This morning, Trump told Republican House members “these crowds” will fizzle if they don’t pass the Trumpcare bill. Via CNN:
In the single biggest political test of his presidency thus far, the President is looking to carry the Obamacare repeal and replace bill across the finish line. In a closed-door meeting with House Republicans, his message was blunt: You could lose re-election if you don’t vote for this legislation.
It was clear, lawmakers said, that Trump was energized by the supporters that had come out for him Monday night in Louisville, Kentucky. But that support may not last, he warned.
“We won’t have these crowds if we don’t get this done,” Trump said, according to a source in the room.
He later added: “I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done.”
What Dollar General off-brand crack is Trump smoking? GOP House members are getting crowds alright — angry, jeering mobs, even in deep red districts. I don’t know if they’ll follow the marmalade hairball over the cliff on this or not, but the crowds they’re worrying about are the irate mobs they’re ducking back home, not Trump’s idiotic Nuremburg reenactments.
Open thread.
JMG
Bill will pass House and Senate by end of next week. Watch for the Republican “doubters” to recant their doubts in Soviet show trial announcements for the next 12 days. They honestly believe nothing they do to their own voters will hurt them as long as those voters see people they don’t like suffering.
Major Major Major Major
That’s hilarious. He thinks his cult of personality mobs–which by the way will believe whatever the hell he says to, so if he tells them they’re better off without the bill they’ll believe him–are relevant to their futures.
The Moar You Know
@JMG: Absolutely agree. The GOP senators and representatives will blame Democrats, and it will work. Meanwhile, we will bask in the good feelings of having taken the high road, and Americans – Dems, Repubs and everyone else who got good quality health care for a few years – will start dying.
Yarrow
If you haven’t called all your Reps today to register that you’re against the bill, here’s a reminder to get on the phone. Make some noise!
ArchTeryx
I’m afraid I’m with JMG on this one. Republicans fall in line – always. They could give two shits about the opposition at their town halls. Yeah, it makes them look bad, but they lose absolutely zero by dodging them. Long as they got that “R” next to their name in their gerrymandered districts, the only crowd they worry about is Republican primary voters.
And they’re still with Trump and the death of everyone on the ACA. Even their own. All the way.
Major Major Major Major
@JMG:
What?! You think Brave Sen. Collins is going to run away?!
laura
“We won’t have these crowds if we don’t get this done,”
More like I won’t have these crowds if YOU don’t get this done. He couldn’t give two hoots about his party, he’s concerned that HIS ratings are tanking and his fans find other shiny objects to fetishize.
That’s when it’s time for a Reichstagg fire, and he’s got just the SS to do it.
Alesis
“My precious spotlight. Don’t take it away!”
We elected Bojack Horseman
JMG
@Major Major Major Major: Of course. It’s been her MO forever. Only way she’ll really vote no is if she knows it won’t cause bill to fail.
NobodySpecial
What the fuck are you Cassandras smoking? Do you not remember the last time they tried to fuck with one of the Big Two Entitlements?
This may. MAY. Pass the House, but no chance in hell it gets by the Senate.
schrodingers_cat
I think will close the BJ tab and leave you all to take a bath in self pity and doom and gloom. Enjoy.
different-church-lady
@Major Major Major Major: It would be hilarious if his cult-of-personality hadn’t been so relevant to our future back in November.
Just because his reality distortion field ain’t what it used to be doesn’t mean it’s totally unoperational.
Thru the Looking Glass...
I wonder if he’s even considered the opposite may be true… if multiple tens of millions of currently insured lose their coverage, do he and the GOP not think there just might be possibly be a backlash?
ETA: As far as I can tell, that bill is about as complete a legislative floater as I’ve ever seen…
You go down there, Mr. Custer… you go down there…
Hitless
It will pass the Senate. Dems will decide they need to be adult and compromise and help govern. Their fecklessness is a fact until they prove otherwise.
guachi
As far as Republicans are concerned, the problem with destroying social Security wasn’t that it was unpopular. The problem was that they didn’t ram it through Congress fast enough before it became unpopular.
Roger Moore
@JMG:
I’m skeptical. A bunch of the changes Ryan is making in the hopes of pushing it through the House are basically instructions to the Senate to do the hard work of implementation. That may let them push it out of the House on Thursday, but it means there’s more stuff for the Senate to do, and the whole point of the Senate has always been that it’s slower and more deliberate than the House. That doesn’t bode well for quick action.
Those changes also invalidate the CBO score, which is a problem for passing by reconciliation. Reconciliation requires that the changes reduce the deficit, and everything the House is proposing will hurt it in that department. Any Republican who’s interested in stalling the legislation- which includes several who are unhappy with how it will hurt their states- can plausibly do that by demanding any vote wait on a revised score. I’m not saying it will prevent it from passing, but I think it’s going to delay matters.
pk
If past actions are predictive of future events then the answer is yes they will follow him over the cliff. An evil part of me wants this bill to pass because I want Trump supporters to suffer. The obese woman Trump voter with the oxygen tank, who depends on meals on wheels does need to go on a diet. Nothing like a little starvation to focus the mind. All the middle class white suburbans whose parents are in nursing homes need to cough up the cash for their parents’ care. If the bill doesn’t pass and things remain the same, then why would these people ever turn against Trump. When democrats save or help people who stubbornly keep voting for republicans, the country and the world suffers. You can’t save people from the consequences of their actions. If congress was to magically able to pass a bill which said only white people can get government assistant and healthcare I have no doubt they’d be happy. Because this is what it’s really all about.
hovercraft
FAKE CROWDS, FAKE CROWDS, FAKE CROWDS!!!!!!!!
Everyone knows those are paid outside agitators, the lying media is not reporting that they are FAKE, that the crowds outside are dwarfed by the the crowds of people who can’t get into his events. The media won’t show those long lines, just like they still won’t tell you that he had the biggest bestest inaugural crowd evah!!!!!!!!!!
Doug R
So they can go as low as his 37%? There are MANY competitive districts out there.
NobodySpecial
Cole, can we get a new commentariat in here? Your old one’s broken.
Fuck, Stuck was less annoying then these….whatevers.
catclub
@NobodySpecial: I am not as certain as you, but agree with the principle. We know it will be close in the House,
and given Ryan”s ability to count, failure is always a possibility.
Senate still seems almost impossible for this bill. If Tom Cotton is against – wow. Just wow.
Also Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are pretty certain ‘principled’ no votes. that makes three already.
Roger Moore
@ArchTeryx:
Like they fell in line with Shrub’s Social Security privatization plan?
Major Major Major Major
@Hitless: Doesn’t need Dem votes to pass the senate, and even Manchin is against anything that doesn’t build on the ACA.
@different-church-lady: He barely won. There wasn’t a congressional wave. They’re all vulnerable. Even rabid fans only get one vote.
@NobodySpecial: What’d we do now?
Mike in DC
Our goal should be 100 seats, not 25. A meteor, not a wave. If it passes, hang them with it. If it doesn’t pass, focus on the failure, and the lack of accountability for Trump.
catclub
@pk:
I read an article recently that senior care in a nursing home (by Medicaid) was specifically protected, but the much more cost effective home-care was likely to be axed.
ET
Republican members are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t. But, they did it to themselves. They didn’t just oppose- they went so far as guarantee that it could be repealed if they got majorities in Congress and the White House. They boxed themselves into a corner because they only voices they listened to were those they wanted to listen to- they forgot about all those people that didn’t vote for them and all those that are quiet.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@JMG: I gathered they think they got votes they need in The House by making changes to make the bill viscious enough for the hard right wing of the party.
Gretchen
@Yarrow: I called my Republican rep, and reminded him that he won with 51.3% of the vote. Does he want to run next time with every constituent’s issue being whether their health insurarance situation is better or worse than last time? And that there are 28,000 people in his district on the exchanges? And that 65% of the people in nursing homes here are on Medicaid? Ended with how very disppointed I am that I thought he was a conservative who cared about his constituents, and there he goes voting for a tax cut bill that hurts his constituents.
hovercraft
I don’t agree with the commentators in the thread, ZEGS desperately wants it to pass, McTurtle not so much, ruby ed districts are not the same as ruby red states, the “sweeteners Cotton and the like need for cover will drive away the crazies in the house. I think if it gets through the house it will die in the senate, McTurtle cares about power, and this will hurt his chances in a year he should be able to consolidate his majority. They can squawk about democrats as much as they want, but this is theirs, they own it and it’s very unpopular with their voters.
It will fail.
From my fingers to FSM’s ear.
raven
Anyone else watch “Love” on Netflix? We just watched the episode about shrooms and it was hilarious.
Ian G.
I’m rooting for the House Freedom Caucus to cause maximum casualties to Trump’s sycophants. It’s sort of like rooting for Iranian Revolutionary Guard suicide squads to do maximum damage to Saddam Hussein’s armored columns.
EBT
@Major Major Major Major: Well, when deadbeat donnie starts telling them to shoot intransigent MoCs, they will.
Elie
The financial impact on large institutional providers and insurance markets related to the Medicaid changes alone will not bode well for the economy or the GOP. There are a lot of hogs on the Medicaid teats and many of them are not the poor people they are targeting. Maybe Trump’s supporters (and possibly the Congress), do not understand that impact but they will and it will be excruciating for all of us….
The Moar You Know
@Roger Moore: This keeps getting bought up and I want to point out one critical difference: Bush’s privitization never even got introduced as legislation.
ACA repeal is in and working its way through the process rapidly. They learned from last time. Almost like they’re becoming sentient.
Ian G.
@raven:
Wife watches it. Caught that episode. It was indeed fantastic.
raven
My Name is Earl, bee bite and shrooms.
FlipYrWhig
Trump STILL THINKS that the fact that everywhere he goes FOR PLANNED EVENTS STARRING HIM he draws crowds of cheering fans must mean that he is overwhelmingly, verging on universally, beloved. He really, truly, does not understand the relative scales of things between about a hundred and a trillion. He just knows none, some, and OMG SO MANY.
Tom
@Mike in DC: This times 1,000.
chopper
the problem a lot of these house guys have is, if they pass what their constituents think is a watered-down version of obamacare they’ll also lose their seats.
Timurid
The unspoken addendum to Trump’s warning is “…and if you ever vote to impeach, the same thing will happen to you.”
Timurid
@NobodySpecial:
User name checks out.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Keep calling, keep showing up. The vote is Thursday, drown them in calls this week, let them know that everyone is watching, Pete Sessions, R (TX), FFS, had to endure vote him out chants at his town hall this weekend.
Remember Cotton was totally for this piece of crap till his constituents beat him up-side the head, minds can be changed. They may not be vulnerable to democrats, but the are vulnerable to republicans who promise to give people back whats been taken away, without calling it Obamacare.
A smarter group of people would have just tweaked it and said mission accomplished, this bunch of morons painted themselves into a corner by promising the rubes a better deal while taking money from Randians who want to starve the poor and working class.
We can make them own their fuckup because the democrats have no way of stopping them.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@ET:
I would agree w/ this… and it couldn’t be happening to a more deserving bunch of assholes…
Barbara
@Thru the Looking Glass…: He says whatever he needs to. If he wanted a different bill he would say the same thing. Nothing he says can be equated either with truth or even considered thought about what is likely to happen.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Good plan.
hovercraft
@FlipYrWhig:
Yet still no visit to NYC, why Twitler, why? You’d think he’d want to ride into town as the hometown hero returning home have conquered the world.
Come back Twitler, we want to have the opportunity to “celebrate” you and your win, come on back, just once.
Major Major Major Major
I’m honestly surprised that Trump is backing this bill. I figured he’d be going more of a Herrenvolk socialism route. Though I suppose this new tax credit amendment is that.
Betty Cracker
@hovercraft: That’s kinda where I am, possibly because I’m still buoyed by the angry mob of old, conservative white folks who joined me in jeering my GOP rep last weekend.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Terminal cases cut off from insurance spend their last dollars on firearms and start opening fire on Republican townhalls.
/only a matter of time
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: As welcoming as T to immigrants and people who don’t agree with you. Excellent. I knew your heart was in the right place.
Wjs
This Trump regime has no political skill. There’s no Rove and Trump only knows the last thing he heard before they wheel him into a room.
Is Trump more feeble than Reagan? Goddamn right he is.
Jeffro
I think it’ll pass the House but not the Senate. House GOPers need to pass something, ANYTHING, in order to look like they’re making good on their promise (stupid tho’ it is) to repeal the ACA. R senators know that the danger for them is greater – states aren’t gerrymandered like congressional districts are – and there are only a few of them coming up for election in 2018 (i.e., in danger of being primaried if they vote against the AHCA.)
Wjs
@hovercraft: They can’t secure Trump tower for a Potus visit otherwise he’d have already spent three weeks there. Good enough for wife three and tax deduction number five though.
germy
EBT
@FlipYrWhig: So he is a Discworld troll. One, two, many, lots. Then like in German, it iterates out with more of the same four words.
rikyrah
@The Moar You Know:
They control everything. How can Dems be to blame?
High road?
WTF?
It was the only road to take. We aren’t talking about competing bills on the merits. These were two totally different visions of healthcare as a right.
Vs.
Die and die quickly, but give the rich a taxcut on the way to the grave.
Phuck outta here about the high road.
There is absolutely NOTHING to compromise with these sociopaths on with regards to healthcare.
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
Another bit of good news.
Poll Shows Ossoff Increases Lead in Georgia Race to Replace Price
Comes as conservatives grapple with Republican replacement for Obamacare
– See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/new-poll-shows-ossoff-strengthens-lead#sthash.BSzPtjuA.dpuf
A new poll shows that Democrat Jon Ossoff has strengthened his lead in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District race, and the race tightening among Republicans.
A poll by the conservative website zpolitics and Clout Research shows Ossof leading with 41 percent of the support of those polled. But it also shows that former Secretary of State Karen Handel and fellow Republican Bob Gray are nearly tied, with Handel at 16.1 percent and Gray at 15.6 percent.
EBT
@germy: Won’t pass. Not voting is protected by the first amendment.
Jilli Brown
Hmm….how effective are threats from a part time president* with a 37% approval rating and ongoing fbi investigations? The threats kinds ring a bit hollow.
Bruce K
Just realized that this new electronics ban may hit my folks when they come to Greece for vacation this summer: they are seriously considering flying Emirates (which now has a nonstop New York to Athens flight), but if they can’t bring anything electronic larger than a telephone in carry-ons, that’s going to create something of a mess.
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: If you can be taxed for not buying something, surely you can be taxed for not voting.
randy khan
The New York Times count as of last night was 136 Rs for, 52 undecided or unclear, and 48 with concerns or opposed. MarketWatch said this morning that the chair of the Freedom Caucus claims that he has enough no votes to block the bill. But we’ll see.
NobodySpecial
@Timurid: Yours has an extra U and R in it. Should get that checked.
low-tech cyclist
I’ve been calling up my Congresscritters 2-3 times a week over the past couple of months. I’ll be calling them this afternoon. And I’ll be in the D.C. Moral March To Save Healthcare tomorrow – looking forward to hearing Rev. Barber speak.
catclub
@hovercraft:
except he got only 10% of the vote in Manhattan, and probably knows it. Not exactly the hometown hero.
DCrefugee
I’ve done enough legislative lobbying to know ZEGS is an idiot if he brings this to the floor without the votes to pass it. But I’ve seen (and done) stranger things.
catclub
@The Moar You Know: I agree. Shrub did not even campaign on SS privatization and then clamied a mandate for it. Trump and the GOP have definitely been campaigning on ACA repeal.
I still think it fails in at least the senate.
hovercraft
I’m sure he knows Carter Page as well as he know Putin, not at all and very well.
Conway: Trump ‘Doesn’t Know’ Campaign Aides With Connections To Russia
Top White House aide Kellyanne Conway responded Tuesday to the FBI director’s announcement that the bureau was investigating possible connections and collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials by distancing Trump from two individuals connected to Russian interests.
“You raised a very excellent point which is in the case of Mr. Page, Mr. Gordon, some others, that they really have very attenuated contacts to the campaign that I managed for the last three months,” Conway told “Fox and Friends” Tuesday.
She was referring to Carter Page and J.D. Gordon, two former advisers of Trump’s who have come under scrutiny – and reported investigation in Page’s case – for their communication with Russian officials during the campaign.
“I have spoken directly with the President and other senior officials about this. He doesn’t know these gentlemen,” Conway continued. “He didn’t work with them. You know, Sean Spicer, our press secretary, addressed this at length in his briefing yesterday, and he’s absolutely right.”
“There are others who were more involved with who seem to be of interest,” Conway continued. “But again, where is the nexus? People are so quick to make that nexus.”
catclub
@Bruce K: Any indication that Athens is on the list of excluded airports? I think a European airport on that list would raise eyebrows.
OTOH, I think Athens has previously been singled out for bad security.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: ????
hovercraft
@Wjs:
If they can secure the UN. they can secure his tower, they also had no problem securing the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the UN ambassador lived and the president stayed during visits to NYC, till the Chinese bought it, this is just and excuse.
@catclub:
I know, he is not welcome, I was being facetious. As I posted the other day, New Yorkers just wish he would.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
Axing home care is a popular “cost cutting” measure for Republicans. Schwarzenegger tried to do it here in California when we were unfortunate enough to have him as our governor, but he was forced to drop it when it turned out it would actually cost the state more to put all of the people currently on home care into nursing homes.
PAM Dirac
@Jilli Brown: Not only that but supporting a primary challenge requires at least some sustained commitment of time, effort, and money, something tRumpf is unwilling and incapable of doing. Paul Ryan was primaried when he didn’t jump on the shitgibbon’s bandwagon fast enough and he won 84%-16%. That was then and this is now, but I just don’t see anything but the usual bluster and bullshit behind the threat
Roger Moore
@DCrefugee:
I’m not 100% sure of that. He may think he has enough credibility invested in Obamacare repeal that he’ll be effectively finished as Speaker if he backs down, so that it makes sense for him personally to hold the vote if there’s any chance of it passing. Of course, him being an idiot is always worth considering as an explanation.
JustRuss
@NobodySpecial:
Hoping you’re right. Bad as the Senate is, at least they can’t gerrymander it up, so those seats aren’t so safe.
Iowa Old Lady
I figured it was no accident Trump’s keepers scheduled a rally for him on the day Comey testified. They knew he’d be nuts otherwise. Nutsier.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
and he cannot count votes.
Feebog
@randy khan:
If that count is right it will be an uphill battle to pass it through the House. There only needs to be 22 of the 48 to vote against the bill and it goes down.
randy khan
@Feebog:
I won’t predict anything, but I do think it is an uphill fight. I’m hoping the hill gets steeper and steeper.
It’s worth noting that the Freedom Caucus might think a vote against the bill was good for two reasons – the substance and also the damage it would do to Ryan.
ruckus
BC
You didn’t expect that anything this fucking moron does is about anything other than feeding his massively fucked up ego did you?
Ithink
When Trump says “we won’t get the crowds anymore” he, being the know-nothing calorie-compacted Neanderthal narcissist that he is at essence, is referring to the neo-Nuremberg resurrectionists that are popular attendees for the last 21 months or so.
Whether or not the Repubs, do pray tell, lose Congress in a true wave revolt ala’ 2006 is anyone’s guess given how fundamentally rigid & evil their base is and how unmotivated our base is generally at getting off our asses to vote (especially Off-Election years). We’re beyond f***-ed if its another Democratic bloodbath in 2020 because it’ll be THAT much harder to recover no matter how strong the top of the ticket is. That’s looking next to an anomaly considering the IKEA kakistocracy currently in charge is about to go down in legislative flames trying to bowl through health care and budget reform. There’s nothing they can do to redeem themselves in my mind!
And yes, because I’m feeling self-righteous, fuck Trump and every asshat that voted for him whilr continuing to defend and justify his extended chaos of a Administration. I will not forgive so easily even for those people who minimally regret having done so at some past point only having now seen this disaster in living form.
Luthe
@EBT: A Discworld troll on a 90 degree day has more brains than President Skroob.