One of the classic bullshit Obama-branding exercises was calling the cell phones that had been available to low income households for years “Obamaphones”. Certainly this was part of what human cock sleeve Jason Chaffetz was referencing with his comments about someone (poor? blah? brown? – you pick) getting healthcare rather than a new iPhone.
Almost on cue, the owners of what is left of the Nokia brand after Microsoft decimated it have decided to re-release the 3310, which first hit the market in 2000. Anyone who used a cheap burner in the previous decade will recognize it:
Of course, because it is 17 years later, even this $50 phone has some decent features, so an oleagonous pile of rotten intestines like Chaffetz might judge it as too good for today’s chosen target of hate. Still, buying a ChaffetzPhone® instead of an iPhone will give some member of a designated hate group at least $700 to spend on healthcare, which will buy him or her a little more than half of the average emergency room visit ($1,233 in 2013). So give Jason your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and he will suggest that they buy a ChaffetzPhone® with a few prepaid minutes, then go die quietly, since they still won’t be able to afford healthcare.
dlwchico
Unfortunately it appears those won’t work in America.
https://thenextweb.com/mobile/2017/03/03/nokia-3310-unusable-2g-us/
TenguPhule
In America we have three kinds of Republicans.
Evil. Stupid. Both.
The Moar You Know
I’m liking this new direction of yours, mistermix.
Lee
@dlwchico: I’ve read that before and I’m hoping the phrase ‘likely be’ unusable is the operative words in the article.
They would be fools not to update the tech to at least 3G so it would work in the US. Since it is Microsoft, you can’t discount that they would be that &$#($& stupid. Hell I’d buy one just for the fun of it.
SiubhanDuinne
Fun fact: the iconic Nokia ringtone is a guitar melody (“Grand Vals”) written by the Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega in the early 20th century.
Gelfling 545
I pay $25/month to purchase my iPhone. If he can get me actual health insurance for $25/month I want to hear about it since even Medicare costs 100- something a month. Still, according th the WH budget director, insurance isn’t really their concern.
ET
He seems to think that people who are poor or borderline poor have the big fancy contracts like he does. Many of them get a cell but just add money when they need it. I have been in the store when they come in to add money. And anyway, even those sexpensive plans aren’t as expense as a monthly payment for insurance.
? Martin
Well, my daughter cost roughly a million dollars to get into this world between the incredibly complicated pregnancy and the NICU stay thereafter. I’ve made a lot of money as an investor in Apple thanks to those iPhones and I still couldn’t afford to have paid for that treatment.
What Chaffetz might want to focus more intently on is why I can get an iPhone for $700 but the average cost for gloves for a hospital stay is $5,141. Now, I’ve had occasion to order nitrile (non-latex) medical gloves, and they cost us about $50 for 1000. Even adding in the administrative overhead, gloves are well below a quarter each. So poor people need to comparison shop, but large organizations with professional staff whose job it is to negotiate prices can’t be bothered…
ThresherK
Some mouthpiece on NPR’s On Point said “Chaffetz realized that was wrong the moment he said it.”
That media hoor the basically claimed backsies for Chaffetz.
The only way to shove a rightie’s face in it on NPR is to get in on the caller line.
Fck NPR to let this shit continue.
AxelFoley
@The Moar You Know:
Mix sounds like he has a bit of Scottish blood in his veins.
Lee
@Lee: Well that sucks I did a bit more searching and it looks to be confirmed that it is only going to work on 2.5G networks.
Dumbasses.
Yarrow
Those phones had the best sound–for phone calls, I mean–of any phone I’ve ever encountered. So clear and easy to understand the person on the other end. Just fantastic. I know people don’t actually talk on phones much these days but sometimes you need to do that. Those phones were great for that.
Also, too, in case anyone missed it being linked below the actual real name of the bill is: “H.R.1275 – World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.” Yes, really.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
Get outta here.
mistermix
@Lee: They will probably release a US version if it is successful. Let’s hope the ChaffetzPhone branding increases demand.
cosima
A friend was posting about this on facebook and my position was (and forever will be) that whenever that dbag proposes something the question should be asked (on all available platforms) ‘how many iphones will that cost?’ The ‘Great Wall’ costs ??? iphones. The ‘?Ghazi investigation’ costs ??? iphones. Etc.
Has this ballsack never been to the doctor? Does his wife pay the bills? Does he not understand how household budgets (reality) works? Somewhat rhetorical question(s), I guess.
Jeffro
@Yarrow:
They’re not even trying to disguise their contempt for thinking people…just ‘phoning it in’, as it were.
Yarrow
@SiubhanDuinne: Click through and see. It’s on Congress.gov.
Pogonip
@cosima: Hi Cosima did your daughter start training yet?
The Moar You Know
@ThresherK: Since 2003/4, when NPR went all in for Bush and his goddamn war, I have been unable to understand why anyone who considers themselves a “liberal” or even reasonable in any way is still listening to NPR. But hundreds of thousands do. Dear friend of mine, who I lambaste over it every time I see her, is still doing it. I do not understand. When they’re not actively carrying water for the GOP, they are either insufferably smug or stupefyingly boring.
If you can’t kick the listening habit, I get that, but please at least don’t send them money.
Yarrow
Here’s something else you can use in your discussions and posts about this bill. If Medicaid gets gutted, grandma or mom in the nursing home via Medicaid will get kicked out. Many states have laws on the books REQUIRING kids to take care of their elderly parents. Here’s a link to Elder Law Answers about that issue:
Let people know!
...now I try to be amused
Does the ChaffetzPhone® come equipped with Chaffetz on speed dial so I can tell him “Fck you!” every five minutes?
rikyrah
Also, too, in case anyone missed it- the actual real name of the bill is: “H.R.1275 – World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.” Yes, really.
WereBear
So Trump would sign it.
Yarrow
@WereBear: I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re probably right. That’s just….terrifying.
Waldo
Tough choice — your iPhone or your life. And here I was thinking they were only bad for the health of Apple factory workers.
The Thin Black Duke
@WereBear: That actually makes sense, God help us.
...now I try to be amused
@WereBear:
I can see wheeler-dealer Trump holding out for the “World’s Greatester Healthcare Plan of 2018”.
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
sorry, I forgot my comment.
DA HAIL?
The gall of these sociopaths.
trollhattan
@Yarrow: @SiubhanDuinne:
Seriously. How did they resist the temptation to make it also the “Bestest” and “Most Awesomely Freedomly”?
hedgehog the occasional commenter
mr. h had an emergency room visit (long story, infection, all better now, etc.) Got sent to the ER by his dr. since the infection wasn’t responding to treatment. Anyway, with decent insurance, his portion of the bill was still $1400 (or 28 ChaffetzPhones ™. These people simply do not live in the same reality we do.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
thanks for this info.
I know who takes up most Medicaid $$$$, but it’s good to have that other information.
Keith P.
Chaffetz would be more likely to push toothbrushes than phones.
MomSense
Fuck fucking Chaffetz.
Jeffro
@WereBear: he’s rubbing off on them, and not in a good way…as if it was even possible to be dumber than the average member of the House Freedum Caucus…smh…
louc
@Yarrow: This, this, 1,000Xthis. Do the Republicans fucking realize how many of their fucking constituents this would affect? If they try to go after kids of parents on Medicaid in nursing homes, the ‘pubs will die as a party because there would be a huge revolt. I mean, it’s already hard enough to save for your own damned retirement as a fifty-something without also having to shell out for Dad’s $4,000 a month nursing home bill. To say nothing of kids’ college tuition.
And by the way, these states might have these laws on the books, but how do they enforce if the kids live in other states?
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
I’ve been trying to. Site is overloaded.
hovercraft
@? Martin:
Forget hospitals shopping around, or this asshole telling us to, perhaps Fuckfetz could spend some time doing his job and investigate why we spend so much on contractors, even as we slash the agencies we are outsourcing the work from. We are paying more for crappier results.
I know this is somewhat off topic, but it pisses me off that this asshole is telling us to figure it out on our own, just after Twitler finally cottoned on tho the fact that this stuff is complicated, since he has all this time on his hands to make stupid statements and investigate bullshit, maybe we could harass him about the fact he’s not doing the job he was fucking hired for.
TenguPhule
@MomSense: The air will taste sweeter when Chaffetz isn’t breathing it.
StringOnAStick
For people who want to take a further step and write letters to the editor on any subject, I received a handy one page set of guidelines from an OFA volunteer who has gotten her stuff printed hundreds of times. Even if they don’t print it, the editor reads it and every bit of exposure helps us. A lot more people will see a LTTE than any facebook post, since no one has as many friends as the major newspapers have subscribers.
Her rules for getting published are simple: (1) no more than 150 words, (2) embed the text in your email, do not send as an attachment because it won’t get opened, (3) your letter must include your name, address and phone number, and are about a specific event or article that was published. They won’t print your address or telephone number, but without it they won’t publish the letter.
Since my only rethug MOC is on perpetual voice mail now, my best bet is postcards to his office and LTTE, so that’s on my task list today.
Aleta
@Yarrow: The “summary is in progress.” They can’t summarize it ? Come on, they’ve been summarizing it over the phone to any big donor who’s on their side. They wrote the summary before they finished writing the bill. They summarized it one way to Trump and another way to someone different, and that’s why they don’t have a summary to publish.
Eric U.
tags should have included #eattherich
TenguPhule
@louc:
Sadly cites facts not in evidence. Stupid people will still blame the Democrats for it.
Mike J
I used nokia in a twitter joke yesterday. https://twitter.com/emmeyekayeee/status/839301035894030337
But in all seriousness, $50 for a nokia? After dropping two phones in Lake Washington, my latest is an android that cost less than that.
Bruce K
Guess what? I now have to wonder if this AHCA cyanide sandwich (to borrow a term from LGM) is going to turn me from a person with a worrying vascular condition that might require surgery if it destabilizes … into a dead man walking.
Tell me again about Hillary’s email server?
Villago Delenda Est
@Jeffro: Thinking people are not their base. It’s really that simple.
Boatboy_srq
@The Moar You Know: Armor against love; gossamer against infection.
Never was more true.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think the site is overloaded with people going, “What the fucking fuck?” but I saw it with my own eyes.
Here’s a question — can they change the name of the bill once it’s been posted? Because I suspect they’re going to try.
Just One More Canuck
@TenguPhule: don’t forget “crazy”
TenguPhule
@Just One More Canuck: They’re all crazy. Its a prerequisite.
Betty
@Villago Delenda Est: As an example of this truism, my step daughter who markets health insurance in NYC tells me that her brokers are still big Trump/Republcian fan boys. It isn’t just uneducated country folk. There are lots of people who are incapable of thinking clearly.
cosima
@Pogonip: She’ll start next Tuesday (interesting watching the children say ‘yes mum’ to every single thing the instructor says — I’m going to try to get that implemented here at home as well! the bowing too). This weekend she is off to the big motorcycle show in Edinburgh with her dad (an annual long weekend trip for them) and then competing in a race (not motorcycle) that will hopefully qualify her & her team for the finals down in England.
Corner Stone
@Bruce K:
Turns out she had a private email server in her basement. It somehow gained access to the Global Defense Network, became sentient and initiated The Reorganization Under Machines Plan, aka T.R.U.M.P.
So, basically. We’re all fucked.
gene108
@Yarrow:
The first repeal attempt on Obamacare was entitled “Repealing the Job Killing Healthcare Law Act”
Major Major Major Major
@gene108: Paul Ryan is such a serious, numbers-driven wonk.
Corner Stone
Spicey Spice is just awful at his job. It’s horrifying to watch a grown man shrink into his suit jacket in real time.
Oh well. Back to NFL Free Agent Frenzy.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: Oh oh oh. Do *NOT* even get me started on this Wonk’s wonk of a wonk!
Just One More Canuck
@TenguPhule:
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: I heard he’s so wonky, his friends are like, Paul Ryan, you wonk you, why are you such a wonky wonk? every time they see him. He calls having sex with his wife ‘wonking’.
GregB
When will Uber install colonoscopy equipment.
Trump/Ryandon’tcare seems tailor made for the gig economy.
lgerard
@hovercraft:
Homeland Security is even worse. There are thousands of contractors, and no one really knows what they do, if it is a duplication of effort, or even if it has any viability.
Dennis Montgomery, the “Seattle Operation” contractor who bilked Joe Arpaio out of hundreds of thousands was a former Homeland Security contractor who pedaled a totally fake program for years, without any consequences.
Captain C
@SiubhanDuinne: ‘nother fun fact: Thomas Dolby of ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ fame was one of the inventors/designers of the ringtone synthesizer that Nokia used.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: That dude doesn’t just wonk when he wonks. He WONKS. It’s like he can’t even wonk without wonking. He cares so very much for the poor and about poverty he hasn’t even wonked his wife for years, that’s what his wonky friends have wonked about him at wonk parties.
HeleninEire
New phone. Just testing. Or should I say “New phone…who dis?”
ETA: And also on topic!
Sufferin' Succotash
@Gelfling 545: It’s about going to see your doctor, not about insurance.
/puts forefinger to lower lip, goes bububububububububub!
Major Major Major Major
rumpole
@The Moar You Know: “human [rooster] sleeve” is one that I immediately filed away for future use.
Jamey
In today’s coarsened political discourse, nothing’s going to be accomplished by calling somebody like Jason Cheffetz a “human cock sleeve.”
There’s nothing even remotely human about him.
catclub
@Jeffro:
you realize that the House Freedom Caucus is the most likely GOP group to vote against this bill, right?
catclub
@hovercraft:
Because the US government is an organization that is primarily designed to spend money in the US private sector. Getting the job done is secondary.
Major Major Major Major
@catclub: Right action, wrong everything else. Not doing a great job walking the noble eightfold path.
? Martin
@ET: More broadly, low-income people their phone is also their computer and their high-speed internet. It’s WAY the fuck cheaper to get a mid-range Android phone with an unlimited data plan than to buy even a cheap computer and DSL. You can’t get a job without some kind of online connection, and a smartphone is the most cost-effective route, even an iPhone.
I know that people in the US cannot see this, but the smartphone has been revolutionary in terms of lifting people out of poverty.
hovercraft
I guess they are really worried about what the CBO will say.
GOPers Preemptively Trash CBO Before It Scores Their O’care Replacement
On Wednesday morning, two powerful House committees began marking up the bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act despite the fact that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not yet crunched the numbers on what the plan would cost or how many people would lose their health insurance if it passes.
The Republican authors of the bills refused to say this week if the number of uninsured Americans would grow or shrink under their proposals. Independent estimates of how many people would lose insurance range between two to four million and tens of millions of people. As for how much the plan would cost the federal government, Republican leaders offered no numbers—only vague assurances that it will be “fiscally responsible.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told reporters Wednesday that he was not sure when the CBO would release its analysis of the bills, but said he hoped it would be next week, before the bill came to the House floor for a vote. But ahead of that vague release date, rank-and-file Republicans are casting doubt on the agency’s judgement.
“The CBO is consistently inconsistent,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) told TPM. “They can’t predict the actual results of a 10-year window, because life changes so quickly. So I don’t put that much weight on a CBO score.”
Over on the House side, Rep. David Brat (R-VA) laughed when TPM asked about the rush to mark up the bill without knowing its cost or impact. “The CBO, they’ve scored everything wrong for decades,” he said.
Emerging from a closed-door meeting of the Republican caucus, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) agreed. “To tell you the truth, the CBO, I don’t see where they get it right,” he told TPM. “I don’t know what variables or parameters they use to score things. I don’t have a lot of confidence in the CBO process.”
Asked whose report he would rely on if not that of the non-partisan office, Thompson replied, “Trust me, this bill will be subject to all kinds of alternative analysis.”
Notice the insertion of “alternative analysis”, I guess they are taking their cues from KAC.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft:
Gosh, maybe that has something to do with the regulatory whiplash caused by the GOP’s complete lack of legislative principles other than general rapaciousness.
hovercraft
@catclub:
Yes, but for the wrong reasons, they hate that the poors still get something, a rancid turd, but it’s still something. This will not be tolerated, Jesus said the poor will always be with us, and to them that means it’s their job to ensure that they remain that way.
Thru the Looking Glass...
Whenever I see a picture of Jason Chaffetz, the first words that come to mind are:
Every last time… it’s become reflexive… I don’t even have to think about it…
Jeffro
@Villago Delenda Est: Agreed. I probably could have been more clear…it’s their contempt for us thinking people, not their contempt for their own base (which is a real thing as well)
Aardvark Cheeselog
This is an affront to cock sleeves and an insult to people who use them.
Jeffro
@catclub: we’ll see…they are Rs after all, falling in line is what they do…
Yarrow
@hovercraft:
Wait…they’re now delaying the vote to next week? I thought they were pushing through a vote as soon as today.
glory b
Can’t link, but slate.com has an article saying that Chaffetz’s donor group paid for an iPhone for him to use.
Stranger than fiction, right?
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: Weird.
Ferd ofthe Nort
NEW Donald Trump Healthcare Bill:
When you need emergency care, we DonTCare!
ETA – Speaking as a Canadian – what a steaming pile of crap your systems are. You have my condolences.
JosieJ (not Josie)
@glory b:
The slimy little weasel.
Oh, here’s the link.
Pogonip
@cosima: “Yes, mum” sounds cute. So British.
Eolirin
@Lee: Microsoft has nothing to do with those phones.
The Moar You Know
@GregB: new company name: Luber and Tuber.
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
Overloaded because of the 300,000,000 people who can not believe what they are learning about their Republicans in Congress. Unbelievable dumbassery to name their shitty healthcare bill like that. US health care is 37th in the world according to the World Health Organization:
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 USA
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
Imagine that! You know who is first? FRANCE is the best health care in the world! So that makes their Republican bill sheer fantasy before they even vote on it the first time.
ThresherK
@The Moar You Know: Oh, yeah.
The NPR station was literally on because of the jazz program from the previous night. When I went to that band of presets (OCD me has one bunch for all the commercial stations, another for all the non-commercials), there it was.
The random thirty seconds I heard on NPR today was a museum quality exhibit of how they suck. It’s amazing how often that happens.
ruckus
@TenguPhule:
Disagree.
There is only one now. Evil.
Amir Khalid
I was just wondering: what kind of phone does Chaffetz use?
Chris T.
@J R in WV: They didn’t say “greatest”, they said “greatest of 2017”. They assume there will be no others in 2017, hence it will be the greatest. Also the worst, the tallest, the wettest, the most-used-as-a-Kleenex. When it’s the only one, it’s the sharpest, the dullest, the biggest, and the smallest!
Floretta
@SiubhanDuinne: Yep. Here’s a link: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1275