Gonna be tough for Collins to vote for Trumpcare after this:
For the 15th year, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) spent July 4 marching through this town of 1,331, a short boat ride away from Canada. She walked and waved, next to marching bands and Shriner-driven lobster boats. Her constituents cheered — and then asked whether she would vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act.
“There was only one issue. That’s unusual. It’s usually a wide range of issues,” Collins said in an interview after the parade. “I heard, over and over again, encouragement for my stand against the current version of the Senate and House health-care bills. People were thanking me, over and over again. ‘Thank you, Susan!’ ‘Stay strong, Susan!’ ”
But never underestimate the ability of “Republican moderates” to cave.
barbequebob
Ooh Baby, Got My Eyes on You
So, what will it be. Senator Collins?
khead
I’ll take “Not So Strong” for $100, Alex.
John Cole
Excellent.
smintheus
McConnell will find a billion dollars to spare for subsidizing lobster-boat parade floats, and behold this bill too shall pass.
Cheryl Rofer
Saw a tweet about that, almost snarked but decided to give her a chance.
SiubhanDuinne
In the meantime, as usual this morning, NPR did their annual reading of the Declaration of Independence and this year also tweeted out the text.
Of the Declaration.
Of Independence.
Written in 1776.
And a whole bunch of Trumpettes saw bits and pieces of the text (of the Declaration of Independence) and immediately determined that NPR was calling for an overthrow of the Trump government. Because of course they did.
Also too, Nikki Haley is having a big sad because that nasty ol’ North Korea fired off an ICBM for the sole purpose of making her work and go to meetings on the Fourth of July.
I would despair, but I think I already did that.
Ric Drywall
Collins will vote against it only if her vote is deemed to be unneeded.
Turgidson
Collins and Heller have the permission slips, I think. So the bill will get more brain dead and/or cruel to try to round up the knuckledraggers, and fake moderates like Portman and capito will get bought off with symbolic “victories.”
Hopefully Capito has boxed herself in sufficiently on Medicaid and opioid funding that she can’t get to yes. But I’ll believe it when I see it.
Villago Delenda Est
Wouldn’t trust her any farther than I could throw her. Or any other Rethug. They’re all suspect for treason.
Brachiator
Interesting article from the Atlantic about how racial and cultural anxiety pushed white evangelicals into Trump’s loving arms. They totally abandoned their core values and had to come up with a new, pseudo biblical rationalization in which a man who was immoral in his personal life could still be an instrument of baby Jesus and save the nation.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/robert-jones-white-christian-america/532587/
Hopefully, the link works. Have problems with mobile devices.
As has been noted elsewhere, the racial anxiety was more important than economics, although the two are linked. It will be interesting to see how part of this plays out as the GOP tried furiously to rip health insurance away from white conservatives who are still convinced that Trump will take care of them.
Sab
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t despair. We are also out there.
Brachiator
Also, too. Weren’t the North Koreans supposed to be afraid of Trump? How’s that fantasy working out?
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: Their “core values” date back to the split of the Baptists into Northern and Southern. Evangelicals are the heirs of the “Christians” of the South who supported slavery and white supremacy.
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
Bull. Also shit. They abandoned whatever alleged “core values” they professed to have when they sold what passed for their black, oleaginous souls to the Reaganauts in the 80s, when apparently hypocrisy ceased being a sin.
JanieM
I bet not a single person who spoke to her actually said the words “the current version.” But that’s her out. As soon as they tweak it, she’s off the hook. As usual.
MomSense
We are doing our best to call her offices every day, go to her local offices, and get others to help. If you know anyone in Maine, please contact them and ask them to call her and let you know their call result.
I don’t know what evil plan McConnell is working but I think if each of us does our small part of this we may win this battle.
Hal
Officially proposing a constitutional amendment that bans fireworks on any fourth of July holiday that doesn’t fall on a Friday or Saturday. My neighbors are apparently determined to spend the rest of the night blowing shit up. Tomorrow’s Wednesday you fucks.
kindness
If I have to depend on Collins to keep my hopes alive I’ll be in the back writing my hope’s last will & testament.
jnfr
She did actually show up! Our Cory Gardner hasn’t been seen in the flesh in months.
satby
@Hal: it’s been FIVE freaking nights of fireworks here.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
Northern Baptists have been every bit as racist as their Southern brothers and sisters. Racial anxiety used to be expressed in the idea that Jews, Italians, the Irish and other dusky European peoples would overwhelm Anglo Saxon whiteness. And the need to suppress black people was just as relentless in the North as in the South. And even where Northern evangelicals detested slavery, this was not the same thing as loving black people.
Sab
@Hal: I am intending to find out who the fuck these mad firecracker bombers are and blow stuff up in their yards under their windows on some innocuous holiday they intended to sleep in. Maybe Xmas or Easter. Any other suggestions?
My cat is still freaking out in the basement.
SFBayAreaGal
I like the way you talk, I like the way walk, Suzie Q. Love my Creedence Clearwater Revival.
lurker dean
@SiubhanDuinne: I saw some of the tweets to npr – we’re lucky that exposure to incredibly high levels of stupidity isn’t fatal.
pattonbt
“Mainers! While there were many, many, many, many, many aspects of the recently enacted Trumpcare act that I was deeply concerned with prior to voting yes, the bribe, I mean the $50 billion in pork I got from McConnell for the Great State of Maine! means that at least Maine wont be as fucked in the short term as everyone else! Long term we may be just as fucked, but for now I got us $50 bil! Sorry to the rest of the US states whose Senators weren’t as smart as me to use their “concern” to extract every god damned penny they could out of McConnell for voting yes, but you know, fuck the rest of the US, amiright? So glory to me for the $50 bil for my yes vote for Trumpcare, sorry about your long term future, but $50 bil, amazing right?! Please vote for me for Governor!”
TriassicSands
@JanieM:
That was exactly my thought when I read that. “Current Version.” It’s like Ryan and other Republicans always talking about “access.” The devil is in those important little words they always manage to squeeze in.
I think Collins will have a difficult time supporting anything this year. But, as has been pointed out elsewhere, next year things will be different. If Republicans succeed in repealing the individual mandate (and why wouldn’t they?), then many, perhaps millions of people will no longer buy health insurance. That will reset the CBO measuring stick. The same bill that will take away health insurance from 22 million people this year, might only take it away from 7 million next year — because the baseline will have changed. Collins can’t live with 22 million, but she might be able to live with 7 million — even though the exact same number of people would lack insurance.
I’ve always been troubled by the way the individual mandate has been treated and explained — by the Obama administration and the media. Requiring that people have health insurance is a good thing and it is part of every universal health care system. Making health insurance voluntary is NOT a social good, nor is it an expression of freedom. It’s an expression of irresponsibility and lack of foresight.
Every healthy person knows whether they will need health insurance today. No healthy person knows whether they will need it tomorrow…or next week…or next month.
J R in WV
@lurker dean:
No, if stupid kills them, we win!
No One You Know
@Sab: I hope my Other Cat is hiding in the crawl space. Haven’t seen him since mid-afternoon. We stayed home because we just didn’t feel good about not knowing where he was.
I had no idea how unpleasant the neighborhood has gotten on the 4th.
The glass has rattled a couple of times. Multiple neighbors have been letting off street works. It’s noisy enough to invade earphones. It’s been non-stop for nearly four hours. I want to hide under the bed myself!
Arclite
Weasel words.
Juice Box
We don’t do fireworks in SoCal. Too easy to burn down a quarter of a billion dollars in houses.
Isn’t Murkowski still in the not-crazy camp?
lurker dean
@J R in WV: unfortunately it only makes them stronger, the stupidity only tries to kill people with brains! :o)
Sunny Raines
Today’s republicans are strictly party over country – Collins will heel to mcconnell – no question
Ruckus
@Juice Box:
If we don’t do fireworks in socal then what the hell is that noise that I hear? Every year I pass a fireworks stand in Azusa going to and from work. Not in Pasadena, nor in many of the cites around socal but there are exceptions. And where I lived in the San Fernando Valley 2 1/2 yrs ago the street I lived on had families competing for biggest display fired off in the middle of the street even though it’s illegal in LA. And bored LA cops drive around before dark following the sounds of explosions, always a minimum of 30 seconds late to the scene.
Patricia Kayden
@JanieM: I noticed that too. She’ll vote for another version. Weasel words.
sdhays
@Turgidson: I agree with you. This whole debate is very damaging to Heller, and if he votes for the bill, he probably has no chance to hold his seat. The incentives for him voting no are very high. If Collins is truly planning on running for governor next year, voting for this bill could very possibly ruin her chances, and if it passes (with or without her vote) and she wins the governorship, she will get to preside over people losing their healthcare. The incentives line up for her voting no as well.
It’s that third vote that seems elusive…
Uncle Cosmo
@Brachiator:
Jeezus H. Keerist on a Harley, of course they’re linked. The (for want of a better term) proletariat, & most specifically the fundie proles, have always lived by (from “gotten by” to “prospered via”) the web of interpersonal relationships in a “not-what-you-know-but-who-you-know” world. They barter, they trade favors, they schmooze & flatter & grovel before people with more status (or power or money) in hope that the latter will choose to use their influence on their behalf with the people they know. Getting stopped for a traffic violation & driving off with a warning instead of a ticket. Humbling yourself in front of a judge when you can’t avoid that ticket, hoping you’ll get off with a fine. Scraping cash together to hire a lawyer with the connections to get you off (or mitigate the sentence) from a more serious charge. (Or blaming the lawyer you can afford – including most especially “public defenders” – for not being able to do so.)
Everything is personal to these folks whenever they can make it so – because the personal is the only level on which they have agency (i.e, have any power, can assert any sort of control). On higher/wider levels, they are at the mercy of impersonal forces that can strip them of their property & liberty & even lives in the name of rules they don’t (or won’t) understand. (Whuddya mean ah cain’t spank mah boy? ‘Swhut mah daddeh did tuh me, & a lot worse, lemme tellya, & ah tarned out awright!) The only defense they know is to find a champion who will personally go to bat for them. (In the elected-official world this is called “constituent service.”*). The only way to rise they know is to find a patron to give them work or vouch for them with other employers or promote them where they already work. And their champion/patron is seen as doing battle for them with the patrons/champions of everyone else doing the same thing.
If you look at the “underclasses” through this lens a lot of things come into sharp focus – for minorities as well as pluralities. Among them, what we as liberals/progressives would have to do to regain (or retain) their support.
(I’d elaborate but I’m typed out at the moment…)
—
* When I was growing up our longserving Congresscritter, with a PhD in economics, never introduced a meaningful bill or otherwise sponsored legislation =- but he had the best constituent service operation in Congress. And was never seriously challenged until he chose to retire.
GeorgeHayduke
Actual conversation with a patient today:
“I’m a staunch republican. Obamacare is terrible. I lost my job, and got Medicaid (thanks to PPACA). I sure hope the republicans don’t take away my Medicaid”
WaterGirl
@GeorgeHayduke: There’s no excuse for that kind of ignorance.
Spider-Dan
Collins won’t be able to come around to the BCRA until McConnell sweetens the pot by adding OVER FIFTY MMMMILLION DOLLARS in something or other. Do you guys know how much FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS is? It’s so much money! Then she will have no choice but to take that great deal for the people of Maine.