why it should give additional criminality to non-violent offenses such as traffic violations. I guess that’s why I’m not the Attorney General of the United States, or the Director of Homeland Security, or whoever dreams up these categories.

    This country is SO not the country I grew up in.

  68. 68.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That makes me insane. First of all, entering the country illegally (without documentation) is, as I understand it, just a misdemeanor, not a criminal offense at all.

    You are right. Most visa violations don’t rise to the level of criminal offenses. Immigration judges used to have much more of a leeway. This changed in the 90s when Bill Clinton signed an awful law, thrown up by Newtie and his minions.
    Google IIRIRA

  69. 69.

    catclub

    @greennotGreen:

    and pass the all new, completely Republican Patriotic Homeland Health Security Act. So much better than that lame, freedom-killing ACA!

    Not a chance. It raises taxes on rich people. The only priority is repealing those taxes as fast as possible.

  70. 70.

    japa21

    @SiubhanDuinne: I turn 70 in a few months, and I am sorry to say this country now is pretty close to how it has been more often than not during my life. However, during those times when it hasn’t been this way, it has been really tremendous in comparison to other countries around the globe.

    Should add that the difference now is that it is more blatant.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Sure it is. From the people who brought you Operation Wetback.

    Okay, point to you. Let’s say, this is not the country I thought at the time I was growing up in (didn’t learn about Operation Wetback until many decades had passed).

  72. 72.

    Roger Moore

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    I think Trump falls into the same category of arrogant, willful ignorance that many successful people fall into. They believe that they are completely responsible for their own success, and in many instances that success came in the face of other people telling them they were going to fail. That convinces them of their own genius, which gives them license to ignore advice and information they don’t want to believe because it’s coming from people who lack their genius.

  74. 74.

    cckids

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Serious question, what’s the statute of limitations (assuming there were no casualties from either of the DUIs)? Because according to the linked article, it’s been 10 years.

    In Nevada, I had an acquaintance who was turned down for a teacher’s license because she had a DUI when she was 19. She was 48 when she applied. Seemed out of whack to me.

  75. 75.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne: Oh yea. When my dad was coaching at Benton my grandfather (maternal) took him down in the mine. Now this was a guy who spent WW2 on a tiny tin can in the Pacific for the length of the war. With that experience he said “hell no” to ever going back in the mines.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @japa21:

    Should add that the difference now is that it is more blatant.

    Maybe that’s the real distinction. I’m five years your senior (will turn 75 in early August) and certainly before I was out of my teens I was well aware that the USA wasn’t the Saviour of the World I was taught as a child. But despite Vietnam, and Jim Crow, and CIA dirty tricks and all the rest, I truly — and I think justifiably — held the idea of America as a welcoming haven for immigrants and refugees, until quite recently. Just thinking about it at all makes me feel tired, fatigued, enervated, and ineffably sad.

  77. 77.

    JMG

    @Roger Moore: Trump inherited a pile which if he had invested it in low-fee index funds when he got it would be worth some enormous multiple of how much money he claims to have. He’s probably not stupid in the IQ sense, but since he’s never bothered to learn anything, what good is that?

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @cckids:

    I suppose the law varies from state to state, or even one local jurisdiction to another, but it does seem inconsistent to say the least.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    I just have such a bad feeling about this Russia investigation. Comey and Sessions and Republican Senators being all weasel-ey and slippery. The idea that they are going to give up their life-long dream of a far Right country because of some pesky illegality just seems like a pipe dream to me.

    I genuinely worry about basic credibility of any notion of “laws” or “rules”. What if the same thing happens in the midterms? We see Democratic candidates targeted by some shadowy group and it’s treated like gossipy political news? Won’t there be a point where people just say “fuck it- no one in power follows any laws so I’m not either”.

    I feel some of this myself. I resent filing and paying federal income taxes when Donald Trump doesn’t have to reveal what he pays. I resent that. I suspect the sleazy Trump’s don’t pay shit in federal income taxes and since I do I don’t think it’s fair.

    95% of people following laws is consensual. The vast, vast majority of people are law-abiding, which is lucky, because if they weren’t there wouldn’t be enough police in the world to watch all of them and you couldn’t build enough prisons to hold them. I feel like this “compact” is fragile and won’t hold up forever unless those in power start playing by a set of rules. It’s like an unspoken agreement and one side is no longer holding up their end.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Darkrose:

    I loved the big beating heart you walked through. And the slices of human anatomy, and the tiny tiny fetuses (feti?) illustrating embryonic growth. Fascinating.

  84. 84.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay:

    95% of people following laws is consensual. The vast, vast majority of people are law-abiding.

    In the interest of full disclosure, I violated multiple speed limits today on my ways to and from work. And I changed lanes without using a turn signal, but that’s only because she should not have been in the left lane to begin with–no jury in the world would convict me!

  85. 85.

    Darkrose

    @SiubhanDuinne: The walk through heart was awesome! I also liked the phone company exhibit with the videophones we’d all have in The Future. I laugh now because I never use FaceTime or Skype.

  89. 89.

    amk

    @Kay: Yup, pity the minority party can do jacksquat to check the brute majority. Some balance of powers the ‘founding fathers’ did.

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    He has a certain cunning, whether inherited or learned, and the predator’s ability to sense and exploit people’s weaknesses. This puts him on par with Charlie Manson and David Koresh–just add the inheritance.

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    I suspect some mental deterioration has/is occurring. In Trump’s case it’s revealing an unfiltered core that has always been there. The predatory behavior towards women and rivals is magnified, not out of character.

    Having had many relatives and in laws go down this path I think it’s common, if not effectively baked in.

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trollhattan: I’m almost tempted to watch tomorrow night, cause trump trying to stay on script is like watching someone you hate walk a tightrope. But like the Oscars, I tell myself anything good will be on the internet

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Told this one here before. When stationed in school in San Diego I would go down to this WWII sub that was still a commissioned ship in the USN. Had one crew member, a lifer who served as captain and tour guide. He liked that I helped out because it meant he got to do even less. Anywhooo, we’d bring people down the vertical ladder into a compartment that was completely cleared of all equipment, so there was room to stand around. To a person every visitor would remark how much more room there was than they imagined. Then I’d take them on the tour. The only other question ever asked was how the hell did people live inside a sardine can. “Like Sardines.” On a really good day, “Like Fucking Sardines.”

  96. 96.

    workworkwork

    @skerry: And that was the problem calling it “healthcare reform” when it really was “health insurance reform.”

    People like their doctors. They hate their insurance companies.

  97. 97.

    Tripod

    Paula Steiner ain’t there. She is the CEO of HCSC. Maybe she didn’t want to get grabbed by the pussy.

  100. 100.

    Tripod

    Deportation hits the rural, dumbfuck America the hardest. When you have a declining population and aging workforce, you want immigrants to tip those numbers to something attractive to the folks who site businesses.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    It’s like an unspoken agreement and one side is no longer holding up their end.

    It’s actually always been like this, you just didn’t know it before now. And there are far more people who have “visible wealth,” the McMansion in the gated community, the cars that cost more than many can afford for their house, the private schooling, the Ivy League colleges for the kids, the gold plated healthcare, the dinners that cost more than they spend for food for a month……… Those people that avoided taxes, like drumpf has now have the law more on their side. Fewer IRS agents means that fewer difficult audits can be done, so they focus on the one’s that take hours, not weeks/months. Tax credits that people that make $200,000/yr can’t benefit from but people who make a million can if they work the angles….. Have a friend who taught tax law in a pretty decent college, CPA/accountant as well. He did my business taxes for a couple of decades. Asked him once how to lower my tax bill. He said he could set up my return so that I paid zero, it was easy. I would get audited, 100% certain, but he guarantied he win every point and I’d pay nothing as everything he would do is 100% legal. But his cost to defend me would be more than my tax bill, “so pay my fucking taxes.” I actually laughed at that answer. The laws don’t work for us, the little people, we work for the law. If you are rich that is reversed, unless you murder someone. Someone important. Maybe.

  102. 102.

    Zinsky

    Why, oh why can’t people see what a fucking idiot this guy is? He is dumber than a fucking rock! Dubya is Albert Einstein compared to this fucking moron!

  103. 103.

    NorthLeft12

    “GOP Leaders Bet Wavering Republicans Don’t Have the Guts to Stop Obamacare Repeal“

    Betting on the craven cowardice and lack of humanity of elected Republicans is a pretty safe bet in my book. The GOP leadership knows their minions better than anyone IMO.

  104. 104.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Kay: I’ve been musing lately about how the Trump era is going to affect attempts to teach professional ethics. We used to have debates in class about what constituted a bribe or kickback. “What if the vendor gives you a Christmas present? What if the vendor buys you lunch? Is it still a kickback if I can support, with evidence, that this vendor is the best on the merits?”

    How can anybody teach that kind of stuff when the President of the United States is lining his pockets right out in the open? How long before his “ethics are for suckers” attitude becomes the norm?

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