No one has ever had as much fun trying to take away health care from 24 million people as Paul Ryan pic.twitter.com/iueO3mWJaL
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 22, 2017
Okay, I’m a little obsessed right now. Because I’m hoping for the political equivalent of a Trump-Ryan murder-suicide pact, and I don’t even care which partner goes first.
Apart from keeping one eye on the perpetrators at all times, what’s on the agenda for the day?
.
These guys are good (at hurting people). https://t.co/hgWxQqBQFJ
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 21, 2017
House GOP health bill is struggling because it's only real selling point is tribal imperative
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 21, 2017
Sessions says he expects a new CBO score on the altered health bill Wednesday evening.
— Kristina L. Peterson (@kristinapet) March 21, 2017
This should help with the already-difficult whipping for Thursday's vote. https://t.co/ZBYdz556R5
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) March 21, 2017
President Trump sounds ready to get health care reform behind him https://t.co/8CcK0jeHcs pic.twitter.com/fi3wbvV545
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 21, 2017
.@POTUS starts conference meeting talking about size of crowd at last night's rally: "We won't have these crowds if we don't get this done."
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) March 21, 2017
First test of Trump era re: who throws more of a scare into members, the outside pressure groups or the WHhttps://t.co/du6IMnBQJ9
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) March 21, 2017
After GOP meeting on repeal bill, @SpeakerRyan says Pres Trump "was here to do what he does best and that is to close the deal." pic.twitter.com/PKgeOZ4V1L
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 21, 2017
Paul Ryan's trying to crash land this flaming piece of wreckage and Trump's busy pointing at his watch https://t.co/LIRzaIo6qs
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) March 21, 2017
Elizabelle
Heard a little about this on NPR during rush hour yesterday. They covered solely the politics.
I hope Ryan and the GOP go down in flames on this. It is sinful to have “representatives” with government-funded healthcare plotting to take away what little healthcare the non-corporate public gets to advance their political careers. Fuck them.
amk
wtf? quit and declare a win before you even get started?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
WOAH – Even the liberal Wall Street Journal is attacking Drumpf:
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Sad news: famed CIA operative Chuck Barris has passed away at age 87.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
/fixed
hueyplong
I’m already sick of asides about how Sean Spicer doesn’t deserve to go through hell. Yes, he does. He signed up for this. If he wasn’t aware of what it entailed, he should have been. And he can quit anytime he wants.
Freedom. Choice. You know, their mantra.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@rikyrah: g00d morning
seaboogie
@rikyrah: Good morning!
I should probably go to sleep soonish….intense night…still processing….
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Why doesn’t Spicer deserve this? He signed up for this shit. He knew what he was dealing with, and he happily got on board with it anyway. These people are soulless dickheads. They deserve all the scorn that comes their way, whatever the Wall Street Journal might say.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
May conclude?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Cover – NY Daily News: Trump is Evil (photo)
OzarkHillbilly
@hueyplong: Hey now, give the poor guy a break. He is probably suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
David Rockefeller dies at age 101, proving, once again, only the good die young.
satby
@seaboogie: you ok? What happened, anything you can share?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
/fixed
PaulW
Chuck Barris DIED?!
…
I’m willing to bet it’s Putin’s revenge for all the work Barris did for the CIA.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah ?
Elizabelle
Where’s baud? MIA.
Now is a time for moral courage. It is morally wrong for Ryan and the Republicans to be doing what they’re attempting. It’s even economically unadvisable, save for the endangered wealthy. We must defeat them.
Rev. Barber’s memo calls the GOP plan “wealthcare.”
Elizabelle
@satby: WRT seaboogie: On the On the Road thread. Aged kitty breathed her last yesterday.
Cermet
The people losing healthcare if this passes will be little differnt soon than the number losing healthcare if it doesn’t pass; ACA is in a death spiral. The thugs caused this when they refused to fix the ACA issues (like a real mandate requiring purchasing healthcare by all adults.) Rather, the dems might very well get killed at the midterms as ACA staggers along causing premiums to climb and climb and fewer and fewer companies offering healthcare much less affordable healthcare even for middle class income levels! Better that the thugs own the mess they created so the backlash burns them down; then real healthcare can be enacted.
Hal
I’m trying to figure out the logic Republicans are using that convinces them passing this bill will be better for their midterm chances than it failing. I’m sure their are plenty of Republican voters hoping this bill fails and wouldn’t Trump be the epicenter of the failure to pass? But so would Ryan and McConnell, so now I see why they’re so desperate.
debbie
@Hal:
The only logic the GOP knows is WINNING!
Elizabelle
@Cermet: Is ACA in a death spiral? Is that true?
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
And you thought of me??!! I’m touched.
Gindy51
@Cermet: You keep posting this on every thread….
Taylor
@Cermet: The Democrats lost Congress after passing healthcare reform.
The Republicans may lose Congress after passing their own Godforsaken version of healthcare reform.
What lesson do you think politicians will draw from this?
amk
@Cermet: Your copy/paste skills are appreciated.
hueyplong
@Hal:
Tribalism. Winning. Destroying a liberal creation.
That’s what it’s about, along with the standard stealth transfer of wealth upstream.
JerryRich
Time for a Star Trek reference. In the original series, Governor Kodos responded to a famine by putting half of Earth Colony Tarsus IV’s residents to death so the remainder may survive. He is forever known thereafter as Kodos the Executioner. His death toll was 4,000. Paul Ryan and his band of cutthroats will exceed this death toll fivefold in one year. Kodos was a piker, we need a new nickname for Ryan (Ryan the Grinning Death Monkey, perhaps?).
Elizabelle
@Hal: Yeah. I cannot fathom that one at all.
Although it is not “logic” that has brought them to this pass. NPR was reporting it was GOP congresscritters having to repeal Obamacare, because it’s what they promised their rabid base. But it’s more likely an “entitlement” Ryan and others want to gut, at the behest of their Daddy Moneybags type donors.
At any rate, it harms average Americans. I hope Ryan et al get scalded, badly.
ETA: None of this makes any sense whatsoever to me. Healthier Americans are more productive and happier.
Hal
@Cermet:
Problems? Yes. Death spiral? Um, no.
Elizabelle
@Baud: LOL. Someone has had his Wheaties and coffee.
satby
@Elizabelle: oh, so sorry! Thanks.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Wealthcare
Absolutely on point
They are crystal clear about the tax cuts.
24 MILLION lose Healthcare?
But, we have those tax cuts.
SOCIOPATHS
The.entire.lot.of.them.
MomSense
I feel exhausted today but I’m going to power through.
?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
We knew that.
OzarkHillbilly
@hueyplong:
There is nothing stealthy at all about this one.
rikyrah
@Hal:
They don’t give a shyt about Healthcare.
They want those phucking tax cuts.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Keep on trucking.?
SFAW
@JerryRich:
He’s one of “Twitler’s Willing Executioners”?
ETA: Except that ZEGS is much more than willing, of course — he’s been actively working to destroy health coverage for all since who-knows-when.
debbie
@rikyrah:
This is what I just cannot understand. What kind of mind thinks it’s okay to inflict such damage on so many?
OzarkHillbilly
So Betty Cracker asked: “So what role for which you are completely unqualified do you see yourself occupying over the next three years and 10 months (barring impeachment)?”
I want to be Pope and actually do to the Catholic Church what Trump is trying to do to the country.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
On January 1st, the editor of the WSJ went on MTP and warned news organizations not to call Trump a liar.
61 days in office and the Journal is now calling Trump a “fake president” who spouts “falsehoods”.
How quickly times change, … even for Rupert.
satby
@debbie: They refuse to believe they are. After all, they’re all fine, everyone they know is fine, they don’t see the problem. If all those other people would just get jobs with health insurance, everyone would be fine. It’s the stubborn lazy losers who won’t be fine, but they deserve it. << That's what they really think.
WereBear
@satby: With the corollary that they are on top because they are just that awesome.
satby
@WereBear: exactly! And they all accomplished it their own selves, with no help from anybody.
hueyplong
@OzarkHillbilly:
I say it’s “stealthy” if half of the country– the half required to make it work– remains blissfully unaware of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Himmler.
@debbie: The kind that worships wealth.
germy
@satby:
“Well, if they’re on gubmint medicaid, we’ll FORCE ’em to get jobs!”
satby
@germy: but they won’t force those employers to provide health insurance.
OzarkHillbilly
@hueyplong: Ignorance is a choice.
ArchTeryx
The agenda for today is to deliver a passel of thank-you letters for the three interviews I did yesterday, one for a temp, two for permanent state jobs. They’re all bottom-grade jobs, but they’d get me health insurance and a foot in the door into one of the last unionized workplaces left.
I’m still in the pessimist’s corner that the Republicans will fall in line in the end, because this is an absolute tribal imperative for them. Expunging every last one of Obama’s good works is what they’ve lived for for 9 long years, and now undoing his signature accomplishment is within their grasp.
But doG I hope I’m wrong. The stakes for me couldn’t be higher.
If ZEGS isn’t good enough for Paul Ryan, how about Secure Sociopath? Think of the initials: SS. That’s what this dude is. A True Believer that would happily commit genocide on the poor to advance his twisted ideology.
WereBear
I have had a front row seat to how Republican rigging has screwed up so many.
In my first marriage, paying off an expensive custody battle (that we won) the first Bush changed the rule on deducting interest and we went from doing okay to suddenly under water.
The once great company I worked for started cutting benefits and firing people just before they were vested in various programs. So we went from a secure, if demanding, career to leaving before we were pushed; and the subsequent cut in pay.
I trained for a new career and graduated right before tuition started skyrocketing; and then there weren’t any jobs for that new career. Still paying the loans. And I was relatively lucky.
It’s all a scam to suck money out of us before we die of neglect.
SFAW
@satby:
And, of course, those morons are too moronic to notice that employer-“provided” insurance has become more-and-more expensive, and less-and-less available, for the last NN years. I count myself as one of the extremely fortunate, because Mrs. SFAW’s medical insurance (which covers the family) is still not forcing us to take out loans, but we’ll see what next year brings.
satby
Speaking of jobs, I met the guy that curates this site, which I’ve been reading. He also does a “Labor Song of the Month” that’s pretty cool. I told him he should come check out this joint.
debbie
@satby:
And that is why I want Congress to pilot this new plan and learn how the rest of us will have to deal with their decisions.
SFAW
@ArchTeryx:
Glad to hear about the interviews, best of luck for scoring a good job.
Me, too, but only because it’s been SOP for them for awhile now, and hasn’t hurt them, so why should they change?
greennotGreen
@JerryRich: @JerryRich: Not a Star Trek reference but inspired by your suggestion: Representative Komodo Dragon. Animals, including humans not killed by the Komodo’s bite will often die later from the virulent bacteria they convey.
Sab
@germy: Yeah. My son in law and stepdaughter are on Medicaid. He is a roofer, so seasonal work. He did our roof. Up and down ladders all day carrying 85lb packets of shingles. 95 degrees. Definitely not lazy or idle. His job is a pre-existing condition because it is so dangerous. I hate the GOP.
germy
@satby:
efgoldman
@Hal:
90% of Shitgibbon voters don’t know who Granny Starver and Yertle McTurtle are, what they do, and who elect them both in DC and in actual elections.
If the bill fails,Granny Starver’s speakership is probably hanging on for dear life. Yertle’s fingerprints will not be found anywhere.
randy khan
That CBO score should be interesting. I’m guessing it will look worse than the last one.
Cermet
@Elizabelle: No mandate, healthy people and young people will not enlist; result? Mostly the sick or those with pre-conditions sign up causing rates to rise and rise. Even middle class will struggle to pay high rates much less the poorer people. That leads to even fewer people signing up and, more rate increases. That is a death spiral. I wish I was wrong but unless their are real penalties for not having a healthcare plan, then why would healthy or young people pay for an expensive plan? This is the elephant in the room -especially now that small hands removed the minor penality that the ACA did have. There are other issues too that will contribute to the death spiral and frankly, I don’t see any solutions being enacted until and unless the dems really win; even then, they will need the white house. This is a bad situation that is gettin gworse with time.
WereBear
@SFAW: As described above, I had one of those jobs. They flat out doubled my workload without a raise, and I stayed on. When I left they were upset. But when they kept cutting the benefits and raising the expectations, there’s only so much I can take.
For years I wondered if I made a mistake. And then, the corporations started laying off people without pensions or anything; my peers.
So I actually did the smart thing. Not trusting them.
ArchTeryx
@WereBear: Yeah, Republican rigging is exactly why I am in the situation I am in. The universities were rigged to churn out grad students while slashing tenure-track professorial jobs thanks to MBA deans, then I graduate (three separate times) into a Republican recession, the last one of which all but destroyed the biosciences job market; the sequester killed what funding the recession didn’t. Junk insurance and being frozen out of the Ohio Medicaid system because of demographic exclusion all but wiped my savings out and damn near killed me in the process. (Ohio was, of course, an expansion refusenik state).
Republicans have been trying to kill me for a very long time, and this election finally gave them the weapon to finish the job with. There’s a reason I’m so pessimistic.
germy
@Sab: They have soft hands. They sit on their asses all day and take long vacations. They stay in congress for decades, more than 30 years. They have all the health insurance they need. They simply can’t understand why anyone would want or need to retire.
Elizabelle
@SFAW: Because those that have braved town halls have realized they have constituents that aren’t “the base”?
Because millions marched in pink hats, and healthcare is a front and center concern? Because the media has suddenly woken up that neither Trump or Republicans are that popular? And that they lie, constantly? And people are paying attention?
Not picking on you, but I get tired of the cynicism here. What does that help? These are not usual times. Maybe even the troglodytes have woken to that fact.
Maybe the fire-breathing conservatives are pulling their “doesn’t go far enough” act also to give cover to their brethren who would be endangered by gutting the Affordable Care Act? To retain numbers in 2018?
Cermet
@Gindy51: I fucking wonder why? Lets see, the Balloon Juice main writers are ignoring this extremely serious issue and I have see ZERO posts on this subject! This issue makes the thug’s plan an advantage for the dems yet the BJ’s are just crying about that plan and ignoring the elephant in the room! Damn it – wake up and pay attention to what is unraveling ACA and will cause us to lose the mid-terms assuming the thug’s don’t pass their plan making them the goats.
I will continue to post this until a BJ’er bothers to address this extremely serious issue.
Gin & Tonic
In 24 hours I will be under general anesthesia. Oddly, I am looking forward to that.
WereBear
I don’t blame you. I remember, in the original Robocop, the guy by the hospital with the sign “Will work for health care.”
Satire becomes reality.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Good luck.
Sab
@ArchTeryx: Wow. You were an Ohioan? We certainly have a knack for running off our best and brightest. Glad Kay is still here.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Good luck to you, G&T. Hope your arm is as good as new.
Where was the break? Sorry about the injury.
Cermet
@Taylor: Because the ACA has issues that were never addressed! Rates increased for many people and that is what they saw – not that a lot of poor got coverage; rather that the poor (some not working) got coverage and they ended up paying more. The dems didn’t really defend nor show why the average people was better off and hence, they lost the mid-terms! Now the thugs may get the same chance by causing healthcare to also continue to fail but if they let ACA die on its own, the dems will own that and suffer in the mid terms again!
Baud
@ArchTeryx:
I thought they expanded. Maybe after you left.
ArchTeryx
@Sab: Yes, I was. Ohio State had easily the worst health insurance of the entire Big Ten; I remember interviewing for a U of Michigan grad position (I didn’t get it) and being shocked at the difference in health insurance between OSU and UM. It was so shockingly bad it eventually almost led to a grad student general strike – OSU averted it only by instituting subsidies for part of the premiums, phased in over time. (And them promptly taking most of it back by instituting brand new fees for their shiny new rec center).
Of course, I didn’t find out just how bad it REALLY was until I developed a chronic, potentially fatal condition.
Baud
@Cermet:
We won’t own that. They might lie about it, but we won’t own it.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: it is the waiting that is the most trying. Good luck and demand good pain medication! Take it all! Pain is not the friend of sleep, rest or healing.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: They did actually expand. I left long before the ACA actually became law; had that expansion been in place when I was there, I would have been able to get on the state Medicaid system and wouldn’t have nearly gone bankrupt trying to save my own life.
Cermet
@Hal: Did you notice
.
Well, insurance companies are raising rates and some are leaving states. Changes are occurring and will gain speed as more people find health care too expensive. Only the subsidies are keeping the very poor in the game yet these are still the sicker population and that is causing the rate increases. Will congress continue to support these subsidies? They will undermine these and strive to eliminate them at every opportunity. Haven’t you noticed that policies costs are going up? You think that isn’t change nor going to affect affordability? This means more really sick people will decide to pay the extra cost but the healthy will avoid it – that is a death spiral.
Look, I’d love to be wrong so the dems win the mid-terms but so far, these issues have hurt them.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: Right distal radius. I posted a link to a picture in one of the late night threads if you’re interested. Don’t look at it if you’re squeamish.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Best of luck! The waiting is brutal, but hoping the outcome is a faster and better recovery.
Cermet
@Baud: Hope you are correct (I think I will avoid using the word ‘right’; sounds too republican.)
lollipopguild
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Trump is Rupert’s monster. Trump was good for the ratings.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cermet: How many lives lost is worth a “win”?
Baud
@Cermet: I’m absolutely correct. We might lose the fight but we should never accept responsibility for the Republican actions.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: All of them, Katie.
Cermet
@ArchTeryx: That is terrible! I am so sorry! That is what the ACA fight is all about and why it needs to be fixed so it can survive.
satby
@Baud: Agree. And all those people showing up at town halls seem pretty clear on who’s at fault.
MomSense
@seaboogie:
Sorry to hear about your kitty. Hugs to you.
@rikyrah:
Thanks. We get the job done, rikyrah!
Cermet
@?BillinGlendaleCA: None; I agree with your point but if the ACA collapses, and the dem’s are blamed, far more will die. Both choices are terrible. I would far and away prefer that the ACA get the critical fixes that allow it to continue but with this congress and white house, not going to happen. So, I am hoping for a mid-term gain by the dems.
JWR
@ArchTeryx:
Call me another pessimist, but I believe this as well. Tribalism is a powerful drug.
magurakurin
@Cermet:
according to people who know a hell of a lot more about it than you, you are wrong. So, there’s that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cermet: You seem to be only focusing on the exchanges, there’s also medicaid expansion. There a shit ton of folk that will be without insurance and will have to resort to the ER for care or maybe Dolt 45 and ZEGS can create a Meat wagon force like the deportation force to pick up the dead.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cermet:
2 words: David Anderson. Your wish has been granted. Now if only mine can be.
low-tech cyclist
@hueyplong:
Damn straight. When I saw “Sean Spicer—who doesn’t deserve this treatment—” my immediate reaction was, “He damn sure does!” And like you say, if he has a problem with it, he can take a hike. I’m sure Faux News would hire him, or maybe one of the conservative doublethink tanks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: He’s good, but he’s no Richard Mayhew.
Elizabelle
Those of you who are so pessimistic?
What do you think your comments do to those of us who check in here at Balloon Juice? Do you realize how demoralizing it is?
I get really sick of this place.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I don’t think most of us are pessimistic, but there are pretty pictures on the previous thread.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic:
The last time I went under, they almost killed me with aspirated pneumonia. I got a 3 day all expenses paid vacation in Hotel Missouri Baptist-Sullivan.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No, not most, but it infests some threads. It’s enervating.
And I do love the OTR feature.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for the good thoughts.
hueyplong
Your asshole uncle who forwards right wing emails is president of the United States, replacing a guy I’d put on Mt Rushmore. Of course we’re in a shitty mood.
low-tech cyclist
@Cermet:
You mean like what David Anderson posted on Monday?
Sure, Anderson doesn’t think the ACA, as it is now, is in a death spiral, but he has little doubt that merely administrative changes, which Price would be delighted to implement, could put it into one pretty quick. So it’s close enough to the same concern for all practical purposes. And he’s addressing it.
amk
@?BillinGlendaleCA: yeah, David sure ain’t no Richard.
Sab
@Baud: They eventually expanded after Kasich the gov. found an executive runaround to shove it down the throats of the legislature. We have term limits so our legislators are absolute phucking idiots with virtual nose rings like Asian water buffaloes led around by lobbyists.
Bruce K
Low-probability best-case scenario for the US that I can think of at the moment: Dem wave election next year, and President Pence gets hit by lightning on January 6, 2019, without having successfully invoked Article 2 of the 25th Amendment during his Presidency. Granted, it means two years of possibly irreparable damage to the United States, but with the current line of succession running Trump-Pence-Ryan-Hatch-Tillerson-Mnuchin-just shoot me now, we’re in for two years of pain no matter what…
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I miss that guy.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: But people voted for them knowing their stance on healthcare. What do voters expect a poisonous snake to do once it’s in control of our house? The ACA will die by a million little cuts and there probably will be no “replacement” at all.
Patricia Kayden
@hueyplong: Plus, he’s a nasty liar just like Trump. No sympathy for him at all. Yesterday he dragged President Obama and Secretary Clinton through the mud in a vain attempt to deflect Trump ties to Russia. Cannot stand him.
Baud
@hueyplong: Shitty mood is ok. Enervating pessimism is not.
Scamp Dog
@Cermet: I seem to recall somebody named Mayhew posting about similar topics. Or maybe it was Anderson, I forget.
Sab
I don’t think Cermet is a troll. I think he has valid concerns. Hopefully Mayhew Anderson will discuss at some point.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
Bite black people only.
Mike in DC
“Manafort? Manafort…Manafort…nope, name doesn’t ring a bell.”
amk
@Sab: Now, we have a 3rd guy??? Man, this place is becoming unbearable.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: I live to serve. ;-) Seriously, good luck and I hope your post op people are more attentive than mine were.
WereBear
I keep trying to explain that to term limit fans on the Left; it’s a ploy. To not have any brains in the legislature at all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab:
He’s been addressing those concerns daily for quite some time now. Sometimes with multiple posts on one day.
lollipopguild
Trump’s kids and grandkids vacation in Aspen protected by 100 secret service agents while dad and the gop take away millions of American’s health insurance. Love the photos and story at Huffpost.
Sab
@Patricia Kayden: Their stance on healthcare wasn’t obvious in the election. Their stance on white supremacy and misogyny was chrystal clear, but their stance on healthcare was :”we will repeal Obama care and replace it with something hugely better.” I am not defending the nitwits who were OK with the racism in exchange for better ACA but I will accept that they thought they were voting for better healthcare for white people.
satby
@Sab: Mayhew Anderson is how we should refer to him from now on ?. And he’s posted on almost every aspect of the ACA/AHCA consistently, so it’s not being ignored.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: Had that discussion with my brother not too long ago. Pointed out the fact that by the time a legislator figures out how the system works he’s term-limited out. So what they do is pass their legislative aides down to the newcomers which basically has the effect of the people actually running our govt, not one has ever had to face the voters.
Of course, this being Misery I’m not sure it really matters.
greennotGreen
@Bruce K: But if there’s a Dem wave election next year, the Speaker of the House would be a Democrat, and your scenario would work out beautifully.
laura
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Call the burn unit! That’s some serious photoshop -especially the teensy hand.
Starfish
@Cermet: Rates increased every year before ACA, but no one who was not an employer saw the rate increases when their employers were paying . This is why everyone’s healthcare got crappier and crappier because companies could not keep up with the rate increases to keep the same plans.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Look, I hope you’re right. But considering the attention span (and short memory) of the people that keep electing those sociopaths, I wouldn’t bet on the RWNJ/Rethugs in Congress suffering any tangible consequences.
What gives me some hope is that the 2006 midterms helped turn things around, albeit briefly. But in that case there were still Americans dying in Iraq, Katrina had happened, a few other things. But the electorate seems to have become more resistant to reason since then, so I’m not as optimistic as I’d like to be.
Just means more work to get us there, but that’s do-able.
Sab
@amk:?? Who is the third guy, Kasich is Ohio governor who was a Congress critter under Gingrich in the nineties, got elected governor, and then got his arse handed to him in a referendum to repeal a law he loved. He has played at being a reasonable human being ever since. Tried to run for president as the only adult in the room in 2016. We know how that went . GOP doesn’t want no stinking adults in govt.
satby
@Starfish: nope, working for my huge employer, we had rate increases and coverage shrink every year. Never really dramatic, but year by year it got worse while becoming more expensive. I doubt my former employer was an outlier.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Here’s what I’d like to see communicated to American corporations and heavy hitter investors:
Dear Plutocrats:
In 1980, the American people reversed course on economic policy and the philosophy of government. They delivered you a thin mandate expressing a desire to trim perceived excess expenses in social benefits due to administrative bloat and mismanagement while a not inconsiderable number of recipients gamed the system. You convinced those voters that welfare reform would reduce deficits and return money to the overall economy, all to the benefit of middle class economic lives. At the same time, you convinced those middle class voters that tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks on the environment, workers’ safety and finance would unleash creative forces and capital to the great benefit of all.
Once you got that control, you kept needing more, all while your most powerful, wealthy and well-connected acted with the self-discipline of a 16 year old whose parents are away for the weekend, leaving the keys to the Porsche and the liquor cabinet behind. Rather than the promised benefits flowing toward the middle as promised in theory, they instead went to extravagance without sense, and any money that got invested chased either dodgy hedge risk or drove real estate overvaluation. As a result, wealth inequality went on overdrive.
You’ve been given the keys to the car and mom and dad are away again. This time, we don’t have a lingering set of sturdy labor institutions to save you from the rage when you fuck up.
For the sake of your own necks, act With restraint and don’t mine the populace.
geg6
@Sab:
Cermet’s concerns have been addressed here many times over the last few weeks. We have a FPer who works in the industry and who has deep understanding of the issues who blogs almost exclusively about healthcare issues here. Cermet isn’t a troll, but he’s sure acting like one. Complaining incessantly over multiple threads about an issue that is addressed here on a regular basis by a dedicated writer is trolling behavior.
Tenar Arha
I don’t know if anyone posted this yet, but here’s a good dog hero story that you’ll want to read in private (because there’s dusty atmospheric effects).
Story h/t goes to @OfficerEdith (warning story includes child endangerment & dog abuse).
evodevo
@Patricia Kayden: My fundie co-workers voted for him (AND for our current Teabagger Governor) SOLELY on the basis of ‘bortion and gay marriage. Now they are whining because the guv deep-sixed KyNect, on which their relatives depend, and now The Great Cheeto is trying to repeal the federal version… I make a point of bringing this up every day I’m at work.
Elizabelle
@Tenar Arha: Great story. Peanut rocks. Go, shelter dogs.
And Peanut helped in getting another child out of an unsafe environment too. Well done, pup.
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Why am I seeing two-sided trucks here – refrigerated on one side, prison bars on the other?
Oh wait…combining operations would mean burning less gas, and less $$$ for ExxonMobil…never mind…
schrodingers_cat
@geg6: Did Cermet and Waldo support BS in the primaries? There seems to be a strong correlation between the prophets of doom and gloom and BS supporters since the election. Because there is nothing they would like better than to be proven right that both sides are awful and we all deserve to die.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I think you might be on to something. Seriously.
Bruce K
@greennotGreen: Like I said, best-case scenario, but I’m not loving its odds. Well, best-case scenario for the Republic, worst-case scenario for the Republican Party, which is why I suspect they’ll do everything short of declaring martial law to prevent it happening, and maybe even not stop there…
Aleta
Traitorgate
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, whatever happened to him? Do we know if he’s OK? I don’t think Cole fired him, did he?
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly: What kills me about the term limits argument is that we DO have term limits, they are called elections.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Yes, this was happening regularly well before the ACA. The few wingers I know conveniently forget that. Apparently all was gumdrops and roses until Obama made medical costs rise.
geg6
@eclare:
Exactly! I got into an argument with someone a couple of weeks ago about term limits and finally had enough and said exactly that. Shut her right the hell up. Said she hadn’t thought of it that way before.
Jeebus, the stupid I deal with sometimes.
Waynski
@O. Felix Culpa:
Convincing people that things could have been much worse is rarely a successful political argument… See Wall St. bailout, stimulus package, etc.
EBT
@Cermet: Lying watercarrying Collaborating piece of shit. Tell the truth or eat a bullet.
J R in WV
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
You’re on quite a roll this morning. Good going, keep up the good work. Hard to pick the best post, I’m thinking the David Rockefeller one. No comparisons to Nelson’s passing? Sad.
J R in WV
@Sab:
One of my best friends was a roofer, but finally retired to doing timber work and farming full time, with beef cattle, a veggy greenhouse, and a sawmill he uses to cut his timber. That’s his “retirement” His farmwife is 72, has RA, retired social worker – works every day with him.
His last several roofing jobs he insisted be sheet metal roofs, last longer, not as strenuous to build. I’ll never build a roof with anything but a metal roof again.
No One You Know
@WereBear: Ghastly. And while my journey hasn’t been quite so dramatic, I’ve had done similar experiences. FWIW, my heart goes out to you.
rikyrah
When a president simply lies too much
03/22/17 08:46 AM—UPDATED 03/22/17 01:11 PM
By Steve Benen
The funny thing about Donald Trump’s wiretap conspiracy theory is that, from the outset, everyone knew he was lying. The sitting president accused his predecessor of ordering an illegal surveillance operation, as part of a Watergate-like scheme, and nearly the entire political world quickly reached a consensus: these claims are clearly not rooted in reality.
As Trump’s falsehoods go, these were hardly the most dramatic – indeed, they’re not even the most shocking lie he’s told about Barack Obama – and it didn’t take long before the claims were discredited in bipartisan fashion. But there was something about this lie that gained traction in ways most of Trump’s other lies don’t. Apparently, when a sitting president makes demonstrably false claims about his predecessor committing a felony, many are inclined to believe there should be some kind of consequences for dishonesty at this level.
Making matters much worse, when FBI Director James Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, confirming an investigation into the Trump campaign and further debunking Trump’s wiretap conspiracy theory, the president used his official White House Twitter account to make a variety of related claims, each of which was plainly untrue.
The same day, the White House tried to tell the public that Trump’s former campaign chairman and National Security Advisor were unimportant, peripheral figures.
RoonieRoo
@EBT: Seriously? Your comeback to someone pissing you off on BJ is tell them to commit suicide? I think the commenters here might be jumping the shark.