Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

This fight is for everything.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

I really should read my own blog.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

He really is that stupid.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Let me file that under fuck it.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / CSR, hostage taking and the blame game

CSR, hostage taking and the blame game

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President Trump is threatening to shoot hostages in order to start negotiations with parties that don’t have significant power:

The Cost Sharing Reduction subsidies are at dispute. They are the Sword of Damocles of administrative action to destroy the exchanges.

Carriers have to offer Silver plans to participate on Exchange. If they yank all of their Silvers, they have to yank everything on Exchange.

And carriers will flee if CSR disappears as they will not eat a 30% revenue loss for a high cost population in a market that they don’t know if it will be around long enough to actually make money on.

President Trump’s musings, I am not going to credit them with the title of thoughts, is that by threatening to shoot the hostages, he will be able to blame the Democrats for the chaos he will unleash and that will give him leverage that he does not have to shaft everyone.

There is are massive moral problems with that logic chain. But there are also pragmatic barriers. The American public firmly believes that the President controls everything, that is the hack that Sen. McConnell exploited ruthlessly in obstructing everything that President Obama tried to do. More importantly, Democrats objectively have almost no power and no responsibility to govern. Everyone knows that President Trump is a Republican and Republicans control the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court. They will also know very quickly that Republicans are responsible for collecting hostages and then pulling the trigger as there is plenty of tape in their own words saying this is what they will do.

Healthcare is currently a high salience issue. People are paying attention. Senator Manchin made a good point that not everyone knows where their health insurance comes from but they WILL know who is taking it away from them. We’ll see 27% of the population blame Democrats and everyone else blame Republicans. And given what marginal members of the Republican majority are feeling today after the new information that KS-04 provided them last night, that is the last thing they can afford to encourage.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    I hate playing high-stakes poker with people’s lives but (1) there is no alternative and (2) Trump is ultimately a bluffer and a coward, so there is no justification for caving preemptively.

    If Trump does go through with this, however, the Village will come at Dems hard. Need to rally in support and be unequivocal about where the blame lies.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    Ok, reposting.

    I hate playing high-stakes poker with people’s lives but (1) there is no alternative and (2) Trump is ultimately a bluffer and a coward, so there is no justification for caving preemptively.

    If Trump does go through with this, however, the Village will come at Dems hard. Need to rally in support and be unequivocal about where the blame lies.

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    Other than tax increases maybe blowing up health care is the only other thing we can get R elected officials to impeach Trump over.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    I think this is more typical trumpism. He says whatever he thinks sounds good and then sees how people react. If he likes the reactions, he doubles down; if he doesn’t, he pretends he never said it. If there were more formal planning involved, you might call those things trial balloons, but they’re really just his way of thinking out loud.

  13. 13.

    Hunter Gathers

    Sorry Donnie, nobody believes your bullshit anymore other than your cult of fucking punk ass loser crackers. Go do something more constructive like stare at your daughter’s tits.

  17. 17.

    lollipopguild

    @Baud: If any residents of the Village blame the Dems on this the Dems need to treat said idiots to a public ass whipping (verbal).Tom Perez and the elected Dems will need to bring out the verbal flamethrowers and USE them.

  18. 18.

    japa21

    AS I pointed out in an earlier thread, the large majority of the public believes the GOP should be held responsible if Obamacare goes south. And Trump is signaling exactly what he plans to do. If he goes through with it, he and the rest of the GOP will pay the price. The media won’t be able to save him.

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    Once the terrorist shoots the hostage, the police get to shoot the terrorist.

    Look on the sunny side up of life!

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    I am reminded of the classic definition of chutzpah, which is the act of killing your parents and then begging the court for mercy because you are an orphan.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    It looks like the deep pocketed corporate side of the opposition to this is already formed up:

  22. 22.

    Schlemazel

    People who vote for Republicans in general and Trump specifically don’t know shit. To assume that they know that Republicans control everything and the Dems have no power is to assume facts not in evidence, Don’t count on it. The Dems should play the game the GOP played on ACA: “Lets negotiate” then either offer nothing the GOP will accept or agree in private and then reject in public.

  26. 26.

    Cain

    @lollipopguild:
    It’s bullshit… There is no reason to court Democratic votes. We are after all the minority party. If you can’t get your Republican based objectives when you own all branches of govt without courting votes, that is on them. It is a VERY easy defense. Why the fuck would we blow up things that our party supports? Any supposed non-partisan media figure who spouts any such nonsense needs to get hammered by every Democratic pol. They should also take into account that the people they represent would fucking crucify them and they would be out of a job.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Schlemazel:
    I think the right thing to do is to negotiate in good faith. State up front that you’re willing to negotiate on things that will strengthen the ACA, but that if the Republicans want to take healthcare away from millions of Americans you’re going to fight it tooth and nail.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    @Cain:

    Any supposed non-partisan media figure who spouts any such nonsense needs to get hammered by every Democratic pol.

    Did you miss where every headline boldly stated that “Democrats Forced the Nuclear Option Rule Change” ?

  30. 30.

    lollipopguild

    @Cain: You are correct but we are dealing with someone who is quite possibly the stupidest man in America.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    If it comes to this, Dems should just put Sanders in charge of the negotiating the new health care regime. Let them duke it out in the press.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @Corner Stone:
    I think the most important thing is to make it crystal clear that the Democrats are the ones trying to protect everyone’s healthcare and the Republicans are the ones trying to take it away. That’s the message we want to get out, and trying to play Lucy with the football will get in the way. Besides, the Free Dumb Caucasians are going to do the Lucy with the football bit for us.

  35. 35.

    efgoldman

    @lollipopguild:

    the Dems need to treat said idiots to a public ass whipping (verbal).

    Fuck that; get the old fraternity pledge paddles out of the basement.

  37. 37.

    Jinchi

    I would love to see Dems in full on campaign mode on this and every other action Trump takes.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    @Roger Moore: Clear to who? We go on the air and whine about how mean Trump and the R’s are we’re going to get rolled. I say we either say Fuck Off from the outset or we jerk their chain and let them bitch about it.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cain:

    If you can’t get your Republican based objectives when you own all branches of govt without courting votes, that is on them.

    Yup. Republicans have been claiming for years that they couldn’t get shit done because the mean ol’ Democrats wouldn’t let them. Now they’re in charge of all three branches of government and it’s all on them. Democrats just need to stand by to point and laugh.

    Though I do like the idea of putting Sanders on the negotiating team. Let him argue with the Republicans for once in his life.

  42. 42.

    Starfish

    @Baud: I like this idea. Force the idiots who voted for Sanders then Trump to think about their position.

  44. 44.

    p.a.

    @Anonymous At Work:

    “Reverse Blazing Saddles” hostage scenario.

    Old joke, usually ethnic: Man comes home, finds his wife in bed with another man. Grabs his handgun, points it at his own head. They laugh at him. “What are you laughing at? You’re next.”

  46. 46.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: Christ. No. He’d just end up promising the Dems would do X or Y, and then they won’t, and then the Republicans would get to blame Dems even more and actually have something a bit real on which to base it. He’s best just doing his greatest hits tour for his aging fans.

  47. 47.

    Chyron HR

    @Mnemosyne:

    Berning Man: “I am happy to announce that the White Working Class’s champions in the Republican Party have agreed to Medicare for All with the slight conditions that it doesn’t cover abortions or black people.”

  48. 48.

    hovercraft

    I am one of the hostages, and I say don’t give him shit. This is how he’s bullied his way to where he is. Fuck him, we may all suffer but some of us are smart enough to understand unlike Boehner and Ryan that you cannot negotiate with terrorists. Sometimes you just have to let the hostages die. Aren’t they the ones who hate appeasement? Enough of this shit, this is not some real estate deal, we are talking about peoples lives, we will not pay a ransom. If he wants to murder people we can’t stop him but we will all know who killed them.

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    @hovercraft: Of course for this to be effective, the terrorist has to die too. Its bad for business to let terrorists shoot hostages and live to brag about it.

  59. 59.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @? Martin: I am SO where you’re at right now. Bring your fucking stupid shit, you asshat. Bring it.

    But he won’t, and he knows it. Because he’s a big fat fucking asshat who doesn’t know where his stinking hemorrhoidal orange bunghole is, much less how to force anyone to do anything that is clearly a fucking stupid idea.

    This will be about as significant of a tactic as “not bombing” an airstrip to stop Assad.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    Boy, the stuff we are finding out about the Trump campaign is just amazing.

    Aug. 19 was an eventful day for Paul Manafort.
    That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats’ emails were hacked and the campaign’s contacts with Russia came under scrutiny. Dogged by revelations about past financial dealings in Ukraine, Mr. Manafort retreated from public view.
    But behind the scenes, he was busy with other matters. Papers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife.

    6 months too late for voters to find out about it before they voted for these crooks, but better way too late than never, I guess!

    Maybe next time they could do some of this work during the campaign? Surely they could have pulled one or two people off the Hillary Clinton email beat and had someone look into Donald Trump?

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Surely they could have pulled one or two people off the Hillary Clinton email beat and had someone look into Donald Trump?

    Bite your tongue, woman.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    I feel very good about our chances with Pelosi and Schumer versus Donald Trump- very confident they are better strategists than he is.

    If Donald Trump wants to negotiate with Democrats why does he lie about and attack Hillary Clinton every few days?
    Is that in the Art of the Deal? Lie about and insult the only people who can pull your dumb ass out of the mess you made? Has that ever worked in the history of the world outside reality television?

    Why doesn’t he try acting like an ordinarily decent human being for one 24 hour stretch, see how that goes? Start small. Try not to lie for one hour and build from there.

  68. 68.

    hueyplong

    Tell the clown-faced fuck, in language his handlers will understand:

    Ni shagu nazad.

  69. 69.

    danielx

    OT and a double post, but I wanted give of my best (worst) for this particular rant, dammit:

    Today’s News Of Which I Was Unaware….

    Did you know that Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republican caucus had nothing to do with killing the filibuster? No, really! It seems that all along, unbeknownst to me and presumably to other sentient vertebrates, the filibuster has been truly and sincerely dead because of – wait for it – David Souter. I know this because Ross Douthat* has told me, so it must be so.

    David Souter Killed the Filibuster….

    …because David Souter was a treacherous traitor to the true conservative cause…or something, it’s hard to make out from observing the patterns in this bucket of swill. Except that Souter was responsible for Gorsuch ending up where he is, because reasons.

    *I’ve always hesitated to use the appellation Douchehat to describe this particular scribe, but who the cap fit…let him wear it.

    Fucking twit.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Corner Stone:

    He filed documents. No one looked.

    They were outraged at Podesta’s emails during that period, I believe. The boring as fuck ordinary campaign emails that were revealed as if they were some smoking gun.

    Imagine what they might find if they looked for documents Donald Trump has filed over his 40 year career! There must be a million pages.

    Oh, well. Too late. He’s President for Life now and Russia runs our elections. Can’t win ’em all.

  72. 72.

    TenguPhule

    @danielx:

    Because David Souter was a treacherous traitor to the true conservative cause…or something

    Punchy McDoughboy has an appointment with that wall when the revolution comes.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I trust Schumer as a smart person who knows what he’s doing and is good at his job- wildly underrated qualities in the United States now, sure, but I’m a traditionalist.

  75. 75.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    Imagine what they might find if they looked for documents Donald Trump has filed over his 40 year career!

    Technically I suppose you can call grifting and fraud a career…..

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Kay: Me too. I was willing to give him a shot when a lot of people were down on him. Fairly pleased so far.

  78. 78.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay:

    Imagine what they might find if they looked for documents Donald Trump has filed over his 40 year career! There must be a million pages.

    *looks for Hall Monitor*
    Stop it! Yer killing me!

  81. 81.

    Aleta

    @Kay: Manafort, Kushner, Trump, Ivanka, others– they were all so at ease with these maneuvers, swimming from one oily pool to another throughout the campaign cause they’d been at it since a long time before. I think the blank look partly comes from their complete familiarity with the rig they’re driving.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    Lie about and insult the only people who can pull your dumb ass out of the mess you made?

    Usually, the people he lies about or insults are family members or employees who are stuck with him. They have to rescue him or else they go down, too.

    The Democrats don’t have that incentive. Quite the opposite, actually. So little Donnie is about to find out what it’s like to be in a situation where his money can’t buy him the outcome he wants and the people he threatens thumb their noses at him.

    If his parents had made sure he learned these things as a child when the rest of us did, we wouldn’t be in this fix right now. But we are, so … he’s gotta learn.

  83. 83.

    danielx

    @TenguPhule:

    I don’t want him sent to the wall, necessarily. Maybe spending the rest of his life with tooth fillings that play nothing but Abba or something.

  87. 87.

    Corner Stone

    When NoKo detonates a nuke in the next couple days I hope President Xi calls Trump again and gives him another 10 minute calming history lesson.

  89. 89.

    Corner Stone

    @TenguPhule:

    Screw you, some of us like K & J pop!

    Ah, some insight into why you’re so ready for society to end. You’re completely insane.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    He will receive the same amount of bipartisan support in destroying Obamacare that was given when creating Obamacare – NONE.

  91. 91.

    trnc

    Berning Man: “I am happy to announce that the White Working Class’s champions in the Republican Party have agreed to Medicare for All with the slight conditions that it doesn’t cover abortions or black people.”

    Or any medical condition.

  92. 92.

    jl

    But what will Trump say tomorrow? Only God, or the FSM, knows. Naw, probably not even those two. God (SFM) making a rock that is too heavy for Him (It) to lift is a snap compared to doing that.

    I was joking a while back about it, but now I am serious. We need some kind of inverse Truing Test. Can you distinguish between a human and a random phrase generator, just be reading the exchange between Trump and something anywhere near a normal human. I think we need that.

    Any thoughts on how that would work? I think we need that for everyone in the Trump administration, but I can’t quite formulate how it would work.

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    @TenguPhule:

    I don’ even know what K&J pop is, really, but since I like Miles Davis, I probs don’t like it.

    And as far as taking away our health care, not gonna happen.

  96. 96.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    Imagine what they might find if they looked for documents Donald Trump has filed over his 40 year career! There must be a million pages.

    That’s the problem, who wants to read a million pages of court documents, for the hundreds (or is it thousands?) of times Trump’s been sued, his bankruptcy proceedings, his permits for real estate, and the like?

    It is boring. It is a lot easier to talk about a half dozen emails over and over and over again or keep harping on a terrorist attack, from four years ago – the consulate attack on Benghazi – which President Obama addressed during his 2012 re-election campaign, when it was still new news, that Republicans decided to keep investigating and thus putting out handy press bulletins, which had nice tidy talking points built-in to use on the air.

  98. 98.

    Steve in the ATL

    @gene108:

    That’s the problem, who wants to read a million pages of court documents

    Well, if I’m getting paid by the hour….

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