republicans just lie almost entirely about any topic. Why you might be asking? Because they can get away with 'false' statements anytime, all the time. They're never held to account. Now more than ever they have a leader in the form of a president who never takes responsibility for anything, especially in telling lies that he denies having said, even in the face of videos that show us that he did contradict himself: time after time.
Meanwhile we keep hearing that his base is 98% behind this type of leadership and would vote for him again. So why should a republican controlled congress be any different?
Meanwhile we keep hearing that his base is 98% behind this type of leadership and would vote for him again. So why should a republican controlled congress be any different?
24
The reality is that until the far left gets a clue that 70% of what you want is better than 0%, the far left will continue the purity tests and betray the moderates at the ballot box, while the far right and the "so-called" moderate right vote together and legislate us all into a dystopian nightmare...exhibit A is the celebration of tossing over 20 million human beings off insurance to deliver tax cuts to those who do not need it.
22
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
Of course, there is always financial ruin, followed by the grave (after great suffering and humiliation). Every GOP member of Congress (with two exceptions), along with Trump, Pence and Price, all call themselves "Christian" — which claim is out-and-out BLASPHEMY: the word means "Christ-like" — a quality NONE of these sociopaths, misanthropes and sadists even remotely possess. Indeed, their "lord & savior" is Ayn Rand.
The question was asked by a truly great American more than six decades ago," Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" (Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army–McCarthy hearings.) Now, as then, the answer to that question for virtually every Republican office holder across the land is a resounding an unequivocal NO.
Of course, there is always financial ruin, followed by the grave (after great suffering and humiliation). Every GOP member of Congress (with two exceptions), along with Trump, Pence and Price, all call themselves "Christian" — which claim is out-and-out BLASPHEMY: the word means "Christ-like" — a quality NONE of these sociopaths, misanthropes and sadists even remotely possess. Indeed, their "lord & savior" is Ayn Rand.
The question was asked by a truly great American more than six decades ago," Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" (Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army–McCarthy hearings.) Now, as then, the answer to that question for virtually every Republican office holder across the land is a resounding an unequivocal NO.
34
"Greed" apparently explains the rush that pushed this bill through the House. Hypocrisy!
Those of us in the middle class, and lower, are bracing for a more pricey version of Medicare!
Ouch!
However, maybe such legislation, as well as the lies that go with it, mean a death knell for the R. Party.
Deserved?
Those of us in the middle class, and lower, are bracing for a more pricey version of Medicare!
Ouch!
However, maybe such legislation, as well as the lies that go with it, mean a death knell for the R. Party.
Deserved?
7
"I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."---Adlai Stevenson
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."---George W. Bush
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."---George W. Bush
25
They will come after Medicare next
18
"And it may be the shape of things to come" --> I'm afraid for this.
The middle class is slowly vanishing. To phrase it differently, for most Americans the country is changing into a developing nation.
Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, describes this well in his new book "The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy".
The following blog post summarises the findings of Temin: https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-is-regressing-in...
The middle class is slowly vanishing. To phrase it differently, for most Americans the country is changing into a developing nation.
Peter Temin, Professor Emeritus of Economics at MIT, describes this well in his new book "The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy".
The following blog post summarises the findings of Temin: https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/america-is-regressing-in...
6
What Republicans are doing can't be described anymore as furthering the agenda of entrepreneurs and the economy, as that would be insulting to the many companies big and small that operate today in a responsible and sustainable way in terms of energy, environment, employees, charity etc.
They are only furthering the agenda of a small subset of the population (i.e. the top 1%) and companies (i.e. mostly fossil fuel industry and investment banking).
Eliminating the devastating impact of money on US politics should be the first priority of Democrats, making it illegal to intentionally represent obvious lies about people or science as facts should be second. There can be limits to freedom of speech without going on a slippery slope, it is already illegal in many countries to deny the Holocaust for example.
They are only furthering the agenda of a small subset of the population (i.e. the top 1%) and companies (i.e. mostly fossil fuel industry and investment banking).
Eliminating the devastating impact of money on US politics should be the first priority of Democrats, making it illegal to intentionally represent obvious lies about people or science as facts should be second. There can be limits to freedom of speech without going on a slippery slope, it is already illegal in many countries to deny the Holocaust for example.
14
The efficacy of the Fox/right wing radio propaganda machine is the primary reason Republican Party elites successfully sell the big lie on health care. Propaganda is a powerful tool in the hands of experts well versed in the use of half-truth and outright lies to sway a populace hungry for simple solutions to complex problems. Greed and accumulation of power also contribute, particularly in view of the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has given its blessing to using money to buy power in order to get more money to buy more power.
28
The action by the House demonstrates quite clearly that the Republican Party in the United States no longer cares about Democracy in this country. The Republican Party puts part first ahead of country. It defends and protects the most protected and the most "entitled" group of human beings on the planet, the wealthy inheritor class. Shame on the Republicans in Congress who are enabling the lies and mischaracterizations to continue.
20
"what does it say about the state of American politics that a majority of the representatives of one of our major political parties have gone along with this nightmarish process?". it says that democracy works, even if you don't like the result.
3
In this case, "democracy" was helped along by the very people out to kill democracy completely. Is gerrymandering an expression of democracy? How about voter suppression? Or Russian interference in our last presidential election? If that looks like democracy to you, you're living in the wrong hemisphere.
1
You are quoting from half the people of the United States when they saw what had been rushed through the Congress by the Democrats in the spring of 2010.
Secrecy, hypocrisy, and protection of insiders run rampant, with arrogance all around.
Secrecy, hypocrisy, and protection of insiders run rampant, with arrogance all around.
No its says democracy can be weaponized so that elitists can do bad things to the electorate and others.
Democracy works when enough citizens (a super majority of population - not around 50% of us like we achieve but rather 70-80%) vote knowledgeably, objectively, rationally, unselfishly, and consistent with our higher principles for the best candidates - candidates that as leaders will actually work for the greater good and well being of all of us and who will preserve and enhance our very secular principles and freedoms.
About 58% of us our way under represented in out Country today. Lot of it is our fault for not voting or not voting seriously. But even there some of that is driven by clever psychological games - like propaganda and falsehoods and false equivalencies - politicians play to drive apathy and complacency.
And a lot of lack of representation is caused institutionally - by things like gerrymandering, our winner take all system, our 2 Senators per State, and BTW a major Party (the Rs) who don't give one hoot about us really.
Think about this: the MAJORITY of Americans feel the R plan is the wrong direction. the MAJORITY of Americans feel a single payer system should be our next step (only when LIES are given that it would cost more does that support waver), the MAJOR of Americans pretty much like the ACA enogh to NOT want its repeal.
What in this affront to Democracy that is today's WH and Congress says "democracy works"?
Democracy works when enough citizens (a super majority of population - not around 50% of us like we achieve but rather 70-80%) vote knowledgeably, objectively, rationally, unselfishly, and consistent with our higher principles for the best candidates - candidates that as leaders will actually work for the greater good and well being of all of us and who will preserve and enhance our very secular principles and freedoms.
About 58% of us our way under represented in out Country today. Lot of it is our fault for not voting or not voting seriously. But even there some of that is driven by clever psychological games - like propaganda and falsehoods and false equivalencies - politicians play to drive apathy and complacency.
And a lot of lack of representation is caused institutionally - by things like gerrymandering, our winner take all system, our 2 Senators per State, and BTW a major Party (the Rs) who don't give one hoot about us really.
Think about this: the MAJORITY of Americans feel the R plan is the wrong direction. the MAJORITY of Americans feel a single payer system should be our next step (only when LIES are given that it would cost more does that support waver), the MAJOR of Americans pretty much like the ACA enogh to NOT want its repeal.
What in this affront to Democracy that is today's WH and Congress says "democracy works"?
1
Look at them. Fools. They best enjoy it while they can. Their days are numbered. The winds of progressive change will not be stymied for long.
24
Everyone who received Obamacare/Medicaid should have been out campaigning, ringing doorbells. They were not. Many even voted for him. Knowing this is some consolation.
For those who rang doorbells and now find themselves without coverage, be truly outraged, not just by Trump but also by the apathetic co-victims.
For those who rang doorbells and now find themselves without coverage, be truly outraged, not just by Trump but also by the apathetic co-victims.
26
Republicans are counting on the short attention span of voters. So far, this has worked well for them. It is up to anyone with more than two brain cells to make sure that the voters remember how their health care was crushed when the mid-term elections are held.
24
NY Times - Start next week the series:
Universal Health Care 101 - How Universal Health Care Works in Five Countries Ranked As Providing The Best Care.
Part I France: (for preview see "The Health Care System Under French National Health Insurance: Lessons for Health Reform in the United States" by Victor G. Rodwin, PhD, MPH @ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447687/ (Am. J. Public Health 2003)
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
Universal Health Care 101 - How Universal Health Care Works in Five Countries Ranked As Providing The Best Care.
Part I France: (for preview see "The Health Care System Under French National Health Insurance: Lessons for Health Reform in the United States" by Victor G. Rodwin, PhD, MPH @ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447687/ (Am. J. Public Health 2003)
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
28
At this point, nothing seems to matter. Republican voters truly live in a parallel universe. They aren't bothered by any of this. And I'm horrified by it. This cognitive dissonance is unsustainable.
35
You mean 1684, don't you? Parasites uber alles, and a sort of zoo of enablers. The bottom line is that for a lot of people there is no longer a health care system as such. This is Failed State territory, starting with maiming the people and using public money to do it. There's no point in trying to make rational arguments to this pack of cockroaches. Kick 'em out, ASAP.
10
Why 1684?
The antidote is civics. That is where we study why doing things that are good for the public at large is good for the public at large.
As for psychology, voters can fairly ask: what would this person consider a success? If a candidate is purely self-interested, the voter should beware. Self-interest undermines representation by ensuring that the representative acts in the self-interest of particular individuals, not in the interest of their constituents.
If we want a representative democracy, we must find a way to elect representatives who can act with a sense of civic responsibility. That includes action to make seats competitive, and genuine service, not just lip service, to the interests of the majority.
As for psychology, voters can fairly ask: what would this person consider a success? If a candidate is purely self-interested, the voter should beware. Self-interest undermines representation by ensuring that the representative acts in the self-interest of particular individuals, not in the interest of their constituents.
If we want a representative democracy, we must find a way to elect representatives who can act with a sense of civic responsibility. That includes action to make seats competitive, and genuine service, not just lip service, to the interests of the majority.
13
we got nixon out, who was much smarter than trump. we can get trump out of there. but it will take care, patience, and intelligence.
16
Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford; Trump, if he leaves office, will be succeeded by Mike Pence. Keep that in mind.
13
The horrible thought is that the fate of US healthcare is now in the hands of Mitch McConnell. The republicans may still manage to fool the American voter (the Trump voters are proud of their ignorance) in 2018 and keep the House, but in the long term Karma will exact its vengeance from republicans for their deceit. Their lies and their deception was total, not a single republican spoke the truth. For this, they will ultimately pay dearly - it is only a matter of time.
18
I see economic disaster looming in the future, and not too far in the future, at that. If Insurance is priced out of reach for millions; if Medicaid is denied to the poor, to disabled children, to foster children, to the disabled and to the elderly in nursing homes, then millions will lose care and jobs. Sick children will need all of their parents resources to survive. Many elderly in nursing homes have no family left who can care for them. Where will they go? You will have all of these people spending almost every dime they have on healthcare, which is inflationary, even now. There will be no extra dollars for other goods and services. Millions of people have pre-existing conditions. High Blood Pressure, Arthritis, High Cholesterol, Allergies and Asthma, Heart Conditions, Kidney Stones, Gall Stones, the list goes on and on. All of these people can be refused insurance under the AHCA or charged much higher premiums and deductibles! From a moral standpoint, it is vicious and a hideous evil of corrupt ideology. In addition, all of this is smeared with lies and misleading information. It is insupportable. Sadly, Trump supporters, not yet hit by the reality of it, continue to defend it. And the craven cowards in the Republican Party tout it like verses in the Bible. We have hit a tragic low in moral values in this country, when we sacrifice children, veterans,and the elderly and poor for the vanity and arrogance of millionaires. Our own sins will surely punish us and justly so.
38
Mental health officials cite Trump as a textbook example of narcissism, and now they can add the GOP to their lectures: Mr. Krugman just illustrated the DSM-IV behaviors of sociopaths.
24
"Then let them die, and decrease the surplus population."
--Ebeneezer Scrooge
Yes, I know this is slightly off-topic, but I dare you to tell me how this attitude differs from that of the current crop of Republicans in the House.
--Ebeneezer Scrooge
Yes, I know this is slightly off-topic, but I dare you to tell me how this attitude differs from that of the current crop of Republicans in the House.
32
"If they'd rather die, they'd better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
" don’t you get the impression that Donald Trump gets some positive pleasure out of taking people who make the mistake of trusting him for a ride?"
Of course he does. That's the ultimate delight of the game: You gave me a big loan, and I managed to default and yet keep all the money. Now you've trusted me on health care, and my rich friends and I can party on the tax cuts while you bleed out in the street. So long, suckers!
Of course he does. That's the ultimate delight of the game: You gave me a big loan, and I managed to default and yet keep all the money. Now you've trusted me on health care, and my rich friends and I can party on the tax cuts while you bleed out in the street. So long, suckers!
23
The Republican bill to kill Grandma in order to give tax breaks for the rich is a firm affirmation of the principles of the new Republican Party. The poor and middle class voters who voted this disaster into office will die of lack of medical care. They will learn a hard lesson. The dead cannot vote for Republicans again. Hopefully their relatives will have enough insight to vote against future Republican politicians.
20
You must mean "The dead cannot vote for Democrats again."
I'm sorry but I don't think there's much utility anymore in howling to the wind in the US. The American people have been making bad choices and getting duped to their faces for the last two decades while the country taken as a whole has been fast declining in every measure of human development. The simple fact is that America has unhinged from its place at the center of human history and the ship of progress is going off on a very different trajectory now. Americans won't "wake up," they won't suddenly "wisen up." Why hasn't that happened already? They just don't have in their vast majority the cognitive tools to make informed decisions, and don't trust the tiny minority among them which does. The world's stance towards America should be the same as with Russia: keep these nuclear-enabled, angry people at arm's length or further.
18
It is very silly to ask why the House Republicans gutted health care for average and poor Americans in order to reduce the taxes of the rich. Of the 49 wealthiest members of the House in 2015, 32 were Republicans. Darrel Issa, with a net worth of just under 255 million dollars, was not only the wealthiest Republican in the House, he was also the wealthiest of all Representatives.
The 17 Democrats who were among the 49 richest Representatives voted to pay the taxes needed to maintain the health of their constituents.
The 17 Democrats who were among the 49 richest Representatives voted to pay the taxes needed to maintain the health of their constituents.
37
There is a segment from yesterday's The Sunday Edition, with Michael Enright, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation entitled "From Hannah Arendt to The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood and lit scholars talk dystopia in the age of Trump."
The segment's description:
"Donald Trump's election was not celebrated by the literati. But it has been very good news for some publishers. Books by Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Hannah Arendt and Sinclair Lewis, which probed and predicted various forms of authoritarianism, are bestsellers again. Michael's guests—including Ms. Atwood—discuss what these books can tell us about what's coming down the road."
The segment runs 40:03; the audio link and a condensed transcript can be found at: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/may-7-2017-the-sunday-edition-w...
Many readers will find it well worthwhile.
The segment's description:
"Donald Trump's election was not celebrated by the literati. But it has been very good news for some publishers. Books by Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Hannah Arendt and Sinclair Lewis, which probed and predicted various forms of authoritarianism, are bestsellers again. Michael's guests—including Ms. Atwood—discuss what these books can tell us about what's coming down the road."
The segment runs 40:03; the audio link and a condensed transcript can be found at: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/may-7-2017-the-sunday-edition-w...
Many readers will find it well worthwhile.
17
thanks for the link
3
You're most welcome!
In addition to The Sunday Edition, the CBC have several other outstanding offerings (weekly and daily), including broadcasting's longest-running science program, "Quirks & Quarks" every Saturday (most of their programs are archived).
Also, there are the BBC World Service and the Australia Broadcasting Corporation, both with superb programs, ranging from philosophy, history, spirituality and law to technology, the sciences, music, literature and health.
A useful site that provides the programming for, and links to, non-commercial streams world-wide is PublicRadioFan.com - http://www.publicradiofan.com/ .
In addition to The Sunday Edition, the CBC have several other outstanding offerings (weekly and daily), including broadcasting's longest-running science program, "Quirks & Quarks" every Saturday (most of their programs are archived).
Also, there are the BBC World Service and the Australia Broadcasting Corporation, both with superb programs, ranging from philosophy, history, spirituality and law to technology, the sciences, music, literature and health.
A useful site that provides the programming for, and links to, non-commercial streams world-wide is PublicRadioFan.com - http://www.publicradiofan.com/ .
3
Republicans aren't concerned about losing the support of voters, they are better at lying than they are at crafting legislation. The time may come when people needlessly suffer because Republicans rob from the poor and give to the rich but all Republicans have to do will be to fabricate a story that blames Obama for their own malice and then to release it through favored outlets, or getting back to chanting "lock her up" at trump's next rally in order to deflect scrutiny. Nothing like finding a scapegoat to keep the public from focusing on the truth.
26
Sorry (and I'm glad) , this is not my work - "The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan" -Fake News-
7
I would also note that members of the so-called ""Freedom Caucas" simply don't believe the government should make it possible for those with moderate incomes to obtain health care. As described in another story, depriving less wealthy Americans of health care is not a "bug" it's a feature.
14
Professor Krugman,
This is one of the best columns I've ever read by you.
Inspiring bluntness.
Thank you.
This is one of the best columns I've ever read by you.
Inspiring bluntness.
Thank you.
28
Great read, sir.
Now, if only the voting bloc that put Trump in office would read this fine column, just may be the white working class brethren would finally come to their senses and figure out that ".The
Donald " used them to get to the presidency. He had no intention to elevate them; rather Yrump's. Insidious design had been to elevated His world vision on the backs of the white working class, with the help of his miscreant, miserable Republican House brothers who gleefully passed their version of the Affordable Care Act.
The Republican House's meaning of "Care,"
Is the massive tax break for the wealthy; the meaning of "Care,"for the white working class who voted him in is a wrecked health care system.
Now, if only the voting bloc that put Trump in office would read this fine column, just may be the white working class brethren would finally come to their senses and figure out that ".The
Donald " used them to get to the presidency. He had no intention to elevate them; rather Yrump's. Insidious design had been to elevated His world vision on the backs of the white working class, with the help of his miscreant, miserable Republican House brothers who gleefully passed their version of the Affordable Care Act.
The Republican House's meaning of "Care,"
Is the massive tax break for the wealthy; the meaning of "Care,"for the white working class who voted him in is a wrecked health care system.
10
No surprises here. This is why as many Trump voters as possible need to suffer as much as possible. It's the only way. Elections have consequences.
17
Without a doubt, in my opinion, this will go down as one of the make-or-break moments in American history. Because if ordinary People begin to seriously suffer - and DIE - because of the actions of the Trump-led GOP, what comes next? How will the electorate respond? The Pigs really are running the farm and only that moment, will the People realize and rise up against these greedy class that controls our government.
For what its worth, perhaps some good can come out of this. The People will realize that the Pigs should be removed from power.
For what its worth, perhaps some good can come out of this. The People will realize that the Pigs should be removed from power.
22
I agree with you: this is the moment, one of the grandest tests - if not The Test - to see just how far GOP supporters can be, in their uneducated vulnerability, fleeced. To the point of death and bankruptcy, along with the rest of us, and not in that order. I don't think the proposed changes to ACA will go into full force before the next presidential election.
2
Republicans will keep winning because, to paraphrase P.T. Barnum, nobody ever lost anything by overestimating the stupidity and ignorance of the American voter. George Orwell's "1984" seems so quaint now, compared to the reality of the 21st Century.
25
I likely stand to financially gain from the repeal of Obamacare and enactment of Trumpcare-less. But I'd like to make it very clear - I abhor what has taken place.
Trump and Republicans know their plan has no chance of going through the Senate. Trump and Republicans will blame Democrats and super-majority in the Senate for the defeat.
Trump and Republicans know their plan has no chance of going through the Senate. Trump and Republicans will blame Democrats and super-majority in the Senate for the defeat.
11
I think the strategy was more to have their rose garden moment and pass the buck to the Senate in the law's construction.
4
When will someone give us a CBO reading on what single payer or Medicare for all would cost? Without that comparison help, how can we fight against all the Trumpery?
11
"It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it."
-- George Orwell, "1984"
-- George Orwell, "1984"
13
Trump and theRepublicans practice thewell known propaganda technique called the Big Lie. The same people who are taken in by Trump's promises fo ra better life are easily convinced by the Big Lie. Fox News and Breitbart are prime channels for spreading the Big Lie. "No health care and lower taxes for the super rich is good for you". "Donald Trump cares about the working man". Donald Trump is not a Russian stooge.
The Big Lies just continue to pour out of the mouths of Trump, Ryan, and McConnell without a pause. There is no end to Republican Newspeak. Just how blind and deaf to the truth can the American electorate really be? We are finding out every troubling new day.
The Big Lies just continue to pour out of the mouths of Trump, Ryan, and McConnell without a pause. There is no end to Republican Newspeak. Just how blind and deaf to the truth can the American electorate really be? We are finding out every troubling new day.
18
He'll be out of office come the end of his second term. The Democratic Party has learned nothing. And they lack vision and leadership.
3
Do you care to elaborate?
1
Why are they doing this? Having promised to destroy Obamacare for years, they had to show their base that they were serious. Why do they think they can get away with it? The final law will be far less draconian than this version, so the angry blowback will be minimal. Comfortable in that knowledge, few House Republicans took this bill seriously to begin with.
10
Yet they were more than happy to pat themselves on the back with the very Trumpian "Mission Accomplished" beer blast.
2
What I find really funny here is it was a Republican Pres. that signed a bill allowing for Health Care for Profit.
"The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973" (google healthcare for profit bill)
Now we have republicans trying to fix it. If you want to know the reason he did this, for starters you can read this article found here, https://thecriticalaye.com/2011/08/31/skyrocketing-health-care-costs-tha.... Who are the republicans really trying to protect? It is not you or me.
"The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973" (google healthcare for profit bill)
Now we have republicans trying to fix it. If you want to know the reason he did this, for starters you can read this article found here, https://thecriticalaye.com/2011/08/31/skyrocketing-health-care-costs-tha.... Who are the republicans really trying to protect? It is not you or me.
4
Part of me wants Trumpcare to pass so that the blue states will choose not to waive the ACA's protections while the red states will. They will be the ones suffering while the rest of us will be fine.
10
Just one note to Mr. Krugman. In the 2nd paragraph you refer to the "unintended consequences" of the House Republican's health care plan. Surely you meant to write, "intended"?
9
I think you're on to something. The way the house Republicans celebrated after passing their so-called healthcare bill was disturbing. They seem to get some sort of twisted joy out of making people suffer senselessly and that includes their own supporters.
2
Krugman is right, this is a sentinal event. Not just politics.
What we see on display here is mob rule, not something any single individual would be caught doing on his own.
It shocks the sensibility to see Americans abusing fellow citizins like this and laughing about their act of cruelty.
I believe all the signers to this bill have the mark of Cain and even amongst their most rabid supporters will rue the day.
What we see on display here is mob rule, not something any single individual would be caught doing on his own.
It shocks the sensibility to see Americans abusing fellow citizins like this and laughing about their act of cruelty.
I believe all the signers to this bill have the mark of Cain and even amongst their most rabid supporters will rue the day.
10
Well Paul Krugman, I see you were watching Dick Cavett on the night in 1978 when Mary McCarthy said of Lillian Hellman that "... every word she writes is false, including ‘and’ and ‘but." Hellman sued McCarthy for slander and defamation but she died before the suit ended. The Republicans won't be able to sue you though, 'cause truth is an absolute defense.
12
Oh yes, the GOP and Trump have been engaging in Double Speak for a long time, now. Their key achievement is convincing poor dumb suckers that the terrible things their leaders are doing for (to) them is GOOD for them and the country! And that the government actually helping them out more, the way the Dems usually attempt to do, is bad bad bad.
Hey, gotta give it to them -- that's an impressive black magic. They just have to sell their soul to make it work.
Hey, gotta give it to them -- that's an impressive black magic. They just have to sell their soul to make it work.
7
Astonishingly, Republicans simply do not care, they achieved their tax cut for the 1% and devastated the healthcare for millions of their supposed fellow Americans! Perhaps we are witnessing the culmination of Reagnomics "Newspeak" with the inverted totalitarianism of a criminal and corrupt corporate state masquerading as a democracy. Amazingly, the Republicans will blame the Democrats for the healthcare chaos and the Tea Party Trump Supporters will believe them! 1984, scary indeed and it is only the beginning of this Trump nightmare!
9
Dear Professor Krugman: You have a choice between a candidate who barely notices your state, assumes you are hers, and who has repeatedly endorsed every policy position and derogatory statement about you and your concerns that there are from rejecting card carry to endorsing TPP and someone who at least acknowledges that you have been screwed over by the D.C. elites his opponent represents. Which one would you choose if you voted at all? Not quite so cut and dry is it. I hope you will learn from history and so do the Dems. They are our only hope.
2
curiously, i found mrs. clinton far more in tune with my values than trump.
4
"And on a more subjective note, don’t you get the impression that Donald Trump gets some positive pleasure out of taking people who make the mistake of trusting him for a ride?"
Yes, but it's more than an impression. That is what Trump means when he talks about winning. In his system--not unique to him-- there is no satisfaction in winning if everyone wins. It's only good of someone loses, someone gets hurt. That's been an essential Trump business model for much if not all of his career.
Yes, but it's more than an impression. That is what Trump means when he talks about winning. In his system--not unique to him-- there is no satisfaction in winning if everyone wins. It's only good of someone loses, someone gets hurt. That's been an essential Trump business model for much if not all of his career.
16
I remember when 1984 was a futuristic title!
Who new that as time went by, the irony would steal my disbelief that something like this could even happen. Ever is shorter than we thought.
Who new that as time went by, the irony would steal my disbelief that something like this could even happen. Ever is shorter than we thought.
3
On Reddit there was an interesting comment from someone whose co-worker received his healthcare through the ACA, but was thrilled at the prospect of Obamacare being undone, not realizing that Obamacare *is* the ACA.
While the Republicans expect their base to hold the people they think responsible for stripping their healthcare responsible, they've got some precedent for being able to sell up-is-down to their base by claiming that Obamacare was going broke and without the changes people would be even worse off.
While the Republicans expect their base to hold the people they think responsible for stripping their healthcare responsible, they've got some precedent for being able to sell up-is-down to their base by claiming that Obamacare was going broke and without the changes people would be even worse off.
9
Trickle down economics has for them as an argument. But maybe now that they are using the AHCA to give the wealthy an 800 billion dollar tax break, they have now backed trickle down health care. Imagine, giving the wealthy more so that you can have better health care. What a concept? What took them so long to get there? Painless health care is only just around the corner. Ryan is a genius.
3
When I saw the rose party gathering in seemed to me like a football or basketball team celebrating at halftime- and they are down 20 points.
Now we have Congress making it a point to celebrate when they are less that 30% through the whole process.
I would bet that when this event started DJT thought the bill passed both houses.
Oh well, halftime is over.....
Now we have Congress making it a point to celebrate when they are less that 30% through the whole process.
I would bet that when this event started DJT thought the bill passed both houses.
Oh well, halftime is over.....
4
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've written, save one thing...
You wrote: "It’s a miserably designed law, full of unintended consequences."
But certainly, the consequences are NOT "unintended"! Far from it! They are by design, and deliberate in their intent!
According to Republicans, bad people (bad because they're not wealthy; bad because they fall ill; bad because God's will; whatever) do not deserve health care. It's really that simple, and pretending otherwise does no one any good.
And meanwhile, insurers will continue to skim 30 percent of our healthcare dollars off the top while providing us with nothing for it other than endless paperwork hassles and arbitrary denials of coverage.
Who is healthcare for? Who is our economy for? Who is America for? We have our answer and it is not us!
You wrote: "It’s a miserably designed law, full of unintended consequences."
But certainly, the consequences are NOT "unintended"! Far from it! They are by design, and deliberate in their intent!
According to Republicans, bad people (bad because they're not wealthy; bad because they fall ill; bad because God's will; whatever) do not deserve health care. It's really that simple, and pretending otherwise does no one any good.
And meanwhile, insurers will continue to skim 30 percent of our healthcare dollars off the top while providing us with nothing for it other than endless paperwork hassles and arbitrary denials of coverage.
Who is healthcare for? Who is our economy for? Who is America for? We have our answer and it is not us!
25
God evidently only made us to feed the insatiable maws of His preferred collection of Jabba the Hutts.
If only the health insurance companies weren't so greedy. Paying their CEO's $17 million/yr (and pushing for higher), A little more modesty and Americans might have been okay with letting this system continue.
If only the Republicans weren't so transparently concerned with handing over massive tax cuts to the rich, they might have gotten somewhere. But they went too far. It will be Single Payer one day soon.
If only the Republicans weren't so transparently concerned with handing over massive tax cuts to the rich, they might have gotten somewhere. But they went too far. It will be Single Payer one day soon.
10
"Choice" evidently involves paying hundreds of CEOs extravagantly.
It would be nice to see these "courageous" Representatives tarred and feathered by their constituents when they next meet them. I hope the retribution is sure and swift. The arrogance from these people is breathtaking.
8
Chilling, terrifying, revolting but true, Mr. Krugman. The GOP is officially the 'dark side.' Trump and the GOP are a perfect storm. The more deeply saddening reality is the dislocation of the people from the machinations of government. The blatancy of this obscene legislation should eliminate any debate about who is the true enemy of the people. Further, the Democrats are compromised by the wealthy class as well (their gal just lost the election). The government is supposed to be: "of the people, by the people, and for the people." The perversion of that paradigm represents a crucial juncture in the history of this nation. I'm betting the people will not let this stand. Our very survival depends upon restoring a government that does respect, abide, and protect the will and best interests of the people. To that end, we cannot yield. Period.
6
And "our very survival" ain't gonna happen with the two parties pulling the nation's political strings as they do now. Both parties are beyond obsolete, totally irrelevant to governance of the people, for the people and by the people.
It's up to the media and a youthful, energized opposition party to combat "Ignorance is Strength" as the shape of things to come. Yes, the GOP House of Representatives' health care bill is "full of unintended consequences," but it also includes a fully intended consequence: laying the table for a more massive. tax cut for the über-rich down the road. That, in fact, is the main purpose of this proposal. The actual care of Americans' health has little or nothing at all to do with this proposal.
By creating such a large tax cut now with the health care bill, the legislation lowers the base of taxation from which the next tax cut would be calculated, enabling Republicans to make the whole debt-exploding shebang permanent rather than sunset after ten years. Republican leadership might be greedy. It might even be stupid. But its canniness can never be doubted.
By creating such a large tax cut now with the health care bill, the legislation lowers the base of taxation from which the next tax cut would be calculated, enabling Republicans to make the whole debt-exploding shebang permanent rather than sunset after ten years. Republican leadership might be greedy. It might even be stupid. But its canniness can never be doubted.
11
They don't care about providing quality affordable healthcare any more than they stay awake at night caring about any negative consequence to common people that might ensure from their quest.
Nor do they fear any loss of their base - they have a psychological hardwired lock on 42% of us. Soldiers semper fi.
They are at war with modern government and society. Plutocracy their main objective. In their quest any means to an end.
They want to tear down and rebuild us. They must starve any impediment into ineffectiveness - progressive liberal government being their major obstacle.
Their only concession of power will be to their most ardent base - and that concession is they will award dukedoms to that base to rule and reshape our modern hard fought for secular society. Easy payment for such ardent loyalty.
In this War they fear not much. Especially now - they own it all. Heck we let them have it. Our laziness, complacency, and apathy knows no bounds.
They rely on such low level civic duty fulfillment. We don't let them down.
But let it be known - the thing they fear most is us and an effective media. They are deathly afraid we wake up together and support one another.
The media needs an audience for the the truth of matters - and that audience needs to act on it by voting!!!!! Scare the blazes out of the Warlords - register to VOTE - bring them to their knees - VOTE every opportunity - Local - State - Federal!
Nor do they fear any loss of their base - they have a psychological hardwired lock on 42% of us. Soldiers semper fi.
They are at war with modern government and society. Plutocracy their main objective. In their quest any means to an end.
They want to tear down and rebuild us. They must starve any impediment into ineffectiveness - progressive liberal government being their major obstacle.
Their only concession of power will be to their most ardent base - and that concession is they will award dukedoms to that base to rule and reshape our modern hard fought for secular society. Easy payment for such ardent loyalty.
In this War they fear not much. Especially now - they own it all. Heck we let them have it. Our laziness, complacency, and apathy knows no bounds.
They rely on such low level civic duty fulfillment. We don't let them down.
But let it be known - the thing they fear most is us and an effective media. They are deathly afraid we wake up together and support one another.
The media needs an audience for the the truth of matters - and that audience needs to act on it by voting!!!!! Scare the blazes out of the Warlords - register to VOTE - bring them to their knees - VOTE every opportunity - Local - State - Federal!
15
More than the health care misrepresentations or any other specific issue, Donald Trump has profoundly damaged the very foundation of our democracy: the premise that our government represents the people and will strive to honestly address them and to uphold their interests.
Under Trump the federal government is rapidly becoming very like an old time crime family: utterly corrupt, dissolute, mendacious, and transparently devoted to no interests apart from those of its President and his party.
Remember when Adlai Stevenson pledged to talk sense to the American people? We now suffer under a man devoted to the precise opposite. And the longer this lasts the less likely that America as we remember it can be salvaged at all.
Under Trump the federal government is rapidly becoming very like an old time crime family: utterly corrupt, dissolute, mendacious, and transparently devoted to no interests apart from those of its President and his party.
Remember when Adlai Stevenson pledged to talk sense to the American people? We now suffer under a man devoted to the precise opposite. And the longer this lasts the less likely that America as we remember it can be salvaged at all.
31
Perfectly said!
This rotten slavery based system is so grossly malapportioned that there is nothing fair or legitimate-looking about it.
Let's be honest: health care corruption is bipartisan. The health-care industry owns both parties in congress. This is why we do not have a single payer system, why our drugs are getting more and more expensive, why patents never expire and why millions cannot afford treatment. Yes, yes - the GOP is a little more corrupt and cynical. But the system is unsustainable regardless and PR and the democratic party should finally own their mistake of objecting to a single payer system and Bernie Sanders.
11
Learning from the failed attempts of the Clintons to do health care, President Obama went as far as he thought he could with the ACA. Then, some states didn't expand Medicaid, with REALLY CLEAR poor results. So, now we have hard evidence as to what works, what doesn't. Single-payer (e.g. the British system) has been in use in Western Europe for 60 years, admittedly not all joy, but what works is clear, as well as the problems, including sometimes poor service, sometimes tremendously reduced costs (1/3 of US, typically), but with some cost concerns as well.
Now there is a really clear set of hard facts from which a single-payer system can be designed to provide an effective system, not all things for all people, but an intelligently-engineered system, based on statistically significant real facts. Probably couldn't have sold Bernie's (or Hilary's) system without this experience, but now we can!
Now there is a really clear set of hard facts from which a single-payer system can be designed to provide an effective system, not all things for all people, but an intelligently-engineered system, based on statistically significant real facts. Probably couldn't have sold Bernie's (or Hilary's) system without this experience, but now we can!
6
It turns out that the House Republicans are really dumb. It like the magician in the Wizard of Oz.They have been exposed.
How did we elect such nonsense people? I live in Alabama were that is the norm, but we used to have some normal people at the Federal level. No more on the Republican side.
How did we elect such nonsense people? I live in Alabama were that is the norm, but we used to have some normal people at the Federal level. No more on the Republican side.
12
There are federal elections next year. If current policies are not in accord with the wishes of the electorate, they will presumably vote for the other party. However, merely demonizing the opposing candidate doesn't always work (cf. Secretary Clintons candidacy in 2016), so if the Democrats wish to take advantage of this opportunity, they might want to consider offering a program more complex than resistance.
4
That's quite funny, considering what republicans have offered so far. Tax cuts for the wealthy, scribbled on the back of a bar napkin.
4
Professor Krugman--please dedicate one of your next columns to the topic of 'social Darwinism'.That would still not explain the infantile celebrations.
5
The GOP has made America an international disgrace once again. We were gaining ground under president Obama but lost all of due to our last election. It's time that we grow up and get smarter and make the same mistakes repeatedly. A good start would be to stop electing republicans.
20
The GOP pulled the same trick they always pull. Lie about everything, repeat it ad nausem, and Fox News will repeat the same lies, until the lies are accepted by all. This was the same pattern with the ACA -- lies and more lies until a majority of citizens believed the lies.
19
FDR gave a speech back in the 1940's talking about this issue. Clearly, when it comes to The Republican Party, over the years, it seems little has changed.
1
Could you link to that speech, or at least tell us more about it?
One of the many things that bothers me about the marmalade Mussolini and his henchmen: the way they SMILE when they do something that will KILL many Americans-- mostly those who are sick and poor. All just to give rich people (frankly like me) an enormous tax break. It reminds me of the clowns used in a horror movie.
All the while they claim to be christians?! How dare they. I'm quietly religious, and sometimes I really wonder if Trump is the devil himself.
All the while they claim to be christians?! How dare they. I'm quietly religious, and sometimes I really wonder if Trump is the devil himself.
29
Does anybody honestly think Obama care was working, or that it was sustainable? The vitriol that Krugman spews is unfit for a major publication.
3
Yes. Sustainable and working.
1
Steve, the ACA had some problems, but instead of trying to fix them to benefit American citizens, the GOP came up with a way to destroy 'Obamacare' while punishing virtually every American except the super-rich. And this column is factual, so you saying it is 'vitriol' is pretty silly.
8
Letting Republicans design a system to protect the poor and sick is like giving the job of hen house security to a pack of wolves.
19
Republican Chris Collins , a Congressman from Clarence new York is the poster child for this disaster.,First, he is the man who gave Tom Price the advice to buy the Australian company stock and both profited greatly! For the actual vote,Collins admitted he did not read the bill. OK, that is a Nancy Pelosi "trick!" but then he was told that what he voted in favor of was going to hurt over 600,000 New York residents! His reply? Since only 2 states of the 50 took advantage of that provision it did not surprise him that NY was one of the 2! WOW! This is the same guy who jumped onto the Trump train and he loves him! Trump of course brags that he pays the least taxes he can pay because he is smart! So it is good to minimize tax obligations but BAD to maximize state health benefits???
Look, all you have to do if you are a Republican writing a piece of law is tag on something to do with abortion, religious liberty, immigrants, or guns, and their base will say it is a homerun.
I think the election of Trump taught the Republican Party a lesson: they had been underestimating, by an order of magnitude, the gullibility of their base. Just put a loudmouthed grifter up as a figurehead, and watch those votes roll in.
Oh boy do we got trouble. Right here in River City.
I think the election of Trump taught the Republican Party a lesson: they had been underestimating, by an order of magnitude, the gullibility of their base. Just put a loudmouthed grifter up as a figurehead, and watch those votes roll in.
Oh boy do we got trouble. Right here in River City.
24
It ultimately always reverts back to the voter. Americans, whom, for some bizarre reason, choose to vote against their self-interest do so because they don't bother vetting their politicians and accept face value what they want to hear, not the reality.
The Republican base was indoctrinated by loudmouth grifters named Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham. They are addicted to snake oil.
5
At least Billy Graham has evolved. He all but endorsed Hillary Clinton during his last crusade in New York City.
1
Discussion in another forum has brought to light ... erectile dysfunction is NOT on the list of pre-existing conditions, and is not subject to the concerns expressed about "gaming the system" ... any thoughts shared here would be most welcome.
9
My healthcare plan provides Viagara at bargain prices. Medicare and TriCare for Life.
2
Will the GOP/Tea Party/Hate Talk/Pedophile-coddling alt-right media tell their zombie audiences they just got tossed under the Trump bus? Will mainstream media -- that's you Grey Lady Times -- continue to confuse a news coma with aggressive truth-telling journalism that's enshrined in the First Amendment?
Master of the Media World Les Moonves (CBS) declared Trump the best thing to happen to TV and cable media -- Trump equals billions in bottomline profit. Thank Trump too for The NYT's 160,000+ new digital subscribers and lease on life.
Like Alec Baldwin said re: SNL, "Trump's the head writer." True for the rest of the comatose media as well.
Whatever the Senate does to Frankenstein's health bill, it won't matter because Trump and his GOP House minions already had their ticker-tape parade down Constitution Ave, replete with streamers, bunting, and the now signature stag hunt party photo documenting a bunch of white guys in bad-fitting suits high fiving or maybe swatting at overhead flies, surrounding a not-sad Trump with a grin he stole from Goofy.
They did it! Repeal and Replaced! O-care is dead, long live Tax Care, the rich tax bonanza and the poor die health swindle.
Sunday liberals are getting bored. Trump's a tired joke. Who cares anyway? Trump's supporters get what they deserve. 45 isn't 9/11. Move on.
Outrage isn't a sprint or a fit bit app. Paul Revere isn't in Facebook.
Resistance is a long distance marathon.
Awake? There's no normal ever again.
Master of the Media World Les Moonves (CBS) declared Trump the best thing to happen to TV and cable media -- Trump equals billions in bottomline profit. Thank Trump too for The NYT's 160,000+ new digital subscribers and lease on life.
Like Alec Baldwin said re: SNL, "Trump's the head writer." True for the rest of the comatose media as well.
Whatever the Senate does to Frankenstein's health bill, it won't matter because Trump and his GOP House minions already had their ticker-tape parade down Constitution Ave, replete with streamers, bunting, and the now signature stag hunt party photo documenting a bunch of white guys in bad-fitting suits high fiving or maybe swatting at overhead flies, surrounding a not-sad Trump with a grin he stole from Goofy.
They did it! Repeal and Replaced! O-care is dead, long live Tax Care, the rich tax bonanza and the poor die health swindle.
Sunday liberals are getting bored. Trump's a tired joke. Who cares anyway? Trump's supporters get what they deserve. 45 isn't 9/11. Move on.
Outrage isn't a sprint or a fit bit app. Paul Revere isn't in Facebook.
Resistance is a long distance marathon.
Awake? There's no normal ever again.
10
Today's Republicans will land in the ash heap of history just like the fascists, communists and Nazis, like all parties that seek to normalize evil, greed and immorality. Na na na na, na na na na na, hey hey, hey, good bye!
12
Pluribus, I hope you're right.
3
This Trumscare health insurance has all the DNA of the Putin administration, corruption, discrimination, genocide to the none producing citizens, and self-serving to the few filthy rich.
12
Here's what I don't understand about the Republicans always wanting to cut taxes for the already very wealthy, even if it means hurting poor children. The multi-millionaires and the billionaires already have more money than they can spend in a lifetime, more money than their children can spend in their lifetimes. But they think they need more and more and more. What is the need to have more than they can ever use? Where is their compassion for the poor and the sick? The very rich will never use all their money, yet they want lower taxes so they can avoid sharing the cost of living in America and have more to hide in Caribbean bank accounts. Why does the need for more trump love and compassion for the fellow travelers on the Earth?
22
The GOP has absolutely NO compassion. For anybody not really rich.
8
All I can think to say is YIKES! (Medicare for all please.)
10
Democrats should have done single payer (extending Medicare for all) when they had the chance. It would have costed a lot of money to responsibly unwind the private insurance industry but Obamacare is a kluge. It is certainly better than what we had before but single payer is the only sensible way out of this mess. Why poor whites continue to vote against their own self interest I do not know. But some of the responsibility is on the Democrats. They pushed us toward globalization as much as anyone and did not anticipate nor do anything to rectify the hollowing out of the middle class that was caused by manufacturing jobs going offshore. There are entire textile towns in the south that were wiped out virtually overnight. All of the macro-economic metrics look great like the economy is growing but when you really dig in you see rural America has been devastated. We are two countries now - Urban America and Rural America.
11
While I have no use for liberals, the Democrats didn't chase those mills away. The greedy entitlement mentality of my generation, the Boomers, did it, believing they had a right to the same growth and benefits our parents, the Greatest Generation, had earned.
1
Democrats did not have the chance to extend Medicare for all...i.e. single payer. When Obama tried, the republicans smashed him to bits. Believe me, if Obama could have, he would have. Remember--He wanted a "public option?" Do you remember what the republicans did to him?
2
Or perhaps, Tribalists and Globalists.
1
when we all seem to accept funding of public schools and community colleges and other means of public education with our property taxes without ever whining even though not everyone has school going children, why can't we do the same for primary and emergency/urgent healthcare?
i don't mind paying a little more of property taxes to help fund free community health centers.
yes, i will buy private insurance only to cover specialist treatment or those catastrophic situations.
i don't mind paying a little more of property taxes to help fund free community health centers.
yes, i will buy private insurance only to cover specialist treatment or those catastrophic situations.
9
I appreciate what you are saying but it is also important to mention that the USA is going bankrupt and has been for quite some time.
2
Citizen, if the US is actually 'going bankrupt', there are a couple of simple fixes. One is to raise taxes on the super-rich back to 1960 or 1970 rates. Or, number 2 would be to eliminate the tax-exempt status of religious organizations. All of them. The property taxes the Catholic Church and the Church of Scientology would pay would probably erase the deficit.
8
1. I don't know about your part of the country, but here on LI, complaining about county, town and school property taxes is second only to complaining about traffic. 2. You should generously donate to the charity of your choice but leave my wallet out of it.
Can a Republican please explain to me how they are better off as an American with private health insurance than I am as a Canadian with public single payer coverage? I my family makes about 100k USD/year and keep about 80k of that aftet tax as a soul proprietor, while having no health insurance costs for my family of 4. My only private costs are life insurance and dental. My mother suffered from cancer for years which cost me $0. Thanks in advance.
47
Try this fun exercise right now; go to the Foxnews website and see how this issue is being covered...or not. They don't seem to want to talk about this. I wonder why not?
28
The solution is Medicare Parts A & B for all, and affordable supplemental insurance for all who need additional coverage. No pre-condition exclusions or premium mark-ups for any of this. Pay for it with universal employment withholding taxes. Inflationary? Yes! Essential? Yes! The Right Thing to Do? Absolutely! Vote the majority of Republican legislators out of office in 2018 and get this done.
Miserably designed law full of unintended consequences? My, my--sounds like the Affordable Care Act to me!
Down on Animal Farm, left out in the cold. some of us are wondering when Napoleon is leaving with his herd of hard-boiled sheep. An excellent photo by Stephen Crowley enough to make a cold shiver run down one's spine.
8
Can we not call this plainly what it is, Class Warfare? Why avoid the truth out of fear of being called bad names? If the obvious term for what the GOP agenda is cannot be said in polite company, does that not clear the path for the GOP to press on until we are all bankrupt, save their masters?
16
Depraved indifference to human life. They should all be put in the dock and tried for murder.
14
for the past 8 years the GOP was whining about obamacare while the democrats in true neroic fashion fiddled while the health insurance market was burning !
now that the ACA is gone - once again with true party line votes - it will be the democrats whining for whatever reason probably for another 8 years !
So here is my suggestion :
sign a EO that no member of congress will be paid a salary until a bipartisan healthcare bill is passed and signed into law
now that the ACA is gone - once again with true party line votes - it will be the democrats whining for whatever reason probably for another 8 years !
So here is my suggestion :
sign a EO that no member of congress will be paid a salary until a bipartisan healthcare bill is passed and signed into law
3
fritz, the ACA is not gone. The House passed it's version of Trump's health bill but the Senate has not. And they are in no hurry to tackle the job. They probably won't even vote on a bill until after summer.
4
The fools who voted for Trump, and who will be adversely affected by this sham DESERVE it. I don't care what happens to them AT ALL.
12
Republicans will soon enough not think their partying is so joyful. It will be over just as soon as DJT is indicted !
8
Just saw that 13 men and no women in the Senate are drafting the new bill. I would call it tone-deaf, but this is just par for the course with republicans. It's like they are begging for this thing to fail!
11
Paul Ryan smiles every time someone asks, "Can you do smarmy?"
8
Nothing is so zealously guarded as is ignorance.
11
Look at look at all of those white folks laughing at you, yet you still stay at home on voting day. As the old saying goes," you get the government you deserve".
10
Well, it's not like Obama didn't lie about his health care bill. We get to keep our doctors? I don't think so. I didn't get to keep mine. I had to "buy" a cheaper plan because my original HMO was priced too high.
This health care plan is more rotten than Obama's but we wouldn't even be having this discussion if Obama and the democrats had simply passed a single payer plan when they had the chance in the first two years he took office. Instead, he took the public option off the table.
All we can hope is that single payer starts winding its way through the states, like gay marriage and weed legalization. That's probably our only hope. Obamacare was a travesty and an abject failure according to the Harvard School of Public Health, and now this is even worse.
This health care plan is more rotten than Obama's but we wouldn't even be having this discussion if Obama and the democrats had simply passed a single payer plan when they had the chance in the first two years he took office. Instead, he took the public option off the table.
All we can hope is that single payer starts winding its way through the states, like gay marriage and weed legalization. That's probably our only hope. Obamacare was a travesty and an abject failure according to the Harvard School of Public Health, and now this is even worse.
3
Don't forget country is bankrupt.
Obama was forced to take the public option off the table by the republicans!
2
Nonsense. There are hundreds of millions of acres of federal land the states want for themselves, to sell off.
1
Nice to see Krugman with another article that is 100% wrong. Keep up the streak!!!!
3
Wrong in what aspects? Wrong to whom? If you provide no context for your statement, your statement is meaningless.,
9
Expecting help from Republicans is the new definition of insanity for working class folks. They don't even pretend to help anymore.
McCain tells our allies to watch what Trump does, not what he says. That advice applies even more to working class Americans.
McCain tells our allies to watch what Trump does, not what he says. That advice applies even more to working class Americans.
8
Democrats have done ZERO for working class Americans, they are all TALK.
John Mitchell, Nixon's Attorney General, was very forthcoming about the need to watch what Republicans do, because what they say means nothing.
2
The private sector cannot profitably provide health care insurance that is simultaneously affordable and universal. No country has ever been able to do it. Ours won’t either. The reason can be summed up in one word that economists are quite familiar with: externalities (Google it!).
A private insurance company expects, and rightly so, to make a profit. It receives premiums and pays out for medical, marketing, and other operating expenses. The problem is that all of its income comes from premiums. Therefore, to make a profit it has to charge very high premiums (not affordable), and/or limit benefits through exclusions, preconditions, deductibles, copays, etc. (not universal), or a combination of both.
When a person is healthy, that person can work at a job, make money, purchase goods and services, which create jobs, and pay taxes. But no part of those benefits accrues to the private sector insurance company. They all accrue to society in general. Thus, a public sector insurer can afford to charge lower premiums than a private insurer, or even no premiums at all.
Going to a single-payer system would allow the savings to be used for infrastructure.
Increasing both spending and taxes in a deficit-neutral manner increases GDP and jobs. That’s why Obamacare did not become a “job killer” at all. Instead, it produced a boom in employment. In economics it’s called “The Balanced Budget Multiplier”. Google it!
A private insurance company expects, and rightly so, to make a profit. It receives premiums and pays out for medical, marketing, and other operating expenses. The problem is that all of its income comes from premiums. Therefore, to make a profit it has to charge very high premiums (not affordable), and/or limit benefits through exclusions, preconditions, deductibles, copays, etc. (not universal), or a combination of both.
When a person is healthy, that person can work at a job, make money, purchase goods and services, which create jobs, and pay taxes. But no part of those benefits accrues to the private sector insurance company. They all accrue to society in general. Thus, a public sector insurer can afford to charge lower premiums than a private insurer, or even no premiums at all.
Going to a single-payer system would allow the savings to be used for infrastructure.
Increasing both spending and taxes in a deficit-neutral manner increases GDP and jobs. That’s why Obamacare did not become a “job killer” at all. Instead, it produced a boom in employment. In economics it’s called “The Balanced Budget Multiplier”. Google it!
14
The savings you forecast won't likely ever materialize. Any public endeavor inevitably becomes a feeding trough for overpaid administrators, over benefited rank and file and a serious case of mission creep. The most profitable railroad in America is the BNSF. Their average employee makes around $18,000 with benefits. The largest public railroad in America is Amtrak. Their average employee is paid $45,000 PLUS benefits. so much for anything public being managed well.
Private endeavors also become a feeding trough for overpaid administrators, and the consumer gets to foot the bill for them also.
Or do you really think CEOs' are not vastly overpaid? Tell me how "well managed" the Wall Street banks were in 2008?
Or do you really think CEOs' are not vastly overpaid? Tell me how "well managed" the Wall Street banks were in 2008?
1
Every other OECD country manages to spend less then the US, many with single payer and many with better health outcomes.
It doesn't seem like any rational debate is possible any longer. Liberals and progressives are yelling at Republicans, as if raising their volume increased the likelihood of being understood. Not unlike shouting at a deaf person. They are not being understood, they are not even being heard. In my opinion, we all might as well stop even trying to communicate with the zombies in Trumplalalandia, and focus on what we can do for ourselves, and each other.
3
There is little that will be said to convince Trump supporters, or the Republicans that shill for the 1%. To a great degree, this is tribal warfare between the left and the right. What the left "can do for ourselves and each other" is keep raising the volume on this and a myriad of other issues, and motivate enough voters on the left so that the House and/or Senate next year is taken back by Democrats next year.
12
Republicans are in a Parallel Universe.
2
Remember how outraged the Right was over President Obama's broken promise that "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor?"
So where's the outrage now? I suspect you can't keep your doctor if you lose your insurance.
So where's the outrage now? I suspect you can't keep your doctor if you lose your insurance.
14
The first priority of the Republican healthcare bill is to make the richest people richer.
Isn't this in stark conflict with providing for the "general welfare"?
Isn't this in stark conflict with providing for the "general welfare"?
You can see the past is being forgotten;
'' The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little''. FDR .........or ,'' Wealth is not to feed our egos, but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves'' Andrew Carnegie ........Two quotes from people who had much more to offer this country than what's going on now in Washington...
'' The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little''. FDR .........or ,'' Wealth is not to feed our egos, but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves'' Andrew Carnegie ........Two quotes from people who had much more to offer this country than what's going on now in Washington...
10
Quoting FDR? He of the extreme left wing "Four Freedoms"?
If FDR was extreme left wing, you have nothing left for Josef Stalin.
Is this a new thing, celebrating at halftime because your team is ahead, as if the game has already been won?
7
Our one and only hope at this point is a midterm wave in November 2018. Follow that up with full-blown Congressional investigations of every aspect of the Trump campaign, transition, and presidency, and you have impeachment easily served up. That's the one and only hope I have...
"Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength..."
Pretty much describes today's Republican party.
Pretty much describes today's Republican party.
Now is the time for all decent, humanitarian, honorable doctors to refuse to treat any Republican member of the House. Let them come to the doctor's office sick and turn them away regardless of insurance status. Let feel what it is like to be deemed a class of subhuman. They can use their $billions to buy a luxurious coffin.
Your concluding paragraph, Dr. Krugman, chillingly reminded me of a time, not all that long ago, when another group of expert language abusers boldly declared in a different context that "Work will make you free". Radical, extremist ideologies are capable of the worst in human behaviors.
This country is an absolute disgrace. And, how will anything change when 85% of republican voters believe that trump is doing a good job! 85%...let that number sink in. So, only 15% of republicans have a working brain. Wow!
The so called representatives of the people could care less about their constituents. And, without batting an eye, these same representatives will say that everything in Mr. Krugman's column is a lie. As they were making the rounds of the Sunday news shows, Tom Price said no one will loose their medicaid (despite 880B in cuts to that program), Paul Ryan said no one will be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions (they just won't be able to afford the premiums), the CBO did score this bill (no, the CBO scored the previous bill), and, most famously, according to Raul Labrador "Nobody dies because they don't have access to healthcare."
With folks like this in charge...abandon all hope!
The so called representatives of the people could care less about their constituents. And, without batting an eye, these same representatives will say that everything in Mr. Krugman's column is a lie. As they were making the rounds of the Sunday news shows, Tom Price said no one will loose their medicaid (despite 880B in cuts to that program), Paul Ryan said no one will be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions (they just won't be able to afford the premiums), the CBO did score this bill (no, the CBO scored the previous bill), and, most famously, according to Raul Labrador "Nobody dies because they don't have access to healthcare."
With folks like this in charge...abandon all hope!
The Democratic rallying cry should be,
"Savaging your healthcare to cut their taxes."
"Savaging your healthcare to cut their taxes."
If you can't trust a bunch of self-serving pathological liars, who can you trust?
Certainly not those controlling the U.S. Government.
There is a war going right now between reality(i.e. the truth) and the GOP.
I wonder who's going to win?
Certainly not those controlling the U.S. Government.
There is a war going right now between reality(i.e. the truth) and the GOP.
I wonder who's going to win?
Treat this bill as a self-imposed attack on Pearl Harbor. This bill should remembered as cruel infamy. There are no limits to the greed of plutocrats.
Dr Krugman -- quick comment inspired by your column: Why do we not include Fox News in "mainstream media"? They are *always* excluded from that grouping, even though they have been the by-far #1 cable news network for more than a decade. If we acknowledge Fox News' position as leader of "mainstream media" it forces us to deal with them as movers-and-shakers -- they are moving us to the right (or more accurately to plutocrat-land) -- plus the rightward political movement is not an aberration -- it is reflected in what a majority of tv news-watchers have been choosing for a decade. Then we can ask why this is true, and where following the Pravda-for-the-Plutocrats will lead us. I'm sure Rupert Murdoch would be happy to be the RT Television (the Putin-mouthpiece Russian channel) for the Western World -- what would that mean for the future of the West?
I have a hard time caring about the pain Trump voters may end up feeling over this. That they brought this down on my head too, even though I have my employer insurance, that I must suffer with them for their stupidity, makes caring for them all but impossible.
Republicans, you need to be prepared for the big protests coming this summer. We citizens are going to go crazy mental on you. The campaign for '18 is on, brother.
It is all about getting the government out of our lives (the freedom and liberty bunch), and reducing taxes for the wealthy. Our Republican government representatives feels that our government does too much for us already, and we should have less government. They feel that government should not be in the health insurance business, since people should be pay exorbitant health costs all by their selves through their work (only they can't if they are underemployed or in poverty). Also, Republican representatives feel that government shouldn't be in the savings business (social security) either, but they will save that for a later time. They don't want government to do anything as far as I can tell, except to buy weaponry and support the military industrial complex.
These Republican folks also believe the the government shouldn't run schools (religious organizations should), and that any business should be allowed to do exactly what it wants when it wants to, no matter what damage it may inflict on the air, water, or health of humans. And as far as they are concerned, our earth is merely a repository of resources that need to be extracted as soon as possible.
These people don't want government, period. They want capitalism in its purest form.
But they can't tell anyone all of this, except behind closed doors. So, they lie. They say the exact opposite of what they actually want to have happen. And it works for them.
These Republican folks also believe the the government shouldn't run schools (religious organizations should), and that any business should be allowed to do exactly what it wants when it wants to, no matter what damage it may inflict on the air, water, or health of humans. And as far as they are concerned, our earth is merely a repository of resources that need to be extracted as soon as possible.
These people don't want government, period. They want capitalism in its purest form.
But they can't tell anyone all of this, except behind closed doors. So, they lie. They say the exact opposite of what they actually want to have happen. And it works for them.
3
Up front I'm no Trumpster. With that said my question is, who should we believe? When Obamacare passed it was drilled in our heads that for working class people, we would keep our Dr. and the costs would be lower for better coverage. All of which turned out to be not true even though there were 1000s of articles parroting these things and telling us how great the plan would be for the working class. Now we're being told the things in this article about how bad the republican plan is. Is this true? Is it false? Is it a box that they are trying to fill? Did the NYT know that Obamacare was going to crush working class people but decided to report it intentionally or were they just plain wrong about it even if they thought they were so right? With that said they are so sure this is bad but is it?
2
The information you mention was drilled in your heads by Fox News, not the Obama administration. Among other lies about the ACA -- death panels, everybody has higher costs, etc.
Your insurance company was responsible for not letting you keep your doctor, networks are changed every year and docs come and go from the plans.
If immorality wee punishable by law Trump and all Republicans would be sentenced to life without parole.
3
The question is whether there are three Republicans who will break ranks with the Trump followers. That's all it will take, and then a slew of Republicans will abandon this President like the disease that he is.
As long as there are only two major parties, I fear that the current group working on the Senate health care bill, which I just read is all ideological purists males, with a little of the Prosperity Gospel (those sick and impoverished are God's will)
Let us not forget, only around a quarter of Americans believe the overwhelming evidence of the Warren report, that a single disturbed sharpshooter killed J.F.K. The rest are certain that this conclusion is fake news.
Look at that graphic of elated Republican legislators, why should their voters feel other than elation that they won this first round, and are on their way to victory. The more the Liberal media is discomfited, the greater their pleasure.
Democracy means that Nobel Prize winners and illiterates each get a single vote.
As long as there are only two major parties, I fear that the current group working on the Senate health care bill, which I just read is all ideological purists males, with a little of the Prosperity Gospel (those sick and impoverished are God's will)
Let us not forget, only around a quarter of Americans believe the overwhelming evidence of the Warren report, that a single disturbed sharpshooter killed J.F.K. The rest are certain that this conclusion is fake news.
Look at that graphic of elated Republican legislators, why should their voters feel other than elation that they won this first round, and are on their way to victory. The more the Liberal media is discomfited, the greater their pleasure.
Democracy means that Nobel Prize winners and illiterates each get a single vote.
3
I wonder if Mr. Krugman is familiar with the words of the CEO of Aetna as they continue to pull out of the exchanges: ObamaCare is in a death spiral". Even though Mr. Krugman is a "former" economist, I would expect him to retain enough economics to see the looming disaster. Since Mr. Krugman fails to make any actual suggestion to stem the disaster, it is likely he has not read the bill, but is merely spouting partisan talking points and calling it a column.
Why does anyone (except the super-rich) vote Republican? Their latest actions are loud proclamations of their intent to cause harm to the citizens as well as the administration of the USA. Some of them have made comments like "nobody ever died from lack of health care" and claim that medical care is a commodity like soap and cars, and if you can't afford it, you don't get it (hey, that lump in your breast will probably go away in a few days). Republicans haven't gotten the memo: American health care is a profit-making luxury item that is no longer affordable to the great majority of Americans. And the insurance that is supposed to help us to access it is approaching the same expensive peak. Nearly every other country has managed to offer all their citizens health care at lower prices--but our capitalist rulers can't--and won't--make that lift.
13
Why does anyone vote Republican? As a non-super rich Republican, the shortest answer is that Republican policies are the most pro-growth. I look at examples of government-centered economies around the world, and they are all terrible failures. Their economies don't function, and their governments become more and more repressive the more their economies fail. Look at Venezuela today.
Yes, we're a long way from Venezuela in this country, but how far are we from France or Spain, where youth unemployment has been in the 20s (or more) for a decade. Taxes and regulations result in slower growth. Free markets beget stronger growth and lower prices.
I believe we have the means to provide for the neediest Americans and should do so. But how far above the poverty line should our government go in subsidizing healthcare? How punitive should the government be in mandating what coverages people must get or companies must provide? And how much economic growth are we willing to sacrifice to get it.
I believe the free market produces the best results for the most people, and policies that inhibit the free market too much do more harm than good.
Yes, we're a long way from Venezuela in this country, but how far are we from France or Spain, where youth unemployment has been in the 20s (or more) for a decade. Taxes and regulations result in slower growth. Free markets beget stronger growth and lower prices.
I believe we have the means to provide for the neediest Americans and should do so. But how far above the poverty line should our government go in subsidizing healthcare? How punitive should the government be in mandating what coverages people must get or companies must provide? And how much economic growth are we willing to sacrifice to get it.
I believe the free market produces the best results for the most people, and policies that inhibit the free market too much do more harm than good.
2
I suspect, in response to your leading question, that we've somehow conflated enthusiastic support with lack of equal disgust - many voting Republican are, more realistically, voting to not support a Democrat (and vice versa). Our choices are increasingly driven by highlighting of the opponent's faults, by presenting a candidate as the "least worst" choice of two. Fear of the other side, a vote "against" Hillary/the Donald/Bernie. Unfortunately, all it takes then is to highlight, exploit, and foster a fear of each voter.
This oppositional politics not only leads both parties to a race to be not quite the lowest standard, but eventually creates an electorate which lives in a broad "fear", scared, insecure, and without confidence in its future. Our politicians are incentivised to drive this lower and lower. The menace this creates for the great society the world knows as America should not be underestimated.
This oppositional politics not only leads both parties to a race to be not quite the lowest standard, but eventually creates an electorate which lives in a broad "fear", scared, insecure, and without confidence in its future. Our politicians are incentivised to drive this lower and lower. The menace this creates for the great society the world knows as America should not be underestimated.
"As a non-super rich Republican, the shortest answer is that Republican policies are the most pro-growth. "
Then why does the economy grow faster/better under Democratic administrations? Why are you comparing the US economy to Venezuela? Why aren't you comparing it to Germany's or Britain's? You know... a more spokes to apples comparison.
Then why does the economy grow faster/better under Democratic administrations? Why are you comparing the US economy to Venezuela? Why aren't you comparing it to Germany's or Britain's? You know... a more spokes to apples comparison.
2
Is Krugman seriously channeling Orwell to criticize Republicans?
Does he forget that it was the architects of Obamacare that admitted that they intentionally hid the costs of Obamacare in order to deceive the American people into supporting a bill they would not otherwise support? Obamacare mandated that parents' health insurance cover children through age 26 and provide free contraceptive coverage in order to dupe young people into thinking they are actually getting a good deal ... rather than that it is they who would have to overpay so that the older and sicker could pay less. The exchanges were also intentionally crafted to hide the costs of health plans by only showing the after-subsidy costs.
So maybe Krugman can find some campaign promises made by some assorted Republican congressman on the campaign trail that are inconsistent with the end product of the bill. (Or maybe he can; he doesn't cite any actual statement, per usual for the Krugster.) There were also plenty of congressmen who promised a clean repeal. Well, guess what, this bill is what compromise looks like, and it is about to change a lot more in the Senate.
The AHCA isn't a perfect, but calling it Orwellian is off the mark. The bill is at least transparent in what it does. Instead of cost-hiding subsidies, it gives tax credits. Instead of funding all of the new Medicaid costs with federal debt, it forces the states to live to a budget or pay out of their own taxpayers' pockets to increase funding.
Does he forget that it was the architects of Obamacare that admitted that they intentionally hid the costs of Obamacare in order to deceive the American people into supporting a bill they would not otherwise support? Obamacare mandated that parents' health insurance cover children through age 26 and provide free contraceptive coverage in order to dupe young people into thinking they are actually getting a good deal ... rather than that it is they who would have to overpay so that the older and sicker could pay less. The exchanges were also intentionally crafted to hide the costs of health plans by only showing the after-subsidy costs.
So maybe Krugman can find some campaign promises made by some assorted Republican congressman on the campaign trail that are inconsistent with the end product of the bill. (Or maybe he can; he doesn't cite any actual statement, per usual for the Krugster.) There were also plenty of congressmen who promised a clean repeal. Well, guess what, this bill is what compromise looks like, and it is about to change a lot more in the Senate.
The AHCA isn't a perfect, but calling it Orwellian is off the mark. The bill is at least transparent in what it does. Instead of cost-hiding subsidies, it gives tax credits. Instead of funding all of the new Medicaid costs with federal debt, it forces the states to live to a budget or pay out of their own taxpayers' pockets to increase funding.
2
"So maybe Krugman can find some campaign promises made by some assorted Republican congressman on the campaign trail that are inconsistent with the end product of the bill."
How convenient that you completely ignore what Krugman actually wrote. He quoted Drumpf directly. Oops!
How convenient that you completely ignore what Krugman actually wrote. He quoted Drumpf directly. Oops!
Is there another democratically elected party as openly evil and devious in power anywhere else in the world ? The audacity of these people is mind-boggling, and so is the stupidity of the people who voted for them, unless they are millionaires, in that case they bought the government anyway.
The nation is in the grip of criminal minds, people without conscience and without an ounce of decency.
The nation is in the grip of criminal minds, people without conscience and without an ounce of decency.
7
Because those of us who haven't achieved millions in wealth do not believe that those who have owe us a single penny if their riches.
Any sentient American who hasn't figured out yet that everything that Trump says is a baldfaced lie is beyond hope.
When millions of Trump's rabid supporters have their health care insurance ripped away by some version of the AHCA (the Senate version will likely be just a tad less Draconian) - the vast majority of brainwashed Trumpites will blame their sudden fall into the abyss of medical suffering and eventual personal bankruptcy squarely on Obama.
Why? Because Trump, Ryan, McConnell and Price will tell them so, lying just as smoothly and convincingly as they have for the last two years or more. And they'll be backed up with a perfectly-coordinated, 24/7 hallelujah chorus from Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson, Savage, Pags, et al. - who'll provide the harmony for the GOP's shameless propaganda machine (honed over the last fifty years to razor-sharp perfection).
Americans fell hook, line and sinker for the bombastic blandishments of an unabashed con man. Now we will be conned mightily for the next four years (at least). We're obviously living in a post-fact society in which the Democrats' facts and policy positions are no match for the GOP's gut-level, emotional demagoguery.
Our only hope as progressives is to start producing the same slick emotional pitches - but anchoring them to reality. "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Then slip the steak (truth) into these pitches into tiny, bite-sized pieces. If Americans don't have to chew (think), they might just buy it.
When millions of Trump's rabid supporters have their health care insurance ripped away by some version of the AHCA (the Senate version will likely be just a tad less Draconian) - the vast majority of brainwashed Trumpites will blame their sudden fall into the abyss of medical suffering and eventual personal bankruptcy squarely on Obama.
Why? Because Trump, Ryan, McConnell and Price will tell them so, lying just as smoothly and convincingly as they have for the last two years or more. And they'll be backed up with a perfectly-coordinated, 24/7 hallelujah chorus from Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, Carlson, Savage, Pags, et al. - who'll provide the harmony for the GOP's shameless propaganda machine (honed over the last fifty years to razor-sharp perfection).
Americans fell hook, line and sinker for the bombastic blandishments of an unabashed con man. Now we will be conned mightily for the next four years (at least). We're obviously living in a post-fact society in which the Democrats' facts and policy positions are no match for the GOP's gut-level, emotional demagoguery.
Our only hope as progressives is to start producing the same slick emotional pitches - but anchoring them to reality. "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Then slip the steak (truth) into these pitches into tiny, bite-sized pieces. If Americans don't have to chew (think), they might just buy it.
2
"Full of unintended consequences?" Republicans are smarter than that.
resistance is futile. this is a banana republic; rebellion would be next.
2
As a Medicare recipient, I get sick to my stomach with every article about the ACA that I read. It's all bad news, and once they dismantle the health care law, they will then turn their big guns on Medicare. "We did a great job with Obamacare repeal and replacement," they'll say, "and we're going to do the same thing to Medicare! Isn't this exciting??"
It's not just health care. I just read that the EPA is firing scientists and replacing them with representatives of the companies the EPA is supposed to regulate. Which is like saying "We're firing all of our trained policemen and policewomen, and we're replacing them with Nazi Stormtroopers. Isn't that great news??"
No. It isn't. Destroying health care will sentence some people to an early and unnecessary death. Destroying the mission of the EPA will sentence the Earth to an earlier than necessary demise. These people don't care that the Amazon is being destroyed in order to plant Palm Trees. They don't care that the loss of forest destroys species. They don't care if children die of starvation or lack of medical care - just so long as they aren't aborted. God forbid!
I wish I could win the lottery so I could afford to move elsewhere. I would prefer to pay more in taxes and know my health care would be provided for, then to have a very small tax cut but lose my health care because I can no longer afford the premiums or co-pays. This is what they want for us. And I simply don't get it.
It's not just health care. I just read that the EPA is firing scientists and replacing them with representatives of the companies the EPA is supposed to regulate. Which is like saying "We're firing all of our trained policemen and policewomen, and we're replacing them with Nazi Stormtroopers. Isn't that great news??"
No. It isn't. Destroying health care will sentence some people to an early and unnecessary death. Destroying the mission of the EPA will sentence the Earth to an earlier than necessary demise. These people don't care that the Amazon is being destroyed in order to plant Palm Trees. They don't care that the loss of forest destroys species. They don't care if children die of starvation or lack of medical care - just so long as they aren't aborted. God forbid!
I wish I could win the lottery so I could afford to move elsewhere. I would prefer to pay more in taxes and know my health care would be provided for, then to have a very small tax cut but lose my health care because I can no longer afford the premiums or co-pays. This is what they want for us. And I simply don't get it.
How dare you to discriminate against "War is Peace” part, Sir !
2
I make my living as a writer in healthcare. It can take me as long to write one print ad as it took the House Republicans to write the AHCA (both of them). An entire website can take a year. The carelessness and lack of compassion and courage in preparing this bill and bulldozing it through the House are sickening.
8
Rant, rant, blah, blah blah. What are we going to DO about it? The only reasonable answer is start working NOW to defeat every Republican officeholder and candidate at every level of government. Everything else is just talk.
9
The rich are incensed that they have to pay for the health care of the poor. It's all about the tax breaks They want their money. The plutocracy cares not one whit about the health needs of the average person.
4
"Its the economy, stupid!" Lower taxes = stronger economic growth. Are you happy with 1-2% annual growth as the new normal, because I'm not. Lowering taxes means taking less money out of the private economy. More money in the private economy means more investment, more jobs, more growth, higher wages. I put a lot more faith in private industry than I do the government.
it didn't work 35 years ago. why should it now. clueless texan.
2
That has been disproven over the last 3 decades, next.
1
It's like the sign over Auschwitz: "Work Will Set You Free." A damnable lie over a death camp. The GOP healthcare plan is full of damnable lies, is dangerous for your health and will, if enacted, result in death for many. The current Republican Party is without compassion or even the pretense of caring about fellow Americans. It's all about the upward transfer of billions away from the poor, sick and elderly given on a silver platter to the wealthiest Americans. We demand a single payer healthcare system as exists in most industrialized nations. We are being conned and literally sickened to death by these Masters of the Universe who can't be bothered to know who and how they will hurt fellow citizens. Get out in the streets and march until we can't be ignored!
5
Disgusting use of a human tragedy. Talk about hyperbole. Yet, work is the most important thing we do in life and it should be the only source of funding both wants and needs.
Let's face it, rich Republicans have been using social abstractions, like Religion, Abortion, Gay Marriage and a knee-grow President, to dupe ignorant, gullible, bigoted voters into committing political suicide for decades, right up to 2016.
6
It's funny how ending the program of winners and losers created by the government is described as creating winners and losers. Keep on spinning!
They aren't losers. They work, just like the rest of us, but can't afford health care. And why? Not because they've failed, but because health care is treated like a commodity, not a social need.
Is that enough "lack of spin" for you?
Is that enough "lack of spin" for you?
I have no idea who these men (mostly) and women are. These are not the Republicans of 25 years ago - not even remotely. How does a party change so drastically? What gives them the confidence to gleefully take from the less fortunate and pour into the pockets of the very, very wealthy? Who told them that truth no longer matters and that perfectly trustworthy adults (we assume they think that of themselves) can lie directly to cameras and to American's faces? Why do they hate the scientific method? Why are they so afraid of everything - poor people, immigrants, Muslims and on and on? The entire party acts like tweaking Alt Right goobers.
4
Nothing has changed. Wages have cratered and health care costs have gone up. This is the same ideology they had before this happened--it just looks different when inequality grows more extreme.
Such a missed opportunity to deal with the causes of high prices. Instead, AHCA simply re-engages in the game of cost-shifting. Where is the outrage over pharma pricing? Lack of price transparency across the system? There is a lot of money being made in healthcare and that is what the Republicans are protecting. Shame.
6
Does Toyota have to be price-transparent? Best Buy? Exxon? Are you price-transparent regarding your living expenses to your employer to justify your salary?
There ARE a couple of representatives of the female persuasion! What are they celebrating?!
3
How presumptuous and sexist. Feminism calls on women to make their own choices.
While PK is absolutely correct in his analysis of this ghastly monstrosity, it should not be called Trumpcare; this is "RYANCARE". "TRUMPCARE" should be saved for the ghastly monstrosity that exits the whole Congress or -- more likely -- the Non-Health Care Status that will be seen if there is no "Replacement" but is what is left of the US Health System for individuals and the poor if the ACA is allowed to degrade and "collapse" which is what the Tories are trying to arrange during this year and a half.
Also note that the Tories will have many many talking points about how this was always the fault of Guess Who? (BO and Dems)
Also note that the Tories will have many many talking points about how this was always the fault of Guess Who? (BO and Dems)
5
Will the GOP/Tea Party/Hate Talk/Pedophile libertarian media tell their zombie audiences they just got tossed under the Trump bus? Will mainstream media -- that's you Grey Lady -- continue to confuse the coma they're in with aggressive truth-telling journalism that's enshrined in the First Amendment? Master of the Media World Les Moonves (CBS) declared Trump the best thing that happened to TV and cable media -- says Trump is billions in bottomline profit. Thank Trump too for The NYT's 160,000+ new digital subscribers and lease on life.
Like Alec Baldwin said re: SNL, "Trump's the head writer." True for the rest of the media as well.
Whatever the Senate does to the Frankenstein's Monster health bill, it won't matter because Trump and his GOP House minions already had their ticker-tape parade down Constitution Ave, replete with streamers, bunting, and the now signature stag hunt party photo documenting a bunch of white guys in bad-fitting suits high fiving or maybe swatting at overhead flies, surrounding a not-sad Trump with a grin he stole from Goofy. They did it! Repeal and Replaced! O-care is dead, long live Trump Care, the rich win tax giveaway and the poor die health swindle.
Liberals are getting bored. Trump's a tired joke. Who cares anyway? Trump's supporters get what they deserve. 45 isn't 9/11. Move on.
Outrage isn't a sprint or a fitbit app. Paul Revere isn't in Facebook.
There's no normal ever again. Resistance is a long distance marathon.
Awake?
Like Alec Baldwin said re: SNL, "Trump's the head writer." True for the rest of the media as well.
Whatever the Senate does to the Frankenstein's Monster health bill, it won't matter because Trump and his GOP House minions already had their ticker-tape parade down Constitution Ave, replete with streamers, bunting, and the now signature stag hunt party photo documenting a bunch of white guys in bad-fitting suits high fiving or maybe swatting at overhead flies, surrounding a not-sad Trump with a grin he stole from Goofy. They did it! Repeal and Replaced! O-care is dead, long live Trump Care, the rich win tax giveaway and the poor die health swindle.
Liberals are getting bored. Trump's a tired joke. Who cares anyway? Trump's supporters get what they deserve. 45 isn't 9/11. Move on.
Outrage isn't a sprint or a fitbit app. Paul Revere isn't in Facebook.
There's no normal ever again. Resistance is a long distance marathon.
Awake?
2
There is no reason to believe that the "stupids" who voted for Donald Trump will ever stop being stupid. They are blind, ignorant, and stubborn as well as being mostly racist people full of hate. Thankfully, there is also a high probability that they will retreat to their caves when things get really bad.
2
Right, because if you find a government built on the confiscation and redistribution of wealth offensive you must be stupid or at least deplorable.
I truly hope that photo-op of the keg party becomes their "Mission Accomplished" moment in next year's mid-term elections. They deserve to be defeated bigly next year so we can start impeachment hearings. Those spineless GOP party members won't do it, they have too much to gain with the Con being president.
7
As my Mother would say, Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.
4
Thanks mickeyd8 - so many here trying to simplify this into "Republican voters are stupid and always will be, ergo we Democrats are so smart". Unlike the party apparatchiks who gerrymander to polarise the system, and spend the primaries fighting over the extremes, the election is won and lost in the centre.
There are rusted-on Republicans("non-Democrats"), and vice versa, for whom the issues never really matter, the truth they want to believe is that they, and therefore their party, are good and smart - ergo the other party is evil and stupid. All non-confirming evidence is "fake". This applies on both sides.
It's the 3-4 % of voters who take an interest, who haven't made their minds up, who decide an election. They don't necessarily vote the same way next time. Particularly if they feel wronged by the incumbent party.
There are rusted-on Republicans("non-Democrats"), and vice versa, for whom the issues never really matter, the truth they want to believe is that they, and therefore their party, are good and smart - ergo the other party is evil and stupid. All non-confirming evidence is "fake". This applies on both sides.
It's the 3-4 % of voters who take an interest, who haven't made their minds up, who decide an election. They don't necessarily vote the same way next time. Particularly if they feel wronged by the incumbent party.
The gloves are totally off now and it's plain to see that The Republican Oil Party is all about grabbing as much power as they can as fast as they can, elections 2018 be-damned. It's as if a rabble from a riot just broke into your house and are grabbing everything they can get their hands on before the cops come. Pathetic and sad that our Nations poor, elderly and their children will suffer the most.
4
ignorance and stupidity is divided by a fine line and I cannot get rid of the thought of useful idiots. We had Nero, and Caligula and what have Thou over there .... in the land of opportunity? Trumpism! Patriotism, oh I mean protectionism ...
DSK.Olsson
DSK.Olsson
1
The deplorable bill 217 House Republicans passed last week is merely an extreme example of the agenda Republicans have embraced since 1981.
Around the time Reagan entered office, Republican elites made a Faustian bargain. In exchange for unlimited campaign contributions from wealthy donors that would make them the Permanent Majority Party, Republicans would henceforth exclusively serve the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
The Republican mission would be to facilitate the transfer of wealth to the wealthy. Their agenda would consist of eliminating regulatory impediments to that transfer, and dismantling government programs and services for non-wealthy Americans to fund tax cuts and "corporate welfare" handouts.
Such an agenda is difficult to sell to the millions of people they need to consistently vote against their own interests. So Republicans invented an alternate "trickle-down" reality, in which "takers," "welfare queens," and immigrants were responsible for the declining middle class. They perfected the art of using incessantly-repeated lies to create whatever "truth" served their needs.
Last week's bill showed the Republican agenda at its worst. If their latest massive tax cut for the wealthy requires condemning at least 24 million people to destitution and death, they'll do it, and celebrate their "victory." They have an infinite supply of lies to deflect any criticism from liberals and "fake news." Business as usual for the Party of the Rich.
Around the time Reagan entered office, Republican elites made a Faustian bargain. In exchange for unlimited campaign contributions from wealthy donors that would make them the Permanent Majority Party, Republicans would henceforth exclusively serve the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
The Republican mission would be to facilitate the transfer of wealth to the wealthy. Their agenda would consist of eliminating regulatory impediments to that transfer, and dismantling government programs and services for non-wealthy Americans to fund tax cuts and "corporate welfare" handouts.
Such an agenda is difficult to sell to the millions of people they need to consistently vote against their own interests. So Republicans invented an alternate "trickle-down" reality, in which "takers," "welfare queens," and immigrants were responsible for the declining middle class. They perfected the art of using incessantly-repeated lies to create whatever "truth" served their needs.
Last week's bill showed the Republican agenda at its worst. If their latest massive tax cut for the wealthy requires condemning at least 24 million people to destitution and death, they'll do it, and celebrate their "victory." They have an infinite supply of lies to deflect any criticism from liberals and "fake news." Business as usual for the Party of the Rich.
3
The actual "transfer" has been downward. Allowing people to keep their own money in their pockets isn't taking from anyone. A million dollar tax cut is not the same as a million dollars in funding to buy votes for Hillary.
How can you tell if a Republican is lying?
His/her lips are moving.
His/her lips are moving.
11
The amazing thing about the ACA is that while insuring more Americans than ever, the rich were still rich. The question is why the wealthy "job creators" are not interested in a healthy workforce.
8
Sure they are. That's why careers have shrunk to the age range of 25 to 55. If you make it 25 you'll probably get to 55 without developing serious medical issues.
They'll pay your premiums while you work for them. Before of after, forget about it.
They'll pay your premiums while you work for them. Before of after, forget about it.
They need fewer and fewer of us to accomplish the available work, of course. Can't wait for natural attrician and trust women to plan their families.
The Republicans attitude towards reproductive rights and health care can be summarized by the statement that "life begins at conception and ends at birth".
8
And these same men are not held accountable for their bodily contributions to those babies.
For the life of me, Can it be possible that those rich white men in the Republican Party don't use birth control? For real? Don't send their daughters and girlfriends to Europe for abortions? Do as I say not as I do.
It's the woman's fault body that is the cause of pregnancy?
What's wrong with these people?
What is up with these men and some women who can afford birth control...
Can't make this stuff up...
For the life of me, Can it be possible that those rich white men in the Republican Party don't use birth control? For real? Don't send their daughters and girlfriends to Europe for abortions? Do as I say not as I do.
It's the woman's fault body that is the cause of pregnancy?
What's wrong with these people?
What is up with these men and some women who can afford birth control...
Can't make this stuff up...
And please remember the Republican goal has not been a sound governing platform and a budget to meet needs. Rather they have intended to "starve the beast," and shrink it until it withers away. Obviously not a great plan in this day and age when major crises occur seemingly overnight.
The Republicans would rather show their commitment to no government while lowering taxes.
Wonder how that will work out when a crisis hits and the government has neither the resources nor the staff to help with necessary repairs.
The Republicans would rather show their commitment to no government while lowering taxes.
Wonder how that will work out when a crisis hits and the government has neither the resources nor the staff to help with necessary repairs.
6
You'd almost think they were anti-American.
That's how one dies in the US. One just stops eating.
I can't believe what's happening in USA. We Canadians have enjoyed universal health care for decades. We don't worry about health costs. We pay taxes and don't mind, knowing that there are benefits for all regardless of income or class.
I also can't understand why Americans can't turf out a president who is obviously not interested in serving the people he's supposed to represent. Rather, he's lining his own pockets and those of his friends. And the Republicans in congress. I hope something happens soon to stem this flow of money to the ones who need it least.
I also can't understand why Americans can't turf out a president who is obviously not interested in serving the people he's supposed to represent. Rather, he's lining his own pockets and those of his friends. And the Republicans in congress. I hope something happens soon to stem this flow of money to the ones who need it least.
9
Why should someone making $15,000/year have the same healthcare as someone making $100,000? Or $1,000,000? They don't get the same housing. Nor the same education. That is how free markets function. There are rewards to achievement and success.
I think whomever pays you should cut you off, Leave Capitalism Alone. You're just pollution here. A liability, not an asset.
1
How do Evangelicals square supporting this president and his policies with their faithful beliefs? How do the coal miners, many of whom have healthcare because of black lung disease, think they will be unaffected by the AHCA? Why do small businessman think they are better off without the ACA when uninsured low wage workers will be more unhealthy and less reliable without healthcare?
10
The family guy who doesn't live with his wife and doesn't raise his boy.
Another way to reduce the number of likely Democratic voters.
2
Once again Paul you are right on target.
4
One can only hope that Paul's plea for a cessation in false equivalency is heeded by the NYT Editorial Board. Your country needs to embrace the tag line of Garner Ted Armstrong "the Plain Truth". Not that Garner Ted was adept at following his exhortation to his followers, but it was a good slogan. There is an obstacle to that however, it is the dumbing down of the electorate for the past five decades.
Capitalism does not belong in healthcare. We spend more on healthcare than any other nation and get worse outcomes. The only silver lining that might come out of this fiasco is the potential for a single payer system if the public demands it.
Pray that there is more sense in the Senate.
3
Fox News will tell all the Trump voters that everything is okay with health care and they will believe it. That's all they need.
7
I have no idea whether the GOP House health care bill is good or not.
But I am not going to take Paul Krugman's word for it. Over and over again, he has proved to be a false prophet regarding health care. He is probably the last American to believe that everything is hunky dory with Obamacare.
Has he ever repudiated his claim that lack of insurance was killing 18,000 Americans a year? When the Oregon Health study in a randomized study found that after 2 years of Medicaid the physical health of recipients was no better than that of a control group, Krugman changed the subject from health to economic security.
If you are tired of politics as usual, try Ross Douthat's op-ed "Is Obamacare a Lifesaver?" from March 29, 2017.
But I am not going to take Paul Krugman's word for it. Over and over again, he has proved to be a false prophet regarding health care. He is probably the last American to believe that everything is hunky dory with Obamacare.
Has he ever repudiated his claim that lack of insurance was killing 18,000 Americans a year? When the Oregon Health study in a randomized study found that after 2 years of Medicaid the physical health of recipients was no better than that of a control group, Krugman changed the subject from health to economic security.
If you are tired of politics as usual, try Ross Douthat's op-ed "Is Obamacare a Lifesaver?" from March 29, 2017.
1
Lack of heath insurance is responsible for approx. 45,000 deaths a year in our country...not 18,000 deaths.
Healthcare doesn't change the average in 2 yrs. But it could save you if you get cancer, are in a bad accident, or develop a rare but deadly disease. Have you quit your insurance to save $? That's what you're arguing should be done to millions.
I understand health insurance mechanisms pretty well, and I am in complete agreement that the Republicans have been deceptive on an outrageous scale around Obamacare and health insurance.
One of my favorite incidents, from the "Meet the Press" Dickerson Trump interview of a week ago:
"JOHN DICKERSON: So I'm not hearing you, Mr. President, say there's a guarantee of pre-existing conditions.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We actually have -- we actually have a clause that guarantees."
(The existence of the clause is repeated by Trump, but it is not elaborated on in the interview, and the topic changes.)
Well, on checking politfact.com
(http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2017/may/01/donald-trump/do... ),
the clause Trump is referring to seems to be this: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as permitting insurers to limit access to health coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions."
The clause is vacuous. Under other provisions of the bill, insurers have to issue a policy to everyone, but can charge a sick person say $100,000 a month.
The vacuous clause was apparently inserted for deception purposes only, and is another instance of the recent Republican (Paul Ryan, etc.) verbal trick that the vague word "access" in Republican terms means only that they have sell it to you at some premium, no matter how high and unaffordable that premium, even, perhaps, $100,000 a month.
Oh man, oh man, oh man!
One of my favorite incidents, from the "Meet the Press" Dickerson Trump interview of a week ago:
"JOHN DICKERSON: So I'm not hearing you, Mr. President, say there's a guarantee of pre-existing conditions.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We actually have -- we actually have a clause that guarantees."
(The existence of the clause is repeated by Trump, but it is not elaborated on in the interview, and the topic changes.)
Well, on checking politfact.com
(http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2017/may/01/donald-trump/do... ),
the clause Trump is referring to seems to be this: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as permitting insurers to limit access to health coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions."
The clause is vacuous. Under other provisions of the bill, insurers have to issue a policy to everyone, but can charge a sick person say $100,000 a month.
The vacuous clause was apparently inserted for deception purposes only, and is another instance of the recent Republican (Paul Ryan, etc.) verbal trick that the vague word "access" in Republican terms means only that they have sell it to you at some premium, no matter how high and unaffordable that premium, even, perhaps, $100,000 a month.
Oh man, oh man, oh man!
6
John Dickerson is host of "Face the Nation" on CBS, not "Meet the Press."
The latest guess I've seen is that LESS than one percent of the country will even be affected by the changes to care for the constantly sick who couldn't get insurance before.
Progressive will have to decide either now or later how few people they need to call victims to justify millions of people getting overcharged.
Progressive will have to decide either now or later how few people they need to call victims to justify millions of people getting overcharged.
At least 27% of the people in this country have a pre-existing condition. This bill potentially affects a very sizable percentage of our population. The last version of the House bill estimated 24 million loosing their health insurance.
3
Less than 4% of the country actually got insurance for the first time under the PPACA. Is there ANY cost point past which the Left would admit that the law is not justified, even if it wasn't imploding?
"Losing"...
not loosing. ugh.
not loosing. ugh.
Just call it Trump-not-care.
3
As bad as things may get, my fear is that the Democrats will once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A recent poll had a majority of people claiming the Democrats are not concerned about average Americans. There is some truth there, however on the whole, Democrats brought us Social Security, Medicare, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights act, all against the raging of the Republicans.
Republicans have always been concerned with the rich, so the question is why do so many poor and working class people place their faith in Republicans? We can certainly blame right wing media and failing public schools, who long ago stopped teaching civics. However, I see the Republicans having a unified message, even though it is 100% balderdash.
The Democrats need to start paying attention to the majority of people who simply aren't getting the message that it is them, not the Republicans that have their backs. Hillary Clinton telling people that she has solutions to unemployment on her website came off as crass and unconcerned. Now Tom Perez says anybody not sufficiently pro-choice has no place in the Democratic party. Keep digging that hole Tom. Maybe we'll get even more Republicans in power than we already have.
Republicans have always been concerned with the rich, so the question is why do so many poor and working class people place their faith in Republicans? We can certainly blame right wing media and failing public schools, who long ago stopped teaching civics. However, I see the Republicans having a unified message, even though it is 100% balderdash.
The Democrats need to start paying attention to the majority of people who simply aren't getting the message that it is them, not the Republicans that have their backs. Hillary Clinton telling people that she has solutions to unemployment on her website came off as crass and unconcerned. Now Tom Perez says anybody not sufficiently pro-choice has no place in the Democratic party. Keep digging that hole Tom. Maybe we'll get even more Republicans in power than we already have.
If you are ready to trade a decent life for the capacity to forbid women to have abortions if they feel they need them, then you are not only morally corupt, but a moron.
These folks believe people like Trump can command God to get things done. Trump spellbinds with magic words.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - healthcare should never be treated as a commodity or product in a free market scenario. That's best left for things like baby rattles and televisions. Ultimately, where healthcare is concerned, an inferior product emerges for those most in need and they're left pleading for assistance that won't come or, worse, dead. We need to leave competition out of this. We need to keep people insured. We need single payer universal care and it is an absolute travesty it hasnt taken shape yet. The AHCA is a moral and financial failure of the greatest design.
5
The Republican Party has only one purpose: to narrowly interpret the Constitution so that the law may be used to protect wealthy individuals and corporations from taxation and regulation.
They have a term for this agenda--they call it "freedom".
That this "freedom" doesn't apply to everyone is obvious to many people, but clearly not to everyone.
And I don't think most Republicans in power willfully desire indebtedness, suffering, and death for a substantial percentage of the population. They just don't believe it's their responsibility to do anything about it--or that it would constitutional to do so.
So, really, at some point this will come down to either abandoning principle or letting people suffer. And I'm not convinced that a majority of voters are ready to abandon principle.
They have a term for this agenda--they call it "freedom".
That this "freedom" doesn't apply to everyone is obvious to many people, but clearly not to everyone.
And I don't think most Republicans in power willfully desire indebtedness, suffering, and death for a substantial percentage of the population. They just don't believe it's their responsibility to do anything about it--or that it would constitutional to do so.
So, really, at some point this will come down to either abandoning principle or letting people suffer. And I'm not convinced that a majority of voters are ready to abandon principle.
3
Of the 217 members of Congress who voted in favor of this bill last week, no one is more guilty of moral failure than Rep. Tom Marino of Pennsylvania -- who has the distinction of being the only member of the House and the Senate who is the parent of someone with cystic fibrosis. As such a parent myself, I am keenly aware of the recent study from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation proving that despite our high-tech healthcare, CF patients in Canada are living a decade lower than their U.S. counterparts. The reason is clear: Canadians with CF have better access to health insurance. As a co-chair of the Congressional CF caucus, Rep. Marino cannot claim to be unaware of this. As a CF dad, Marino cannot claim ignorance of what it means to live with cystic fibrosis . . . the quintessential pre-existing condition for which access to expensive healthcare is the difference between a long life and a very short one.
17
It is very difficult to speak frankly about "triage" in the practice of medicine. Triage is allocation of medical resources to where they will cause the least harm or do the most good.
Modern technology makes it possible to detect many ruinously painful and crippling, but survivable, conditions prior to birth, before the fetus has developed sentience. Modern public health plans offer this testing and the options it opens to preclude tragedies.
But modern ethics also treats sentience, developing after birth, as human life, the "soul" medicine seeks to conserve through good health. We do not want to abandon those who were born with crippling conditions as we work to prevent such births in the future.
I do not respect anyone's claims to know what God thinks of medical practice.
Modern technology makes it possible to detect many ruinously painful and crippling, but survivable, conditions prior to birth, before the fetus has developed sentience. Modern public health plans offer this testing and the options it opens to preclude tragedies.
But modern ethics also treats sentience, developing after birth, as human life, the "soul" medicine seeks to conserve through good health. We do not want to abandon those who were born with crippling conditions as we work to prevent such births in the future.
I do not respect anyone's claims to know what God thinks of medical practice.
If the Democrats were smart, they would campaign on the following platform: Congress, the Executive, and Judicial branches will eliminate their current federal health insurance, and instead use whatever national health insurance is standing at the time of the midterm elections (ACA or some version of the AHCA).
This would show Americans that the Democrats are with them, and care. They would win. But I'm not holding my breath.
This would show Americans that the Democrats are with them, and care. They would win. But I'm not holding my breath.
7
"Smart" doesn't seem to reach simpletons.
It's not just the national politicians. Far too many Americans as a whole are fundamentally dishonest.
Only Americans deny global warming. Only Americans claim Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Only Americans allow their children to be slaughtered in their classrooms. And only Americans would elect a breathtakingly ignorant, compulsive liar to the highest office in their nation. Twice. With Trump, they've simply upped the ante from G.W. Bush.
As their failing grades in science and math demonstrate, Americans prefer sophistry to truth. It's easier. America produces a glut of lawyers but has to import scientists and engineers from other countries. American culture, if there is such a thing, is failing.
But the truth does ultimately prevail, and it's now come to collect its due.
Only Americans deny global warming. Only Americans claim Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Only Americans allow their children to be slaughtered in their classrooms. And only Americans would elect a breathtakingly ignorant, compulsive liar to the highest office in their nation. Twice. With Trump, they've simply upped the ante from G.W. Bush.
As their failing grades in science and math demonstrate, Americans prefer sophistry to truth. It's easier. America produces a glut of lawyers but has to import scientists and engineers from other countries. American culture, if there is such a thing, is failing.
But the truth does ultimately prevail, and it's now come to collect its due.
17
All of this swirls around one very big black hole: the preposterous and quaint notion that this country is somehow manipulated by a rational universal intervenor with a hidden agenda who responds to favorably to people who hold on to beliefs in defiance of all tangible evidence and empirical experimentation.
The US public is brainwashed by this. I know. I've been through Snakebit Hollers all over the USA.
The US public is brainwashed by this. I know. I've been through Snakebit Hollers all over the USA.
3
Perhaps the most overlooked solution to healthcare for everyone, is to just extend the Federal Government health care plans for ALL federal employees to ALL Americans! As of 2011, there were ~2.1M federal employees.
The federal plans are sold at a fee, and are available not just for the president and members of the congress, but for all federal employees. The program provides over 300 private health care plans that covers the president, senators, congressmen, down to the janitors who clean the White House.
They do get an excellent set of benefits by virtue of the fact that government employees form a large pool. This enables federal employees to have wider choices. And, by virtue of the fact that they form a large pool of insureds, there is no waiting periods for most of the plans. That means their insurance protects them immediately.
In addition, the federal government also has its own medical clinic where federal employees can come to get treatment for minor ailments.
How about it Mr. Speaker and King Trump?
The federal plans are sold at a fee, and are available not just for the president and members of the congress, but for all federal employees. The program provides over 300 private health care plans that covers the president, senators, congressmen, down to the janitors who clean the White House.
They do get an excellent set of benefits by virtue of the fact that government employees form a large pool. This enables federal employees to have wider choices. And, by virtue of the fact that they form a large pool of insureds, there is no waiting periods for most of the plans. That means their insurance protects them immediately.
In addition, the federal government also has its own medical clinic where federal employees can come to get treatment for minor ailments.
How about it Mr. Speaker and King Trump?
20
There is no simple way to reallocate a whole revenue collection system without a comprehensive plan. The slobs who cooked up the Tough Love Health Plan don't have the patience or the neurons to do it.
2
They won't consider it because it doesn't benefit the 1%.
That is their only goal.
That is their only goal.
6
Members of Congress, the Senate and their staffs can't buy health insurance through the FEHBplan (Federal Employee Health Benefit plan) any longer. They must purchase it through the DC exchange or their state exchange unless they have insurance through another means.
Democrats must be relentless between now and the 2018 elections in publicizing aggressively all that is terrible about this heartless and cynical legislation and the people behind it. In my district, my congressman, a card-carrying member of the Freedom Caucus with an historically safe seat, is already running TV ads to crow about his support for the repeal of Obamacare. Republicans have demonstrated their mastery of the Big Lie; unless Democrats begin now to use similar techniques to educate voters on the truth of the matter, they will not prevail. Waiting until 2018 will be too late.
9
Beware gerrymandering
If these folks get their 120+ comprehensively dyslexified "Federalist Society" diviners of the will of God and readers of the minds of the dead onto the federal judiciary, you'll be crucified.
I have to admit, the title of this column caught my eye. I thought, hey, 1984 was a great year for Republicans! Reagan's tax reform, combined with fed policy, led to 5-6% annual economic growth, and resulted in Reagan willing 49 of 50 states in the Electoral College. I thought also: that's not a bad way to think about the AHCA, which also cuts taxes, reduces regulatory burdens, and should help to return us to regulatory growth.
.
Of course, I was wrong. Krugman was comparing Republicans to the Orwell's dystopian novel, without admitting even a hint of irony in the fact that his own desire for the government to control every aspect of our healthcare is far closer to 1984 and anything the Republicans could ever conjure.
.
Of course, I was wrong. Krugman was comparing Republicans to the Orwell's dystopian novel, without admitting even a hint of irony in the fact that his own desire for the government to control every aspect of our healthcare is far closer to 1984 and anything the Republicans could ever conjure.
5
We liberals want medical professionals to design a system that meets the demand and collects revenue efficiently. I don't think there is a scientifically competent social engineer in the whole excuse yourselves for being stupid Republican Party.
11
You left out the health part- that is the GOP problem too. If you worry about control look no further than tha GOP attitude towards women's healthcare.
1
Mr. Krugman does not want to CONTROL, or have the government CONROL health care, in the sense that you are trying to infer. Mr. Krugman, and other people with a moral compass, would like to make sure that ALL American citizens...these people who are also YOUR American brethren...will be able to have decent health care, as opposed to NO health care. The only way that is EVER going to happen is through a single payer health care system, which IS more efficient, certainly more egalitarian, and more cost-contained. (PROVEN!) This health care bill that has been foisted upon us will cut taxes FOR WHOM? For the people who least need tax cuts! As for regulatory burdens, I see no one who is more in need of regulation than the health insurance industry (which should be put out of business for the harm and fraud it perpetuates on its' clients)...and the out-of-control pharmaceutical industry, which charges obscene amounts for the drugs that people need to STAY ALIVE. This health care bill will never return us to regulatory growth...WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? REGULATORY GROWTH? On the one hand you speak of reducing regulatory burdens, and on the other you tout return to regulatory growth????? Regulation should never be removed from industries that will flourish through financial and environmental rape. What this deceitful, sadistic health care bill WILL do is to make sure that more people cannot have health care, and that more people will die prematurely. VILE DOINGS.
I really hate Krugman's intellectual dishonesty. I read his columns, and if I was from another planet, I would think that government spending on healthcare was fully funded and that Republicans want to let millions of people die so that the rich can get richer.
The truth is healthcare politics involves very, very hard choices that do not get easier by vilifying your political opponent. The choices include where to draw the line in providing government benefits, and what costs are we willing to impose on the private economy.
Republican tax cuts are almost never about giving to the rich. They are about spurring economic growth. Krugman ought to know that 1-2% annual economic growth is bad for all Americans, and hits the poorest Americans the hardest (as all bad economic things do). And that higher growth will benefit more Americans than will the extra health insurance subsidies that Obamacare provides over the AHCA.
And what about the "cuts" to Medicaid? They aren't cuts to the program at all, they are cuts to federal spending on it. States, of course, can spend whatever extra they want. So why is that a problem for Blue State Democrats like Krugman? Because states have to balance their budgets and can't pile on debt into oblivion like the bill will never come due.
An intellectually honest assessment would admit that Obamacare cut some checks that we cannot afford, and that Republican attempts to pare things back are fiscally responsible.
The truth is healthcare politics involves very, very hard choices that do not get easier by vilifying your political opponent. The choices include where to draw the line in providing government benefits, and what costs are we willing to impose on the private economy.
Republican tax cuts are almost never about giving to the rich. They are about spurring economic growth. Krugman ought to know that 1-2% annual economic growth is bad for all Americans, and hits the poorest Americans the hardest (as all bad economic things do). And that higher growth will benefit more Americans than will the extra health insurance subsidies that Obamacare provides over the AHCA.
And what about the "cuts" to Medicaid? They aren't cuts to the program at all, they are cuts to federal spending on it. States, of course, can spend whatever extra they want. So why is that a problem for Blue State Democrats like Krugman? Because states have to balance their budgets and can't pile on debt into oblivion like the bill will never come due.
An intellectually honest assessment would admit that Obamacare cut some checks that we cannot afford, and that Republican attempts to pare things back are fiscally responsible.
8
"Republican tax cuts are almost never about giving to the rich. They are about spurring economic growth."
But time and time again, history has shown that that doesn't work, or at best it works incompletely. The myth is that if you give rich people money, they will eagerly invest it in some new job creating business. More likely, they will sit on it. Give a corporation more money, and it will buy back its own shares (increasing the value of the holdings of key shareowners, usually including those making the decision) and/or increase executive compensation. Most likely, if there were some hugely lucrative investment opportunity dangling out there, businesses would have already invested in it.
But time and time again, history has shown that that doesn't work, or at best it works incompletely. The myth is that if you give rich people money, they will eagerly invest it in some new job creating business. More likely, they will sit on it. Give a corporation more money, and it will buy back its own shares (increasing the value of the holdings of key shareowners, usually including those making the decision) and/or increase executive compensation. Most likely, if there were some hugely lucrative investment opportunity dangling out there, businesses would have already invested in it.
12
I'm sure that Ayn Rand would be proud.
So giving a trillion dollars over the next ten years to the richest people in the country will be fiscally responsible?
This is all about insatiable greed. And if they got that, guess what? They would want more.
The Republican "healthcare" act is a complete farce.
So giving a trillion dollars over the next ten years to the richest people in the country will be fiscally responsible?
This is all about insatiable greed. And if they got that, guess what? They would want more.
The Republican "healthcare" act is a complete farce.
5
As FJP explains below: we've been cutting taxes as a way of promoting economic growth for more than thirty years. George W. Bush cut delivered some magnificent tax cuts to the very wealthy. All that we got for it was the Great Recession. Cutting taxes to create economic growth (supply side economics, or "voodoo economics" depending on who you ask) is failed policy, which is something most of Krugman's readers would be fully briefed about at this point. It's cause for some concern that you still believe tax cuts deliver economic miracles. It might have worked in the 1980's, but as you've probably surmised, economic circumstances change over time, so solutions that might have worked in past are in no way guaranteed to work in the future. By some estimations, the problems we see with our economy today are the result of one generation investing massively in the United States, and subsequent ones giving themselves successive tax breaks while gradually demanding more and more of government.
3
We, as a country, have established and upheld the institution of slavery, upheld the inequality of women, fought tooth and nail to uphold the right to discriminate upon the basis of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. There is no bottom to what this country, or its people are capable of.
Our stories and myths tell the bright side of our history, the triumphs, but the dark side has been omnipresent since the beginning. Republicans, and those who vote for them, are just the latest sires, the latest seeds of that rotten fruit. Life is suffering, there is only struggle, fight to tell the truth anyway.
Our stories and myths tell the bright side of our history, the triumphs, but the dark side has been omnipresent since the beginning. Republicans, and those who vote for them, are just the latest sires, the latest seeds of that rotten fruit. Life is suffering, there is only struggle, fight to tell the truth anyway.
9
I suppose by the time the US Revolutionary War was over, the pursuit of happiness looked like a very unrealistic proposition. That was a big point of the original letter of intent.
I listened to Paul Ryan explaining to an interviewer that they are providing people with options, and understood that he simply is incapable of relating to how the rest of us live.
As is Trump.
As is Pence.
As are the brains in the heads of all the smiling people just to the left of this pace in which I'm typing.
They're all very happy. They voted to repeal Affordable Care and seriously hope that our Senate validates their choices. These men and women want the effects of the legislation they wrote and voted to make law.
I measure much that affects my life by the standard of the many conscious lies and deceits that sent me to combat in Vietnam 48 years ago. I still get sick knowing that the people who run the world can consciously choose to cause death and destruction, go home, go to parties, laugh, send their kids to schools, go to church...
... and smile like the people in that photo just to the left.
That's precisely what the photo represents, a level of conscious social destruction right up there with what Nixon did to become president in 1968 when he arranged to have LBJ's peace effort scuttled, and when men, and women, in my generation were used in Vietnam, or more recent generations in Iraq, Afghanistan, et al.
Take a good look at that photo. Look at Trump.
They're all celebrating 24,000,000 Americans losing coverage and possibly tens of thousand unnecessarily dying.
At least McNamara wrote "In Retrospect." These people don't have retrospect.
As is Trump.
As is Pence.
As are the brains in the heads of all the smiling people just to the left of this pace in which I'm typing.
They're all very happy. They voted to repeal Affordable Care and seriously hope that our Senate validates their choices. These men and women want the effects of the legislation they wrote and voted to make law.
I measure much that affects my life by the standard of the many conscious lies and deceits that sent me to combat in Vietnam 48 years ago. I still get sick knowing that the people who run the world can consciously choose to cause death and destruction, go home, go to parties, laugh, send their kids to schools, go to church...
... and smile like the people in that photo just to the left.
That's precisely what the photo represents, a level of conscious social destruction right up there with what Nixon did to become president in 1968 when he arranged to have LBJ's peace effort scuttled, and when men, and women, in my generation were used in Vietnam, or more recent generations in Iraq, Afghanistan, et al.
Take a good look at that photo. Look at Trump.
They're all celebrating 24,000,000 Americans losing coverage and possibly tens of thousand unnecessarily dying.
At least McNamara wrote "In Retrospect." These people don't have retrospect.
18
Republican filth on display.
Meanwhile the best solution to the healthcare problem is well-known. When you have experiments played out in real time across the world, trying different systems, measuring the outcomes, but then still double down on your failing experiment and ignoring the success of other experiments, that's called "willful ignorance". Willful ignorance of the people who keep supporting republicans, willful ignorance of Trump supporters.
Willful ignorance: the gravest danger of all.
Meanwhile the best solution to the healthcare problem is well-known. When you have experiments played out in real time across the world, trying different systems, measuring the outcomes, but then still double down on your failing experiment and ignoring the success of other experiments, that's called "willful ignorance". Willful ignorance of the people who keep supporting republicans, willful ignorance of Trump supporters.
Willful ignorance: the gravest danger of all.
12
Although liberals always claim the moral high ground. Part of the blame lies with them. Democrats had the guts to address the real costs associated with the ACA, that is: the increasingly bloated healthcare industry (one in nine people now work for it, up from one in twelve a few years ago), the diet of our unhealthy population, the rising cost of pharmaceuticals and cancer screenings (the side-effects and over-diagnosis that they lead to), much less the high-price paid to doctors. Our nation has been gutless in facing and confronting the actual costs associated with universal healthcare. It is not only "the rich" that will pay for this gutless presumptiveness, it is all of us.
3
I have no interest in reaching out to the Trump voters. They had the same choice the rest of us did, and they elected incompetence, hate, misogyny and narcissism. If they are disproportionately affected by Trumpcare, so be it. How could they have expected anything but 4 years of disasters that will take a generation to recover from. The Republican party and all who voted for it are a disgrace.
31
Then how about advocating for the poor and working class - black, brown and white?
3
Miriam Astoria, Queens
Hear! Hear! Very appropriate and very well said. Thanks.
Hear! Hear! Very appropriate and very well said. Thanks.
For the record, what I said was, forget the white working class as such; we should advocate for the poor and working class - black, brown, and white.
There will be no backlash against the Republicans for this cruelty. When Trump deprives the working people who voted for him of their health insurance, they admire and applaud him. The Republican media machine has convinced poor mostly rural whites that rich, mostly urban whites are advancing their "cultural" interests (e.g. hard work, low compensation, self-sacrifice) by depriving them of basic needs. The democratic party will gain little from reminding Trump voters that Republicans are trying to diminish (and shorten) their lives.
At the end of the day, resistance to Trump and Trumpism begins with an alternative view about the dignity and humanity of people who happen not to be rich. Voter by voter, the Democrats must try to convince each citizen who isn't wealthy that the government should work to advance his or her hopes and dreams, just as it currently does for the billionaires. Liberal have to fight the cultural fight. The far right wing has been winning all of those battles partially because their messaging is better, but also because the Democrats lost the faith of working Americans.
At the end of the day, resistance to Trump and Trumpism begins with an alternative view about the dignity and humanity of people who happen not to be rich. Voter by voter, the Democrats must try to convince each citizen who isn't wealthy that the government should work to advance his or her hopes and dreams, just as it currently does for the billionaires. Liberal have to fight the cultural fight. The far right wing has been winning all of those battles partially because their messaging is better, but also because the Democrats lost the faith of working Americans.
8
You unknowingly identify the problem right there in the middle of your second paragraph. True patriotic capitalists do not want or need the government to advance their interests. It is each of our responsibility to see ourselves through life and to reasonably know our station therein. I, for instance, grew up in a run down apartment in a low income area of south Queens very near JFK. No one I grew up with has any place demanding the same education, opportunities or lifestyle of someone from, say, Park Ave in the 70's. And why would/should someone who has achieved such success willingly permit someone from my part of town to compete with their kids.
1
I was born and spent my early years with our family of four in a one-bedroom apartment in Jamaica, about a 20 minute walk from Jamaica Estates, where Trump grew up. My dad was a gardener. His fundamental belief was "An honest day's work for an honest day's pay." He lived by it. He never lied. He never promised what he couldn't deliver,. He never cheated anybody and despised those who did. He taught me I could achieve anything I set out to; all I had to do was "get moving". "bust my ..." and put in honest days work. That was the Jamaica, Queens I knew, It sure worked for me. But I guess others were't so lucky. Some even learned to lie, cheat and steal their way to get whatever they wanted. You know what my Dad said about them? "The bigger they are the. harder the fall!" Of course! Just a matter of time.
2
No truer words were ever written than the following paragraph by Dr. Krugman:
"And for that matter, how confident are you that mainstream media will resist the temptation of both-sides-ism, the urge to produce “balanced” reporting that blurs the awful reality of what Trumpcare will do if enacted?"
The media made the entire presidential election a wedding dinner RSVP choice between chicken and fish. Why would they stop now?
(The Democrats can help end the "both sides-ism" by providing alternatives, and not cry-baby responses. For instance, where is the Democratic plan for tax reform?)
"And for that matter, how confident are you that mainstream media will resist the temptation of both-sides-ism, the urge to produce “balanced” reporting that blurs the awful reality of what Trumpcare will do if enacted?"
The media made the entire presidential election a wedding dinner RSVP choice between chicken and fish. Why would they stop now?
(The Democrats can help end the "both sides-ism" by providing alternatives, and not cry-baby responses. For instance, where is the Democratic plan for tax reform?)
16
For profit is always the problem.
The news that comes out is the news that will bring in the most money.
That's the beauty of Capitalism.
The news that comes out is the news that will bring in the most money.
That's the beauty of Capitalism.
1
It's pretty simple. Too many people who voted for Trump did not realize that the hated "Obamacare" was really...
...the really effective, though needing some tuning, Affordable Care Act.
Who knew?
...the really effective, though needing some tuning, Affordable Care Act.
Who knew?
Oh please. I agree that this bill is terrible, and is likely being done with malicious intent, but to suggest that it is the worst thing in US history is absurd. The penchant for exaggeration and doomsaying makes it difficult to take you seriously.
You really should read this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/06/opinion/sunday/the-house-health-care-... - a real eye opener.
When you undertsand that this "health care bill" is really a tax cut bill, and why, you will marvel at the true deceitfulness at the heart of the bill.
Still, I just don't understand how the republicans got this way, why do they hate us so much?
When you undertsand that this "health care bill" is really a tax cut bill, and why, you will marvel at the true deceitfulness at the heart of the bill.
Still, I just don't understand how the republicans got this way, why do they hate us so much?
If this bill passes, Trump, Ryan and Comey will be responsible for killing more Americans each year than Al Qaeda, ISIS and all other terrorists have killed in our entire history.
29
On the bright side, these same people will likely make a lot of money for themselves and their friends.
1
So, what was happening before Obamacare was passed in the 90's and early 2000's? Carnage, famine, death and destruction? Funny, I don't recall that.
Millions of people did not have access to essential primary care. They were invisible to society as their chronic conditions worsened. They developed complications so that when they were able to receive care, their conditions were much worse. Their lifespans were shorter. Your ignorance of the plight of the lower socioeconomic person is alarming.
1
And let's not forget Krugman had a big part in this by promoting a candidate who was fatally flawed, when Sanders, now the most popular politician in the country, would have prevented all of this.
This is your mess to, Dr. Neo-Liberal.
This is your mess to, Dr. Neo-Liberal.
Stripping healthcare from at least 24 million americans will result in thousands maybe tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and untold suffering (and economic loss as well). In the richest country on earth - doesn't the AHCA amount to a crime against humanity? What if our government starved a portion of its population while throwing the needed food away? Oh wait we already do that ...http://www.worldhunger.org/hunger-in-america-2016-united-states-hunger-p...
5
I often enjoy reading the comments on Mr. Krugman's comments just to see the liberal bubble in all of its glory. Angry liberals talking to themselves. Mr. Krugman who is by anyone's account incredibly smart(I will admit that) has went from someone who's opinion I would consider strongly and occasionally alter my own thinking to now being almost unreadable. He does not feign objectivity or any sense of balance at this point. He has let his anger and emotions get the best at him to the point where you don't even need to read his columns to figure out what the conclusion will be. I'll save the liberals some time and money. Here's the column: everything on the right is evil, racist, misogynistic and elitist. Everything on the left is enlightened, well conceived and brilliant. Just insert the issue of the week into the equation and wallah there you have it. The individual market was failing under obamacare. The new health law is a work in progress to address the individual market and will look different than the current law as written. Things need to change or there will be no more insurers in many states. new York Times and Paul Krugman=angry liberal bubble at its very finest. The problem is that it repels true independents like myself. I am not alone in this as evidenced by our recent presidential election...
2
There are problems with Obamacare. This column does not pretend otherwise. Nor is it about everything on the right being evil and everything on the left being great.
It's about a piece of legislation that will have huge negative impact on a lot of people, and the lies republicans are telling about it.
As an independent, i would hope you could understand that nuance. Yet it leads you to be pro-trump? Are you ok with the lies? Or do you think the column is wrong about them? The reflexive condemning of this editorial as liberal bubble think is very much in the right playbook, instead of refuting the actual stated facts.
It's about a piece of legislation that will have huge negative impact on a lot of people, and the lies republicans are telling about it.
As an independent, i would hope you could understand that nuance. Yet it leads you to be pro-trump? Are you ok with the lies? Or do you think the column is wrong about them? The reflexive condemning of this editorial as liberal bubble think is very much in the right playbook, instead of refuting the actual stated facts.
2
Where's the beef?
Merely saying 'things need to change' refutes nothing in this column.
Nobody - not Obama, not Krugman, not anyone - says ACA is perfect and nothing must change. Trump says Australia has a better system, and he's right there -- so why not implement that, then?
Merely saying 'things need to change' refutes nothing in this column.
Nobody - not Obama, not Krugman, not anyone - says ACA is perfect and nothing must change. Trump says Australia has a better system, and he's right there -- so why not implement that, then?
It's "voilà," not "wallah."
... actually, I would say it's the shape of things as they already are!
5
What is happening is that The Entire Republican Party is opting for the strategy used by Trump. Lie about EVERYTHING, thus making the truth almost impossible to find. Intentional Lying ought to be Treason.
6
Go read what Price said about the House bill. Krugman's right that their presentation of the law makes up into down.
Orwellian.
Orwellian.
4
The GOP mastered Newspeak several years ago.
But what they are positioning themselves to do now is to force everyone to believe it. It began with "Citizens United" and continues on with the threats to free speech and the privatization of the Justice System.
But what they are positioning themselves to do now is to force everyone to believe it. It began with "Citizens United" and continues on with the threats to free speech and the privatization of the Justice System.
7
So, after 7 years this is best the GOP can come up with? Everyone hates it, and it makes the ACA look good. Galactic failure.
I think the Republican "leaders" can smell success in their class war to firmly establish their Plutocracy. They have found gerrymandering, and the rightwing Fox, Breitbart, ... constant repetition of "alternate facts" good for winning battles. They have learned they don't have to fool all the people all of the time. They only have to fool enough of the people enough of the time. And they are good an it.
7
Obamacare was the worst law ever passed in the US. Getting rid of Obamacare Trumps any objections over its replacement. You simply could not do any worse than Obamcare - unless it's single payer. Single payer is the only thing that is worse than Obamacare.
4
Yeah free health care for all is a terrible idea. The most expensive health care in the world by far is why USA is the greatest. And so competitive.
1
Your well reasoned argument sure convinced me!
There are two completely different goals driving the healthcare debate.
One goal is to find the best healthcare for the American people.
The other goal is to make the richest Americans richer at the expense of the health of the American people.
One goal is to find the best healthcare for the American people.
The other goal is to make the richest Americans richer at the expense of the health of the American people.
I thought Theresa Brown's editorial in the New York Times on May 4th really struck a chord. I think until we have a healthcare system that is not dependent upon a "for-profit sector" we will, at best, always struggle between quality care or low cost, but never achieve both.
8
the ACA was passed against all odds- finally We were joining the civilized world with a pass at healthcare. All conceded that the trade offs produced a bill that needed some improvement. Instead House GOPers tied us up in fruitless efforts to repeal.
NOW, they claim the ACA is bad- and requires repeal, and, maybe replace.
SICK! Come on! Shape up! Repair, NOT repeal!
NOW, they claim the ACA is bad- and requires repeal, and, maybe replace.
SICK! Come on! Shape up! Repair, NOT repeal!
3
Single payer is the best thing that could happen to The United States of America, and ALL of her people.
1
"And on a more subjective note, don’t you get the impression that Donald Trump gets some positive pleasure out of taking people who make the mistake of trusting him for a ride?"
Well, yes; Trump has been conning so many people for so many years, and he insults them and sneers at them with such relish -- what other conclusion can one come to?
Well, yes; Trump has been conning so many people for so many years, and he insults them and sneers at them with such relish -- what other conclusion can one come to?
5
Trumpcare? Let's call the Repblican plan the Charles Darwin Healthcare System, it's more natural.
For decades the GOP has stoked their base with hatred swamping any rational analysis of the consequences of GOP policies on their lives. The white working middle class and their poorer "classmates", in particular, have reveled as Trump and Fox News stoke their testosterone, telling them they're #1, that they will take control of their America. All the while they are being impoverished, despairing of their prospects, "medicating" themselves with alcohol and drugs, suffering from untreated illness and living shortened lives. Don't expect this to change--the emotional stimulus of Trump and Fox News is the strongest drug of all.
3
I was paying attention to video clips of the celebration. I noticed a few attendees whose body language said they weren't quite as sanguine about this charade as their fellow Representatives, Ryan, and Tweedle Dum and...uh, sorry, Pence and Trump.
This is almost how they celebrated the first couple times they voted to repeal the ACA, before that charade became tiresome the 2nd or 3rd dozen times. Meaningless gestures made for nothing more than bits of political capital, when they had no real skin in the game since they knew Obama would veto them. The fake rework of the bill to get 217 votes, knowing that it would pretty much be ignored by the Senate, probably irks those poor body language guys no end. What a waste of time.
This is almost how they celebrated the first couple times they voted to repeal the ACA, before that charade became tiresome the 2nd or 3rd dozen times. Meaningless gestures made for nothing more than bits of political capital, when they had no real skin in the game since they knew Obama would veto them. The fake rework of the bill to get 217 votes, knowing that it would pretty much be ignored by the Senate, probably irks those poor body language guys no end. What a waste of time.
1
How do they get away with it? Because they can and will. This no different than the outrage after every mass shooting. The fever dies down eventually and it's business as usual or worse in America because the elected ones find it in their interest to hurt as many common folks as possible apparently. Next guy who says this is a great country ought to get smacked on the side of the head. In some ways this nation is as backwards as they come and health care and refusal to enact tough control gun - very related issues - are proof.
3
The libertarian "philosophy" that unites mega-rich manipulators and their rust-belt poor dupes is the pitiless law of the jungle, disguised in a costume they agree to call "freedom." The poor love their gorgeous garment, but the rich enjoy the harvest of the claws and fangs. Justice is absent from the drama.
Can we ever learn that "liberty" and "justice" are at war with one another, and can co-exist only when "for all" is included in the mixture, as in "with liberty and justice for all"?
Can we ever learn that "liberty" and "justice" are at war with one another, and can co-exist only when "for all" is included in the mixture, as in "with liberty and justice for all"?
There seems to be a criminal intent on the part of the Republicans. Lying to the American public is an art which they have mastered over the years. It is a doublespeak which they use when they speak about something. They really mean the opposite of what they are saying. The Donald is a master of this double speak, He has contradicted himself innumerable times on so many occasions over the years. Like a disease which spreads though a community the Donald's lying has spread through the GOP. The rot has also spread to the people who voted for him. They believe he is the savior and they will punch you in the face if you try to convince them of the truth that he is a bald-faced liar.
2
This razzle-dazzle Republican health care bill assumes that most voters are stupid and will fall for the rhetoric. That may work on TV shows but not in real life.
What happens in Washington seems very distant to the average person until it hits home. Americans who have tasted government-supported health care like it. When they understand that this new bill is a takeaway to pad the fortunes of the rich, they will reject the politicians who supported it. Just ask politicians who got burned in the past for "messing" with Medicare
To Trump supporters:
Many of you who lost jobs now enjoy the protection of Obamacare. The same for those with pre-existing illnesses now --or anytime in the future.
Should you still support a party that favors rich folks by taking away your insurance ..and threatens your future health and financial security.?
There's only one correct answer. As they say, there's a sucker born every minute . Don't be one of them. Too much is at stake for you and your family.
What happens in Washington seems very distant to the average person until it hits home. Americans who have tasted government-supported health care like it. When they understand that this new bill is a takeaway to pad the fortunes of the rich, they will reject the politicians who supported it. Just ask politicians who got burned in the past for "messing" with Medicare
To Trump supporters:
Many of you who lost jobs now enjoy the protection of Obamacare. The same for those with pre-existing illnesses now --or anytime in the future.
Should you still support a party that favors rich folks by taking away your insurance ..and threatens your future health and financial security.?
There's only one correct answer. As they say, there's a sucker born every minute . Don't be one of them. Too much is at stake for you and your family.
4
Look at them! Old white men celebrating a legislation that might eventually cause the innocent deaths of 24 million citizens.
5
From the time of my birth in America until the ACA I wasn't covered because of pre-existing conditions or because I was unable to afford the premiums. The demonic 'freedom caucus' that would like to go back to those 'good ole days' are either ignorant, malevolent, in the pocket of the rich who will receive the billion dollar robbery of joe citizens health care resources, or D) all of the above
5
I have no doubt Trump voters will also be cheering as they lose their health insurance - while blaming Obama or Soros or Black lives matter....
Visit the parody site http://trumpcare.com.co/
Visit the parody site http://trumpcare.com.co/
3
"Freedom is slavery."
The 'Freedom Caucus' is the 'Feudal Caucus,' whose plantation owners brainwash indentured servants into believing that their salvation consists in embracing the 'Feudal Carcass.'
The 'Freedom Caucus' is the 'Feudal Caucus,' whose plantation owners brainwash indentured servants into believing that their salvation consists in embracing the 'Feudal Carcass.'
Tell me, what is there to celebrate about destroying something, with no replacement in sight? These people are obscene.
3
Trump epitomizes the worship of force and the practice of cruel intolerance, an ugly spirit now emerging and taking hold in the US. It is the antithesis of securing a national minimum of civilised life ... open to all alike, of both sexes and all classes, by which we mean sufficient nourishment and training when young, a living wage when able-bodied, treatment when sick, and modest but secure livelihood when disabled or aged.
I have been refraining from reading the Times and my other American go to sources for news because I'm tired of the cavalier way the media has been normalizing Trump. Thank you Mr. Krugman for so clearly stating that Trump, Ryan and the Republican party as a whole are liars. They're mean, greedy and disgusting people who don't care about anyone or anything but money...and blaming Obama for everything. I wonder if Trump and Ryan will still be blaming him 4 years down the road.
5
Trump voters don't care what Trump does just so long as he does it. That "shoot somebody in the face on 5th avenue" atmosphere still exists.
Donald Trump has lied since he was running for President but Republicans and some Democrats are too stupid to realize that. He tells the people what they want to hear! FYI, that's how you appeal to any audience. You have more low class and middle class people in the United States who cannot afford Trumpcare, atleast Obama understood that and made Obamacare, he understood the struggle of what some people go through. You rich high class republicans need to stop being selfish and look at people other than yourself, everyone deserves to have a good life. Some people even better because they work HARDER than you! Yes, Trump is just as bad, maybe even worst then Reagan.
3
Thanks Dr. Krugman for finally having the courage to use the L word. The lies being bandied about here are astonishing. And these Sunday show hosts just sit there? What's wrong with the press that they don't use the L word?
2
Evil has swallowed America.
4
So, I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, and Chronic gastritis because of the RA and the RA meds. My medications, without drug coverage would run about $80K per year. Toss in my MD visits (rheumatologist at least 6 times a year; orthopedist 6 times a year, internist about once a month) and you're looking at a few more thousand $$$
Now, I have a state job, with fabulous insurance and generous sick leave. But if I lost my job, NO ONE will cover me under Trumpcare. NO ONE!
Bottom line? The House GOP wants to kill me and give the money saved to the rich. Clearly, I'm am part of the "surplus population."
Now, I have a state job, with fabulous insurance and generous sick leave. But if I lost my job, NO ONE will cover me under Trumpcare. NO ONE!
Bottom line? The House GOP wants to kill me and give the money saved to the rich. Clearly, I'm am part of the "surplus population."
4
I am not in the best of health but it doesn't keep me from working twelve hour days. If I were to become medically afflicted, how does that entitle me to effectively reach into someone else's pocket and take what I want?
In any other OECD your prescription drugs would cost about $20-30K a year, not that you would be doing most of the paying. Even if your share on your plan is small, we are all paying for our uniquely high drugs prices in our premiums.
Let them party like it's 1984. The smirks which they could not control, said so much. Ryan is a MASTER at smirking. That's all right. Ryan's need for Viagra will be less and so true for the rest of that greedy crowd. Lording it over others makes for more "easy" orgasms. One reason why wars, at least in the beginning, are so popular.
1
my girlfriend has several health issues and since her employer did not offer insurance she went without, she paid $6000 out of pocket every year for drugs and office visits which seemed to be a bargain compared to the $800-1400 health insurance companies wanted to get her covered !
than came the ACA , she bought a plan with a $2500 deductible costing her $450 per months , it took her a while to figure out that she actually now paid MORE than without insurance ! $450 premium per month *12 = $5400 , plus $2500 out of pocket = $7900 !!!
than came the ACA , she bought a plan with a $2500 deductible costing her $450 per months , it took her a while to figure out that she actually now paid MORE than without insurance ! $450 premium per month *12 = $5400 , plus $2500 out of pocket = $7900 !!!
Neither party is awash in "new ideas" nor should they be...The Right-Left schism in politics pretty much includes most people. Libertarians and socially conservative economic liberals still exist, but don't appear to be growing, because Libertarians have drawn -0- support from non-whites, and socially conservative new dealers have declined with the Churches that fostered their politics for 100 yrs. More and bigger government programs and increased taxes to pay for them vs. Smaller government and fewer taxes. That's pretty much it, regardless of the Madison Avenue spin anyone tries to put on it...
The word “populism” has been much bandied about ever since Trump announced his candidacy. It has been asserted, even in the Times, that Trump succeeded by appealing to the populist sentiment. That China, Mexico, Japan, Korea, India stole American jobs appealed to his followers. We have yet to see any of these jobs return home.
That Obama was the worst President in history and Obamacare was a disaster or Hillary was crooked appealed bigly to his flock. These trumped up bogus accusations and slogans were great to persuade his mindless followers to vote for him.
What do we get? Tax cuts to the wealthy which will further increase income and wealth inequality, the major bane of our capitalist society. If TrumpCare is enacted, twenty four million people might lose their health insurance and die prematurely. Those who retain it will receive watered down benefits at a higher cost. Ryan, Price, and Trump, the major architects of this plan, are calling it a better health care plan than Obamacare. Better in what and for whom?
Democracy is taking a blow on the chin. Ryan rammed through HR 1628 without any debate in the House and without asking the Congressional Budget Office for an assessment. What kind of a democracy is that?
I am forecasting a huge rise in inequality and misery indices during the Trump administration and the Republican Congress. They are only going to get worse under the rule of these charlatans.
That Obama was the worst President in history and Obamacare was a disaster or Hillary was crooked appealed bigly to his flock. These trumped up bogus accusations and slogans were great to persuade his mindless followers to vote for him.
What do we get? Tax cuts to the wealthy which will further increase income and wealth inequality, the major bane of our capitalist society. If TrumpCare is enacted, twenty four million people might lose their health insurance and die prematurely. Those who retain it will receive watered down benefits at a higher cost. Ryan, Price, and Trump, the major architects of this plan, are calling it a better health care plan than Obamacare. Better in what and for whom?
Democracy is taking a blow on the chin. Ryan rammed through HR 1628 without any debate in the House and without asking the Congressional Budget Office for an assessment. What kind of a democracy is that?
I am forecasting a huge rise in inequality and misery indices during the Trump administration and the Republican Congress. They are only going to get worse under the rule of these charlatans.
3
The article mentions the AHCA saves a person with $1,000,000 income up to $50,000. That is one-half of one-percent of their income! For this it is worth depriving the most vulnerable of health care which will save lives and improve people's quality-of-life? The penny-wise/pound-foolish cupidity is astounding.
8
It's actually 5%.
2
Krugman thinks that just because you give insurance to 10M people that those people are happy with what they got , the problem is that there are millions of people out there who bought into insurance plans that are of no value to them and many of them actually pay more money for healthcare now than they ever paid without insurance !
i know many people who have plans with $2000-5000 deductibles who never get their moneys worth because they only spend $200-300 a year for healthcare and therefore never get past the deductibles , used to they paid $300 out of pocket , now they still pay $300 but in addition they also have to pay $2000-3500 every year for insurance premiums on a plan that is useless to them , my domestic partner is probably the worst case example , she shilled out $6000 every year for drugs and office visits , the cheapest ACA plan she was able to get cost her $450 per month after subsidies with a $2500 deductible , we did the math and figured that she actually spend $1900 every year MORE for healthcare than she did prior to the ACA
i know many people who have plans with $2000-5000 deductibles who never get their moneys worth because they only spend $200-300 a year for healthcare and therefore never get past the deductibles , used to they paid $300 out of pocket , now they still pay $300 but in addition they also have to pay $2000-3500 every year for insurance premiums on a plan that is useless to them , my domestic partner is probably the worst case example , she shilled out $6000 every year for drugs and office visits , the cheapest ACA plan she was able to get cost her $450 per month after subsidies with a $2500 deductible , we did the math and figured that she actually spend $1900 every year MORE for healthcare than she did prior to the ACA
In this case, it's not so much about the money, but the systematic disenfranchisement of the people. People who are sick or old or poor and weak are easier to control. They should just crawl off and die anyway because they have shown themselves to be unworthy.
1
We have way too many people in this country who make a living at other people's expense. We used to have laws to prevent predators from hurting the average Joe, but ever since money was considered to be free speech by the Supreme Court the Joe's and Jane's have been getting the short end of the stick.
Today we have a predatory economy and it's what has brought Trump and his gang of thieves to Washington. They are looting and the Joe's and Jane's are wondering what we can do to stop it . . .
Today we have a predatory economy and it's what has brought Trump and his gang of thieves to Washington. They are looting and the Joe's and Jane's are wondering what we can do to stop it . . .
6
The law should be named after those who voted Trump into office:
Chumpcare
Chumpcare
8
Isn't what we're seeing the pinnacle of the modern Republican dream?
Tear down the government backed safety nets, turn over everything possible to the corporations, let the banks go back to crating exciting new "investments" so the wealthy can believe that they're doing better than everyone else, shift as much as possible of the government to the right, and funnel every dollar possible to the rich??
And do it with 40 or more per cent of the voting population behind it, because they're fine with less **as long as everyone else** gets less as well???
Tear down the government backed safety nets, turn over everything possible to the corporations, let the banks go back to crating exciting new "investments" so the wealthy can believe that they're doing better than everyone else, shift as much as possible of the government to the right, and funnel every dollar possible to the rich??
And do it with 40 or more per cent of the voting population behind it, because they're fine with less **as long as everyone else** gets less as well???
4
Paul, you legitimize the term I have coined: TrumpNOcare!
1
The reality is that Obamacare/ACA was sabotaged by the Republicans, who one the tools in their hijack America plan. We see various states refusing to expand Medicaid which would have reduced premiums, increased numbers covered &preserved all sorts of necessary society provisos, i.e., pre-existing conditions, children covered till age 26, reigning insurance profits, etc.
Republicans push 'access' to sell this garbage care. Access is meaningless. Access to care is not the same as providing that care. Look, I have 'access' to gold bars as an American via Fort Knox but I cannot purchase one gold bar because I cannot afford it or steal it. The term 'access' is never a protection of the right to health care.
Paying for medical &psychiatric care benefits society. If maternity & infant care is exempt from insurance coverage, then the birth rate will plummet. If persons, not Medicare eligible cannot afford the cost of insurance, then middle aged people will die. Emergency rooms will not treat chronic back pain, cancers, depression, drug addiction, etc.
If I hear one more person complain that the Democrats need to have a strategy & embrace the DJT voters by not calling them stupid/ignorant, I will scream. America, it seems, is deaf to the truth & when they are told the truth, they reject it. It is time that the 99% stands up & get rid of the Republicans, their stench, sexism, true elitism, racism & lies.
Republicans push 'access' to sell this garbage care. Access is meaningless. Access to care is not the same as providing that care. Look, I have 'access' to gold bars as an American via Fort Knox but I cannot purchase one gold bar because I cannot afford it or steal it. The term 'access' is never a protection of the right to health care.
Paying for medical &psychiatric care benefits society. If maternity & infant care is exempt from insurance coverage, then the birth rate will plummet. If persons, not Medicare eligible cannot afford the cost of insurance, then middle aged people will die. Emergency rooms will not treat chronic back pain, cancers, depression, drug addiction, etc.
If I hear one more person complain that the Democrats need to have a strategy & embrace the DJT voters by not calling them stupid/ignorant, I will scream. America, it seems, is deaf to the truth & when they are told the truth, they reject it. It is time that the 99% stands up & get rid of the Republicans, their stench, sexism, true elitism, racism & lies.
7
If society pays for medical care, then society has an earned right to control who needs those services.
Quite a few comments on this page express surprise that anyone would vote for Republicans and ask the question again and again, "Why"? From my personal observation of some acquaintances, and friends of friends, and even a few distant family members, it appears that evangelical Christianity plays an important factor in many peoples' voting decision making. Like the fundamental Middle Eastern sects who claim to be the Party of God, the current Republican Party also makes this claim as well. And, in the rural areas the twisted interpretations of quite beautiful ideals perverts the minds and creates a cancer to the well being of that country. In Iran, the elections that have kept the religious leaders in power, was ultimately decided by the religiously conservative constituents in the rural areas. Erdogen of Turkey narrowly claimed victory recently as well by wooing religious conservatives in the countryside. And, even in the United States, its the rural evangelicals who, listening to their pastors, contributed to the Republican take over of all three houses of our government. Trump is revered as being a part of "God's Plan" and that the "Lord has chosen him to deliver us from evil". The fact that some of these denominations referred to President Obama as the Anti-Christ for defending human rights and promoting the Affordable Care Act indicate how far gone and dangerous the beautiful life of Christ has been distorted and used for diabolical purposes.
13
Bullseye. Right on the money. Transparent. Revealing. It's a world-wide phenomena. Taps straight into that ancient and enduring patriarchal control freak twisted authoritarian strong man nature of the human power dynamic. The ONLY way to counter these forces is to fight back !
So much irony... the republicans screamed that reimbursement for physicians' having 'end of life' discussions with patients was creating 'death panels.' Actual death panels, in the form of insurance companies in collusion with paid-for Congressional representatives refusing to cover you or providing highly 'selective' coverage... that's OK. And let's not leave the healthcare industry off the hook. A handful of national conglomerates- buying every medical practice and facility in sight- exercising monopoly powers over our healthcare. Ridiculous pricing structures that we consumers must be 'protected from.' As soon as we made third party insurers an intermediary in the system, we lost control of pricing. There is no scenario where national corporations should be allowed to determine healthcare policy in this country. Their only job is to make money for their shareholders. The only way that can be done is through constant price increases; pushing 'new' (but not really) and costly treatments on the unsuspecting, and cutting costs by denying service and stiffing the average family doctor and nurses throughout the country.
3
For one these people wanted immediate dismantlement but they had to face the fact the ACA actually was a positive public good. So they to had to crow during the campaign of 2016 their replacement would be better. Typical Trump salesmanship over product quality. Of course coming up with something better would be hard work. The ACA was such a battle to get enacted. The battle blew up the Democratic majority in the House in 2010. Finally as 2012 arrived the benefits of the program started to become apparent to the public and Obama won reelection. Now we see the unlikely victory of Trump in the electoral college so the lazy greedy wing of the Republican party could throw something together and vote on it without caring about the consequences of their actions.
2
Healthcare should not be a for-profit venture, period. Profit is based on consumer choices, and the ability to pay is fundamental. Basic medications that have been on the market for years have been subject to ridiculous price increases recently, because the pharmaceutical companies have a profitable brand and there is nothing to stop them from increases. Insurance companies can negotiate, but Medicare cannot! Works fine for buying televisions, but not to be afforded the ability to breathe or reverse a deadly allergic reaction.
Health issues strike down everyone at some point, even the unborn. Health is as basic as clean water and air and access to a safe food supply. Government is about sharing the burden of those fundamentals we cannot afford as individuals. If your neighbor's house catches on fire, but they cannot afford fire protection, your house will potentially burn also, even if you paid for protection. Thank goodness for local government to protect all property for the safety of all.
Health issues strike down everyone at some point, even the unborn. Health is as basic as clean water and air and access to a safe food supply. Government is about sharing the burden of those fundamentals we cannot afford as individuals. If your neighbor's house catches on fire, but they cannot afford fire protection, your house will potentially burn also, even if you paid for protection. Thank goodness for local government to protect all property for the safety of all.
3
Beyond personal political and perhaps financial interest, I cannot understand why so many Republicans are supporting this fiasco. And it may well not be to their political better interests. Yes, the ACA has its weaknesses, which are now clear after a decade in force. Let us fix them, rather than vastly compound the difficulties.
1
When Donald Trump said that it much less expensive and much better, he meant for people with incomes like Donald Trump
The solution is single payer insurance ,or more simply, Medicare for all!
4
I would love to see the NYTimes do a series of healthcare comparisons between individuals in the U.S. and France. Compare payroll contributions, out of pockets costs, quality of care, and overall health outcomes along with a summary of how their healthcare experiences have affected other aspects of their lives: housing, education opportunities, finances, employment, and their families.
We’ve all seen charts and graphs comparing health outcomes and GDP healthcare expenditures per capita for whole populations. But putting a face on individual cases would I think be much more relatable to many people. Compare two farmers, two bankers, two expectant/new mothers, two seniors, two coal miners, two IT workers with employer healthcare, and two independent IT consultants for example.
Granted the French healthcare system is running a deficit, but I find it hard to believe that we can’t at least take what’s best about their system and apply it to the U.S. with some tweaks if necessary to make it affordable for the country and its citizens.
With medical debt being the number one factor in personal bankruptcies, why do conservatives ignore the enormous drag this (and student loan debt) puts on this country’s potential to excel economically and prosper?
Conservatives seem to forget these words from the Constitution’s preamble — “promote the general Welfare…”
We’ve all seen charts and graphs comparing health outcomes and GDP healthcare expenditures per capita for whole populations. But putting a face on individual cases would I think be much more relatable to many people. Compare two farmers, two bankers, two expectant/new mothers, two seniors, two coal miners, two IT workers with employer healthcare, and two independent IT consultants for example.
Granted the French healthcare system is running a deficit, but I find it hard to believe that we can’t at least take what’s best about their system and apply it to the U.S. with some tweaks if necessary to make it affordable for the country and its citizens.
With medical debt being the number one factor in personal bankruptcies, why do conservatives ignore the enormous drag this (and student loan debt) puts on this country’s potential to excel economically and prosper?
Conservatives seem to forget these words from the Constitution’s preamble — “promote the general Welfare…”
6
Larry must own stock on WaPo.
Otherwise we wouldn't be subjected to to his "creativity"
Otherwise we wouldn't be subjected to to his "creativity"
To be economically coherent, the Republican have to repeal EMTALA, the requirement that hospital ERs service all comers, as well. Only scenes of the old, the sick, the unlucky dying outside of hospitals, as people like Paul Ryan saunter in, will Moral Hazard be averted.
1
It is time (past) for Single Payer and the people are beginning to see this.
1
Paul Ryan works only for Paul Ryan.
His sense of security depends on a country that only works for the 1%
His sense of security depends on a country that only works for the 1%
2
"Mission Accomplished". how appropriate it would have been for these ignorant and hubristic members of congress to have a "Mission Accomplished" banner flying behind them. the rose garden is the new USS Abraham Lincoln. without a lightning bolt of common sense and empathy, it seems another period of american pain is before us.
2
Destruction of Social Security is next on their wish list.
2
And there you have it, the fundamental difference between the parties. The Democrats in their flawed way trying to compromise and do what it takes to insure the uninsured with some positives and some failures of execution -- versus -- the Republicans who do not want to nor intend to provide healthcare to everyone, but are perfectly willing to say they do.
Trump's only addition to the health care debate is just a new, more blatant levels of lying that we thought possible before and the GOP is by and large joining in -- not just spinning, using facts selectively or misleading in ways formerly thought extreme but simply saying the opposite of truth into the camera with a smile. Exhibit A, the new HHS Secretary.
Trump's only addition to the health care debate is just a new, more blatant levels of lying that we thought possible before and the GOP is by and large joining in -- not just spinning, using facts selectively or misleading in ways formerly thought extreme but simply saying the opposite of truth into the camera with a smile. Exhibit A, the new HHS Secretary.
3
The cure for this endless debacle that caters to shareholder value at the insurance carriers, at the expense of patient outcomes is marvelously simple:
Single-payer healthcare is the only answer. End the kowtowing to executive compensation packages and Wall Street's demands for higher profits. Every individual and company (of any size) simply pays the equivalent of Medicare-for-All through a tax to payroll. This tax would be a miner inconvenience compared to the massive premiums paid by employers and individuals.
Imagine being an employer WITHOUT paying huge insurance premiums for your employees. Imagine, as an individual, your monthly health insurance premiums (and they are massive) replaced by a Medicare-for-All tax one-tenth of what you were paying in premiums.
Everyone would be in. Everyone is on the same team. It is an egalitarian system of healthcare. Neither the rich nor the poor would need to worry about the cost or risks of keeping a child from dying from cancer, to use just one example.
Under the guise of the current system, and in particular, today's ultra-cruel Republic-con Party embraces Ayn Rand's concept of hate for the poor because they are poor. And this is in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus about empathy and compassion for the poor, the sick, the children, and the old. For a political party in the python-grip of the right-wing Evangelical movement, It apears the teachings of Jesus have been edited out in favor or Rand's words of hate.
Single-payer healthcare is the only answer. End the kowtowing to executive compensation packages and Wall Street's demands for higher profits. Every individual and company (of any size) simply pays the equivalent of Medicare-for-All through a tax to payroll. This tax would be a miner inconvenience compared to the massive premiums paid by employers and individuals.
Imagine being an employer WITHOUT paying huge insurance premiums for your employees. Imagine, as an individual, your monthly health insurance premiums (and they are massive) replaced by a Medicare-for-All tax one-tenth of what you were paying in premiums.
Everyone would be in. Everyone is on the same team. It is an egalitarian system of healthcare. Neither the rich nor the poor would need to worry about the cost or risks of keeping a child from dying from cancer, to use just one example.
Under the guise of the current system, and in particular, today's ultra-cruel Republic-con Party embraces Ayn Rand's concept of hate for the poor because they are poor. And this is in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus about empathy and compassion for the poor, the sick, the children, and the old. For a political party in the python-grip of the right-wing Evangelical movement, It apears the teachings of Jesus have been edited out in favor or Rand's words of hate.
6
Although I find myself agreeing with your essay ,I am still stunned that Mr. Krugman has not pointed out the obvious problem created by the fact that we allow health insurance companies to profit off of health care. We shouldn't be buying health insurance in the first place it should be a public right . We should pay for it with our taxes but it makes much more sense to do that as a universal single-payer healthcare the same for everyone including Congress .
We used to treat fire departments this way ---you had to be a member of a fire brigade for your house to be covered In the event of a fire. It's some point we as a society decided that everyone should have the benefit of a fire department and that it was a public good.
So how is it that in the year 2017 it is somehow Acceptable to think that healthcare is not also a public right . If we had single payer national healthcare run by our government we can be pretty assured that no executives will be paid hundred million dollar salaries to profit off of our healthcare . Single payer universal healthcare makes sense both fiscally and morally.
We used to treat fire departments this way ---you had to be a member of a fire brigade for your house to be covered In the event of a fire. It's some point we as a society decided that everyone should have the benefit of a fire department and that it was a public good.
So how is it that in the year 2017 it is somehow Acceptable to think that healthcare is not also a public right . If we had single payer national healthcare run by our government we can be pretty assured that no executives will be paid hundred million dollar salaries to profit off of our healthcare . Single payer universal healthcare makes sense both fiscally and morally.
6
Some rural places have gone back to the fire brigade style model. Of course, it's not too good in an urban area where buildings are close together.
Warren Buffet recently debunked the myth that high taxes were hurting American businesses. The bigger problem is healthcare costs. We are the only nation in the world where this financial burden is placed on businesses. It may be a factor in hiring, too, increasing the likelihood of ageism and sexism, as insurance rates are likely to be higher for women in their reproductive years and for older adults.
The ACA might not go far enough in addressing these problems, but it's clear the Republican plan will only make them worse.
The ACA might not go far enough in addressing these problems, but it's clear the Republican plan will only make them worse.
6
I believe that in Germany there is a payroll charge but the individual employer is not contracting with an individual health care plan. There are many variations with health care plans in different countries. None are as complicated or as for-profit or as expensive as ours.
From second paragraph:
" But has there ever been anything like Trumpcare, the health legislation Republicans rammed through the House last week? It’s a miserably designed law, full of unintended consequences.... "
There are NO unintended consequences in this legislation - the intention is to provide much-diminished health care, spend less on it, exclude anyone who might actually need it, and proclaim that these "savings", "individual choice" and "smaller government" justify providing some of the wealthiest people in all of human history the biggest tax breaks imaginable.
" But has there ever been anything like Trumpcare, the health legislation Republicans rammed through the House last week? It’s a miserably designed law, full of unintended consequences.... "
There are NO unintended consequences in this legislation - the intention is to provide much-diminished health care, spend less on it, exclude anyone who might actually need it, and proclaim that these "savings", "individual choice" and "smaller government" justify providing some of the wealthiest people in all of human history the biggest tax breaks imaginable.
11
The counties with the lowest life expectancies vote Republican except for those which are made up primarily of Native Americans. Is it possible that the rich Republicans who control the party and all of the news sources will be so successful that they actually kill the very voters they control?
We know their red voters will not be swayed by facts. So they will not believe that Republicans have caused the problems with their health care which kills them. But young people may get the message that their only hope for a good life is to immigrate to a blue state. This has already happened to a large extent which is how Donald Trump came to power.
The Electoral College can only be replaced by a revolution. Democrats and centrists should start thinking about that. When the "system" fails because it has been coopted by the ultra rich, then any changes to the Constitution must come from some other means that the state legislatures and national branches of government. Thus far, the military is located primarily within red states. But the military itself is composed of people who may ultimately be the only solution to our political problems.
Blue states will continue to find ways to provide their own health care to their populations. For example, San Francisco has had single payer for years and the main impact has been to upscale restaurants which have turned into fast food upscale restaurants with limited menus - called "fast casual." What that means is real food cooked well.
We know their red voters will not be swayed by facts. So they will not believe that Republicans have caused the problems with their health care which kills them. But young people may get the message that their only hope for a good life is to immigrate to a blue state. This has already happened to a large extent which is how Donald Trump came to power.
The Electoral College can only be replaced by a revolution. Democrats and centrists should start thinking about that. When the "system" fails because it has been coopted by the ultra rich, then any changes to the Constitution must come from some other means that the state legislatures and national branches of government. Thus far, the military is located primarily within red states. But the military itself is composed of people who may ultimately be the only solution to our political problems.
Blue states will continue to find ways to provide their own health care to their populations. For example, San Francisco has had single payer for years and the main impact has been to upscale restaurants which have turned into fast food upscale restaurants with limited menus - called "fast casual." What that means is real food cooked well.
9
It is only to be expected that people who consider death a better place will die sooner.
When sociopathic people exploit unfair advantages, they should lose all respect.
We can only hope the House plan is enacted into law. Maybe the results will be calamitous enough to get a single payer plane. As Angus Deaton wrote in The Times, "I would add the creation of a single-payer health system, not because I am in favor of socialized medicine but because the artificially inflated costs of health care are powering up inequality by producing large fortunes for a few while holding down wages; the pharmaceutical industry alone had 1,400 lobbyists in Washington in 2014. American health care does a poor job of delivering health, but is exquisitely designed as an inequality machine, commanding an ever-larger share of G.D.P. and funneling resources to the top of the income distribution."
8
As Joe Scarborough said this morning "This bill is bad politics and bad morality".
I seldom judge others morality but I agree with Republican Joe.
Where is the Christian right?
Those big mega churches may need to start including health care in their membership pledges.
I seldom judge others morality but I agree with Republican Joe.
Where is the Christian right?
Those big mega churches may need to start including health care in their membership pledges.
4
Joe Scarborough bears much of the blame for Republican greed and sedition over the last eight years and especially for Donald Trump, who he allowed to call into his morning show (a privilege granted no other candidate) and spew his birther lies and other nonsense, and whose rallies he covered like he it was the Second Coming. He's basically a vile Republican apologist and propagandist who should be apologizing to the American people for his central role in helping traitorous Republican criminals install a psychopath in the White House, instead of sanctimoniously lecturing HIS party and HIS president about HIS sudden realization as to their lies and corruption.
2
Has it ever been clearer, save for the Civil War and the post-Revolutionary eras, that our Great Experiment of a County could, perhaps, fail?
We are witness to factors that one could easily see as the symptoms of a country mortally afflicted with a sort of political cancer: institutional corruption, lack of true democratic representation, cognitive dissonance and manipulated ignorance, anger of the populace, etc...
The pressure built up in this system will come out somehow, I just hope it doesn't result in permanent damage.
We are witness to factors that one could easily see as the symptoms of a country mortally afflicted with a sort of political cancer: institutional corruption, lack of true democratic representation, cognitive dissonance and manipulated ignorance, anger of the populace, etc...
The pressure built up in this system will come out somehow, I just hope it doesn't result in permanent damage.
4
The Fourteenth Amendment clearly did not rectify the inherent inequalities of law of slave nations.
Democratic politicians should be in full-throat against this, writing and speaking this week at every available opportunity, and making them when they otherwise don't exist.
Also, as one pundit pointed out on This Week yesterday, it would be quite effective for the AARP, AMA, etc. to hold "town halls" on the ramifications of the AHCA in Republican districts, especially those were the Representatives have been no-shows.
In addition, there has been too much focus on the "pre-existing' provisions by the opposition of the AHCA. There is so much wrong with this bill you cannot give Republicans one item to "fix" in order to make it acceptable.
There is still the 24 million who will lose coverage completely. There is still the increase of premiums on those 50-64. There is still the gutting of Medicaid. And, last but not least, the $1 trillion in wealth transfer (tax cut) from the healthcare needs of Americans to the 1% -- does that sound like a recipe to improve coverage and decrease costs?
Also, as one pundit pointed out on This Week yesterday, it would be quite effective for the AARP, AMA, etc. to hold "town halls" on the ramifications of the AHCA in Republican districts, especially those were the Representatives have been no-shows.
In addition, there has been too much focus on the "pre-existing' provisions by the opposition of the AHCA. There is so much wrong with this bill you cannot give Republicans one item to "fix" in order to make it acceptable.
There is still the 24 million who will lose coverage completely. There is still the increase of premiums on those 50-64. There is still the gutting of Medicaid. And, last but not least, the $1 trillion in wealth transfer (tax cut) from the healthcare needs of Americans to the 1% -- does that sound like a recipe to improve coverage and decrease costs?
11
The true wealth transfer was the $1 Trillion taken by force to fund liberal programs that become entrenched to the point that they are virtually permanent. Allowing people to KEEP their tax dollars is NOT the same as funding entitlement programs.
AARP? Isn't this really an insurance brokerage?
"Allowing people to KEEP their tax dollars is NOT the same as funding entitlement programs" is either unintelligible or a mere truism, I haven't decided which yet.
But if health care for those who might not otherwise be able to afford it is "funding a liberal program," when the burden falls mostly on the 1% super-rich that has profited far beyond anything they have given back to the society/economy that allows it, then I'll wear that badge proudly.
But if health care for those who might not otherwise be able to afford it is "funding a liberal program," when the burden falls mostly on the 1% super-rich that has profited far beyond anything they have given back to the society/economy that allows it, then I'll wear that badge proudly.
Much too pessimistic as if you believe celebrating something passed in the house is already a law. Senate will have none of it and conservative house members will ball at Senate changes and there will be no reconciliation or Trumpcare. They can try to blame democrats but it won't fly. By 2018 off year election we will be well on our way to a one player system with some version of Medicare for all with a new Democratic president which would never have happened as quickly if Trump had not won the election. The only lasting damage Trump can do is if he gets to appoint another supreme court justice. If not Democrat presidents will be in position to appoint many. Trump is achieving only what he set out to do and that is enrich himself.
5
I think you'll never get past the federal judges they're about to afflict on you.
Counting chickens before they are hatched is as American as apple pie too.
I wouldn't count on it unless the Democrats can step up and stand for the working person again.
It is difficult to understand why medical bankruptcies, which decreased under the ACA, and which do damage to the US economy are not factored into the costs of this new 'proposal.'
It is also difficult to understand why de facto euthanasia is not viewed as an unacceptable method of managing health costs. I.e., the very sick, those who age, and those who inherit defects should be edited out of the health care budget.
It is also difficult to see how those on minimum wage can afford to save for health care when they barely can afford a bottle of Advil when they get a sprain or get a headache.
It is also difficult to understand why de facto euthanasia is not viewed as an unacceptable method of managing health costs. I.e., the very sick, those who age, and those who inherit defects should be edited out of the health care budget.
It is also difficult to see how those on minimum wage can afford to save for health care when they barely can afford a bottle of Advil when they get a sprain or get a headache.
7
If one does not have gun handy, one must stop eating when one has decided to die in the US.
It is easy to understand. They follow the golden rule: those who have the gold rule. It is easier to manage a population if they are submissive. The way to make people submissive is to take away their rights, keep them in a state of fear and let them fight over the scraps.
2
The key now is what version comes out of the Senate and then reconcilation, but it's doubtful it will be significantly different to ensure the votes are there in both chambers and Trump will sign it, because. as noted, the goal is less health insurance reform but tax cuts diguised within it, something most Trump voters won't see, and maybe not care. Repubicans know that to sell it as better for those in need, until those people get the reality check when it's implemented.
It's all becoming clear. After a few months of living under the AHCA, Americans will be screaming for single-payer healthcare, and Congress will be forced to comply. Yes, President Trump IS going to take care of us, just as he promised. A President Bernie Sanders would have attacked a Republican Congress headlong, all principal, no strategy, and he would have lost. President Trump, however, is the master strategist, tricking the Reps into passing a bill only a donor could love. Once the inevitable uproar ensues, Trump, like Alexander defeating Darius, will find a weak spot and wedge into it with a Medicare-for-all bill worthy of a great and prosperous nation. He's going to take care of us all, just like he said.
I guess.
I guess.
People with five minute time horizons don't strategize. They think with their guts.
The party of greed, cruelty and take care of the rich before all others deserves to be obliterated, but this will only happen if those who didn't think last election somehow start to.
Single payer should be the prime issue next election, along with constant reminders of the egregious lies trump and his toads constantly tell.
They delivered fake medical coverage and the media needs to be relentless in expressing that cruel reality. Vote them out!
Single payer should be the prime issue next election, along with constant reminders of the egregious lies trump and his toads constantly tell.
They delivered fake medical coverage and the media needs to be relentless in expressing that cruel reality. Vote them out!
10
Do you have any idea how much prescription drug advertising is placed just to keep the media opiated about health care issues? How many Viagra and Cialis commercials are needed to inform the public that these drugs are available?
The Republicans *had* to repeal Obamacare, at least according to their constituents.
Many factors went into this: (1) partisan media which benefits from sewing distrust of progressive politics and policy ignorance; (2) a partisan Congress which prioritized undermining the Obama presidency above all else; (3) financial donations of the healthcare industry and wealthy individuals, who profit from perverse market factors and regressive tax policies; (4) an entrenched healthcare system which obfuscates price through intermediaries and mandated insurance.
Please recall that Obama originally wanted a single payer system. Nearly all the world's developed nations agree that this is the only viable model to deliver healthcare with reasonable protections for the poor and vulnerable. Had the above factors not been in play, perhaps we could have achieved this decades ago.
Many factors went into this: (1) partisan media which benefits from sewing distrust of progressive politics and policy ignorance; (2) a partisan Congress which prioritized undermining the Obama presidency above all else; (3) financial donations of the healthcare industry and wealthy individuals, who profit from perverse market factors and regressive tax policies; (4) an entrenched healthcare system which obfuscates price through intermediaries and mandated insurance.
Please recall that Obama originally wanted a single payer system. Nearly all the world's developed nations agree that this is the only viable model to deliver healthcare with reasonable protections for the poor and vulnerable. Had the above factors not been in play, perhaps we could have achieved this decades ago.
5
Obama's failure to induce directors of successful single payer plans to testify to Congress and the public how they do it was another one of his amazing dropped balls.
You know what bothers me as much as 45's administration is the corruption of the English language: sewing for sowing? they're for their, etc. I wish people would get spellcheck or a good dictionary (but would they know how to use it!!) or at least proofread what they have written! Someone from Iowa should surely know that you sow seeds instead of sewing them.
The current Republican Party is a far cry from the party of Abraham Lincoln (hostile to the civil rights of minorities), Theodore Roosevelt (against clean air and water and conservation), and even Eisenhower/Nixon (reckless on fiscal deficits through huge tax cuts, accepting of fawning on Putin's Russia). It seems to be fully paid for and owned by billionaires who are extremely short-sighted, unlike Warren Buffett. As for Trump, what else could voters expect from a serial pathological liar and scam artist (Trump University), who, as George Will commented, doesn't know what it is to know anything at all?
4
Eisenhower, who said if he thought for a week, he might think of something Nixon contributed to, was the last of the old Republicans. One wonders how history would have been different if he had accepted the proffered 1952 Democratic presidential nomination instead.
3
Buffet is the greatest financial genius to have ever lived but he should stick to what he knows. His success isn't something to be ashamed of and he owes no one (outside of his legal obligations to his shareholders) anything. He may well be okay with the government picking his pockets but he shouldn't claim to speak for anyone else.
House Republicans voted dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act while Obama was president - not to replace it or fix it. They voted to repeal it. Mitt Romney campaigned on a promise to repeal it on day 1 of his presidency and Trump of course also promised to repeal it during his campaign. Well come on Republicans, vote to repeal it now! You have the votes. Do what you claim to have wanted to do all along.
The blatant truth is that all those repeal votes were a matter of political grandstanding designed to undermine President Obama. These people couldn't care less about what is best for America. They care mainly about holding onto power. When there was no chance that Obamacare would actually be repealed, the great majority of Republicans voted to do so. Now that voting for this hideous legislation, that does not even go as far as an outright repeal, is a threat to the power of so-called moderate Republicans, they do not vote for it. Instead, Tea Party Republicans from safe gerrymandered districts are the ones who mainly support it, again, at no risk to their power. How has our so-called representative democracy come to this?
The blatant truth is that all those repeal votes were a matter of political grandstanding designed to undermine President Obama. These people couldn't care less about what is best for America. They care mainly about holding onto power. When there was no chance that Obamacare would actually be repealed, the great majority of Republicans voted to do so. Now that voting for this hideous legislation, that does not even go as far as an outright repeal, is a threat to the power of so-called moderate Republicans, they do not vote for it. Instead, Tea Party Republicans from safe gerrymandered districts are the ones who mainly support it, again, at no risk to their power. How has our so-called representative democracy come to this?
4
Romneycare in Massachusetts was Obamacare's working prototype.
I have no idea why anyone believes there is the slightest evidence of good faith in the whole Trump-enabling Republican Party.
I have no idea why anyone believes there is the slightest evidence of good faith in the whole Trump-enabling Republican Party.
1
It is Paul Ryan's ideology in action. To him the world is neatly divided into producers and consumers, makers and takers, productive people and moochers. And as long as we help out producers, makers and productive people, their rise will, over time, "breed out" the takers, the consumers and the moochers of society. Those who can pull their own wagon should and those who cannot are not entitled to the resources produced by others to pull their wagons for them.
This is Ayn Randism. It is the ideology behind the "decoupling" of America. Of the idea that we, as a nation, are not all in this together. Rather, the theory goes, those who have, will move forward, and those who do not will fall by the way side.
It is a faulty theory based on false dichotomies. There is no line of division between producers and consumers, makers and takers etc. Each of us produces and consumes, makes and takes. From this basic flaw, we have Ryan and the manifestation of his theory with the AHCA which is consistent with the theory that one American's health crisis is not a concern for a fellow American. If you're income will not support your health care, then natural selection says you will die and that you should die. Should have been born rich, I suppose. This is the black heartedness that is at the core of Mr. Ryan and his Bill.
This is Ayn Randism. It is the ideology behind the "decoupling" of America. Of the idea that we, as a nation, are not all in this together. Rather, the theory goes, those who have, will move forward, and those who do not will fall by the way side.
It is a faulty theory based on false dichotomies. There is no line of division between producers and consumers, makers and takers etc. Each of us produces and consumes, makes and takes. From this basic flaw, we have Ryan and the manifestation of his theory with the AHCA which is consistent with the theory that one American's health crisis is not a concern for a fellow American. If you're income will not support your health care, then natural selection says you will die and that you should die. Should have been born rich, I suppose. This is the black heartedness that is at the core of Mr. Ryan and his Bill.
9
The outcome of fee markets, measured by wealth as the scorecard, is the dividing line. Look around you at work and tell me that you aren't surrounded by deadwood. Go into any Walmart or JiffyLube and prove to me that any of those employees really NEED an education beyond the sixth grade to do their jobs. In NYS, the average per pupil spending is about $20,000. A single Walmart with 100 employees represents the waste of $12,000,000. There are 4,100 Walmart's in this country.
Your comment and the logic behind it is fine for a business model. Sure shed the dead wood, because they take from the bottom line. But a government, the US Government is not a private business. Its bottom line is not a simple measure of revenues that exceed expenditures. Our constitution calls upon our government to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. That is the measurement by which sound government policy is to be measured, not the measure of monetary profit or loss. Not that it is bad, but to compare government to business is to compare apples with bricks. Not every society problem has a business solution, most have a government solution, if you have a government willing to act where the markets cannot act or will not act because to do so would harm its bottom line of profitability.
1
Here's another example of corrupted English: you're, a contraction for you are, for your, a possessive adjective.
It's all fine and dandy but I would like to see the Left actually doing something about it. A visible, vocal something that will swing the Congress back in 2018. Unfortunately The Dems are apparently just the Slightly Less Republican Party. They lost in November for a good reason but that loss has not been internalized and no reform has been brought forward. America needs someone like Macron. A new centrist movement.
6
You get the politics your plutocracy pays for and that will be how it is until their money is no good to you.
What immediately stood out for me about Krugman's piece this morning was the accompanying photo of the sea of White, ,almost wholly male and very, very self satisfied faces of the GOP Congress being let in on a joke by their intrepid leader, Donald Trump. I'am also very curious to know whether or not the majority of the viewers of this picture throughout our nation this Monday morning, yet realize the joke is on them.
It seems the full effects of this joke, like an exploding cigar, have in fact been calibrated by the jokers in this photo-op not to be fully felt or appreciated by its victims until the jokers are at a safe distance-In this case at least several months past the next mid-terms.
What is darkly amusing for me however is to see if a Donald Trump, the leader and instigators of this particular exploding cigar trick , like a W.C. Fields- or in fact like a Ronald Reagan- can help the GOP Congress put together the timing and the intensity of this exploding cigar trick closely enough, so that it successfully goes off in the face of the intended ( those of our lower and middle class Americans), rather then in the faces of it's perpetrators. Now that, I anticipate, will be funny.
It seems the full effects of this joke, like an exploding cigar, have in fact been calibrated by the jokers in this photo-op not to be fully felt or appreciated by its victims until the jokers are at a safe distance-In this case at least several months past the next mid-terms.
What is darkly amusing for me however is to see if a Donald Trump, the leader and instigators of this particular exploding cigar trick , like a W.C. Fields- or in fact like a Ronald Reagan- can help the GOP Congress put together the timing and the intensity of this exploding cigar trick closely enough, so that it successfully goes off in the face of the intended ( those of our lower and middle class Americans), rather then in the faces of it's perpetrators. Now that, I anticipate, will be funny.
5
Hopefulness about the transformation of the healthcare bill in the Senate is wishful thinking given the Committee of 13 that is drafting a new bill--a committee of mostly conservative, mostly old, all-white, and all-male senators--most of whom inhabit the dark side on questions of human rights and welfare.
"All hope abandon ye who enter here" is a more realistic premise than optimism.
It's time for Democrats to act--to fix what ails the ACA, to come up with options responsive to the people the current system fails. Or to do whatever it takes to aggressively develop a healthcare plan that actually well, provides viable, affordable healthcare for most, if not all.
Yeah, it's easier to be a vocal party of opposition, but these are a life or death issues. Do something.
"All hope abandon ye who enter here" is a more realistic premise than optimism.
It's time for Democrats to act--to fix what ails the ACA, to come up with options responsive to the people the current system fails. Or to do whatever it takes to aggressively develop a healthcare plan that actually well, provides viable, affordable healthcare for most, if not all.
Yeah, it's easier to be a vocal party of opposition, but these are a life or death issues. Do something.
4
Democracy does not serve the public interest when govt is controlled by plutocrat billionaires. The growing wage gap between rich and poor, the shrinking middle class, the emergence of a small super rich - trends long decried by economists and social justice advocates - lead to governance for and by the powerful not for or by the rest of us. This healthcare bill reveals the irreconcilable chasm between a democracy capable of protecting the common good and plutocracy. Can't have both.
6
What effects, if any, will the AHCA have on the PPACA's (aka Obamacare) modest provisions for improving quality and reducing costs?
What's missing from both the AHCA and the PPACA are needed bold actions to whack the exorbitant costs of U.S. health care -- 50% more costly than the most expensive health care of another developed nation, and that nation covers all of its citizens while we still have tens of millions without insurance and about a hundred million with inadequate insurance.
Take precription drugs. Tackle the excessive prices forecefully, e.g., setting the U.S. prices as the medians of the prices in the other developed nations. No more gorging U.S. patients. Quick and easy reliance on the negotiating power of other developed nations.
And use research, in particular the study of U.S. health care costs by the Institute of Medicine. This study, pubished in 2012, found that 30% of U.S. health care $s were consumed by a trio -- waste, inefficiency and the ineffective. Thirty % is mega-$s: $1 trillion/yr., $10 trillion over a decade.
All these $s for no patient benefits but some harms.
And vigiously disseminate and support the implementation of evidence-based lifestyle changes for preventing and treating, e.g., Ornish's Spectrum program for preventing and reversing CVD (and other health benefits), NIH's DASH diet program for lowering blood pressure (and other health benefits); as effective as a drug and without the cost and side-effects.
What's missing from both the AHCA and the PPACA are needed bold actions to whack the exorbitant costs of U.S. health care -- 50% more costly than the most expensive health care of another developed nation, and that nation covers all of its citizens while we still have tens of millions without insurance and about a hundred million with inadequate insurance.
Take precription drugs. Tackle the excessive prices forecefully, e.g., setting the U.S. prices as the medians of the prices in the other developed nations. No more gorging U.S. patients. Quick and easy reliance on the negotiating power of other developed nations.
And use research, in particular the study of U.S. health care costs by the Institute of Medicine. This study, pubished in 2012, found that 30% of U.S. health care $s were consumed by a trio -- waste, inefficiency and the ineffective. Thirty % is mega-$s: $1 trillion/yr., $10 trillion over a decade.
All these $s for no patient benefits but some harms.
And vigiously disseminate and support the implementation of evidence-based lifestyle changes for preventing and treating, e.g., Ornish's Spectrum program for preventing and reversing CVD (and other health benefits), NIH's DASH diet program for lowering blood pressure (and other health benefits); as effective as a drug and without the cost and side-effects.
4
I think the GOP's pretense of developing a health plan is a complete sham. As far as I can tell, they seem to have two main reasons for pretending to reform health insurance. One is to pretend Trump is fulfilling his ignorant, ill-advised campaign promise to create a plan that would cost less, cover everyone, and provide better medical care, by some unknown magical process. (Who knew it would be complicated? Everyone but Trump). The other reason is the perennial GOP craving to lower the taxes of the rich. That clearly is the dominant motive, since the trillion dollars of tax cuts would surely be useful for making the AHCA better and more fair.
4
Do we really believe that it's merely a coincidence that a huge chunk of America is strung out on heroin and opioids and that the average American is now so ill-educated as to be functionally illiterate? This has been a hostile takeover 50 years in the making. They have us exactly where they want us. Dean Vernon Wormer had it right: fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life. Yet here we are. The GOP has us exactly where it wants us. And, yes: I do think they are deriving great pleasure from watching us die. After all, they have Christianity on their side. They are the righteous.
8
Plutocracy is a form of oligarchy and defines a society ruled or controlled by the small minority of the wealthiest citizens.
I don't think it is funny, but the apparent irony is blinding. I don't know the exact amount of Trump voters who will be losing their health care or unable to even get any if the Senate passes this new draconian policy. But if medicade is cut, 74 million will lose coverage. ($800 billion in 10 years.) You can rest assured The House and maybe the Senate will be democratic come the mid-terms.
How do you Trumpites like your fearless leader now??
I don't think it is funny, but the apparent irony is blinding. I don't know the exact amount of Trump voters who will be losing their health care or unable to even get any if the Senate passes this new draconian policy. But if medicade is cut, 74 million will lose coverage. ($800 billion in 10 years.) You can rest assured The House and maybe the Senate will be democratic come the mid-terms.
How do you Trumpites like your fearless leader now??
11
I am 81 years old, and in remarkably excellent health. But I am a rarity among 81 year old persons. I'm not quite sure if the tRumpcare law, whether passed by the Senate, or not, will affect my Medicare -- but I strongly suspect it will.
Possibly, I'll be able to continue on with good health - but who knows.
There are those, however, who are my age or younger (mostly younger) who do not have excellent health. They are the ones who will suffer should this abomination actually become law. They are the ones for whom I grieve - young or old, male or female, white, black, or any other color -- it doesn't matter who they are -- they will suffer because of this - either due to being unable to pay the bills, or the complete lack of medical care which will disappear for all except the wealthy. And the wealthy are the ones who will benefit from this -- taking their greedy ill-gotten gains from the poor -- from the ones who will not be able to afford medical care, anyhow.
So this is why I enthusiastically prefer Medicare for All -- put into the law of the land - untouchable by greedy demons such as those who make up the present republican party.
And this is why, even with the power of only one vote, I resolve never to vote for or support any republican for any office in this land -- ever again.
At one time, my father, my doctor, and I were just about the only republicans in this county. I was proud of that. Now, it is a badge of shame.
Never again!
Possibly, I'll be able to continue on with good health - but who knows.
There are those, however, who are my age or younger (mostly younger) who do not have excellent health. They are the ones who will suffer should this abomination actually become law. They are the ones for whom I grieve - young or old, male or female, white, black, or any other color -- it doesn't matter who they are -- they will suffer because of this - either due to being unable to pay the bills, or the complete lack of medical care which will disappear for all except the wealthy. And the wealthy are the ones who will benefit from this -- taking their greedy ill-gotten gains from the poor -- from the ones who will not be able to afford medical care, anyhow.
So this is why I enthusiastically prefer Medicare for All -- put into the law of the land - untouchable by greedy demons such as those who make up the present republican party.
And this is why, even with the power of only one vote, I resolve never to vote for or support any republican for any office in this land -- ever again.
At one time, my father, my doctor, and I were just about the only republicans in this county. I was proud of that. Now, it is a badge of shame.
Never again!
19
This all about the trillion dollars of wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. Nothing else matters. Just wait to see the "reforms' in Dodd-Frank and the Trump tax plan. More of the same is heading down the track.
5
The existence of Trump and the elitist GOP controlled house and Senate are the epitome of George Orwell's 1984 phrase "ignorance is strength". We the electorate ought to be ashamed at the stripping away any hope for the poor to have the universal healthcare, they, as virtue of being Americans, deserve. How can people elect such cruelty without being cruel themselves.
4
If these Rs are so hell bent against the entitlement part of the US budget, why don't they throw out with the ACA, Medicare Part "D" prescription benefit package Bush, 43, gave away as the largest pieces of social entitlement legislation in the last 50 years? I guess that bene saves the $1. million club more money that the 3.5% millionaire's tax which was part of the ACA.
2
George Orwell wrote in "What is Fascism?"
"Nationalism is universally regarded as inherently Fascist, but this is held only to apply to such national movements as the speaker happens to disapprove of...almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."
This is not political football; this is political hockey.
This is bully corporate fascim led by a fake wrestling promoter.
"Nationalism is universally regarded as inherently Fascist, but this is held only to apply to such national movements as the speaker happens to disapprove of...almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."
This is not political football; this is political hockey.
This is bully corporate fascim led by a fake wrestling promoter.
3
I get healthcare from a nonprofit HMO. Yes, it limits coverage to its own doctors, but if they don't have a specialist, they refer me to one outside. The doctors seem to like working there, as they are not hounded by paperwork from insurance companies. They can prescribe whatever they want, even "off formulary" if necessary. All my medical records are available to every practitioner I see. None of them own imaging centers, physical therapy centers, etc. or are otherwise are in it for the money. I got into it through my employer, and when I left I was able to convert to individual coverage despite a serious preexisting condition. This is a model America could try: the NOT for profit one. After all, if I want to see a specialist outside the HMO, I can always pay for it out-of-pocket.
6
What do you do for health care when you travel?
There is no reason for "for profit" health insurance companies.
Their only reason for existing is to act as parasites to suck money out of the system.
Their only reason for existing is to act as parasites to suck money out of the system.
First they took away my vote and I said nothing because gerrymandering is legal
Then they took away my drinking water and the air I breathe, but still I said nothing because they said it was good for the economy and climate change was a liberal fraud
Then they took away my healthcare and I did nothing because they promised it would be better
And then they took away my decency and I did nothing because there was no one and nothing left to defend....
Then they took away my drinking water and the air I breathe, but still I said nothing because they said it was good for the economy and climate change was a liberal fraud
Then they took away my healthcare and I did nothing because they promised it would be better
And then they took away my decency and I did nothing because there was no one and nothing left to defend....
You have to understand it in terms of the value placed on loyalty.
Loyalty to the nation or region or ethnicity or family is a particular virtue. You can't prove loyalty by stating the truth and doing the right thing. Quite the opposite: the test of loyalty is whether a person is willing to stick to a flagrant falsehood despite the buffeting you're likely to suffer on that account. It's sometimes worth the effort to invent a falsehood entirely for the purpose of making it a standard around which loyalists rally.
Science is inherently disloyal, because it's empirical and goes where observed facts lead it. That's conservative in the word's everyday sense, but politically it's what leads to its rejection when loyalty to a group is the paramount virtue.
Loyalty to the nation or region or ethnicity or family is a particular virtue. You can't prove loyalty by stating the truth and doing the right thing. Quite the opposite: the test of loyalty is whether a person is willing to stick to a flagrant falsehood despite the buffeting you're likely to suffer on that account. It's sometimes worth the effort to invent a falsehood entirely for the purpose of making it a standard around which loyalists rally.
Science is inherently disloyal, because it's empirical and goes where observed facts lead it. That's conservative in the word's everyday sense, but politically it's what leads to its rejection when loyalty to a group is the paramount virtue.
2
Real scientists don't seriously believe anything without some tangible supporting evidence. There is no God of Science who rewards unfounded belief.
Science is objective; isms like Republicanism are not - they are beliefs.
Why do they do it? Yes, to give huge tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%, but let's not forget the benefits to the other big money players: the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, which the Republicans want to reward for their campaign contributions and other lobbying efforts. If this or a similar bill is passed by Congress, callous greed will once more be rewarded by our political system.
It is truly time for America to wake up and phase in a single payer system, which has proved both fairer and cheaper in all other industrialized countries.
It is truly time for America to wake up and phase in a single payer system, which has proved both fairer and cheaper in all other industrialized countries.
8
As a Canadian, all I can say is it's going to be an interesting 3 1/3rd years for Americans to either love what they elected or reject it. Maybe the 2018 elections will change things, and maybe they won't. Time will tell after all we rejected our version of Trump.
5
We're going to be stuck with 120+ quack judges for life, who believe they serve Almighty God above all else, dyslexifying the whole federal judiciary.
1
The Republicans' plan to replace the Affordable Care Act should be called TRUMPCARE-LESS.
5
Stop repeating his name. It just tattoos his name into people's brains. He already has an advantage as the incumbent.
It's not Trumpcare, first of all, because the term suggests Trump cares about other human beings. Second, because the bill reflects what have become traditional Republican goals: the "religiofying" of free-market capitalism and government of the people, by Republicans, for the corporations and wealthy.
How about GOPzillcare?
How about GOPzillcare?
3
"It's not Trumpcare, first of all, because the term suggests Trump cares about other human beings."
Well, yes, but on the other hand, the Trump brand is already toxic.
Trumpcare is fraudulent just as Trump University was fraudulent.
Well, yes, but on the other hand, the Trump brand is already toxic.
Trumpcare is fraudulent just as Trump University was fraudulent.
2
Your audited balance sheet will be all you need to show to establish where you stand with their God, because He indicates human worth by allocation of wealth.
Not a Trump fan, not a member of any party, but this editorial is an outrage. The NYTimes has lost all objectivity - all sense of reality. Krugman, PS, most economists do not agree with your theory of spend. You no longer have any objectivity. Not that you have over the last decade.
2
It's interesting that the vast majority of negative comments are character attacks against Krugman rather than an argument against the particular merits of his views. Very telling.
7
The truth hurts and Paul Krugman speaks the truth. Mary's comment shows only her lack of objectivity.
3
There is no demand without spending. This is why every highly paid salesman know that supply side economics is hooey.
Good question, does our President enjoy deceiving others? I have come to think that he pays so little attention to detail--other than winning on terms as he defines it--and has such limited capacity to absorb new information that he does not realize the depth of his deception or simple lack of knowledge. After all, reading briefing books and wading through analytical work is much harder than relying on one's gut or making instinctual decisions in the moment.
4
You're so right! President OBAMA deceived us!
1. If you like your insurance, you can keep it.
2. If you like your doctors, you can keep them.
3. Every family will see $2500 in savings each and every year
4. He said he believed that "marriage was a relationship between one man and one woman"
1. If you like your insurance, you can keep it.
2. If you like your doctors, you can keep them.
3. Every family will see $2500 in savings each and every year
4. He said he believed that "marriage was a relationship between one man and one woman"
I like my insurance and I'm keeping it.
I like my doctor and I'm keeping him.
I'm not paying less for insurance but it's not going up as fast as it used to.
Mostly marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman, unless you are one of the sister wives or part of a fairly rare same sex marriage.
So, Obama's statements were pretty close to reality, unlike the farago of lies that is Truthless Trump and his Republican claque.
I like my doctor and I'm keeping him.
I'm not paying less for insurance but it's not going up as fast as it used to.
Mostly marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman, unless you are one of the sister wives or part of a fairly rare same sex marriage.
So, Obama's statements were pretty close to reality, unlike the farago of lies that is Truthless Trump and his Republican claque.
2
Concerned : Give it up. Obama is a decent man and human being. You have a full-time job trying to justify the sociopath Donald Trump you are hawking in your daily posts. Stick to what you know- lol.
1
I have been a practicing physician for 35 years in places all over the country and in all kinds of settings. The Democratic party was supposed to be the party of the people, the party of the little guy. But they haven't done anything for the people, even when they controlled the white house and the congress. They caved to big money because, just like Hilary skipped Wisconsin to party with JayZ in Philadelphia, they envy the wealthy and want to become them when they get their chance. They, individually, want to become wealthy just like the people they complain about. Obama's 400,00 speaking fees don't help the argument. Don't expect government to help you they will ultimately let you down. The problem with health care in this country is no more mysterious then insurance company CEOs who take tens of millions of dollars out of their customers insurance premiums to pay for the houses in the Hamptons. The NY Times would do more service to tell its readers what the real scoop is from both sides rather than blindly bash republicans and not point out the problems with the democrats. Comey and the Russians did not help but, like in France, that should not have swung the election to Trump unless the democrats ran an intrinsically flawed candidate, which they did. Again, the democratic elite letting the people down for their own personal achievements.
3
You are being an opportunist, grabbing onto the legitimate criticism of a program the republicans passed in the House of Representatives in order to complain about unrelated matters with the Democrats.
1
"But they haven't done anything for the people," Willfully ignorant people make such statements. It is impossible for any being or organization to not do 'anything.'
1
There are two completely different goals driving the healthcare debate.
One goal is to find the best healthcare for the American people.
The other goal is to make the richest Americans richer at the expense of the health of the American people.
One goal is to find the best healthcare for the American people.
The other goal is to make the richest Americans richer at the expense of the health of the American people.
11
The grins, the smirks, the glee, portrays the more flawed side of humanity.
I am an agnostic when it comes to Jesus Christ as our judge when we die. I hope i am wrong and he DOES judge. Pence's judgement may be severe as he should know what Christ taught and he has chosen to ignore his teachings simply to make sure Roe vs. Wade will be defeated and just for the sheer joy in beIng a money making, power seeking member of what he thinks is the IN CROWD. In that way, he can "save souls." Pence and others of his ilk are to be pitied and then booted out.
And to be honest, sometimes i hope there is an everlasting burning hell.
I am an agnostic when it comes to Jesus Christ as our judge when we die. I hope i am wrong and he DOES judge. Pence's judgement may be severe as he should know what Christ taught and he has chosen to ignore his teachings simply to make sure Roe vs. Wade will be defeated and just for the sheer joy in beIng a money making, power seeking member of what he thinks is the IN CROWD. In that way, he can "save souls." Pence and others of his ilk are to be pitied and then booted out.
And to be honest, sometimes i hope there is an everlasting burning hell.
4
GOP = Gang Of Predators
5
Gang of predators is exactly right and that's what I'm going to refer to him as.
In the U.S. it's better policy to let 100,000 poor children die than have an effective 10% tax rate on billionaires.
Children must be sacrificed so that the Trumps pay zero.
Children must be sacrificed so that the Trumps pay zero.
2
That makes no sense, and is not remotely how US taxes work.
Even if we put a 10% or 50% tax on "all billionaires"....that is 4000 people. Who have the wherewithal to leave the US for anyplace that won't tax them.
What happens, Doug, when you run out of "other people's money"?
Even if we put a 10% or 50% tax on "all billionaires"....that is 4000 people. Who have the wherewithal to leave the US for anyplace that won't tax them.
What happens, Doug, when you run out of "other people's money"?
We don't know if a 50% tax would actually drive the 1% fro the US, but it didn't seem to matter too much in the 50s when the top marginal tax rate was 90%.
As for the "other people's money" argument, the only reason they have that money is because of this country's freedoms. You'd think that that in itself would be enough reason for the 1% to shut up and pay their fair share.
Oh, and before you complain about the term "fair share," most of the 1% pay less as a portion of their income from all sources than the average McDonald's cashier. Buffet every year for over a decade has released his percentage of taxation vs that if his secretary. Every year, his is smaller than hers, but interestingly is that over the years Buffet's tax rate has declined while his secretary's has remained nearly constant.
So, spare us the "other people's money" argument for not making the top 1% - 5% pay their fair share of taxes.
As for the "other people's money" argument, the only reason they have that money is because of this country's freedoms. You'd think that that in itself would be enough reason for the 1% to shut up and pay their fair share.
Oh, and before you complain about the term "fair share," most of the 1% pay less as a portion of their income from all sources than the average McDonald's cashier. Buffet every year for over a decade has released his percentage of taxation vs that if his secretary. Every year, his is smaller than hers, but interestingly is that over the years Buffet's tax rate has declined while his secretary's has remained nearly constant.
So, spare us the "other people's money" argument for not making the top 1% - 5% pay their fair share of taxes.
1
There are more like 565 billionaires:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_billion...
When you run out of billionaires you can turn to the millionaires, of whom there are some 10.8 million in the US and who are mostly unprepared to leave:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/24/a-record-number-of-americans-are-now-mill...
If each of those millionaires contributed $10,000 - an amount they wouldn't miss too much - that would be enough to give every man woman and child in the US around $330.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_billion...
When you run out of billionaires you can turn to the millionaires, of whom there are some 10.8 million in the US and who are mostly unprepared to leave:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/24/a-record-number-of-americans-are-now-mill...
If each of those millionaires contributed $10,000 - an amount they wouldn't miss too much - that would be enough to give every man woman and child in the US around $330.
Okay. Everyone get out your dictionary. Look up "insurance." It has to do with protection. Companies/governments can insure people/things because they create shared risk groups. The good drivers and the young and healthy "help" those less fortunate because no one knows when they might be in an auto accident or when serious illness might strike; and with luck we all get older and older along with accompanying health issues. So this bill ultimately punishes everyone for simply living. Not my idea of insurance or helpful/intelligent legislation; from which House members apparently exempted themselves.
3
The extremist right-wing faction in the US, born out of neo-conservatism and Reagan's despicable appeal to the ignorant Christians and abhorrent racists, has won their decades long fight to make American voters stupid. The government we have is the fruit of that victory.
I am trying not to over react to this bill, thinking that the Senate will impose some sense into it. But then I remember that that perfidious man, McConnell, is in charge.
4
I hope Mr. Krugman will give proper credit to Mary McCarthy as the source of his line about every word in the Republican line being a lie. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/09/18/every-word/
Yeh, well, I think that is what they call an allusion. As opposed to this health care bill, which is an illusion.
NB
NB
3
It's frustrating to watch how committed the peasants are to the Oligarchs.
These people are willing to sacrifice their lives for the greedy and selfish.
In their minds, this is what makes America great.
These people are willing to sacrifice their lives for the greedy and selfish.
In their minds, this is what makes America great.
5
I love the Republican belief that it will be less expensive & drive costs down for healthcare. For everyone who believes that,I have a Yugo to sell them. Yes it can get you from point A to point B when it is running, but there is a huge reason why it never sold well. So Republicans are selling us a Yugo that no one wants just to keep their promise of a Yugo. So this is how the Republicans are going to play it? May they be as successful as a Yugo. With everything they touch,they own it. Cut taxes & throw money at the military, how did that work for George W. Bush? We will have to elect another Democratic President to save us again & again. We are about to be in Kansas again Dorothy.
4
The letters that follow are certainly better than any I could come up with. JGAIA-
Shame on Trump and shame on this house of representatives. There is only only one solution to this problem. Vote them out of office in 2018 and 2020!!!
3
The midterm election can not come soon enough. I hope the Democratic voters are paying attention to what is happening. Otherwise, kiss a clean planet goodbye, adios public education, and forget living to a ripe old age unless you have money for health care. Vote the GOP out of congress.
5
"Snakeoil salesmen" - thy name is the GOP.
The dangers of epithets notwithstanding : Trump is likely the most ignorant man ever to occupy the White House. Paul Ryan on the other hand is likely the most dangerous man ever elected to public office. One can forgive ignorance while wishing the willful participant a ream of books and a dose of knowledge. On the other hand, a dangerous politician only deserves one thing - getting booted out of office.
The dangers of epithets notwithstanding : Trump is likely the most ignorant man ever to occupy the White House. Paul Ryan on the other hand is likely the most dangerous man ever elected to public office. One can forgive ignorance while wishing the willful participant a ream of books and a dose of knowledge. On the other hand, a dangerous politician only deserves one thing - getting booted out of office.
5
Why do they get away with the lies that hurt citizens? Simple. There are not enough poor citizens yet.
5
Old, long-entitled guys of white, do crow
but on their House, a changing wind will soon a-blow
But for that would your blusters
Surely be for naught
We ought care for the Others'
But care, we do not
Our care you all pay for
For life, so who cares,
Surely we do not...
but on their House, a changing wind will soon a-blow
But for that would your blusters
Surely be for naught
We ought care for the Others'
But care, we do not
Our care you all pay for
For life, so who cares,
Surely we do not...
2
"And what does it say about the state of American politics that a majority of the representatives of one of our major political parties have gone along with this nightmarish process?"
And what does it say about the Democrats, a party that has steadily lost ground to the neanderthal Republicans over the past eight years? In the last election, a thin margin of two million people (out of 120 million votes cast) thought the Democrats were a viable alternative to the most ridiculous, unqualified presidential candidate in US history.
The saddest thing is, pundits like Krugman think the Democrats should continue their neoliberal, working class-destroying economic course.
And what does it say about the Democrats, a party that has steadily lost ground to the neanderthal Republicans over the past eight years? In the last election, a thin margin of two million people (out of 120 million votes cast) thought the Democrats were a viable alternative to the most ridiculous, unqualified presidential candidate in US history.
The saddest thing is, pundits like Krugman think the Democrats should continue their neoliberal, working class-destroying economic course.
4
Here in Georgia at the “free clinic” I am running every day I keep hearing the lie where Trump said that Obama had “engineered” Obamacare to fail in 2017.
So these people in the waiting room and in my exam rooms are all complaining about that black Muslim that hated all white people and is now taking their health care away!
I have put up posters explaining the ACA. Keeping their kids on until age 26, not being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, what essential health benefits are (Like maternity care being covered, yearly wellness exams, and so on).
I worked with the vice principal and English teacher of the local middle school/high school to use language at the 4th grade level so that each person who came in would understand what I’m trying to get across. I even have posters saying that Obamacare IS the ACA!
I have current magazines--Time, Teen Vogue ( a great activist magazine these days), daily editions of the Atlanta Journal Constitution...and NONE of it gets read!
There are some folks that I did persuade 3 years ago to get on the ACA and I feel as if they will blame me if this all goes away.
I used to love working, loved taking calls at all hours (I gave all my patients my cell phone number), I still make house calls. I’m still volunteering all my time using a local grant to keep the clinic going.
But my strength is gone. These people are blaming “coastal liberal elites” and Obama for any and all problems they have.
And they love Trump!
So these people in the waiting room and in my exam rooms are all complaining about that black Muslim that hated all white people and is now taking their health care away!
I have put up posters explaining the ACA. Keeping their kids on until age 26, not being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, what essential health benefits are (Like maternity care being covered, yearly wellness exams, and so on).
I worked with the vice principal and English teacher of the local middle school/high school to use language at the 4th grade level so that each person who came in would understand what I’m trying to get across. I even have posters saying that Obamacare IS the ACA!
I have current magazines--Time, Teen Vogue ( a great activist magazine these days), daily editions of the Atlanta Journal Constitution...and NONE of it gets read!
There are some folks that I did persuade 3 years ago to get on the ACA and I feel as if they will blame me if this all goes away.
I used to love working, loved taking calls at all hours (I gave all my patients my cell phone number), I still make house calls. I’m still volunteering all my time using a local grant to keep the clinic going.
But my strength is gone. These people are blaming “coastal liberal elites” and Obama for any and all problems they have.
And they love Trump!
40
Yes, one wonders what exactly will move Trump voters beyond this blind faith. What will it take? Explaining has no discernible effect on their belief. I think our solutions will come from increased conversations now happening among a variety of viewpoints, mostly moderate or clearly progressive, not from ultra-tribal thinkers of either major party. The blindness has a willful component, resistance to change.
How is funding health care according to one's state of residence not denying Americans equal protection under the law?
1
The reason why this new "Healthcare Act" was being rushed through the House and sent to the Senate had nothing to do with "healthcare", and everything to do with Tax Cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The Tax Cuts provided in this proposed "Healthcare" legislation set the stage for the proposed overhaul of the Tax Code later this Fiscal year. That is why the new "Trumpcare" passage was so important to the GOP, and why so little concern was given to the actual details of the "healthcare" part of the Bill.
As we all know, history shows us that the GOP has never developed or implemented a government "social program" to benefit the population at large, and they're certainly not intending to do that now.
As we all know, history shows us that the GOP has never developed or implemented a government "social program" to benefit the population at large, and they're certainly not intending to do that now.
4
IMO, the Trump led GOP policy to replace ACA is tantamount to a 21st-century act of culling a segment of the population through a government sanctioned form of genocide. What happened to the certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.?
3
The Republican chant of "drain the swamp" has turned our political environment into a Cesspool.
SWAMP = A biological preserve where regeneration, creation and life flourish.
CESSPOOL = Where all the all the useless stuff goes.
SWAMP = A biological preserve where regeneration, creation and life flourish.
CESSPOOL = Where all the all the useless stuff goes.
Too many questions.
I want a simple answer.
"We Win!"
Done.
I want a simple answer.
"We Win!"
Done.
The framing of the ACA was so virulent, so relentless, so *toxic*, that the origins of much the plan itself were lost in the rhetorical sewer. So effective was this campaign that even the "liberal media" (itself a right wing frame) lost sight of the ACA's genetic history.
The goal was to make the sitting president fail, regardless of the merits of the plan for the country. So adamant had the right become in their belief in the *illegitimacy* of the sitting president, his party and *any* ideology other than their own, that lying, cheating and stealing their way into power became justified.
As conservative Republican David Frum, George W, Bush's speechwriter, said, "For liberals, the Affordable Care Act was always a flawed compromise based on Republican ideas."
"Based on Republican ideas," one of which, the individual mandate, was used as the rallying cry against this "socialist nightmare."
The bottom line is that the ACA, itself, is the best the Republicans could have done while staying away from universal coverage. But now that they've demonized it so effectively, the best they can do is continue to lie, cheat and steal.
But they've painted themselves into so tight a corner, that even many of their cult indoctrinated, Breitbart pod people can't help but see a cheap casket in their futures.
The goal was to make the sitting president fail, regardless of the merits of the plan for the country. So adamant had the right become in their belief in the *illegitimacy* of the sitting president, his party and *any* ideology other than their own, that lying, cheating and stealing their way into power became justified.
As conservative Republican David Frum, George W, Bush's speechwriter, said, "For liberals, the Affordable Care Act was always a flawed compromise based on Republican ideas."
"Based on Republican ideas," one of which, the individual mandate, was used as the rallying cry against this "socialist nightmare."
The bottom line is that the ACA, itself, is the best the Republicans could have done while staying away from universal coverage. But now that they've demonized it so effectively, the best they can do is continue to lie, cheat and steal.
But they've painted themselves into so tight a corner, that even many of their cult indoctrinated, Breitbart pod people can't help but see a cheap casket in their futures.
3
That's what the American people (in the electoral college) voted for.
1
The Republican Party could not exist without intellectual dishonesty. Lying is their primary tactic and operational principle.
4
The republican party has looked a lot like this for a long long time. For decades they have been able to convince their base that if only abortion were made illegal and dangerous again their lives would somehow get better. And their base voted against their own interests time and time again.
They shut down the government and gained the majority in congress. So it is possible they can continue to lie their way to majority control of the government. Then we will see democracy die a slow deliberate death.
Now the party has a face and that face is ugly and getting uglier every day. That face has a name. TRUMP.
The headline on the front page about why Russian hacking didn't effect the French election has a note: The French do not have a fox news. The 24/7 home to lies, lies, and more lies.
The piece on 60 Minutes about the family of a restaurant owner getting sent back to Mexico was very telling. It seems his wife and friends and customers all voted for t rump and now they are shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that he was not good to his word.
Sad.
They shut down the government and gained the majority in congress. So it is possible they can continue to lie their way to majority control of the government. Then we will see democracy die a slow deliberate death.
Now the party has a face and that face is ugly and getting uglier every day. That face has a name. TRUMP.
The headline on the front page about why Russian hacking didn't effect the French election has a note: The French do not have a fox news. The 24/7 home to lies, lies, and more lies.
The piece on 60 Minutes about the family of a restaurant owner getting sent back to Mexico was very telling. It seems his wife and friends and customers all voted for t rump and now they are shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that he was not good to his word.
Sad.
HE voted for Trump -- the illegal alien -- so what does that prove? ILLEGAL ALIENS are voting in the US!!!
That is illegal. I am very happy he is back in his Mexican homeland.
That is illegal. I am very happy he is back in his Mexican homeland.
1984 is a bad metaphor, GOP won in a landslide that year
The Republicans do not care what replaces Obamacare. All that matters to them is that they wipe all references to President Obama and his legacy from history. None of this makes any sense, except to call all these gloating Republicans racists. Nothing else can explain this viciousness on their part. Mitch McConnell foams at the mouth whenever he speaks of President Obama. Paul Ryan, as useless a person as there ever was, oozes slime whenever he opens his mouth. These people are not human. They will throw every American under the bus as long as they can vilify the Obama legacy. How do these people sleep at night? And the President? He is a know-nothing pretending to know everything and he is very very dangerous. Wake up, America, this group must be stopped. And impeachment won't do. The entire slate must be wiped clean. We cannot afford to let VP Pence to get in the driver's seat either. If that happens. heaven help us all.
Dr. Krugman,
We should all apply for French citizenship, now that there's hope over there. At the same time, let Trump's foes erect a platform backed by Constitution lawyers.
NOTE: My e-address is now [email protected]
We should all apply for French citizenship, now that there's hope over there. At the same time, let Trump's foes erect a platform backed by Constitution lawyers.
NOTE: My e-address is now [email protected]
Good article and keep calling it Trumpcare to remind everyone where this abomination came from.
1
When you speak of "lies", perhaps you're referring to "you can keep your policy if you like it" or "no middle class tax increase"? The entire leftist enterprise is based upon lies and fraud. Well, except the part where they promise people who vote for them massive bribes, paid for with either other people's or borrowed money.
You simply have no standing to bellyache that the present bill wasn't properly vetted when you staunchly defended the ACA. Perhaps, the GOP should have acted more deliberately? But YOU and the left are in no position to complain.
"as insurers are set free to offer lower-quality coverage". Curious that you use the word "free" as an epithet. Who would buy such a policy? THAT is what terrifies you: LOTS of folks will buy policies which don't include things YOU regard as vital. THEY will be happy with their new, less expensive policies -- which don't cover things they don't need -- but YOU won't be.
Indeed, freedom terrifies you, because it doesn't involve redistribution, and that -- not health care -- was always the point of the ACA. If poor folks or the elderly (Medicare, which the ACA cut by $716B?) can't get insurance, perhaps caring, but hugely wealthy physicians will step to the fore?
The ACA is inexorably collapsing, as any sane person predicted it would. But for illegal payments to carriers, it would be gone already. And, yet, you persist. Evidence means nothing; facts mean nothing. On blind ideology.
You simply have no standing to bellyache that the present bill wasn't properly vetted when you staunchly defended the ACA. Perhaps, the GOP should have acted more deliberately? But YOU and the left are in no position to complain.
"as insurers are set free to offer lower-quality coverage". Curious that you use the word "free" as an epithet. Who would buy such a policy? THAT is what terrifies you: LOTS of folks will buy policies which don't include things YOU regard as vital. THEY will be happy with their new, less expensive policies -- which don't cover things they don't need -- but YOU won't be.
Indeed, freedom terrifies you, because it doesn't involve redistribution, and that -- not health care -- was always the point of the ACA. If poor folks or the elderly (Medicare, which the ACA cut by $716B?) can't get insurance, perhaps caring, but hugely wealthy physicians will step to the fore?
The ACA is inexorably collapsing, as any sane person predicted it would. But for illegal payments to carriers, it would be gone already. And, yet, you persist. Evidence means nothing; facts mean nothing. On blind ideology.
5
Thank you for your post; the lies and distortions here are epic.
1
The freedom to buy inadequate insurance IS scary, because when the insurance companies don't cover needed medical care (which is not in the policy per Republican definition of freedom) people will die, be forced into bankruptcy and/or send the bill to taxpayers anyway! Refusal to acknowledge reality IS going to cause suffering and death. The most telling thing for me is that I haven't seeing one provision to encourage competition among providers or rein in gouging. This is all about getting the government contribution down to permit a tax cut for rich people under reconciliation. Period. Sad!
1
Access to abortion=FREEDOM
Access to health care=FREEDOM
Clean air, water, and nature=FREEDOM
Education=FREEDOM
Access to health care=FREEDOM
Clean air, water, and nature=FREEDOM
Education=FREEDOM
One hopes, despite evidence to the contrary, that fact based decisions and rationality is the currency of a democracy. I am not sanguine.
A caricature of capitalism's weaknesses– the man who defrauded consumers, filed strategic bankruptcies, enjoyed gilded narcissism and birthright and commits only to the protection of the powerful– is our president. Despite a lifetime of uncaring and elitist actions, he was elected president as a champion of "the forgotten man."
In opposition to the Repubs, the Dems saved the auto industry, the entire economy, tried to raise the minimum wage, provided health care for all, except for those living in Republican governed states that denied medical care to the poor by refusing medicaid. Yet the Dems' image is the party that forgot the working person and has no policy.
The Repubs voted against Medicare in the '60's. W was elected in 2004 despite starting a war on false pretenses and employing torture as policy. Repub. are seen as the party of working people despite furthering policies antithetical to the interest of most Americans.
Facts are not the fight. Image and tribalism is. I suspect the Repubs will be able to sell any failure of their policy as a failure of Pelosi & Co. In 2018 and 2020 The Green Party should endorse Dem candidates.
Vivé la France!
A caricature of capitalism's weaknesses– the man who defrauded consumers, filed strategic bankruptcies, enjoyed gilded narcissism and birthright and commits only to the protection of the powerful– is our president. Despite a lifetime of uncaring and elitist actions, he was elected president as a champion of "the forgotten man."
In opposition to the Repubs, the Dems saved the auto industry, the entire economy, tried to raise the minimum wage, provided health care for all, except for those living in Republican governed states that denied medical care to the poor by refusing medicaid. Yet the Dems' image is the party that forgot the working person and has no policy.
The Repubs voted against Medicare in the '60's. W was elected in 2004 despite starting a war on false pretenses and employing torture as policy. Repub. are seen as the party of working people despite furthering policies antithetical to the interest of most Americans.
Facts are not the fight. Image and tribalism is. I suspect the Repubs will be able to sell any failure of their policy as a failure of Pelosi & Co. In 2018 and 2020 The Green Party should endorse Dem candidates.
Vivé la France!
3
The GOP has been Orwellian in its rhetoric since Reagan. This is the party that passes laws called "Right to Work" when in fact the law is meant to allow employers hire for less money. A party that calls itself "Pro Life" when in fact it passes laws that deny a healthy, happy life by preventing expectant mothers from getting pre natal care and anyone else not able to afford insurance. A party that declares it wants religious freedom but does everything to deny it to non-Christians. A party that says it wants "government out of healthcare" yet passes laws that tell women what healthcare they can get. A party that says it is the party of low debt/deficits yet passes laws and policies that explode the deficit/debt. It calls itself a party of moral authority yet its budgets are immoral, as are many of its members i.e. Hastert, Craig, Trump, etc. The party has been lying overwhelmingly since 1980.
6
That is not remotely what "right to work" means.
It means you cannot be FORCED to join a union and pay dues.
It means you cannot be FORCED to join a union and pay dues.
Right to work laws prevent individuals from collectively bargaining for decent/better pay. In R2W states, individuals earn an average of $5,000 less than those in non R2W states. So I was correct, those laws lower pay. Read up on it if you are so "Concerned".
What moral authority our nation once had, we have allowed the Republican party to sacrifice upon the altar of greed.
For decades, the Republican party has dedicated itself to the steady decline in quality of life for the middle class and the poor, all to further feed the insatiable greed of the 1%. It is cruel, sadistic, and inhumane.
It is going to be a long road back, not only with regard to our global standing, but in securing the rights and opportunities of the majority of the American people. This not only means finally adopting a universal, single-payer healthcare system, but an overall increase in compensation for most working people. Our productivity has gone up for years, but wages have been dead in the water.
We need a Democratic party that is vocal and unabashed about these things. No more "go along to get along" silent partners. No more triangulating. We need passion, guts, and fearlessness. See the Senator from Vermont for examples on how to go about this.
I am sick and tired of the United States existing only "for the 1% by the 1%" at the expense of the majority. It's as indefensible as it is unsustainable.
For decades, the Republican party has dedicated itself to the steady decline in quality of life for the middle class and the poor, all to further feed the insatiable greed of the 1%. It is cruel, sadistic, and inhumane.
It is going to be a long road back, not only with regard to our global standing, but in securing the rights and opportunities of the majority of the American people. This not only means finally adopting a universal, single-payer healthcare system, but an overall increase in compensation for most working people. Our productivity has gone up for years, but wages have been dead in the water.
We need a Democratic party that is vocal and unabashed about these things. No more "go along to get along" silent partners. No more triangulating. We need passion, guts, and fearlessness. See the Senator from Vermont for examples on how to go about this.
I am sick and tired of the United States existing only "for the 1% by the 1%" at the expense of the majority. It's as indefensible as it is unsustainable.
8
In sports as young people, we are taught to play fair. How is what's being done with health care remotely fair to anyone? Patients, doctors, hospitals, even insurance companies all lose. The only beneficiaries are the uber-rich.
As a nation, if we considered the health and well-being of all citizens a basic human right (as do most other developed nations), we would have a single payer system so that every citizen could have care. If someone needs medical care, they should be able to get it, period. That would eliminate the myriad disparate networks of insurance companies -- with their highly paid executives and actuaries. And that would radically lower costs for everyone else!
As a nation, if we considered that for a doctor to retain their license, he/she should be required to demonstrate 'no harm' to any patient -- which would curtail the need for malpractice insurance. Some would still be necessary, but not at the current levels and not at the current rates. And that would result in lower costs for patients.
As a nation, if we demanded (as Obamacare does/did) that Outcomes for Patients are more important than how many procedures can be ordered, we would have hospitals and clinics held to account for producing healthier people, not healthier profits. And that would result in lower costs for care.
Finally, if we, as a nation, demanded that congress play fair, we wouldn't have the mess we have now.
As a nation, if we considered the health and well-being of all citizens a basic human right (as do most other developed nations), we would have a single payer system so that every citizen could have care. If someone needs medical care, they should be able to get it, period. That would eliminate the myriad disparate networks of insurance companies -- with their highly paid executives and actuaries. And that would radically lower costs for everyone else!
As a nation, if we considered that for a doctor to retain their license, he/she should be required to demonstrate 'no harm' to any patient -- which would curtail the need for malpractice insurance. Some would still be necessary, but not at the current levels and not at the current rates. And that would result in lower costs for patients.
As a nation, if we demanded (as Obamacare does/did) that Outcomes for Patients are more important than how many procedures can be ordered, we would have hospitals and clinics held to account for producing healthier people, not healthier profits. And that would result in lower costs for care.
Finally, if we, as a nation, demanded that congress play fair, we wouldn't have the mess we have now.
5
The government has no reason to be involved in health care in the 1st place.
1
unless you believe that the government was created to "promote the general welfare," as stated in the preamble to the constitution, of course.
1
"Single-payer"--with the apparent only other exception being Switzerland--is seemingly the rational, civilized, decent, less inefficient solution.
I'm meanwhile somewhat consoled that the GOP does not (yet) eliminate the emergency room as the remarkably inefficient alternative.
If the GOP continues to win most States' and national elections, thanks to the partisan SOCUS and that shameful irresponsible appendix/useless/clueless Electoral College, then tragically we've reached our celebrated but outmoded political system's obsolescence.
I'm meanwhile somewhat consoled that the GOP does not (yet) eliminate the emergency room as the remarkably inefficient alternative.
If the GOP continues to win most States' and national elections, thanks to the partisan SOCUS and that shameful irresponsible appendix/useless/clueless Electoral College, then tragically we've reached our celebrated but outmoded political system's obsolescence.
3
I just don't get it. How can handing some authority back to the states improve things--more choice about a person's health care? How is treating cancer different in Mississippi than it is in Alabama. How is treating a brain tumor different in Ohio than it is in Pennsylvania? Who would choose to not have good health care? A recognition that honestly managed single-payer health care is the only sensible, economically valid solution. How can people be aghast at being required to participate in health insurance? We are all required to have car insurance; banks require all borrowers to have house insurance. How is this different? And isn't protecting our health even a little more important than protecting some used sedan? We are being scammed with false freedoms to make us all line the pockets of those who benifit the most from the health care system: the insurance companies; the pharmaceutical companies; and now, with this proposed tax cut in the AHCA, the already wealthy among us. How can average Americans prefer to increase the wealth of the wealthy at the expense of our meager resources and our precious (and often fragile) health? Really? Is this what politics brings us? Is this what modern education, bereft of critical thinking, allows? Is admiration of bullies in expensive suits really what we are about? Please...
4
Some folks are like some fruit, normal in appearance on the outside, but rotten at the core. Given an opportunity to ease someone's burden, and to act with charity and compassion, they display a desire to mazimize inconvenience, and react with anger and resentment. They reveal their putrid, black hearts. This action is such a revelation.
1
Folks, let’s cut the Gordian Knot. The French actually like their public-private healthcare system while we Americans overwhelmingly dislike ours. The French pay less and get more. So then, a proven, time-tested system is there for the taking, while we mess about with unproven complexity. Some night, while they sleep, let’s just steal their system and make it ours.
The French system or our current system - pick one. Dems, if the Repubs are dumb enough to go all ideological, this issue will win votes across party lines.
The French system or our current system - pick one. Dems, if the Repubs are dumb enough to go all ideological, this issue will win votes across party lines.
4
Improved Medicare for All, the Conyers bill, is now co-sponsored by over 100 House members. Sanders, long an advocate, will soon introduce a new Senate bill. Surveys run to over 60 % public approval of universal single-payer Medicare, the system used by most of the modern world for the last half century or so. Our media remains silent, apparently forgetting that the public employs government bill writers, not vice versa. Our current Congress exempts themselves from any phony plans they propose, but our new Congress after we drain the swamp, will share the single payer plan with us and accept that we all share a right to real health insurance.
5
Once we get Congress and many confused Americans to understand that healthcare is a basic right and not simply a fungible commodity, the concept of Medicare for everyone is the logical conclusion.
The deepening hypocrisy of conservative republicans is increasingly difficult to ignore. They have now given substantial impetus to a vast majority of affected citizens to get out and vote. At last, the widespread assumption that "voting makes no difference" may change.
Perhaps we could even realize a single payer health care system, which is the only logical option for correcting the inherent shortcomings of our current health care system. Indeed, Obamacare was itself a compromise with conservatives but it is clear that compromise is no longer possible.
Perhaps we could even realize a single payer health care system, which is the only logical option for correcting the inherent shortcomings of our current health care system. Indeed, Obamacare was itself a compromise with conservatives but it is clear that compromise is no longer possible.
2
Take a moment from indulging in righteous wrath like warm bath, and ask yourself this: how did so many American voters come to distrust the federal government so much that they gave over control to the corporate greed machine?
The answer is that Trump voters looked around and saw that it was the feds who were responsible for letting - even abetting - all the "cutting in line" - as they saw it - to the American Dream. They put the onus on the feds for enforcing Identity Politics - that seems to stop, by the way, when it comes to older white men.
Until the Democratic Party comes to understand this dynamic, and formulates a new message that includes, rather than excludes, honors, rather than shames Trump voters, we'll stay stuck just where we are.
The answer is that Trump voters looked around and saw that it was the feds who were responsible for letting - even abetting - all the "cutting in line" - as they saw it - to the American Dream. They put the onus on the feds for enforcing Identity Politics - that seems to stop, by the way, when it comes to older white men.
Until the Democratic Party comes to understand this dynamic, and formulates a new message that includes, rather than excludes, honors, rather than shames Trump voters, we'll stay stuck just where we are.
2
it's the right question, Royce, but the wrong answer.
the actual answer is that for 30 years, while republicans were cutting education spending, Fox News has bleated out a steady stream of anti-government propaganda designed to confuse the Dumb and obfuscate the facts surrounding every major issue and purposefully and willfully conflating opinion and fact until americans forgot that they actually get the government they elect.
while i agree the democratic party's focus on identity politics is silly and wrong, that's not actually the answer to the question you asked.
the actual answer is that for 30 years, while republicans were cutting education spending, Fox News has bleated out a steady stream of anti-government propaganda designed to confuse the Dumb and obfuscate the facts surrounding every major issue and purposefully and willfully conflating opinion and fact until americans forgot that they actually get the government they elect.
while i agree the democratic party's focus on identity politics is silly and wrong, that's not actually the answer to the question you asked.
1
how is it then that these perspicacious americans of which you speak could not tell that trump represented exactly what they were trying to get rid of ?
That's rather false, and it merely confirms that some people- certain older white men- are looking for information that supports their biases, as opposed to the truth.
Because the ideology you're speaking of is one where white guys must always be at the head of the line and in charge. And any attempt to make things fairer for anyone else is seen as an "attack" on some natural order of things. This is just bitter white men (and women) using Identity Politics for their own end. It's just not the same, though, when you are and have been the majority all along.
And I say that as an older white guy.
Because the ideology you're speaking of is one where white guys must always be at the head of the line and in charge. And any attempt to make things fairer for anyone else is seen as an "attack" on some natural order of things. This is just bitter white men (and women) using Identity Politics for their own end. It's just not the same, though, when you are and have been the majority all along.
And I say that as an older white guy.
2
Re: "It’s a miserably designed law, full of unintended consequences."
Krugman should not be so easy on the Republicans who wrote and passed this bill. It is NOT full of unintended consequences. It is full of problems that are not avoidable by drastic cuts in tax subsidies to the heavy users of health care services and reduced subsidies to people not currently using any health care services, but who are facing much higher insurance premium
costs.
Krugman should not be so easy on the Republicans who wrote and passed this bill. It is NOT full of unintended consequences. It is full of problems that are not avoidable by drastic cuts in tax subsidies to the heavy users of health care services and reduced subsidies to people not currently using any health care services, but who are facing much higher insurance premium
costs.
3
It seems that many Republicans suffer from the preexisting condition of a weak conscience. Reducing taxes on the wealthy will only weaken it more. Showing care for the sick and disadvantaged, as in a health care system that works for all, may involve temporary pain but is a certain cure for a weak conscience.
5
I think people should stop referring to this abomination as "Healthcare" and use a much more appropriate word to describe it: "Trump's Wealthcare."
9
Thank my union for the health benefits I have (and pension). Organized labor is now a thing of the past except for a few residual unions in the pubic sector (of which mine is among). Without this leverage of a potential labor backlash and ensuing loss of profit, I fear capitalist greed will continue to grow, untethered by ethical or moral considerations. These considerations, after all, are of no concern to the mandarins that run our country.
11
It will until enough people have had enough. We're reaching a tipping point but we're not there yet.
Like most Democrats, I am appalled by this bill, but I find hope in the fact that the very people who propelled Trump into the White House are the ones who will suffer the most. For electing someone so spectacularly unqualified, the deserve this.
3
No one deserves this healthcare bill, not even Trump voters.
I like how Krugman knows sooo much about a law that is nowhere near a finished bill. So called expert on economy, climate & BIG government.
1
The first version of this "bill" was rated by the CBO, so a lot is known about that one, and this one is a modification to that bill, the consequences of those modifications can be inferred reasonably accurately, although there are some parts that would be nice to see more details.
However, Professor Krugman stated right up front that it was hard to make exact predictions, but that it was likely that those modifications would make it worse.
However, Professor Krugman stated right up front that it was hard to make exact predictions, but that it was likely that those modifications would make it worse.
You sound satisfied with GOP incompetence.
Government=protection of our FREEDOMS
This bill was never about health care but about a tax cut for the wealthy. Yes Trump is a blowhard and an idiot. He may have few principles or convictions, but there is a far more dangerous man in power, Paul Ryan.
6
The bill is also about erasing Obama's legacy, and preventing Americans from being grateful to the Democrats and driving the Republicans from power.
That's why repeal of the ACA has to be done quickly, before too many people experience its benefits and know what's being taken away.
That's why repeal of the ACA has to be done quickly, before too many people experience its benefits and know what's being taken away.
"...yet many people who were sure to lose, bigly, voted Trump anyway." And, they may do so again. The picture is murky, but I have to believe that both social media and the unavoidable (by mainstream-media) mass resistance protests and cries of outrage at these voter's own congressperson's town hall meetings will have some affect. Opinion and sentiment moves and changes inexplicably, but by 2018 if Senate Republicans do something similar, we WILL see electoral change. I predict flipping of the entire Congress to Democrats with Trump impeachment proceedings to begin forthwith.
But Paul, I have to wonder, is there any way we can get you to join the resistance full time? That would certainly position you well for joining the administration of Joe Kennedy III when he becomes the youngest president in U.S. history in 2020. He's going to need a lot of help from people like you.
But Paul, I have to wonder, is there any way we can get you to join the resistance full time? That would certainly position you well for joining the administration of Joe Kennedy III when he becomes the youngest president in U.S. history in 2020. He's going to need a lot of help from people like you.
3
I agree that this health bill is a disaster, but I find it ironic that Dr. Krugman discusses the Republican base like they are rubes. Dr. Krugman's recent article on France eloquently explained that nationalists in Europe are, first and foremost, tired of being bullied by elitist Eurocrats. It's not hard to see a parallel in America, where Republicans, particularly in the south, feel bullied by the federal government, which they view as dominated by elitist liberals from the east and west coasts.
If this is true, Republican voters will continue to support (and demand) the belligerent and irrational gutting of any and all federal programs until they no longer feel bullied.
If this is true, Republican voters will continue to support (and demand) the belligerent and irrational gutting of any and all federal programs until they no longer feel bullied.
3
Republican voters - all voters - should stop "feeling" and start thinking. That begins with research and synthesis (read & learn; put it together), followed by analysis (considering effects). Simple. The process is taught in gr 4 science.
But this is their misconception. The Republicans have controlled the Washington agenda for decades now, and the liberal elites have had at best marginal effects. Conservative elites on the other hand have had huge effects. The 'liberal elites' are the Goldstein that gets used on the rubes. If that's what they really think, they need to wise up.
1
You're not being "bullied" when you're being forced into the 21st century like the rest of us. Those Republicans in the South want to maintain a society- clearly racist, somewhat misogynistic, exploitative, and anti-intellectual- that is retrograde and long past its due date. Frankly, for this elitist coastal dweller, that they're so upset shows that we're doing the right thing.
2
The best unintended effect that may come out of this "Dog and Pony" legislation called Trumpcare is it may expedite a real solution to our Health Care situation: Single Payer.
7
Well Professor Krugman, the Great White Father (no offense to Native Americans who coined that phrase under threat & duress) in oh so far away Washington DC is only trying to do what he said he'd do, that is, to Make America Great Again.
If those terrible labor unions hadn't been so greedy & pushed American business overseas & the slackers on the assembly lines caused industry to resort to robots & automation, we'd be living in a rich country with everyone gainfully employed & able to afford the best health care available on the open market!
I mean, gee, President Trump said so, haven't you been listening?
If those terrible labor unions hadn't been so greedy & pushed American business overseas & the slackers on the assembly lines caused industry to resort to robots & automation, we'd be living in a rich country with everyone gainfully employed & able to afford the best health care available on the open market!
I mean, gee, President Trump said so, haven't you been listening?
2
For me, maybe the biggest thing to come out of this Republican healthcare snit fit, and it would be a disaster if it was ever actually enacted in its' present form, which it won't, is the change in branding... it will forever more be known as Trumpcare. 24 million lose coverage, potentially? Think Trump (R). People die without coverage? Think Trump (R). Even if it doesn't happen, think (R) because they wanted it to happen.
3
This is the Republican Death Panel.
7
this new program makes members of congress share the same medical coverage that the rest of us have instead of their old gold plated fancy plan
Trump, Tillerson, and their ilk may live in a post-truth world, but I live in a post-Obama America--a place where people of good conscience and firm hope Keep Moving Forward and citizens are united by our highest ideals. While I am appalled by the bold-faced lies of those now in power and their open contempt for the principles of a democratic republic, I am undeterred and ready to oppose them in every way I can--and there are millions like me who feel the same. So get ready for a single-payer healthcare system, you Republican dimwits: it's coming.
9
Ryan's immediate goal was to demonstrate he could "deliver" the Republican majority and retain his power as Speaker. Trump's immediate goal was to demonstrate he could accomplish....something, anything.
3
I am a practicing primary care physician and I couldn't agree with Mt Krugman more. Every letter in this so called congressional healthcare bill is a lie. Those evil so called representatives that voted for Trump-care had only their selfish and their Billionaires masters interest in their hearts; enrich themselves and no intentions of providing affordable healthcare for any citizen in the United States. They want our country to go back to the 19th century where the oligarchs owned every thing and every one else had to beg on their hands and knees just for a chance at a job. Shame on them all.
13
About how they think they can get away with it. I was stuck in a Honda dealership for an hour Saturday morning and they had Fox on the tv. I never watch network news anymore so it was shocking how much the coverage was simply defending trump and the AHCA vote.
A large part of their base values loyalty above any other character trait, it would seem. They value it above truth, honesty or fair play. Above family values and above the constitution it would seem. They will be loyal no mater what there leads say. Add to that, an amazing propaganda machine and fox has built.
The republican know they don't have to convince everyone, they don't care if half the country thinks they're liars. If the other half stays as loyal as they have been, that's all they need.
A large part of their base values loyalty above any other character trait, it would seem. They value it above truth, honesty or fair play. Above family values and above the constitution it would seem. They will be loyal no mater what there leads say. Add to that, an amazing propaganda machine and fox has built.
The republican know they don't have to convince everyone, they don't care if half the country thinks they're liars. If the other half stays as loyal as they have been, that's all they need.
6
Paul has described the emptiness and mendacity of the GOP, but there is more to it. There is their sponsors who tell them what to do if they want campaign backing. There is the religious right, willing to go along to advance their agendas against women, minorities etc. There are the voters who don't vote. There are the voters who vote GOP no matter what the GOP candidates do.
There are many issues like this. But the biggest is the vanishing middle class and the ever-expanding joblessness as automation takes over, further increasing the riches of the rich at the expense of not only our lowering standard of living but our lowering tolerance for each other as we scramble among ourselves for fewer and fewer crumbs.
There are many issues like this. But the biggest is the vanishing middle class and the ever-expanding joblessness as automation takes over, further increasing the riches of the rich at the expense of not only our lowering standard of living but our lowering tolerance for each other as we scramble among ourselves for fewer and fewer crumbs.
1
"You can fool people much easier than you can convince them they have been fooled" Mark Twain. The rural Rubes who support Trump do so out of ignorance and a belief that an old white male can bring them the days of Mayberry RFD which only existed in their dreams. The French just showed the world what happens when voters are educated enough to know what is their own best interests and that there is no valid reason to fear "others". Trump and his supporters are basically insecure cowards and our GREAT until 45 nation will pay a high price for this cowardice. The uneducated tail is wagging the dog. Bigly sad where did the Home of the Brave go?
4
Excellent, Paul. We need a million or 6 Paul Revers to ride through the regions where the citizens have been lied to sleep.
All of what is being said here needs desperately to be put in front of people over and over again. Not too many numbers and wonk stuff. As we saw in the campaign, it puts people to sleep. We need plain concrete examples of the damage and the and the LIES.
And we need for the Media especially the "liberal" media to forget about the "fair and balanced" stuff. Lies do not balance truth. They destroy it, and imprison tired and defeated and beat down gullible people who just want some reief in illusions of hate and fear.
The agenda of those who are driving the poor congress folk is utter destruction of Democracy and the institution of a level of Fascism which will make Hitler seem like an angel.
The points made re. Health Care can be made for every sector of government for the Common Good... Education, Environment, Communication..and make no mistake, A Free Press is in mortal danger too.
All of what is being said here needs desperately to be put in front of people over and over again. Not too many numbers and wonk stuff. As we saw in the campaign, it puts people to sleep. We need plain concrete examples of the damage and the and the LIES.
And we need for the Media especially the "liberal" media to forget about the "fair and balanced" stuff. Lies do not balance truth. They destroy it, and imprison tired and defeated and beat down gullible people who just want some reief in illusions of hate and fear.
The agenda of those who are driving the poor congress folk is utter destruction of Democracy and the institution of a level of Fascism which will make Hitler seem like an angel.
The points made re. Health Care can be made for every sector of government for the Common Good... Education, Environment, Communication..and make no mistake, A Free Press is in mortal danger too.
2
I hang my head in shame to be an Idahoan, who sent disgusting Labrador to congress. (At least it keeps him away from here most of the time). But, Hello, Democratic Party? We sent you Cecil Andrus! We sent you Frank Church! You abandoned the people of Idaho in 1980, turned hard right under Bill Clinton, and have never looked back. At this point in 2017, the Republican Tea Partiers control every county commission, down to the County fair manager and the dog catcher- no public employment unless you toe the party line! Please pay attention to the needs of the rural people. Please help we the people restore balance against moneyed interests.
4
Republicans have been the enemy of ordinary income people since Andrew Johnson. Central supporting pillars are white racism,conventionality, and most of all christian religious affiliation. A social psychologist recognizes the Authoritarian syndrome Add to this malicious Republican subgroup the sociopathic
consumerism and militant ignorance of the public in general and you have
the Great Satan bombing Syrians and expressing surprise when Al Qida defends its lands. America - hypocracy at home and abroad.
consumerism and militant ignorance of the public in general and you have
the Great Satan bombing Syrians and expressing surprise when Al Qida defends its lands. America - hypocracy at home and abroad.
1
Since basally everyone at the The NY Times has made one bad prognostication after another about Republican chances for years now, I'm not sure I believe this.
3
Amen!
1
Ah yes, yet another repulsive sham and we all know the blame will go to the Dems. Those fools who voted for the head fool will never know the truth. They don't read, question, and are truly ignorant. Unfortunately, the rest of us are along for this sham ride. Have mercy on us for another four years and get rid of this nest of nasty men and women.
1
We did get rid of them in 2016!
1
I agree with all that Dr. Krugman says, but isn't there an omission here? Sure, one can blame and fault the GOP, their voters, the media, and the greedy for the passage and promotion of the AHCA, and for allowing lies to stand. But, where are the Democrats in this piece? The Democrats are a huge political party with officeholders, powerful allies in various elites, and many, many voters. Why have the Democrats been rolled over so many times? Why not fault the Democrats for running from Obamacare? What these few months have proven is that a large sector of the public can be mobilized to understand the benefits of the ACA, and support and defend them. I miss President Obama and respect his accomplishments, but the President was not effective in using his bully pulpit to sell this bill and hit back hard at his GOP adversaries. He was badly served by many legislators who ran from the bill (and from him). And, the public was not well served by a Democratic establishment that failed to be candid and supportive about the core principles of the bill: yes, it is redistributive, yes, it gives government a bigger role, yes, it calls on all of us to recognize and accept our social responsibilities to our fellow citizens. Democrats---and especially the Clintonians---have been cowed for thirty years into running from any defense of taxation, government, and social responsibility. Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. The GOP has been glad to fill it, lies and all.
15
Excellent comment James. Democrats have to stop running from their core beliefs. We need to explain, loudly, clearly and repeatedly, what we stand for and how it benefits Trump supporters. It's hard to understand how and why people vote for Republicans, whose only goal is to lower taxes on the rich. People must be made to understand how government benefits them.
Ah, that first sweet taste of someone "Both Sider-ing" this...
I suspect it had less to do with health care or tax cuts for the rich, than a simple demonstration of "Yes we can, just watch us." And further, "Now watch what further appalling damage we can do." These people are dangerous, evil and uninformed, yet they don't know it. You have let them become your masters, instead of your servants, which is what elected officials should be. Be afraid of these people. They are being manipulated by evil interests.
1
I don't think Trump actively enjoys the thought of causing pain to the people hurt by his policies; I think enjoys what every con man enjoys - getting over on people. That's the buss, the thrill, of being a con man. Proving you're smarter than everybody by conning them into believing something that you know is a lie.
Make no mistake, Trump is, if nothing else, a con man and he always has been, as the NYC real estate world well knows. His sustenance is conning people to get what he wants; his huge and fragile ego's need for nourishment is satisfied by getting over on people. This is what makes him superior in his mind. This guy needs "wins" like fish need water and con artistry is his cheap and shallow way to get them.
Make no mistake, Trump is, if nothing else, a con man and he always has been, as the NYC real estate world well knows. His sustenance is conning people to get what he wants; his huge and fragile ego's need for nourishment is satisfied by getting over on people. This is what makes him superior in his mind. This guy needs "wins" like fish need water and con artistry is his cheap and shallow way to get them.
2
If Americans let the Republicans and the so-called president get away with this, then we are truly headed down the path of the middle class and the poor falling, falling, falling--fatally.
The Republican party has shown again that it's only real interest is spinning lies to fool its base and lining its own pockets on the backs of the rest of us. They are complete hypocrites and also very very dreadful people.
I might also note, as a rather important side issue, they want to remove health choices from women, in order to keep them at home, in thrall, raising baby after baby with no relief. And these are supposed to be the best of the very best white men of our time? HA!
The Republican party has shown again that it's only real interest is spinning lies to fool its base and lining its own pockets on the backs of the rest of us. They are complete hypocrites and also very very dreadful people.
I might also note, as a rather important side issue, they want to remove health choices from women, in order to keep them at home, in thrall, raising baby after baby with no relief. And these are supposed to be the best of the very best white men of our time? HA!
1
Democrats are the worst thing to ever happen to the middle class.
Of course, Trump gets pleasure from "sticking it to others". Just remember his treatment of Christie, Gingrich, Giuliani, Romney and countless others.
Legislation By Revenge.
2
But it's a really, really, really tax cut for the filthy rich! Surely that makes up for everything? After all, nobody ever died thru lack of access to health care, right?
11
Spiking the ball in the Rose Garden made me think these guys should have watched more Schoolhouse Rock:
I'm just a bill.
Yes, I'm only a bill.
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it's a long, long journey
To the capital city.
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting in committee,
But I know I'll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.
I'm just a bill
Yes I'm only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Well, now I'm stuck in committee
And I'll sit here and wait
While a few key Congressmen discuss and debate
Whether they should let me be a law.
How I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a bill.
I'm just a bill
Yes, I'm only a bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well, then I'm off to the White House
Where I'll wait in a line
With a lot of other bills
For the president to sign
And if he signs me, then I'll be a law.
How I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a bill.
I'm just a bill.
Yes, I'm only a bill.
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it's a long, long journey
To the capital city.
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting in committee,
But I know I'll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.
I'm just a bill
Yes I'm only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Well, now I'm stuck in committee
And I'll sit here and wait
While a few key Congressmen discuss and debate
Whether they should let me be a law.
How I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a bill.
I'm just a bill
Yes, I'm only a bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well, then I'm off to the White House
Where I'll wait in a line
With a lot of other bills
For the president to sign
And if he signs me, then I'll be a law.
How I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a bill.
You don't have to go much further than listening to each interviewed house R, saying "it isn't over, the Senate will change all these things". What a horrible and embarrassing defense of one's actions. "It's OK that I did a bad thing, I knew others wouldn't stand for it."
3
This truly is an Orwellian moment in time where newspeak rules the day. Oddly, a significant minority of Trump supporters believe they have been betrayed in that this bill is not Draconian enough and the GOP has become too liberal. If only that level of antipathy towards fellow citizens could be legislated away as quickly as the GOP has rushed to destroy the lived the of millions.
The USA Republican Party is the most successful criminal organization in modern times. Considering the breadth and depth of their penetration of the nation, nothing else even comes close to close. Pete McGuire, Atlanta
3
An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
by Elisabeth Rosenthal
by Elisabeth Rosenthal
1
Many of Trump’s supporters are stymied by their innate fundamentalist thinking. Both voters and Congressional legislators.
A way of thinking that is influenced by hate.
Blinded, they tumble over the republican party “big lie” strategy.
They are republicans and Trump their head in this extraordinary political circus.
A way of thinking that is influenced by hate.
Blinded, they tumble over the republican party “big lie” strategy.
They are republicans and Trump their head in this extraordinary political circus.
2
In some cases, it may be hate, but, in others, it is simply House Republicans preference to give big tax cuts to the wealthy regardless of impact on everyone else, from middle class to low income. The dominating values? Greed and indifference.
Agree. And to expand on your comment that greed and indifference influence republican thinking, I would suggest that perhaps each of the Seven Deadly Sins may have its own role.
Death is the ultimate health.
2
Nicole Meyer, Jared Kushner’s sister, sought $150 million for a Jersey City, N.J., housing development from more than 100 investors gathered in Beijing.
every single day, sometimes trice a day, revelations such as this emerge and nothing, NOTHING, is ever done
your reps sit paralyzed in fear while your country is sold to foreign interests
your lack of courage is despicable and disgusting
you deserve trump
2
When Republicans say things like "Obama care is a disaster", "Obama care is the worst bill every passed", and "Obama care is about to collapse", Democrats and representatives of the Press don't press for explanations or details of those claims. It seems that responsible folks are too dumbfounded by the lies, or have forgotten the basic principles of cross examination. A simple, "Can you explain what you mean by ___" or "Can you give us an example of ____" would probably reveal the falsity of the statements. Why do we let them 'get away with' these lies -- when they say them?
1
Herbert Hoover, yes that guy, once said "I don't have a problem with capitalism, it's capitalists I just can't stand; they're too damn greedy." That's the Republican Party: Greedy Old Pols.
3
If we now have to fight for health care who says it will not next be food? When do the pitchforks start to arrive? If such savages as "represent" the Republican party think they are immune they might want to start reading a few history books.
It is already food. Millions of low income Americans experience food instability on a daily basis due to federal cuts to FoodShare (formerly known as food stamps) and the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program under Republicans. States with Republican governors and majority-Republican legislatures have done their part also to restrict access to such programs. And this is not new. During the height and aftermath of the 2009 recession, these same states reduced unemployment benefits (lengthening waiting periods, reducing weekly benefits, reducing weeks of eligibility), reducing the ability of individuals and families to put food on the table while unemployed.
There was a short piece on PBS News Hour, about the economic devastation in Janesville, Wisconsin, part of Paul Ryan's Congressional district.
The local High School, has a small room, set aside as "Palmers Closet", not spoken about publicly. But it is actually a food bank , stocked by volunteer organizations, with food and clothing for destitute students. Many of these students are too embarrassed or proud to ask for help, but they know where this room is, with an unmarked door.
And Paul Ryan just doesn't care, an example of his Ayn Rand philosophy, of market forces at work.
The local High School, has a small room, set aside as "Palmers Closet", not spoken about publicly. But it is actually a food bank , stocked by volunteer organizations, with food and clothing for destitute students. Many of these students are too embarrassed or proud to ask for help, but they know where this room is, with an unmarked door.
And Paul Ryan just doesn't care, an example of his Ayn Rand philosophy, of market forces at work.
1
You nailed it right on the head: "...don’t you get the impression that Donald Trump gets some positive pleasure out of taking people who make the mistake of trusting him for a ride?"
We are living through the beginning of kleptocracy that would dignify any rickety dictatorial government out there by comparison. In this case, and to make matters worse, the leader is not just enriching himself here and abroad, but he is also taking to a different level the lowbrow dishonesty and chicanery he was raised to practice. It is as though he took gusto in deceiving his voters, as he did with the "students" enrolled in Trump University. I wouldn't be surprised if he looked up with smirk every time he pulls off one of his shenanigans hoping for approval from his daddy.
It is unfortunate that the school system in the US is not the French lycées - I mean, not even a pale shadow of - and there are here idiots aplenty ready to be duped by the Big Orange Duper, or the Pied Pier of the Imbecile.
We are so screwed!
We are living through the beginning of kleptocracy that would dignify any rickety dictatorial government out there by comparison. In this case, and to make matters worse, the leader is not just enriching himself here and abroad, but he is also taking to a different level the lowbrow dishonesty and chicanery he was raised to practice. It is as though he took gusto in deceiving his voters, as he did with the "students" enrolled in Trump University. I wouldn't be surprised if he looked up with smirk every time he pulls off one of his shenanigans hoping for approval from his daddy.
It is unfortunate that the school system in the US is not the French lycées - I mean, not even a pale shadow of - and there are here idiots aplenty ready to be duped by the Big Orange Duper, or the Pied Pier of the Imbecile.
We are so screwed!
1
Whenever we elect a rude crude lewd dude with attitude, our path to the future is bound to be lighted with the flames of "pants on fire."
2
Our government has been hijacked by trolls. It is going to take a revolution to get it back.
1
The rest of the world stands blinking in disbelief at the double-talk, lies and hyper partisanship surrounding the matter of American healthcare. What is missing at its core is the awareness that insurance plans at any scale work only by sharing the cost of risk/damages/health across the widest possible base of payers.
Sadly, healthcare in the US will never succeed as long as the political and social divisions running across America remain as entrenched - and deepened - as they are. When you strip away the evasions and cant of the wealthy and Republican positions, the reality is they don't want it as they are damned if they are going to contribute money that would ultimately support black Americans. The problem and its reaction sits squarely within racism and antipathy to Afro Americans.
Sadly, healthcare in the US will never succeed as long as the political and social divisions running across America remain as entrenched - and deepened - as they are. When you strip away the evasions and cant of the wealthy and Republican positions, the reality is they don't want it as they are damned if they are going to contribute money that would ultimately support black Americans. The problem and its reaction sits squarely within racism and antipathy to Afro Americans.
4
The Republicans want to completely destroy the legacy of President Obama no matter the cost or consequences. His signature accomplishments on health care, the environment, & foreign policy will be replaced with reactionary judicial appointments, corporate tax giveaways, accelerated global warming, and the bravado of missile launches.
If Obama Care was fragile and wanting in some respect, the Republicans decided not to improve it, but to destroy it. This is like treating a mild termite infestation of one's home by burning your house down. The termites are gone, but so is everything else.
If Obama Care was fragile and wanting in some respect, the Republicans decided not to improve it, but to destroy it. This is like treating a mild termite infestation of one's home by burning your house down. The termites are gone, but so is everything else.
1
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I find some solace that some good may come of this despite the potential horror of people dying from Trumpcare. After this debacle USA may have a renewed birth of freedom and Universal Healthcare will arise from the ashes.
2
It is obvious to me that 45 and his cohorts are turning our once great, protective country into a corrupt business. Scientists and experts are tossed out like waste-matter and can no longer provide the fact-based information we need to understand and support beneficial guidance. Heads of agencies are tossed in favor of "leaders"'who spent their careers trying to destroy the same agencies.
We are losing access to insurance for those whose pre-existing condition consists of being born without wealth.
The new tax code drains the US treasury and hands it over to billionaires.
There is rampant nepotism, shameless conflicts of interest. One of our protections was the Judiciary and that will also be staffed with like-minded personnel
The business record of 45 is pock-marked with bankruptcy and failure to pay debts.
How will this end and will it be too late to put this country together again.
We are losing access to insurance for those whose pre-existing condition consists of being born without wealth.
The new tax code drains the US treasury and hands it over to billionaires.
There is rampant nepotism, shameless conflicts of interest. One of our protections was the Judiciary and that will also be staffed with like-minded personnel
The business record of 45 is pock-marked with bankruptcy and failure to pay debts.
How will this end and will it be too late to put this country together again.
3
I have a preexisting medical condition. I can barely afford the gap insurance I have now under Obamacare. I certainly won't be able to afford the even higher premiums that it will take to cover my preexisting medical condition under Trumpcare. I also make too much money for Medicaid because where I live, only the people on Welfare get Medicaid. I have Medicare, but I already can't afford to pay the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay, especially since my monthly premiums went up. I am also a woman, low-income, on this side of "elderly" and I do not go to the doctor as often as I should. About the only thing that I like about Trumpcare is that I won't have to pay a tax penalty if I drop my insurance. That part, the Senate can keep. The rest of it? Not so much.
2
If you are on medicare why would you drop it? This bill does not affect medicare as far as I know.
If you are on Medicare, you are not required to have health insurance through ACA. Hence, you will not be penalized by the IRS for not having health insurance. This has been the case since the ACA was enacted several years ago. If you somehow ended up paying a penalty on past income tax returns, you are owed a refund.
2
It's a damn shame that the atrocities Republicans want to enact can't just apply to the people who voted for them. I watched 60 Minutes on CBS last night. In one story, six people worried about health issues were interviewed and four of whom voted for Trump. A woman whose successful restaurateur husband was being deported had voted for Trump. She and her children were legal. It's hard to feel sorry for people who are getting what they voted for. Sadly, the rest of us also will be victims of their stupidity.
29
According to Paul Ryan, people in Wisconsin only prefer to insure their torso and left arm while people in Maine are more worried about their head and right leg. This alleged genius "policy wonk", actually says straight into the camera "people in different states have different healthcare needs". On what planet Mr. Ryan?
13
Why do they think they can get away with it? Because America lived with the status quo for years and years, and Republicans had been repeatedly rewarded for foiling attempts to have meaningful healthcare reform. The Democratic governor who brought KY Healthcare exchange was voted out of office and replaced with somebody who swore to dismantle it.
Republicans have been working for years and years to chip away gov't credibility, Reagan may have said gov't is the problem, not the solution and been referring to a subset of programs that helped the "undeserving" poor, but these days, we have a whole bunch of Republicans who believe that the only thing worse that the problem is a gov't attempt to fix the problem.
The real question for me is how anyone who considers themselves reasonable or moderate can call themselves a Republican these days.
They like to think of themselves as the party of Lincoln, but the true spirit of Lincoln's Republican party was that they broke away from the old Whig party because it no longer reflected their values.
Republicans have been working for years and years to chip away gov't credibility, Reagan may have said gov't is the problem, not the solution and been referring to a subset of programs that helped the "undeserving" poor, but these days, we have a whole bunch of Republicans who believe that the only thing worse that the problem is a gov't attempt to fix the problem.
The real question for me is how anyone who considers themselves reasonable or moderate can call themselves a Republican these days.
They like to think of themselves as the party of Lincoln, but the true spirit of Lincoln's Republican party was that they broke away from the old Whig party because it no longer reflected their values.
3
I must disagree with Mr. Krugman. He refers to the bill's "unintended consequences." The consequences are completely intended: to make the rich richer and healthier, the poor poorer and more likely to die. The only good thing that can be said about the Republicans in Congress and the White House is that they are honest in their treason, hatred, and bigotry.
10
The other day Warren Buffett was quoted as saying that "the biggest drag on the growth of the economy is not taxes but it is medical/health costs." I am not sure that this is an absolutely correct quote but it is close. If Trump and the republicans were smart, they would make an honest effort at producing a rational health care system for this country which would cover everyone. There are different ways to set up such a system based on how much government, insurance companies, etc. are involved. Get employers and businesses out of providing health coverage. Relieve employers of that expense and employees could take coverage with them if they changed jobs.
Medical spending in the U.S. is about double what it is in most European countries, Canada, and Japan.
The fraud loses for Visa, American Express, and Mastercard are small (I am guessing 1-2%). If the government would work at it they could bring fraud loses for Medicare and Medicaid down drastically and have medicare or medicaid cover everybody in the country that wanted it.
The real tragedy of the Trump administration is that with the republicans holding the presidency and both houses of congress they could do some really good things -- like rationalizing the medical/health system. Instead, all they want to do is appoint crackpots to the cabinet and make life difficult for immigrants and dark-skinned people.
Medical spending in the U.S. is about double what it is in most European countries, Canada, and Japan.
The fraud loses for Visa, American Express, and Mastercard are small (I am guessing 1-2%). If the government would work at it they could bring fraud loses for Medicare and Medicaid down drastically and have medicare or medicaid cover everybody in the country that wanted it.
The real tragedy of the Trump administration is that with the republicans holding the presidency and both houses of congress they could do some really good things -- like rationalizing the medical/health system. Instead, all they want to do is appoint crackpots to the cabinet and make life difficult for immigrants and dark-skinned people.
7
Like other Trump and Republican solutions, this moves us further away from real improvements and real solutions
1
Faker in Chief tells fake lies to base who likes to be faked.
5
He tells fake lies? They sure sound like real lies.
The fact that the House exempted itself from their amazing creation pretty much sums it up.
4
Until we agree that health care is not a right, but a luxury a wealthy country like ours can and should afford, we're going to be stuck arguing about this forever; if health care was a right then every 2nd and 3rd world country that doesn't provide it is denying their citizens their "rights", when in fact it's a matter of being affluent enough to afford it, not unlike air conditioning (clearly on a different scale).
America is wealthy enough to do this, and should. Yes, it's a matter of sharing that wealth. Those that resent that, and who willfully ignore the societal back-end benefits of doing, so should move their thinking into the 21st century like all the other wealthy first world countries have done, with success.
America is wealthy enough to do this, and should. Yes, it's a matter of sharing that wealth. Those that resent that, and who willfully ignore the societal back-end benefits of doing, so should move their thinking into the 21st century like all the other wealthy first world countries have done, with success.
4
I agree. America is wealthy and could afford good health coverage if we had a rational health/medical system. It is the right thing to do for our people plus it would be good for business and the economic health of the country.
1
And meantime, the Republicans are about to do to the legal system what they've done to the health care system - gut it, remove as many protections for average people as possible, and turn over the courts to big business and the thugs that staff the police in the most repressive parts of the country. Goresuch was just the start. McConnell/Trump is about to nominate the most anti-Constitution batch of judges since the Civil War.
5
"Donald Trump gets some positive pleasure out of taking people who make the mistake of trusting him for a ride?"
This may be the ONLY motivation for Trump. It is obvious from "The Art of the Deal" and the way he has chronically screwed his workers and subcontractors out of what was promised. Trump gets a Machiavellian thrill out of making promises that will "sell the deal" rather than regarding the promises as a fundamental part of the deal that he must live up to. In business he relied on his expensive legal team to deal with the unhappy people who he mistreated. As President we are still learning how or whether he'll have to pay for his malfeasance.
This may be the ONLY motivation for Trump. It is obvious from "The Art of the Deal" and the way he has chronically screwed his workers and subcontractors out of what was promised. Trump gets a Machiavellian thrill out of making promises that will "sell the deal" rather than regarding the promises as a fundamental part of the deal that he must live up to. In business he relied on his expensive legal team to deal with the unhappy people who he mistreated. As President we are still learning how or whether he'll have to pay for his malfeasance.
6
As Jimmy Kimmel said, "Health care isn't a game." These are matters of life or death. The fact that Trump and Ryan flatly lie about what their tax-break-disguised-as-health-care will actually do is a vicious and cynical crime against all Americans. Let's quit this silly game and call it what it is: a scam.
4
Republican party has set itself for victory in mid term.
More they screw up more the voters flock to them.
What Allan Bloom called "dumbing down" of Americans
is showing its results.Democrats are dishonest too.
Democrat like Elizabeth Warren or Barney Sanders
are discouraged by the establishment of the party because
of their opposition to wall street and inequality.
More they screw up more the voters flock to them.
What Allan Bloom called "dumbing down" of Americans
is showing its results.Democrats are dishonest too.
Democrat like Elizabeth Warren or Barney Sanders
are discouraged by the establishment of the party because
of their opposition to wall street and inequality.
First, the Republicans' lies don't even make sense because they don't comport with how insurance works. Insurance spreads risk and dilutes expense. If you eliminate the requirement that people buy insurance, premiums must rise because the pool of buyers is enriched for likely claimants, meaning the insurance companies will have to pay more money in claims. They get this money from premiums.
Second, Republicans can rightly claim that Obamacare is becoming dysfunctional, but that is largely a result of Republicans sabotaging Obamacare. You can't fault a ship for sinking after you blow a hole in its side.
Third, the only reason Republicans have to eliminate Obamacare is political animus, tinged with racist sentiment. It is not at all out of concern for their constituents.
Fourth, Republicans love to cut taxes and inflate the deficit while claiming to be "fiscally responsible." That is the biggest lie. They are simply trampling on the poor and middle class so that they can stay afloat.
Second, Republicans can rightly claim that Obamacare is becoming dysfunctional, but that is largely a result of Republicans sabotaging Obamacare. You can't fault a ship for sinking after you blow a hole in its side.
Third, the only reason Republicans have to eliminate Obamacare is political animus, tinged with racist sentiment. It is not at all out of concern for their constituents.
Fourth, Republicans love to cut taxes and inflate the deficit while claiming to be "fiscally responsible." That is the biggest lie. They are simply trampling on the poor and middle class so that they can stay afloat.
8
I like that Trump said that the Australian health care system (single payer) was better than ours BUT he promised that he was going to provide us the BEST healthcare. Another misdirection. Sad!
5
"And what does it say about the state of American politics that a majority of the representatives of one of our major political parties have gone along with this nightmarish process?"
It says this is who we are and what we stand for. This is our government. We can change it, but for now these folks are doing our bidding.
It says this is who we are and what we stand for. This is our government. We can change it, but for now these folks are doing our bidding.
3
Why are the Republicans so mean and cruel?
Why are the Republicans so indifferent to the suffering of others?
Does anyone know why?
Why are the Republicans so indifferent to the suffering of others?
Does anyone know why?
5
Because the rest of us protect their advantage. If called upon we fight for them. Or they screw our lives up.
1
Money.
1
as usual a penetrating bracing and alarming message from a wise and most knowledgeable man; will the Democratic party be able to overcome and overturn this direction to disaster ?
4
This health care (not) of the republicans is like watching a slow train wreck. The train started moving when Obama became our President. The R's, in all their rightful indignation, dug in their heels and vowed to oppose anything and everything he and the Democrats did. This obstruction persisted on through the Presidential campaign and never wavered because the R's were also convinced that Trump didn't have a chance. Their obstruction movement rolled on, their internal opposing factions continued to work to split the party but that didn't matter. Even though they are internally fractured, they were united against Obama, Clinton, and the Democrats. Then the train got a new crazy guy as engineer. Whoa, put on the brakes! Whoops... no brakes. Ah well, just aim for some poor people....
5
Clearly, it's time for CA and the Northeast States to stop funding the federal government who continues to subsidize red states. The Northeast and CA can use the money to enact single-payer coverage amongst them. If the Red states want to go back to feudalism, why stop them? - let's just make sure that the rest of us don't go along for the ride. We may need to consider a two-speed America.
6
Unbelievable! What a shameless display put on by cruel, greedy people in power!
5
Why do Americans support the Republican Party in such a large measure???
Is it that there are too many ignorant people in the US that vote against there own interests?
Is it party tribalism?
Is it nationalist feelings?
Is it fear of immigration?
Is is all of the above?
Is it that there are too many ignorant people in the US that vote against there own interests?
Is it party tribalism?
Is it nationalist feelings?
Is it fear of immigration?
Is is all of the above?
4
....it's because education funding in the US is based on where you live.
1
Fear of change,
Combination of pro-gun and anti-abortion sentiments,
Emergence of right wing propaganda, with access to 50-60 millions of Americans, with a message "we white christians are under attack".
Combination of pro-gun and anti-abortion sentiments,
Emergence of right wing propaganda, with access to 50-60 millions of Americans, with a message "we white christians are under attack".
1
We couldn't agree more. Well said. But what to do? Register, Vote, Change the House and Senate and impeach. 1, year. 2, years. 3 years. Done!
The irony of all ironies is the way the Republicans are constantly lying, lying, lying to the American people in order to "keep their promise."
6
Today they came for the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. If we let them get away with it, tomorrow they will come for Medicare. The day after that whey will come for Social Security.
Trump voters say, why, he and these people around him already have so much money they don't need any more... they can't be bought. To you I say, you don't understand avarice. There is never enough. At some point it becomes not about how much you need but how superior it makes you feel. How much more powerful you are than all the lesser underlings.
And don't kid yourselves. It's not the "coastal elites" that look down on you. It's the super rich, the very ones you've put in power.
Rise up, people. Vote these miscreants out. They don't have your best interests at heart.
Trump voters say, why, he and these people around him already have so much money they don't need any more... they can't be bought. To you I say, you don't understand avarice. There is never enough. At some point it becomes not about how much you need but how superior it makes you feel. How much more powerful you are than all the lesser underlings.
And don't kid yourselves. It's not the "coastal elites" that look down on you. It's the super rich, the very ones you've put in power.
Rise up, people. Vote these miscreants out. They don't have your best interests at heart.
6
The NY Times repeatedly told us that Trump's chance of winning the election was <1%.
Doesn't history repeat itself?
Doesn't history repeat itself?
1
And so it was. 80,000 flipped votes. Less than 1%.
1
This is a shining jewel in the crown of Republicans' campaigns to drain the hope of the American people. They are the people of the lie.
4
That photo may come back to haunt those gloating Republicans all wreathed in gleeful smiles. It's a ready-made propaganda piece that deserves to become as infamous as Hitler's little dance.
7
Since January everything coming from Washington is just grotesque. Every day there is some other draconian horror visited on Americans as Executive Orders turn the clock back on social progress or there is some hideous photo-op in the Rose Garden with Paul Ryan et al sadistically smiling behind the narcissist-in-chief as they cheerily announce the passage of their death panel bill. What's next? Probably the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare is high on Paul Ryan's Ayn Randian agenda.
The fulfillment of the prophesies of "1984" began with the enactment of the Patriot Act under George W. Bush, and now with Jeff Sessions as AG, it will proceed on steroids. I cannot believe the swiftness with which our democracy is being torn apart, and there is little we can do to stop it.
The fulfillment of the prophesies of "1984" began with the enactment of the Patriot Act under George W. Bush, and now with Jeff Sessions as AG, it will proceed on steroids. I cannot believe the swiftness with which our democracy is being torn apart, and there is little we can do to stop it.
6
Well, you bashed the candidate who wanted single payer. You agree Obamacare is problematic. You are a Nobel prize winning economist. How about some answers as to what should be happening, rather than endlessly writing what most commenters are fully capable of? We know the Republicans are horrible. We know Trump is a disgrace. What are you adding to the dialogue?
5
There is no healthcare plan that can fix the dismay these Republicans and the idiot who is President have wrought. There is only one way, impeach the idiot and vote the rest of them out in 2018.
7
There is a saying translated from the Russian: Tzar Nicholas proclaimed " the living shall be slaves and the dead shall be free." People will believe anything and follow false messiah. Just watch the old tapes of Hitler's rallies. The GOP will become the American Fascist Party if we do not resist every draconian measure. Healthcare is just the beginning!
3
Pondering this "why people vote against their interests" issue and even reading various books on the voting electorate in democracies, this appears to be more related to not only a lack of intellectual connection (policy to voting); but is based on an almost return to Medieval concept of people's "place" in the world. In that world GOD favored the JUST and RIGHTEOUS (whether it be in wars, wealth or health). It was not merely being "lazy" about your ambitions to work hard, become wealthy and having a better life (a la Rep Brooks' notion that sick people haven't tried hard enough to be healthy), but that GOD has assigned you your "place" and/or rewarded you with accomplishment and wealth/health. If GOD hasn't...well, then presumably they are not worthy and deserve the (Fill in the Blank disease) visited upon them. Thus, are these so-called "Christian" folks absolving themselves of any Moral or Social Obligation for these "unfortunates" - because this is all GOD's Will! It's not these goodly "Christians" problem, but GOD wants them to be "poor' or "sick" or "afflicted" or "____"; and theses so-called Christians sleep easy because NONE of this is their provenance - they so easily excuse themselves. The question is will the "unfortunates" continue to excuse them?
2
The photo with Trump celebrating in the Rose Garden with his GOP fellow criminals is hard for me to unsee. Travesty does not begin to describe what these fools have done. They are happy, smirking with their false sense of accomplishment. The truth of the matter is that few, or none, of them have actually read the bill, except maybe Ryan the Flim Flam man. Trump is an idiot more concerned about photos that show his double chin than what happens to me if I come down with cancer. Pence is a true 'faux' Christian who needs to be supervised by his wife so that he can avoid temptation. This is nothing less than evil in action. The Devil is in charge.
Mo Brooks said that "if you are sick, it is your own damn fault". This from a man who is guaranteed health care for him and his family for life. Will Americans be able to sustain the 'resistance' that appears to be forming? I wonder but hope we will.
Mo Brooks said that "if you are sick, it is your own damn fault". This from a man who is guaranteed health care for him and his family for life. Will Americans be able to sustain the 'resistance' that appears to be forming? I wonder but hope we will.
2
Harold don't put your words and your paraphrase in quotation marks and attribute them to Rep. Brooks. If you can site the source of your quote I would be curious to see it. I'm really familiar with Rep. Brooks and those don't sound like words he uses. And if you're paraphrasing his interview from last week concerning patients with pre-existing conditions be sure to include that he clarified that many have conditions secondary to life choices (drug use, alcohol abuse, obesity, smoking etc) but also said, "in fairness, a lot of these people with pre-existing conditions, they have those conditions through no fault of their own." So was your quote a quote... or was it your incomplete and self serving summary of what he actually said?
Americans are fundamentally (stupidly) tribal when it comes to electing our "leaders". No matter how bad your tribe may screw you over you stick by them anyway.
2
Does anyone understand the problems with health insurance companies? My own experience a year before I retired was to try to get a health insurance policy as current law allowed up to 18 months to carry your job insurance to your next job. The trouble I had was that I lived when I retired in one state but needed the policy in another state. The insurance company stated they could not get me on there computer system. But I already knew someone from the company I just retired from that worked in my group was already on there system. So they lied and I had to get the U S labor department to force the insurance company to get me on to there computer. I had retired as a computer programmer after 40 years. So having a bad experience with this kind company I could understand that the system created using them was going to have problems. All this arguments about Obamacare and replacement was not going to be easy. When in God we trust was replaced by geed is good you are in for some problems that in the case of health care was not the best of things. When faced with politics you are now facing these problems. If you only stay away from health insurance companies you may have reduced these problems. But since most people in United States not big on socialism or simply government program you end up with the fact you can not separate culture from medicine. So you have nothing like the countries in Europe in there dealing with health care. Americans have to learn from other countries.
2
But this very same paper reported on the Republican's tax "reform" aspirations. By dramatically lowering government revenue this year, they can hope to have a tax cut next year that decreases government revenue still more. But this second decrease will be judged relative to the lower baseline from this year assuming the health care tax cut goes through. To fully appreciate the cynicism one must consider the entire package, rather than just the health care vote.
1
I feel the specter of the eugenics movement here. The "healthcare" bill seems to focus on getting rid of the poor, developmentally or physically disabled, any perceived "weak" or unhealthy members of our society. Are the GOP really thinking this, or is it just the unintended consequences of their greed?
1
"And what does it say ... that a majority of the representatives of one of our major political parties have gone along with this nightmarish process?"
It kind of says it all. An old toast goes 'Confusion to our enemies!' This has been a case of confusion and lies among ourselves, and in particular within that very same Grand Old Party.
Party politics often involves lies, deliberate deceptions, and at times mass delusions. But those have generally been tactics, where here they have become dogma of the political religion of this Alt-Right. Lies and confusion no longer matter since that is what the winner ran on. How many clips of his supporters have you seen where they shrug off his latest outrageous lies because they expect that as normal tactics in business and politics. 'They all lie all the time. So what?'
Well, this bunch certainly do, to themselves as much as to everyone else.
"Orwell-level dishonesty"?
Lies are Truth
There are Facts and Alternative Facts
Science is False
News is Fake
We know What We Are Doing
Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do.
It kind of says it all. An old toast goes 'Confusion to our enemies!' This has been a case of confusion and lies among ourselves, and in particular within that very same Grand Old Party.
Party politics often involves lies, deliberate deceptions, and at times mass delusions. But those have generally been tactics, where here they have become dogma of the political religion of this Alt-Right. Lies and confusion no longer matter since that is what the winner ran on. How many clips of his supporters have you seen where they shrug off his latest outrageous lies because they expect that as normal tactics in business and politics. 'They all lie all the time. So what?'
Well, this bunch certainly do, to themselves as much as to everyone else.
"Orwell-level dishonesty"?
Lies are Truth
There are Facts and Alternative Facts
Science is False
News is Fake
We know What We Are Doing
Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do.
2
1% benefit
99% do not
Friends and Family using position to profit.
Rulers picking their voters instead of voters picking their representatives.
Hmmm ... reminds me of France in the 1780s, Russia until 1917, The Soviet Union after 1917, Argentina in the 50's, and every other oligarchic, despotic, kleptocracy in history.
99% do not
Friends and Family using position to profit.
Rulers picking their voters instead of voters picking their representatives.
Hmmm ... reminds me of France in the 1780s, Russia until 1917, The Soviet Union after 1917, Argentina in the 50's, and every other oligarchic, despotic, kleptocracy in history.
Paul Ryan and the Republican leadership, have made the judgment that they can fool their "low information voter" base all the time. Their strategy for a long time has not to work for those people but rather to work for the wealthy to get wealthier in this age of greed. To do so, and still maintain "power" they must either lie or mislead to continuously get them to vote against their own self-interest. To date, this cynical con has been working. We will see if this time they went too far.
1
In addition to the stated motives for passing this act - the greed of the super-rich, right-wing ideology and Trump's innate personality disorders - I can't help but sense the passing a bill no matter what took on a life of its own, for Trump and the House. That is: the WIN (as seen by Trump) was so much more important as a thing in itself than the terrible logic, ethics and consequences attached to it, and that the Republican House members bought into it. Hopefully, they bought their way out of power, as well.
1
Democrats and others who think that Republicans will be unable to get their health care legislation are deluding themselves. Much more likely is that all of the Republican Congress members will be put in a room, and their leaders will say something to the effect that: We are going to have a $600 billion tax cut with not one penny of it going to anyone who makes less than $250,000 per year, and you are giving us grief over things like how many or how few people are going to be uninsured and funding Planned Parenthood? When put that way all the Republicans will likely fall in line and the bill will pass both houses.
The one certain thing that can be predicted is that the Republican controlled congress will enact and President Trump will sign is elimination of the estate tax. This literally could be called taking from the millionaires to give to the billionaires. Estates under $5.49 million are now totally exempt from the estate tax. Billionaires are not as able as mere millionaires to employ various strategies to avoid estate taxes. Repealing the estate tax will give billions to a fraction of the top 1%, which will ultimately have to be made up by the rest of the taxpayers. .."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4067359
The one certain thing that can be predicted is that the Republican controlled congress will enact and President Trump will sign is elimination of the estate tax. This literally could be called taking from the millionaires to give to the billionaires. Estates under $5.49 million are now totally exempt from the estate tax. Billionaires are not as able as mere millionaires to employ various strategies to avoid estate taxes. Repealing the estate tax will give billions to a fraction of the top 1%, which will ultimately have to be made up by the rest of the taxpayers. .."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4067359
1
Republicans did it because they promised their base they would and if they didn't they would be primaried by an even more conservative lunatic. They haven't politically suffered for any wrongheaded policy move since 2008. Mitch McConnell paid no political price for refusing to give Merrick Garland a hearing as a SCOTUS justice. And remember, it was the people who will be hurt the most by the AHCA that vote Republican in every election cycle and who were the difference in voting Trump into office. The best way to deal with Republicans is "To give them enough rope to hang themselves".
1
Paul, it's urgent that you go on to analyze the financial motivation behind this bill. A recent columnist in the Times suggested that it all has to do with lowering the budget baseline by one trillion dollars, which would make possible a second enormous tax cut for the rich while still bypassing the filibuster. How exactly this works was unclear to me. Please explain!!
Trump has gotten away with a lot of things in his life . He may well get away with this one too .
1
I observed a moth relentlessly flying up against a window trying to get to the promise of the larger world outside. It saw the outside world - it was there, but couldn't overcome the obstacle of the glass that it couldn't see. I knew that soon, the moth would exhaust itself and join the ranks of the perished at the bottom on the windowsill. I couldn't help but think of the people that continue to vote Republican, hoping for the better world they think they see, not realizing the GOP is the glass in their way that will ultimately ensure their demise. The GOP will toast to their successes while the bodies of the fooled continue to pile up.
2
As callous as the whole Trumpcare plan is I wonder who these insurance company people are who would rush in to make their product too expensive for
poorer people to buy it? Who are these people and why does the rest of the country put up with THEM?
poorer people to buy it? Who are these people and why does the rest of the country put up with THEM?
Why conservative politicians lie so much in their (and our) face?
Because it works on conservative side. Conservatives don't really care. Their politicians have realized last 10 years that any lie, no matter how overt, is no problem. So they just carry on, with a smile, exactly the Orwellian way.....
Because it works on conservative side. Conservatives don't really care. Their politicians have realized last 10 years that any lie, no matter how overt, is no problem. So they just carry on, with a smile, exactly the Orwellian way.....
Let us not kid ourselves - this is a tax cut bill, not a healthcare bill.
You get the Government you deserve. End of story. Maybe Americans should work a little harder next time at getting better leaders. For the time being, we all deserve this.
It's so ironic that the very people who voted these people in, are the very people who this, and similar legislation to come, will be negatively impacted. These guys blew those dog whistles, and the rust belt/sun belt voters responded like Pavlov's Dogs in the voting booths. So predictably.
Healthcare per capita is approximately twice that of the rest of the developed world. Meanwhile, the US government pays approximately half of total societal healthcare costs. If healthcare were as efficient as elsewhere, we would have Medicare for all for no additional tax or plan. Too many vested interests at play here. We win two world wars, put man on moon, win cold war, invent the internet, iphones etc - but can't do this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expendit...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_health_expenditure_co...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expendit...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_health_expenditure_co...
This healthcare bill shows the intellectual dishonesty & bankruptcy of modern "Republicans". They have sold their souls to corporate interests while pandering to gullible Catholics & religious fundamentalists on social issues.
It's way past time for a Congressional committee to launch a 90 day study of healthcare systems around the industrialized world that ACTUALLY WORK! They could present the 3 best choices available, & some smart Representative could introduce a (bipartisan?) bill to debate & choose the best alternative. Our legislators must finally do their collective job; movement away from employer based health insurance is long overdue.
It's way past time for a Congressional committee to launch a 90 day study of healthcare systems around the industrialized world that ACTUALLY WORK! They could present the 3 best choices available, & some smart Representative could introduce a (bipartisan?) bill to debate & choose the best alternative. Our legislators must finally do their collective job; movement away from employer based health insurance is long overdue.
The picture accompanying this op-ed makes me want to gag. And it has only to do with the very phony Christians, Pence and Ryan.
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil. But for good people to do evil---that takes religion."----Steven Weinberg
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil. But for good people to do evil---that takes religion."----Steven Weinberg
1
"What really stands out, however, is the Orwell-level dishonesty of the whole effort. As far as I can tell, every word Republicans, from Trump on down, have said about their bill — about why they want to replace Obamacare, about what their replacement would do, and about how it would work — is a lie, including “a,” “and” and “the.”"
Nothing more needs to be said.
Nothing more needs to be said.
" This was a Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength moment. And it may be the shape of things to come."
This may be one of the last chances to save what we think of as our democracy. When they lose their coverage the low-information voters will be unable to deny they have been lied to.
And yet the right-wing news outlets may be able to spin even this away. In past comments on the NY Times doctors have written about treating patients who only have coverage due to Obamacare, and then listen to those same patients rail against the evils of Obamacare!!
This may be one of the last chances to save what we think of as our democracy. When they lose their coverage the low-information voters will be unable to deny they have been lied to.
And yet the right-wing news outlets may be able to spin even this away. In past comments on the NY Times doctors have written about treating patients who only have coverage due to Obamacare, and then listen to those same patients rail against the evils of Obamacare!!
1
"Idiocracy" come to life.
This thing will pass. McConnell won't let this opportunity slip by.
This thing will pass. McConnell won't let this opportunity slip by.
1
Indeed, democrats and liberals should not oppose any republican, conservative legislation, no matter how reckless it is. Just work hard to be sure that people always know who to blame in the future for their troubles. Likewise, we have just to wait for all those dumb people, that voted against their own interests, to die of some horrible and painful disease that they cannot afford to cure. The only guaranteed way to take votes away from the ruling political party
The upside I can see to any of this is that it's now out in the open. There's no place to run, no place to hide. All the greed, craven disregard for human life, bigotty, narcissism, and sadism are there for all to see. They wear it proudly-'but that's only temporary. There's a reason so many artists throughout history concerned themselves with "vanitas"--
The Republican plan for American is simply "we must burn this village to save it" applied to the country as a whole. Or maybe "It takes a burnt down village."
Unless someone is going to maintain a 24/7 snakewatch on Mitch McConnell, I wouldn't dance too quickly on the Republicans' graves.
Call it Trumpcare. Remember who voted for it. Get rid of them. And get rid of the serial liar who keeps saying Trumpcare will be better and cheaper for all. He and the GOP have diminished us in the eyes of the rest of the world so that will be the only way to make America great again.
Nice photo. Where are the women?
They want to do anything possible to erase accomplishments from the first Black president - plain and simple! It is motivated by greed and Trump's plan to treat America like his businesses - G- d save us
There must be more reporting on why so many insurance companies fled the ACA. The back story is that the Republicans stealthily sabotaged the ACA by undermining the extremely important provisions in the ACA (such as risk-corridors) that were designed to stabilize the newly created healthcare markets. Why isn't the NYT interviewing present or recently-retired insurance company execs to explain their companies' behavior in the so-called Obamacare "death spiral"? The increase in premiums and deductibles are at least partly due to Republican behind-the-scenes dirty work. The Republican so-called health plan will cost the health of millions but the Republican party has already cost the pocketbooks of millions of Americans who cannot identify the culprit who did this to them. The Republicans put all the blame on Obamacare but sometimes he who smelt it dealt it. Bigly!
2
The photos say it all: the smiling white, mostly male, Medusas in back of their 'leader' in crime who, clapping his hands like a trained chimpanzee as his only means of (appropriate to the moment) exhibition of pleasure, smiles at how easy it is to turn these weaklings on... and off.
The nasty game of 'gotcha,' at our expense, ensues.
The nasty game of 'gotcha,' at our expense, ensues.
I blame the media.
1
The GOP (aka, the Banana Republicans these days) benefit from a consequence-free electorate. That is, they can do anything and there will be a key segment of their supporters who will loudly cheer them on. Fox News and friends have cultivated this group for decades.
They are definitely the Ignorance is Strength crowd, and they just want somebody to hate. Even if/when the GOP screws them over, that hate and rage can be easily spun off into acceptable targets and the GOP won't bear political cost for it (at least among those voters).
They are definitely the Ignorance is Strength crowd, and they just want somebody to hate. Even if/when the GOP screws them over, that hate and rage can be easily spun off into acceptable targets and the GOP won't bear political cost for it (at least among those voters).
63% of white men and 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump, despite his lying, incompetence, and blatant stupidity. They voted for Donald Trump for his hatred, racism, and the promise of "make America white again" white supremacy. That there will be collateral damage, like people dying for lack of health care, etc...The average Trump voter/supporter could care less, and most are too dumb to know the difference.
Such transparent hatred for the "have-nots" and love for the "haves" as well as a desire to wipe out the first black president's achievement. Ditto EJS.
Trumpcare is also known as DEATHCARE. Why member of congress is exempt from Trumpcare. If Trumpcare is so great why don't spineless congressmen/women should signup for trumpcare.
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As long as the GOP raises the spectre of the brown/black/yellow menace and trumpets the fiction of a Christian nation, they'll get away with murder. Perhaps literally.
1
Which raises two questions:
Why are they doing this, and why do they think they can get away with it?
The koch heirs charles and david want their taxes slashed so charles and david koch taxes will be slashed.
Those two born to orivilege heirs own today's gop.
They own paul ryan outright.
They own mitch mcconnell outright.
They own the supreme court.
This is their country not The American People's and we let them steal it so we deserve everything those two vile maggots have in store for us.
The United States of koch...And we have only ourselves to blame.
Why are they doing this, and why do they think they can get away with it?
The koch heirs charles and david want their taxes slashed so charles and david koch taxes will be slashed.
Those two born to orivilege heirs own today's gop.
They own paul ryan outright.
They own mitch mcconnell outright.
They own the supreme court.
This is their country not The American People's and we let them steal it so we deserve everything those two vile maggots have in store for us.
The United States of koch...And we have only ourselves to blame.
So was keeping my doctor on Obamacare....Lie !
Mr Krugman, please address the biggest lie of them all: That selling insurance across state lines is the magical answer to high premiums. Every single Republican and Trump supporter I've ever discussed HC with trots out this canard.
This law will create an incredible thicket of dissimilar requirements from one state to the next, and that thicket will be in constant flux, as states apply for waivers from the various requirements in the PPACA. Those waivers will change from election cycle to election cycle, depending on which party controls which branch of what state's government and how they decide to screw over their most vulnerable.
Ludicrous as it always has been, this legislation flies completely in the face of the idea of selling a uniform policy nationwide as a means of lowering premiums.
This law will create an incredible thicket of dissimilar requirements from one state to the next, and that thicket will be in constant flux, as states apply for waivers from the various requirements in the PPACA. Those waivers will change from election cycle to election cycle, depending on which party controls which branch of what state's government and how they decide to screw over their most vulnerable.
Ludicrous as it always has been, this legislation flies completely in the face of the idea of selling a uniform policy nationwide as a means of lowering premiums.
1
Far too much time and energy devoted to this topic. There is no such thing as private health insurance for the sick and elderly period.
The question is whether we as a society feel a need to take care of them and the GOP answer is no.
My bible begins with Cain asking God, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
My bible goes on to explain why the answer is yes. I am anxious to get my hands on a conservative American bible but like their guns it is hard to pry one from their cold dead hands.
The question is whether we as a society feel a need to take care of them and the GOP answer is no.
My bible begins with Cain asking God, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
My bible goes on to explain why the answer is yes. I am anxious to get my hands on a conservative American bible but like their guns it is hard to pry one from their cold dead hands.
3
Shame! (Bell rings...) Shame! (Bell rings...) Shame! Bell rings...)
One hopes that the ringing of the bell will signify the death knell of enough Republican House seats and the vacuous incumbents of said seats to find a new place to sit. I think that place will be at the feet of Beelzebub, who wears a really bad comb-over. Welcome to Hell and the Republican die off of 2018. Long may they rot.... (Thanks to Game of Thrones for the imagery and to the new prophet of our times, George Orwell.)
One hopes that the ringing of the bell will signify the death knell of enough Republican House seats and the vacuous incumbents of said seats to find a new place to sit. I think that place will be at the feet of Beelzebub, who wears a really bad comb-over. Welcome to Hell and the Republican die off of 2018. Long may they rot.... (Thanks to Game of Thrones for the imagery and to the new prophet of our times, George Orwell.)
1
The Republican "Trumpcare" bill is an American version of eugenics, designed to cull minorities, the infirm and the poor from our society. They wouldn't build "holocaust centers" as Sean Spicer described the death camps. But, they can deny millions of the basic right of health care.
Make no mistake, this is not mere incompetence. This is systematic thinning of the herd.
Organize and remove these despicable people from office. They are inhumane and immoral. Each one of these smiling white people are at their basic core, evil.
Down is up, folks. Right is oh so wrong.
Make no mistake, this is not mere incompetence. This is systematic thinning of the herd.
Organize and remove these despicable people from office. They are inhumane and immoral. Each one of these smiling white people are at their basic core, evil.
Down is up, folks. Right is oh so wrong.
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TrumpKare is not a “Death Panel”, TrumpKare is a DEATH SENTENCE…!!!
1
Makes me sick.
1
Billionaires are cutting off people's health insurance so they can pocket an extra fifty thousand dollars each. It's perverse.
As Mr. Krugman points out, the whole Republican party is telling a lie of breathtaking proportion. But it's just one more scam by our cynical president who delights in picking the pocket of the gullible public, robbing the poor to tip the rich because he's so damn good at it.
When he said "I'm president, do you believe it?" it sounded like even he grasps the irony of his being the least qualified and most dangerous man to ever hold the job.
As Mr. Krugman points out, the whole Republican party is telling a lie of breathtaking proportion. But it's just one more scam by our cynical president who delights in picking the pocket of the gullible public, robbing the poor to tip the rich because he's so damn good at it.
When he said "I'm president, do you believe it?" it sounded like even he grasps the irony of his being the least qualified and most dangerous man to ever hold the job.
1
The career of an officer in the Nazi concentration camp Death's Head SS was dependent on an absence of "gemütvoll humanitärismus", sentimental humanitarianism. Is that the now the guiding ideology of the Republican Party?
"You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time. You can't fool all of the people all of the time".
Abraham Lincoln, Republican President
The "New Republicans" have heeded Mr. Lincoln and, perhaps, realize that in bending their knees and opening their pocketbooks to the 1% they might "offend" the people they "fooled" into voting for them as in they may start losing control in the 2018 off year elections due to undelivered promises.
Hence they must "rush through" legislation that is favorable to the 1% before it dawns on their supporters that they've been thoroughly screwed by the GOP/TP/KOCH AFFILIATE.
In essence, Mr. Krugman, the next few months aren't going to be any more pleasant than the first 100 days with tax breaks to the wealthy, huge increases in "Defense Spending", reductions in ANY human services offered by the government and more soldiers dying in lost causes world wide.
Remember who these miscreants "serve" and it isn't the 60 million or so common slobs who voted for them.
Abraham Lincoln, Republican President
The "New Republicans" have heeded Mr. Lincoln and, perhaps, realize that in bending their knees and opening their pocketbooks to the 1% they might "offend" the people they "fooled" into voting for them as in they may start losing control in the 2018 off year elections due to undelivered promises.
Hence they must "rush through" legislation that is favorable to the 1% before it dawns on their supporters that they've been thoroughly screwed by the GOP/TP/KOCH AFFILIATE.
In essence, Mr. Krugman, the next few months aren't going to be any more pleasant than the first 100 days with tax breaks to the wealthy, huge increases in "Defense Spending", reductions in ANY human services offered by the government and more soldiers dying in lost causes world wide.
Remember who these miscreants "serve" and it isn't the 60 million or so common slobs who voted for them.
It's enough to fool 50.1% of voters in big swing states all the time.
Obamacare was called the Affordable Care Act for a reason. Trumpcare should be called the Available Care Act. That is their hollow buzzword. A new Ferrari is available to me but as a senior on a (small) fixed income, it is beyond my means.
163
I have been calling it 'TrumpDontCare'
How about "Best we could get away with while throwing a trillion dollars to the rich" care plan ?
Exactly!
Well put, jimi99.
Well put, jimi99.
You end on such a cynical note that, in the words of Lily Tomlin, it's hard to keep up. Yes, the real reason for this monstrosity is that it will give a huge tax break to the rich (and also change the revenue/tax equation of the federal government, which will allow for deeper cuts when "tax reform" comes along a bit later.) But the bit about DT getting a high from ripping us off unfortunately rings too true. As he has been described by some in the psych. field as a malevolent narcissist, you may have nailed it. Goddess help us.
The Ronald Reagan political legacy is that the GOP will base its power in the understanding of the reality that many, if not most, white persons without a college degree will vote to support their social values first before their economic interests. If it deviates from this game plan, it will lose. Hillary chose either to ignore this reality, or challenge it by appealing to unity thru diversity. We have reaped the results of her campaign. It will likely take another generation for this GOP strategy to lose its political impact due to changes in our population. in the meantime, the Dems will be in the wilderness, impaled on the horns of the cruel dilemna: being true to its social values while trying to appeal to its historic manual labor base.
The problem was Obamacare mainly gave healthcare to the poor, not to everyone. It's idea was it would lower everyone's premiums by not having the poor go to the ER with a sore throat for $2,000. And by having more preventive medicine that would lower catastrophic costs from getting a stroke by not taking a pill that cost a penny.
But the R's hobbled it so it couldn't work well, and claimed it had failed when it never started. And middle class people were furious they were giving yet more money to those they see as moochers.
I hope it all implodes into a catastrophe, until Americans finally understand national healthcare is the sole solution, as it is for all Western democracies.
Burn it all to the ground so there no longer is any option except rationality.
But the R's hobbled it so it couldn't work well, and claimed it had failed when it never started. And middle class people were furious they were giving yet more money to those they see as moochers.
I hope it all implodes into a catastrophe, until Americans finally understand national healthcare is the sole solution, as it is for all Western democracies.
Burn it all to the ground so there no longer is any option except rationality.
3
Nobody "hobbled" the ACA except Obama -- who hired an insurance industry executive to write a law favorable to their industry, in exchange for them agreeing not to fight the ACA as they fought HillaryCare in 1993 ("Harry & Louise" commercials).
"...how confident are you that mainstream media will resist the temptation of both-sides-ism, the urge to produce “balanced” reporting that blurs the awful reality of what Trumpcare will do if enacted?"
Thank you Paul Krugman for not practicing both-sides-ism in your op-eds! I am confident you are not tempted in the least to do so. Again, thank you!
Thank you Paul Krugman for not practicing both-sides-ism in your op-eds! I am confident you are not tempted in the least to do so. Again, thank you!
3
The photo says it all. These are the people who laugh at the misfortunes of others. These are the people who are comfortable in the knowledge that they've got theirs and everyone else must fend for themselves. These are the people who are convinced that it's a tough world out there but they're happy with their selfish grasp on what is safe for them. These are the faces of people who just don't give a damn about their fellow citizen. It amuses them greatly that they know they have gotten away with their deceit and that enough suckers out there bought into it. Their cynicism is greater than the cynicism they know they foster in everyone else. Grab what you can for yourself. Too bad for the rest of us.
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My thoughts precisely. These smug aging frat boys (and 1.5 women) legacied in to Ivy League degrees (or just bought them) have just pulled the biggest con job in the history of US government. Their leader is the smuggest of all. "Take that, losers! We worked for our silver spoons, you suck it up."
Simply put ~ ' I'm up, pull the ladder ' ~
If Republicans are lying "Bigly" there's a reason for that: lying works. Donald Trump in the White House is all the proof one needs. It's news when he doesn't lie because it's so rare - but he's the perfect leader for a party that has been running on lies for decades.
• Tax cuts create jobs.
• Wealth trickles down.
• Government is not the answer to our problems; government IS the problem.
• Liberals/Democrats hate America.
• America is a Christian nation.
• There'd be no racism in America if Democrats would stop inciting it for political gain.
• Government can't do anything right; free markets can solve all our problems.
• Climate change is a hoax.
• Scientists don't agree on anything - they'll say anything for grant money.
• America is the greatest nation on earth; America is a hell-hole of the verge of collapse.
• Anyone can succeed in America if they just work hard enough.
• Poverty, illness, lack of opportunity - it's always the result of bad lifestyle choices.
• There is no such thing as society or the public interest.
• Immigrants are stealing all our jobs.
• The police are always the good guys.
• Crime is out of control.
• Americans pay more taxes than anyone.
• 'Socialist' countries are collapsing because they're overtaxed and over-regulated.
• Deregulation will unleash our economy.
The lies goes on and on, get bigger and more brazen - and the media calls it a matter of opinion. 1984 indeed! IOKIYAAR for ever.
• Tax cuts create jobs.
• Wealth trickles down.
• Government is not the answer to our problems; government IS the problem.
• Liberals/Democrats hate America.
• America is a Christian nation.
• There'd be no racism in America if Democrats would stop inciting it for political gain.
• Government can't do anything right; free markets can solve all our problems.
• Climate change is a hoax.
• Scientists don't agree on anything - they'll say anything for grant money.
• America is the greatest nation on earth; America is a hell-hole of the verge of collapse.
• Anyone can succeed in America if they just work hard enough.
• Poverty, illness, lack of opportunity - it's always the result of bad lifestyle choices.
• There is no such thing as society or the public interest.
• Immigrants are stealing all our jobs.
• The police are always the good guys.
• Crime is out of control.
• Americans pay more taxes than anyone.
• 'Socialist' countries are collapsing because they're overtaxed and over-regulated.
• Deregulation will unleash our economy.
The lies goes on and on, get bigger and more brazen - and the media calls it a matter of opinion. 1984 indeed! IOKIYAAR for ever.
368
Sorry; I can"t translate your last sentence; I must not belong to the club. Your rhetoric was impressive but you blew the ending.
1
You forgot one, that anyone can grow up to be president. Donald Trump proves that one.
It's staggering when one brings all those lies together in one list.
It's even more staggering when one realizes the list is nowhere near complete.
It's even more staggering when one realizes the list is nowhere near complete.
To answer the question "why are they doing this, " I would add that enormous racism, selfishness, and cruelty lurks behind the greed. It's not simply a tax cut for billionaires that they're after. The contemporary Conservative ethos regarding taxes seems to be: none of my hard-earned money should go to help anyone less fortunate than me.
Another part of the answer to "how can they get away with it" has to do with consumer culture: people only want to pay as little as possible for consumer goods. Call it the Wal-Mart effect. Its very easy for Republicans to whip up anti-Obamacare sentiment with the boogeyman of rising premiums. I am a free-lance musician who must purchase individual healthcare plans on the Obamacare market, and I have seen my premiums and deductibles rise sharply over the last two years. But I'm not selfish enough to think that this is reason to gut the few protections that Obamacare provides. The problem here is the idea that nothing in America can exist except in a consumerist, for-profit, free market framework. Healthcare simply does not work under such a model. Mere hours after signing this bill, Trump praised Australia's government-funded universal healthcare as much better than ours. If that's what you believe, Mr. Trump, why can't we have it here?
Another part of the answer to "how can they get away with it" has to do with consumer culture: people only want to pay as little as possible for consumer goods. Call it the Wal-Mart effect. Its very easy for Republicans to whip up anti-Obamacare sentiment with the boogeyman of rising premiums. I am a free-lance musician who must purchase individual healthcare plans on the Obamacare market, and I have seen my premiums and deductibles rise sharply over the last two years. But I'm not selfish enough to think that this is reason to gut the few protections that Obamacare provides. The problem here is the idea that nothing in America can exist except in a consumerist, for-profit, free market framework. Healthcare simply does not work under such a model. Mere hours after signing this bill, Trump praised Australia's government-funded universal healthcare as much better than ours. If that's what you believe, Mr. Trump, why can't we have it here?
8
Some Republican are in denial: i.e. any feasible plan for implementing universal access to healthcare, or insurance, inherently requires a certain degree of government intervention and cost-sharing, which is in direct conflict with the Republican orthodoxy that government can't do anything right and should just get out of the way, leaving everything to the free-market.
For others the problem is that they don't think everyone should be guaranteed healthcare but lack the conviction to publicly say so, so they come up with fake policies like the AHCA to try to save face.
How much of each is responsible for the Republicans current predicament is debatable but it's certainly some of both.
For others the problem is that they don't think everyone should be guaranteed healthcare but lack the conviction to publicly say so, so they come up with fake policies like the AHCA to try to save face.
How much of each is responsible for the Republicans current predicament is debatable but it's certainly some of both.
4
The best thing about Trumpcare is the rising tide of anger it has created. Prior to passing the House there were very real and growing efforts to unseat Republican Congressman in the mid-terms. The vote has increased the intensity of effort among grass route voters.
Yesterday a group of us met to discuss forming PAC whose purpose is to unseat George Holding. A review of 2016 election results demonstrates that while Trump was able to only get something just short of 40% of Wake County votes, Holding got near 58%. Had his opponent emulated Hillary's percentage in Wake County and one much smaller county he would have won. We are asking why this occurred.
A second mission is to use social media and perhaps print media to point out the bills Holding supported that run contrary to NC's best interest. He is a Paris accord denier but NC has the Outer Banks and many lovely shoreline beaches, what is to become of them in the face of rising tides?
While the DNC was a mess in NC they are getting their act together. The purpose of the independent PAC is not to have money flow down ro this grass routes, independent effort, rather for it to flow ideas and valuable information and perhaps money up to the DNC while pressing Holding who holds no town hall meetings, tries to keep a low profile avoiding discussion of the key issues to become answerable to his constituents.
Politics the Republican way, obfuscation and hiding under the parapet, NEVERMORE!
Yesterday a group of us met to discuss forming PAC whose purpose is to unseat George Holding. A review of 2016 election results demonstrates that while Trump was able to only get something just short of 40% of Wake County votes, Holding got near 58%. Had his opponent emulated Hillary's percentage in Wake County and one much smaller county he would have won. We are asking why this occurred.
A second mission is to use social media and perhaps print media to point out the bills Holding supported that run contrary to NC's best interest. He is a Paris accord denier but NC has the Outer Banks and many lovely shoreline beaches, what is to become of them in the face of rising tides?
While the DNC was a mess in NC they are getting their act together. The purpose of the independent PAC is not to have money flow down ro this grass routes, independent effort, rather for it to flow ideas and valuable information and perhaps money up to the DNC while pressing Holding who holds no town hall meetings, tries to keep a low profile avoiding discussion of the key issues to become answerable to his constituents.
Politics the Republican way, obfuscation and hiding under the parapet, NEVERMORE!
3
I agree fully with the essence of this piece, but the case is slightly stretched and incomplete. Ryan's goal in advancing the House bill (and the prior one) is to eliminate an entitlement for the first time. That is huge for the Ayn Rand wing of the GOP, and worth almost any risk. It closely mirrors the risk that Democrats took on in passing the ACA in the first place. Ryan would say, 'of course there will be losers when an entitlement is eliminated, that's kind of the point'.
And the cutting taxes on the rich thing. I agree, but to be fully truthful, it's hard to cut taxes in a meaningful way without the rich getting most of the benefit. Which is not to say that Republicans and their financial backers are not heartless, greedy swine!
And the cutting taxes on the rich thing. I agree, but to be fully truthful, it's hard to cut taxes in a meaningful way without the rich getting most of the benefit. Which is not to say that Republicans and their financial backers are not heartless, greedy swine!
1
First, a complaint about the - er - unacknowledged borrowing. The remark "every word they say is a lie including and and the" was coined by Mary McCarthy. More importantly, McCarthy's target was Lillian Hellman, a communist. But what this highlights is in fact that today's conservative Right, dedicated anti-communists to a man (sic), have turned into what they hate most. They are the ones who are now pursuing a rigid and inhuman ideology in defiance of reality, and are lying shamelessly in order to advance it.
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At the root of our problem is the fact that many profit from the pain and illness of many others. Although a strong proponent of the Capitalist system I find national healthcare in a different category. Since no one debates the fact that we must support a strong military to protect our people, why haven't we realized that the health of our nationa falls under the same principle? A Federally designed and managed assault on the health of this nation would, I an sure, result in better over all results and expense than our profit oriented \, and greed motivated, system.
2
0.01% of Americans, people earning $10 million a year or more, own 90% of all wealth in the nation.
But this disparity is not enough to kleptocrats like Trump et al.
Trump has spent his life donating to public officials to obtain tax abatements; defrauding Trump U students of their life savings; swindling contractors out of money earned; and using losses he failed to pay banks to avoid paying personal taxes.
Now he is stealing life saving health care from individuals and families just to increase the disproportionate share of wealth owned by he and his cabinet of kleptocrats.
Judge Learned Hand famously said "Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible..."
This is hog wash in an age when politicians are owned by corporations and the wealthy under Citizens United.
The poor and middle class cannot arrange their affairs to be taxed as low as possible. Wealthy kleptocrats are changing the laws to tax corporations and incorporated millionaires and billionaires at rates lower than the working poor.
To pull off this fraud, the GOP cheat voters by closing urban polling stations, gerrymandering districts, targeting ID laws narrowly to restrict opponents, and even work with the Kremlin on cyber-hacking political opponents.
This is truly a test of American democracy as seldom seen since its founding.
But this disparity is not enough to kleptocrats like Trump et al.
Trump has spent his life donating to public officials to obtain tax abatements; defrauding Trump U students of their life savings; swindling contractors out of money earned; and using losses he failed to pay banks to avoid paying personal taxes.
Now he is stealing life saving health care from individuals and families just to increase the disproportionate share of wealth owned by he and his cabinet of kleptocrats.
Judge Learned Hand famously said "Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible..."
This is hog wash in an age when politicians are owned by corporations and the wealthy under Citizens United.
The poor and middle class cannot arrange their affairs to be taxed as low as possible. Wealthy kleptocrats are changing the laws to tax corporations and incorporated millionaires and billionaires at rates lower than the working poor.
To pull off this fraud, the GOP cheat voters by closing urban polling stations, gerrymandering districts, targeting ID laws narrowly to restrict opponents, and even work with the Kremlin on cyber-hacking political opponents.
This is truly a test of American democracy as seldom seen since its founding.
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David--Very well spoken. I'd make this comment a "pick." Thanks!
There is another, clandestine reason why the Republicans have a stake in lowering life expectancy in the US; namely, the large derivative market in life insurance policies. The financial sector stands to make billions even if the average life span decreases by only a few years.
4
I wish some pollsters would ask Americans what they think government is for, because therein may lie the clues to why the Republicans and the demented right wing get away with their fairy-tale ideology, false advertising, propaganda, and active promotion of fake news, which, as Krugman has long pointed out, almost always works in favor of the rich at the expense of everyone else, especially those most vulnerable.
In true doublespeak fashion, the party that touts itself as the moral majority, is bereft of morality in practice. By any means necessary and lying are the modus operandi of the GOP these days to get done what the powerful and 1% demand of their political lackeys. What better example than the Trumpcare bill.
I now wonder too how many Americans could really articulate what the central characteristics of democracy are, and what are the signs that a regime is headed toward or is authoritarian rather than democratic?
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” (George Orwell, "1984")
In true doublespeak fashion, the party that touts itself as the moral majority, is bereft of morality in practice. By any means necessary and lying are the modus operandi of the GOP these days to get done what the powerful and 1% demand of their political lackeys. What better example than the Trumpcare bill.
I now wonder too how many Americans could really articulate what the central characteristics of democracy are, and what are the signs that a regime is headed toward or is authoritarian rather than democratic?
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” (George Orwell, "1984")
2
All you need to know about Republicans and health care is to look at all of the smiling faces shown in this picture. These people are happy that millions of people will suffer from their efforts to eliminate health care.The outrage continues on, with no real end in sight. Ryan cynically went after Medicaid to make the largest reductions in care and coverage, again going after the people that cannot defend themselves due to a lack of resources and political power. The political party of bullies have finally found their ultimate big megaphone bully President to articulate their assault on the defenseless. As others have pointed out, only when Trump's policies start to affect Trump voters, will we see any change in the current political climate. The sad thing is that many will suffer needlessly due to the "genetic error of the system", that is Trump.
6
It looks to me that folks who voted for Trump might have believed they could get the whole country to suffer with them by afflicting the worst city slicker in North America on the whole US.
"The general shape of what the G.O.P. would do to health care, for the white working class in particular, has long been obvious, yet many people who were sure to lose, bigly, voted Trump anyway". Unfortunately, it has not been obvious to the duped non-rich white Christians in the south and the rust belt. Facts (increasingly the province of progressives) are easily ignored as liberal media lies.
3
Joe--All any candidate needs to say, in the Christian "belt" is: "I'm a committed Christian, and I oppose a woman's right to choose, LGBT rights, and immigration of brown people, and I support politics in tax-free religious organizations" and BINGO! they get elected.
2
It is so obvious that the only reasonable explanation is longing for company in misery.
Yesterday on This Week with Stephanopoulos, the invertebrate Ryan was on and just lied and lied, and lied some more, just like his master Trump, with impunity.
When he was asked how he could take away nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and say that wouldn't affect the poor, Ryan said it wouldn't affect the poor!
When he was asked if anyone read the bill because it was rushed through so quickly, he said it was only 200 pages!
When he was asked why the CBO hadn't rated the bill, he said they had!
Even for the spineless Ryan, this was a new low of lying. Stephanopoulos, by the end of the interview, was just sputtering and protesting saying, "But, but, but."
Then Susan Collins was interviewed and presented with the photos of the 13 white, male Senators who would be on the committee to prioritize and put forth the Republican bill. Here was an opportunity for the so-called maverick (undeservedly so) Collins to really step up and say this was not right that not one woman, in a country of 325 million where women are 51% of the population, was on that committee, let alone minorities.
She dutifully marched lockstep with her Masters, Handmaid that she is, and said she respected these Senators and knew they would do a great job!
We are screwed, thanks to the Republican-trained-pod people lemmings and the Republican "poorly-educated" base.
We have reached a new normal of lying and it only took 107 days. What an accomplishment by the Republicans.
When he was asked how he could take away nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and say that wouldn't affect the poor, Ryan said it wouldn't affect the poor!
When he was asked if anyone read the bill because it was rushed through so quickly, he said it was only 200 pages!
When he was asked why the CBO hadn't rated the bill, he said they had!
Even for the spineless Ryan, this was a new low of lying. Stephanopoulos, by the end of the interview, was just sputtering and protesting saying, "But, but, but."
Then Susan Collins was interviewed and presented with the photos of the 13 white, male Senators who would be on the committee to prioritize and put forth the Republican bill. Here was an opportunity for the so-called maverick (undeservedly so) Collins to really step up and say this was not right that not one woman, in a country of 325 million where women are 51% of the population, was on that committee, let alone minorities.
She dutifully marched lockstep with her Masters, Handmaid that she is, and said she respected these Senators and knew they would do a great job!
We are screwed, thanks to the Republican-trained-pod people lemmings and the Republican "poorly-educated" base.
We have reached a new normal of lying and it only took 107 days. What an accomplishment by the Republicans.
13
Medicare for all. Medicare, with its 2% administrative overhead.
10
It sure generates a lot of indecipherable paper that nobody reads.
As ignorant, callous (and endless criticism ad nauseum) as Trump is, I really doubt that he even knows what's in the AHCA bill. I figure he's just depending on the Republicans to do all the hard work. That way he can deny any part of any damage done.
2
At least Trump gave Obama a free lifetime pass to his golf courses.
NYT/Dr. Krugman:
Please provide a side by side chart comparing Trumpcare, Obamacare, and the
idea of Medicare for All. Please. It is impossible to judge these competing ideas or sell people on the benefits of a Single Payer type program without a clear comparison. It would be a true public service.
Please provide a side by side chart comparing Trumpcare, Obamacare, and the
idea of Medicare for All. Please. It is impossible to judge these competing ideas or sell people on the benefits of a Single Payer type program without a clear comparison. It would be a true public service.
4
The Times has had exactly that on their front page for weeks.
Think of Ross Perot's succinct and informative charts.
This is deliberate malice and selfishness, further exhibited in the assault on our National Parks, science, education, and women. The likelihood of judicial nominees supporting these principles (?) is terrifying.
It has moved my efforts at political reform from important to moral necessity. www.thefairelectionsfund.com
It has moved my efforts at political reform from important to moral necessity. www.thefairelectionsfund.com
2
Millions of people think Obamacare was little more than a giveaway program for people who don't want to work. Millions more think it was an effort to take away their "free choice" in how they get health care and who provides it. A significant subset even believes that it was demonically inspired, that it requires a microchip be implanted in patients and that this chip could be "the mark of the beast" as written about in the book of Revelations in the Christian New Testament.
With hindsight, it now seems that the Democrat's huge mistake when they had the power was not to create a more comprehensive, voluntary national program of health insurance that the Republicans couldn't come along and wreck. The Republicans have called Obamacare a disaster and failing so many times that people can be forgiven somewhat if they have lost sight of the truth.
Republican senators, running to represent entire states rather than small, narrowly focused House districts, are not likely to go along with what the House coughed up last week. Still, the attention is toward what can be taken away from voters without defeating their own party's chances at the next elections. What a noble cause they have embraced.
With hindsight, it now seems that the Democrat's huge mistake when they had the power was not to create a more comprehensive, voluntary national program of health insurance that the Republicans couldn't come along and wreck. The Republicans have called Obamacare a disaster and failing so many times that people can be forgiven somewhat if they have lost sight of the truth.
Republican senators, running to represent entire states rather than small, narrowly focused House districts, are not likely to go along with what the House coughed up last week. Still, the attention is toward what can be taken away from voters without defeating their own party's chances at the next elections. What a noble cause they have embraced.
6
You say republicans, I say pot-ah-to.
America: stupid enough to not see the party of folly in a 2 party system.
America: stupid enough to not see the party of folly in a 2 party system.
2
If we have a multiparty system, then we must have a runoff when there is no majority.
As they do in France.
As they do in France.
Endless tirades against Trump and GOP only obscure the fact that it’s not about the Republicans but about hedonistic, greedy, ignorant, racist Bible punchers a.k.a. the American voters.
3
It's their nature. It's WHO they are.
This is Performance Art, like David Copperfield's disappearance of the Statue of Liberty. Except when a sick person's healthcare vanishes, so does the person -- and they don't reappear. Bravo to the Amazing Ryan and his assistant, Donald the Wonder Dog.
1
Can anybody tell me the names of those (two?) women in the Rose garden photograph? I suspect they had little to do with this travesty of a "Health Care" act and were there for window dressing.
The view from the other side of the border is a nation of slaves and owners. That was the obvious conclusion from the beer fest last week. Sir, if Americans didn't think they were entitled to run the world you could play in your sandbox as long as you don't hurt yourself or others but this is a little much.
Land of the thief, home of the slave!
Land of the thief, home of the slave!
2
Why they think they can get away with it? Because for the next year they'll be installing extremist conservative pals in the courts who will then allow right-wing voter suppression efforts to flourish. In at least 30 states come Nov. 2018, Dems won't stand a chance. And then the fascism kicks into high-gear.
"Word is only a color, it ain't facts no more" - Kendrick Lamarr.
Why do they LIE??? Natural selection, and preference.
You left out what I saw as the absolute glee many of these Republicans showed at their little post vote soiree- beyond their mandate to always give the rich more was underlying Republican joy of, "we finally busted that black guy's legacy." They could have tried to smuggle the tax boondoggle within a "tax reform" package, but I think they preferred the double rush of both wealth for the wealthy and the chance to toast their inner visceral racism. Have another beer, boys.
1
Your average Republican voter hates Obamacare, but loves everything in it. As Forest Gump reminds us, "Stupid is as stupid does."
3
I would like to know what these old white men in the photo stand to gain from the tax cut that will come.......who in the photo have incomes over $250k and what will their tax cut be? Who has income over $1 million and what will their tax cut be..........a good add for Democrats to use.
1
Thank YOU, once again Paul Krugman...!!!
2
The headline photo: yes it's so much fun to have an abnormal "President". Gleeful GOP leaders rally around their "funny as all heck" leader, who makes inappropriate jokes and the obvious pay to play attitude.
The clear path to victory in 2018 has been laid bare for all to see! I don't want another conservative white male on the Supreme Court, so don't blow it this time.
The clear path to victory in 2018 has been laid bare for all to see! I don't want another conservative white male on the Supreme Court, so don't blow it this time.
2
we are already seeing both side-ism
In both the Times and Wapo, articles "debunking" the idea that AHCA will allow insurers to declare rape a pre existing condition
yeah, that is the Times idea of balance: the GOP pushes thru a nightmare, and the Times feels the need to carefully, painstakingly report on what may, possibly, be a case of hyperbole by liberals
Thank, New York "all emails all the time" Times
In both the Times and Wapo, articles "debunking" the idea that AHCA will allow insurers to declare rape a pre existing condition
yeah, that is the Times idea of balance: the GOP pushes thru a nightmare, and the Times feels the need to carefully, painstakingly report on what may, possibly, be a case of hyperbole by liberals
Thank, New York "all emails all the time" Times
3
Not to mention hiring a climate-change minimizer as a regular columnist.
Clearly, the photograph shows the moment with our Showman in Chief delivered the punchline to a joke. Ho ho ho. It's a sick joke, a really sick joke.
2
Looking at the accompanying photo they could have at least included their one token African American physician, Ben Carson, for a photo op! Amongst the sea of white old men, one African American man would stand out.
2
Trump is 1984! please read the book......
1
The hate for Obama from day one of his administration was the beginning. And honestly, looking at this picture of laughing white men makes me ill. Literally.
4
Meanwhile, there is this doubt: What if Carole is right?