As mentioned earlier, Obamacare repeal is back:
The latest incarnation, blessed on Tuesday by Senate GOP leadership, is an amendment to Republicans’ long-awaited tax overhaul bill that would repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate. Such a policy change would save the government more than $300 billion but cost about 13 million people their health insurance coverage, and drastically hike premiums for those who remain in the individual market, experts say.
Why are they doing this? To make the numbers work in such a way that they can use reconciliation.
Alexander-Murray is never ever going to happen. No way it gets through the House. So if the Senate tax bill becomes law, our health care system will be decimated.
All hands on deck.
Yarrow
PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS! Yes, call your Dem Senators. Let them know you support their standing against this bill. Make the day of the intern answering the phone by being a nice caller. And PLEASE call your Republican Senators and raise hell. This bill will gut the ACA and raise taxes on EVERYONE but the very, very rich. It’s a disaster.
And if you’re thinking Medicare will save you, ha ha, think again.
Keep calling!
Yarrow
randy khan
The line for calls has to be “Is the [Representative]/[Senator] so cruel as to take away health care from 13 million people just to fund extra tax cuts?”
I assume targets for calls have to include McCain, Collins and Murkowski, plus all the Tuesday Group House Republicans. Anybody else in particular?
Yarrow
Further to the Medicare gutting:
The Dangerman
I don’t understand the strategy of trying to pass a bill that not only screws over Big Blue States (we send Republicans to the House, too) but also immediately screws over Health Insurance Companies (let alone the downstream impacts to Medicare, which should make the Seniors real supportive of this thing).
catclub
There is also this little nugget in the senate bill:
and there are lots of things held out of bounds for those cuts – like SS and all low-income programs.
catclub
I think they put that in for two reasons: Trump asked for it, and it lowers the total cost, so more available to give to billionaires.
But it also makes the same objectors to the Healthcare Repeal bill angry. If they stay angry at doing the same things, the bill dies.
THEN, the senate can say to Trump – ‘We put in what you wanted and that made the whole bill fail’.
lgerard
This guy seems nice
Voice of America Reporter Posts Racist Reddit Memes While Receiving Taxpayer Money
Cheryl Rofer
Just called my senators and thanked them. I feel like I’m not working as hard as the folks who have Republican senators. Thanks to all of you!
rikyrah
EVIL AZZ MUTHAPHUCKAS
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
UH HUH
No good muthaphuckas.
Yarrow
Andy Slavitt has a good thread on why this vote has to be done this year. It’s tied to the AL election and they’re worried Moore won’t win.
Click through for the whole thread, but this is important:
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Damn straight – we knew that they would be coming for Medicare.
Phuck that!!
tobie
Just called Rep Andy Harris (MD-1) and told his office that Harris should do what his colleague Rep King in New York is doing and vote no on the tax plan, since it will hurt his constituents in Maryland. Doubt the call will do any good but I’ll keep on venting.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Keep on spreading the truth. Andy and Topher are two of my ‘ go-to’ folks about this.
trollhattan
Since the entire Republican Party is treating the rest of the nation as groping targets, we should respond like this Utah jogger lady.
Time to camp out at hospital admissions. Utah cops are used to doing that.
MomSense
Talked to King’s office and he is a solid no.
No answer and no voice mail at Collins’ office. About to fax her.
If anyone else is having trouble getting through on the phones, text Resist to 504-09 and resist bot will assist you in sending a free fax. They have improved the service so if you haven’t tried it since the last repeal and go fuck yourselves, give it a whirl now.
David Anderson
Even if individual mandate was not in the bill, Alexander-Murray should be dead and joining the choir invisible.
jl
Even if the the GOP gets all they want on the current version of the rich person’s tax slash scam, their funders will still be pissed. It’s already been trimmed down so Trump is wrong when he yells that it’s the biggest tax cut ever. I don’t think it’s even in the top five anymore. And their funders are pissed at their GOP flunkies’ impudence in even asking them to find some super rich person and big corporate tax loopholes and tax expenditures to close. Who do the hired help think they are even asking their masters to make any sacrifice at all?
So, they are desperate, and even if people think the chances of stopping it are low, they should call their Reps and Senators, and any others they can think of, just to make their lives miserable. Look at as being a snarling jackal making someone’s life miserable, kind of like a popular form of BJ comment.
In other words, what would Cole do, and how cranky would he be about it?
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: He ain’t physically fit now. Perhaps change the description to “well-ventilated”.
All cops are used to doing that. There’s always a squad car parked by every ER entrance in the entire county where I live.
Yarrow
Got a live person on the phone at Republican Senator’s office. I asked him why the Senator was voting to take health care away from 13 million people. He stuttered and didn’t have an answer. Asked the Senator to vote against the bill. It’s a bad bill, will raise taxes on me and my family and take away my health insurance.
Then I kept going.
I asked why they were taking away the adoption tax credit. “I thought the Republican party was the party to life. Why do you want to take away support for children who need homes and parents who want to give them homes?”
“Uhhh….that wasn’t the Senator’s amendment. You need to find who added that amendment and talk to them…”
“No, I don’t! The Senator votes on this bill. If he doesn’t like what’s in it he needs to speak out. Why hasn’t he spoken out?”
“Well, the bill does increase the child deduction for families.”
“How can people get that deduction when they can’t afford to adopt a child in the first place?!!!”
“Uhhh….”
Lather, rinse, repeat for gutting social security, Medicare, medical expense deductions, etc. I also asked him why he was working for someone that wanted to hurt people. He didn’t like that question.
Brachiator
@Yarrow:
Yep. Yep. Yep.
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
You get 20 Quatloos! Way to make your point.
Hungry Joe
“Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear. And It absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.” — Kyle Reese
jl
Krugman’s twitter feed over last week has great links to analysis that give simple picture of bottom line economic carnage of the bill. Too many to link to here. But might be good to look through it before you call to pick a choice morsel.
For GOPers who depend on affluent white Trumpster vote, might want to mention that, for some reason, this group has been selected to take a bigger hit than groups immediately below them, and a much bigger hit than people above them. How are they going to explain to their loyal voters that they played them for suckers next year? I guess it’s one of the basic Trumpster principles that no loser goes unbetrayed, and the affluent are just a slightly higher toned brand of loser in their book. Also, fact that even among upper middle class and affluent, those who actually work at running a real business that produces a good or service, practice a profession, or are employed, don’t get the bennies. Trust fund babies and super rich financial investors do, people who do anything useful do not.
TenguPhule
@The Dangerman:
It makes perfect sense when you remember the other guys are actual Nazis.
TenguPhule
@catclub:
Angry enough to turn down those sweet sweet tax cuts?
I wouldn’t bet our lives on that.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Well played.
TenguPhule
@jl:
“Its Hillary’s fault!”
/so wish I was kidding
jl
I can’t resist one tweet found through Krugman twitter feed. The GOP is going into this blind. They won’t even know if their scam will work on their own terms. They aren’t even waiting for an analysis done using their own unrealistic supply side assumptions. Huge tax cuts for super rich and giant multi-national corporations, damn everything else, are so important that they will vote not even knowing what their scam will do using their own assumptions. It’s like a bag man handing off the money to his big shot sugar daddy right before said flunky runs off a cliff. Is there a ledge down below, are they going to fall 1000 feet and go splat? Who cares? Really amazing.
Any ammunition that will rattle them is good to use.
Len Burman
@lenburman
Can it be true that the House will vote on the Tax Cuts and JOBS Act without a dynamic (macroeconomic) analysis from the JCT? This in a bill rationalized almost entirely based on its macro benefits.
https://twitter.com/lenburman/status/930832994545303554
jl
@TenguPhule: Last Tuesday indicated that the HRC gimmick isn’t working well enough to save them any more. Might be good to remind them of last Tuesday’s election.
They go in tied in polls next year, and that one critical voter gets tired of hearing about HRC, they are 50 percent minus one, and they lose.
p.a.
Any potential help from the Parliamentarian?
CaseyL
Calls made. My Senators are Cantwell and Murray, so I know they’ll be strong against this. I thanked them for being a strong and consistent vote against the GOP agenda as well as being against the current atrocity.
I also told Murray’s office that I sympathized with her, working with Lamar Alexander on an ACA fix only to get repeatedly shut down in preference for a repeal vote. Which, of course, Alexander will vote for.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan:
This reminds me of a badass quip from a book I read earlier this year. Something like
H.E.Wolf
Grrr. Called my Senators. They’re Democrats, a strong force but a numerical minority – the staff were very glad to hear from me. The more support they receive from Back Home, the better.
Dear TenguPhule, call your elected officials! All of us with one or more Democratic Senators, call! Let them hear that we have their backs. Thank them.
Anyone who can’t bear to telephone, or who would like to reach elected officials other than their own, Fax Zero is a great website.
Anyone who thinks we can’t make a difference, do it anyway… and perhaps report in, so that we can cheer for you. :)
jl
Huh, just heard on the news that individual tax cuts have sunset, but tax cuts for giant corporations live forever. I guess that came down the pike over last day to try to squeeze this giant bag of toxic waste into reconciliation. Also eliminated the pass through income tax cuts for smaller businesses who still would get them. Really amazing hatchet job on any one not in upper fraction of upper one percent. Tell a GOPer Congressfink you are going to explain this too all your friends, family and neighbors.
Not getting their full Obamacare repeal/replace scam earlier this year really left some gaping wounds in their plans. If can beat them on that, can beat them on this one.
Senate Plan Would Repeal Mandate, Sunset Cuts: Tax Debate Update
Bloomberg News
November 14, 2017
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-14/byrd-rule-rattles-senate-as-house-nears-vote-tax-debate-update
Edit: and I think I made a mistake in previous comment when I typed ’employee’ when I meant ‘independent contractor’.
TenguPhule
@jl: Oh I’m not worried that it will save them. I’m worried about the mindset of people who still believe them.
That old saying about believing in absurdities before committing atrocities keeps coming to mind more and more these days.
TenguPhule
@H.E.Wolf:
Already done. Well, one of them. The other one is a stupid moron who decided she wants to step down and run for governor. She’s a no vote on this bill, but I don’t trust myself to speak civilly to her office.
jl
@TenguPhule: Some proportion of every country’s population is crazy or seriously impaired. This country appears to have at least 27 percent. It’s been the human condition for thousands of years. Just beat them at the polls, do a good job after you win, and be pleasantly surprised if a few of them come around after they see good policy that makes their situation better.
TenguPhule
@jl: At this point, I wonder if my quip about all the GOP in Congress being subverted by the Russians has more then a grain of truth to it.
This is going beyond the normal disregard for rules and norms straight into crazyville.
TenguPhule
@jl: Most countries are not stupid enough to allow their crazies to load up on firearms.
I remember when Trump was threatening to refuse to accept any election result that he didn’t agree with and the GOP base not even batting an eye about it.
It was another rule and norm casually thrown into the bonfire. But it was an important one.
H.E.Wolf
@TenguPhule:
Thank you and hooray!
From what I’ve read about your other Senator, she is indeed a piece of work. Fax Zero is excellent for uncivil — or at any rate strongly worded — communications. I’ll send her a fax if you will….
[ETA: a fax on voting NO on the tax bill, I mean. We can’t do much about her idiocy in general.]
mai naem mobile
For everybody in the comments: senate finance committee is taking calls. I voiced my opposition, good to let them know people are watching: 202-224-4515
ding7777
@catclub: I’m confused. If the mandate repeal will save $300 billion how can it also trigger the Paygo automatic $136 billion reductions?
rikyrah
@mai naem mobile:
thanks for the number.
JR
@p.a.: Cromwell’s been dead a few hundred years but his approach might be sound here
jl
@ding7777: I think the text catclub gave is a little out of date. The elimination of the mandate is in response to those numbers.
Going into yesterday morning, the GOP tax bill needed to find $136 billion expenditure reduction to fit under reconciliation. Max general fund Medicare cut that can be made over the time horizon is 4 percent, or around $25 billion, which leaves $111 billion in other cuts. CBO said the executive does not have enough leeway under reconciliation rules to find $111 billion in cuts. So now the GOP is looking for ways to cut down the expenditure cuts required by the bill, and increase amount of spending that can be cut through legislation. Elimination of mandate is one way, sunset on cuts on individual income tax rates (though no sunset on corporate taxes, or provisions for loopholes and tax avoidance wrt individual rates that help mostly super rich), more closing of loopholes for middle class proposed yesterday in response to the infeasible $111 billion that needs to be cut (that is, reduce tax slash for everyone except super rich and giant corporations, and do some legislating permissible under reconciliation to allow more spending cuts elsewhere to make up for deficit produced by the tax slash scam).
dogwood
Claire McCaskill really went after Hatch. He was fumbling and stumbling like the old fool he is.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Done and done. Called and thanked McCaskill for her part in the resistance. Called Blunt’s office and read them the riot act. Pointed out that by eliminating the adoption credit and cutting medicare and medicaid, they are literally stealing from the orphan and the widow to give to the rich, and that the scripture has a great deal more to say about that than it does about gay marriage, or any of the other glaring hypocrisies they’re so fond of claiming in the name of Christianity. Insisted that, as a citizen, taxpayer, and constituent, this will NOT be done in my name. Probably accomplished nothing other than ruining a staffer’s morning, but it felt good.
ding7777
@jl: thank-you for the explanation. My trying to follow this tax bill is like asking who’s on first.
TenguPhule
Sorry rikrah, you were wrong.
The California Republicans are falling in line. Constituents be damned.
WaterGirl
@mai naem mobile: Interesting. The person who answered the phone (202-224-4515) at the senate finance committee said she would pass along my message and then said:
catclub
@ding7777: It is not the mandate repeal that triggers the reductions, it is the rest of the tax giveaways.
japa21
It should also be noted that, with repeal of the mandate, insurance premiums for most people will increase by enough that any tax cut they see will be eaten up by the premium increase.
catclub
The fact that we centering discussions on how the bill will or won’t meet the $1.5Tr limit means they have already won the argument.
Why are we cutting taxes and raising the deficit AT ALL when the economy and unemployment are in the best shape they have been in ten years?
Tax cuts are the GOP prescription no matter what the condition of the economy. At least in 2000-2001 we had a (temporary) budget surplus.
rikyrah
@jl:
thanks for this. will spread the word.
jl
@catclub: My opinion is ‘different strokes for different folks’ is needed when making specific arguments to Congress people with specific goal of stopping the bill. What you mention is best for arguing with sane voters and tax payer or complaining to media about crummy or biased coverage. But I think GOP Congressfinks won’t respond at all to the arguments you mention, for several reasons.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
The California Republicans are falling in line. Constituents be damned.
Senators Feinstein and Harris need to do what Chuck Schumer did – do ads in their districts, calling them out by name, and telling them what would happen to them if this passed.
TenguPhule
@catclub:
We’re not. There are multiple lines of attack against this bill. The limit busting is just one of them.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
That’s what’s happening. Their voters are calling them out, their peers are calling them out and their democratic opponents are calling them out.
They’re still gonna do it.
jl
@TenguPhule: I agree. GOP Congressfinks will only respond to good evidence that voting for it will rip a bigger new asshole in them than any other course of action.
catclub
@jl:
good points. thanks.
jl
@rikyrah: The GOP is doing this on the fly because, over the last several weeks, their big funders told them to go to hell, when the impertinent GOP flunkies asked the super rich to find a few loopholes and tax expenditures for the big shots that could be closed.
I think those GOP asks for the funders got a final ‘no’ with extreme prejudice late last week.