Pelosi with ???? for GOP decision to insist on vote today.
"Rookie's error, Donald Trump… Clearly you're not ready." pic.twitter.com/zBmTUtruxy
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 23, 2017
Paul Ryan is delivering a national teach-in today on what an effective Speaker of the House @NancyPelosi was & will be again.
— Al Giordano (@AlGiordano) March 23, 2017
Anything is possible in this fallen world, so there’s still a chance that Ryan and Trump between them can bribe, charm, or bully enough Repub holdouts into voting for their “health care” “plan” (Trump air quotes). But the betting odds are against it, at least for today… and it’s always sweet to see such a bunch of grifters and cravens suffer.
Apart from cheering for more GOP defectors, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another long week?
.
Senate GOP starts doubting whether they can repeal, replace ObamaCare https://t.co/q5mN6x1c7g pic.twitter.com/WAnErikU2T
— The Hill (@thehill) March 23, 2017
GOP could sure use a community organizer right about now
— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 23, 2017
Trump will move on & leave Obamacare in place if he doesn't get AHCA vote, per Mulvaney
— John Bresnahan (@BresPolitico) March 23, 2017
Trump's base loves his image as dealmaker extraordinaire. If ACA repeal flops, that may make more of a dent than shooting someone on 5th Ave
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) March 24, 2017
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
oldster
“But the betting odds are against it”
From your mouth to the FSM’s tentacles!
But please: keep fighting this one, all day. Call your Reps. Harangue their aides (politely!)
Ask them: Is Congressman X voting to strip Essential Health Benefits from his constituents?
If they try to duck and weave, keep pointing out that a “yes” vote on this bill will allow insurance co.s to sell bull***t plans that don’t cover your kids, that don’t cover trips to the ER, and don’t cover opioid addiction care.
Squeeze them and make them feel the pain. It’s nothing compared to the pain that 26 million will feel if this passes.
ArchTeryx
And the insanity train keeps right on rolling down the track. The doomsaying this morning has been something else. Me? I don’t know what to believe any more, but I’m not putting my disaster plan into effect until this monstrosity is signed by pResident Trump – and not shelving it until it is declared dead, dead, dead.
Barbara
No counting chickens yet. Trump wasn’t supposed to be here at all.
JPL
Believe me, that Trump will make a statement calling for Ryan’s head!
Mustang Bobby
Even if the House passes the bill, it still has to get through the Senate. The Senate will take one look at it, hear the hoof beats of ten thousand Democrats ready to run against each and every one of them who voted to take back everything that everyone — even Trump voters — like about Obamacare and say Are You Fucking Kidding Me and run away from it like it was a toddler with a paint gun.
Oh, and when this miserable excuse for legislation finally screws itself into the ground, guess who they’re going to blame: Yep, you got it. Obama.
montanareddog
@Mustang Bobby:
Once again, the Party of Personal Responsibility in all its magnificence.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Help me. What is “TS” in the first Tweet?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
montanareddog
@debbie: I was wondering the same thing – especially as I have been dealing with a department called TS at my company for the last few weeks – a department where intelligence is often conspicuous by its absence
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Eliot?
HeleninEire
My Dad is in Peter King’s district. He called the office yesterday and the intern told him that they are getting SLAMMED with phone calls. Keep calling, people.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Looks like I put this in the last thread just as this one was posting. So just in case….
Privatization for the win!
amk
@Mustang Bobby: The kenyan must be a super superman making sure obamacare is a disastrous failure while also making sure the repeal of obamacare, even with a full majority in both houses and an autopen prezinent, is also a disastrous failure.
And the pathetic msm would let them get away with this utter bullshit.
Mustang Bobby
@debbie: Torque Steer? Tub/Shower?
amk
Yet another proof, the whitey extreme right wingnuts are in cahoots with putin.
France’s Marine Le Pen urges end to Russia sanctions while visiting russia just before the elections.
zzyzx
I’m less convinced today that it fails. There are stories now about the moving speech that will cause Republicans to vote for it and people saying, “Well it’s not what I wanted but…”
Hoping I’m wrong.
Baud
@zzyzx: Stories are untruthworthy. It could pass or it could not, but trying to prognosticate based on media stories is a waste of time.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@debbie: Top Secret
zzyzx
@Baud: just as someone with a pre-existing, I’m just hoping this bombs and we all can breathe a little easier.
amk
All-male White House health bill photo sparks anger.
msb
“Rookie’s error” – You go girl.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Thanks, never would have guessed that. The Tweeter could have dropped “as I’ve told you” and spelled out the TS. Funny thing, communication!
Fester Addams
@amk:
It started making a lot more sense to me when I realized being a “White Nationalist” meant favoring whichever nation they thought was the whitest.
debbie
@msb:
I cheered the first time I heard that yesterday. I hope it becomes the Dems’ main talking point.
Boudica
Just heard a Maryland rep on NPR say he doesn’t care if EHBs are stripped and left to the states because MD had robust coverage before. He doesn’t give a shit about the people in MS or wherever with crappy coverage.
zzyzx
And it’s more that I’m not going to gloat until it actually fails.
rikyrah
The bill did not have the votes because it wasn’t evil enough. It didn’t throw as many people to the wolves as possible.???
Sociopaths.
The.entire.lot.of.them.
rikyrah
This is NOT a healthcare plan.
This is a massive give away to the rich hiding as a “Healthcare Plan”.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Wealthcare.
Good morning, all. Happy First Friday of Spring.
I am not going to exhale until this bill is stopped. Will call my Freedom! Caucus member, himself with great healthcare/bennies, again today to urge a “No” vote. Screw those central Virginia constituents. It’s what Ayn Rand and Jesus told you to do.
Ringling Brothers Circus is in town, for the last time. Tickets affordable. Think I might go. Got to be as much fun as a rock concert.
Baud
If it weren’t for innocent Hillary voters getting hurt, I’d want this to pass as a test to the American voter (or, more accurately, as a make-up test since they bombed the last one).
Jeffro
@rikyrah: yes the bill was just a way for them to justify later huge tax cuts for the rich … Catherine Rampell’s column today in the WaPo explains the scam pretty well as did an earlier column of hers
Cermet
Now the question is, with ACA causing rates to continually increase and this will only get worse as more people who are healthy and don’t need insurance avoid buying said insurance; and why should they until they get sick? Not like they can’t get coverage! There is no down side! So, as this continues, then what happens at the midterms when people realize that the dem’s ACA program has priced them out of either insurance or a better life? Do these angry people blame the real culprits who caused this; but of course, joe-stupid six pack will never know this fact because it takes more than 8 seconds to explain this oh so complex subject? Or can the dems gain enough seats to address this issue and get putin’s poodle to veto it so that, maybe, people catch on that the thugs are causing the large rate increases?
WereBear
@Mustang Bobby: Nice thing about the Senate is that they cannot gerrymander a whole state.
randy khan
@Barbara:
You’re right – Time for one last call or email.
Baud
@Cermet: You’ve been posting essentially the same comment for several days now. You aren’t new here, so I assume you recently got a job with the Russians.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
Her earlier column is what spelled it out for me. I wish that a frontpager would highlight her articles about this.
Eric S.
@Mustang Bobby: I hate torque steer.
Baud
@WereBear: The states come pre-gerrymandered.
Keith P.
I’m watching Tom Price explain why the bill is not “The Plan”, which is why it only has 17% approval (“That’s just the bill they don’t see the whole plan.”) It’s, uh, priceless. He’s like the Pencebot in terms of just spouting off the same platitudes over and over again, but nobody is buying it this morning.
Cermet
@Baud: Yes; and putin’s poodle and I are at loggerheads; putin wants healthcare to fail slowly; small hands wants it to fail slowly; I want it to fail slowly – see, the three of us are all in violent disagreement; you are one smart cookie that crumbles!
Hey, no jokes about my age!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Keith P.: So there’s secret parts of the law that aren’t in the bill? Where are they?
That’s an argument I could see working on Trump or Hannitty but not too many actual biological humans.
Chyron HR
@debbie:
Probably the guy who lost the Democratic primary. It’s all part of the inscrutable BJ code.
BlueDWarrior
@Keith P.: I wish someone on Morning Joe would actually try and resolve the inherent differences between Democrats and Liberals health care ideas, Republicans and Conservative health care ideas; and whether or not they somehow aren’t like matter/anti-matter when you try to mix the two.
Because for the life of me I cannot figure how anyone besides blatant hacks can say that if only Republicans and Democrats would work together they could resolve health care forever.
Ella in New Mexico
@amk: thing is, any women they’d have in the photo shoot would be sycophantic, genetically cruel crackpots who hate not-white people’s babies anyway. Marsha Blackburn and Kellyanne Conway do not represent my gender well at all.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: Their troll budget seems to have had a reinfusion of cash in the last few weeks.
Maybe it’s like Iraq and the oil. “Da, we win American election, get our stooges in place and propaganda program will pay for itself!”
Keith P.
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yeah, I think it’s because they’ve been talking so much shit for so long that now it’s their turn in the barrel, so to speak, and with as much press animosity as Trump has fostered, it’s just open season during these interviews.
Ian G.
@HeleninEire:
Excellent. I live in the district next door, with a nice Dem Kathleen Rice as my Congresscritter. The nice intern on the other end picked up quickly and I expressed my gratitude for her stance against the bill.
gene108
@debbie:
Top Secret
Iowa Old Lady
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The good stuff is in that third bucket, also known as the sucker’s bucket.
“Wait for it, wait for it!”
Also, “You don’t have the votes, you don’t have the votes. You’re gonna need Congressional approval and you don’t have the votes.”
Sorry.
Cermet
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes, trying to point out that the ACA is in deep trouble since putin’s poodle stopped all mandate enforcement leading to the very likely possibility that dems will suffer in the midterms due to this fact is so troll-like here …lol.
Betsy
Does anyone have a link to MSNBC featuring Nancy Pelosi yesterday? Two or three commenters yesterday afternoon were referring to her bodacious attitude and I want to get a lift from it myself
Baud
@Cermet: Nothing wrong with your theory. When you post the same hair-on-fire comment over and over again, then, yes, it becomes trollish.
Baud
To be fair, I think the GOP gets two things out of this bill. Because the bill subsidizes junk insurance, they get to say that more people are covered and premiums are lower. They are hoping those talking points will win the day over the stories of people becoming financially ruined and dying.
ETA: Oh, and the tax cuts.
gene108
@Cermet:
You keep the signature accomplishment of President Obama in tact or let it get gutted, in the cynical hope things get bad enough the other guy gets blamed and you win, big league, in 2018.
Seems to be the debate you want to have.
I do not think Democrats benefit from cynical exploitation of the public’s sentiment. You cannot be the Party of good government and get your people to back you by being cynical.
Elizabelle
@Cermet: Cermet: that is a possibility.
But could you stop being Eeyore? It’s tiresome. We get your point. We got it the first eight times too.
WereBear
@Baud: The deepest of ironies is that they were better off whining from the sidelines. Their creation of a fantasy world for their fans worked best when it didn’t have the slightest contact with reality.
President Obama could keep on improving the country and they could explain how, in theoretical RandWorld, mountains would be made of rock candy.
Now they are having to come up with these mountains.
Baud
@gene108: I agree. I’ve come to the conclusion that progressivism and antiestablishmentarianism are irreconcilable.
WaterGirl
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: What is TS intel?
edit: never mind, asked and answered.
Baud
Concluding paragraph of an Erza Klein article on Vox.
BlueDWarrior
@Baud: count me in that ledger as well. Democrats get benefits from us for doing the right thing, but too many people just feel like either nothing should happen or we need to burn it down. And Democrats would lose too much trying to mix that matter and antimatter, to carry over a metaphor.
I remember someone said either yesterday or two days ago to a comment of mine to a similar effect now that I think about it: how Democrats may be ultimately wasting time trying to appeal to people genuinely can’t be bothered or not coming to them in good faith.
ET
Trump is an idiot. Of course since this Friday “pass it or keep it” threat is all about salvaging himself, I can see why he did it. But he is still an idiot.
The repeal/”replace” venture isn’t going well. The stunt to vote on that on the anniversary of the passage was done very much in haste and what is it they say “marry in haste, repentant at leisure” or was it “haste makes waste” – either/both apply in this case.
Trump is not going to expend one more ounce of whatever political capital he has left on this. Also given that his attention span on any issue, that 1. doesn’t affect him and 2. he doesn’t care about is only slightly longer than issues he cares about that do affect him, is minimal. Keep in mind he hates Ryan and doesn’t particularly like Congress (it does not fit into his dictatorish style enough for his tastes and it isn’t obsequious enough) so he doesn’t mind throwing them under the bus and skipping onto the next self created drama. He can not just spend time bashing Congress for not giving him what he want – and what he wants is always best because he knows everything – and his base (already not loving Congress) will eat it up. He is going to bash Congress to make himself look good, but Congress as an institution and many of its members will pay for this in some way.
As for Ryan and the GOP, they brought this on themselves. They have gotten what they deserve. If they have any desire to remain as independent as possible – they should just not vote on it until they want to vote on it. Voting on it today (Friday) just makes them look like they are Trump’s bitch. Yes, to a large extent they are Trump’s bitch already, but there is still the fig leaf of being the independent third branch of government. If they vote on it today after his “pass it or keep it” threat they can just throw in the towel or get the shovel and just start burying themselves. They did this to themselves, at this point the only thing they can attempt to salvage is a semblance of self-respect.
JPL
My TV is running an ad about liberal Jon Ossoff being a rubber stamp for Pelosi. Did the democrats take back the house while I was sleeping?
Balconesfault
I wonder how many Repubs are balking because they don’t believe the Orange One will be around long enough to fulfill any promises or execute any threats that he might make?
MattF
@debbie: ‘TS’ is the standard abbreviation. In classified documents, each paragraph is marked with a specific classification level, so ‘TS’ is (apparently) something that people who have read the documents have seen often. The high classification level probably means that intel sources are revealed in the documents. In any event, it’s not a good sign for Trump et. al.
WereBear
Essentially, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have brainwashed their marks so well these people no longer dwell in the mundane. They will not respond to actual political figures, no matter how stupid or blatant. Only the purest syrup nectar will meet the needs of their addiction; the demagogues, the blatant assholes, creatures of Media.
They are now such perfect suckers they can only be reached by actual con artists!
Like Trump.
Next up, they will be primaried from the Right by actual evil clowns.
WaterGirl
Some things, once seen, cannot be un-seen. I dare to hope this morning that even some of those who have been willfully blind will have their eyes opened this week.
Lurking Canadian
@debbie: He couldn’t have done that without losing a measurable fraction of the dopamine hit he gets from posting “I know something you don’t know!” Using opaque language is part of the fun.
Baud
@WaterGirl: What did I do now?
Baud
@BlueDWarrior: I think that’s the existential question for the Democratic Party at this time.
BlueDWarrior
@WereBear: that’s a good way to put it; it makes you wonder if the ones whistling past the graveyard in this Era of Trump are the ones who think we, as city-dwelling liberals for the most part, can say anything the Trumpers would want to hear, let alone internalize?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah:
That’s a curious arguement from the hard right. A cynic might think it’s a good excuse for a politician to vote against something he knows is poison while maintaining his “purity”
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe Garp?
Baud
CNN
Susan Sarandon will be pleased.
WaterGirl
@Baud: thanks for the early morning laugh!
cmorenc
@WereBear:
The clowns they’ve got (e.g. Mark Meadows, Devin Nunes, Paul Ryan) are already scary evil clowns.
BlueDWarrior
@Baud: Well the contradictions will certainly be high enough after the pipeline gets built and something happens. Maybe if we had a Executive Branch run by someone who wouldn’t have done it to begin with we wouldn’t be in this situation.
But hey, anything that will hasten the Glorious Socialist Revolution.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I don’t typically hold grudges, but I don’t seem to be able to let go of my anger at Susan Sarandon. Her arrogance and lack of self-awareness makes me crazy. I will never look at he the same way again.
Johannes
@OzarkHillbilly: Garp?
ETA: SFAW beat me to it–sorry!
Baud
@BlueDWarrior:
@WaterGirl:
At some point in our conversation about our “elites,” people forgot that rich white socialists are among the elite.
amk
@Baud: Thanks Obama!
SFAW
@BlueDWarrior:
Hey, it’s not Sarandon’s fault you faux liberals didn’t vote for Her Savior in the primaries or the General.
gene108
@JPL:
When you got nothing, you go with the classics. The scary thing is how effectively Republicans have demonized prominent Democrats.
They get a Pavlovian response of resentment anytime Pelosi gets mentioned, and used to get it, when they brought up right-wing bogeymen like Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy.
SFAW
@Johannes:
I’d say “great minds think alike,” but that doesn’t explain me being there.
Baud
@gene108: One argument for Obama’s success in 2008 is that they didn’t have time to demonize him.
msdc
@Chyron HR: No, that’s a tweet about Trump’s collusion with the Russians. In my experience, this is a subject that particular faction doesn’t want to engage with at all.
SFAW
@gene108:
Did you know that Robert Byrd used to be in the KKK? Hugo Black, too.
Also, Lincoln was a Republican. Apparently, that’s not common knowledge. Well, not for people with the mental age of 3, at least.
TriassicSands
@Mustang Bobby:
Never underestimate the stupidity and insanity of Republicans — the senators, some of them at least, may not be quite as crazy as their House counterparts, but they’re still Republicans and that means dumb and nuts.
That said, I wouldn’t even try to predict what the Senate will do if they get this monstrosity — the AHCA = the ADIA American Disaster Imposition Act.
But, hey, 17% of Americans like it.
Elizabelle
@gene108: Wonder if that ad against Ossoff will backfire.
If seen by the sentient (not the radicalized reactionaries it’s aimed at), how many folks might be saying “how bad could Nancy Pelosi be? After what we’ve seen from these clowns.”
Keep it coming, rightwingers.
gene108
@Baud:
Doesn’t Trump own a stake in the company that’ll build the pipeline?
The amount of money going from public funds to personal coffers, in this Administration, will dwarf all previous scandals, like Tea Pot Dome.
WereBear
@BlueDWarrior: We can’t. We tell the truth and try to solve real world problems.
They have problems they want to solve in ridiculous, inhumane, and snotty ways. That’s not how we roll.
So, these diehard Repubs will always prefer to ride the Crazy Train.
TS
Whoever is the health secretary, I heard him on an unnamed show this a.m. saying that “Trump worked so hard for this bill” – I can remember how President Obama worked to get the ACA through congress and that was work. Trump had one meeting and tried to drive a truck through the white house – and called both “work”
TriassicSands
@rikyrah:
Don’t forget the second great goal of every good Republican. First, give massive tax cuts to the already wealthy. Second, but only because they can’t both be first, punish the poor in every way possible and if you can humiliate them at the same time, so much the better.
Elizabelle
@TS: Now I know you are “Top Secret.”
Oldgold
Trump has a 37% approval rating. Each day the allegations concerning traitorous collusion grow grimmer.
Scroogecare is favored by only 17 % of the nation.
This morning the pundits inform me that Republican Reps are being successfully pressured by Trump to vote for this bill. Sigh, these craven bastards are beyond shame.
TS
@Elizabelle: Karen Handel, who single handedly created a disaster at the Susan G. Komen Foundation is one of his main opponents. She seems to eternally run as a candidate – obviously can’t live without government support.
TS
@Elizabelle:
:) – my secret is out
Elizabelle
@TS: Karen Handel. Oooh, I remember that whack job.
Go Ossoff!
SFAW
@TS:
Careful! Most of us don’t have the appropriate clearance, nor the “need to know” on that.
OzarkHillbilly
Seems kinda funny. The Republicans in the House want to take away health insurance from 14 million (eventually 24) Americans and make the rest of us pay even more for even less healthcare. They have rhetorically surrendered on several healthcare policies (pre-existing conditions, subsidies, lifetime benefit limits, more but it’s a moving target) and they desperately want to undo them and with this bill they are trying to, but in such a way that they won’t be blamed for it. At the same point the very thought of doing what they have always said they would is making them piss all over themselves because they know they will be blamed for what ever happens whether they pass this bill or not.
Over the past 7 years the large majority of Americans changed their minds and now think it is their right to be able to access health care. And as long as it isn’t called Obamacare they’re OK with that. (they would like it even more if those people didn’t get it but hey, lemons and lemonade and all that)
The change makes me smile anyway.
Это курам на смех
@gene108: They do not become scandals if our media doesn’t reveal them and/or our justice system doesn’t prosecute them. Then they become business as usual. The model for this is Russia.
llk
@Mustang Bobby: Top Secret?
laura
@rikyrah: Good morning, Happy Friday, and as usual, you speak the truth. It’s a tax cut. Straight up tax cut for the rich with the thinest veneer of a health care replacement as a soperson to the rubes. And not to put too fine a point on it, the first move, followed by “tax reform” to do double duty of tax savings and starve and gut every social safety net program as soon as possible.
Evil Eddie Munster looking Goon.
Miss Bianca
@WereBear:
Except that since Trump got into the White House…have you noticed that all the reports of evil clown sightings have dried up? It’s as if they all said, “shit, nothing WE can do is going to look any scarier than the guy in orange make-up and the ferret fright-wig”!
No One You Know
@Cermet: I’ve been wondering what you are. Your comments suggest various options: concern troll, rwnj sea lion, or just very narrowly educated (and only on issues favoring GOP p.o.v.).
There are other interpretations, of course.
It’s as if you had an agenda. Or a set of values not generally reflective of the community.