When will these cruel Republicans stop wasting taxpayer money?
They don't want to "fix" the ACA, because they don't think it should exist to begin with.
Dem's need to stop trying to appease them on this issue, because they will never be satisfied with anything other than blowing it up. Write them off and move on.
1
Read Ms. Goldberg's column. The ACA lives today, but is on borrowed time.
1
The GOP--stupid, cruel, inept--controls all branches of government, yet it fails to enact its flagship legislation to trash healthcare. I imagine Donald Trump will throw a tantrum and start a war.
1
Good for David Leonhardt. everyone needs to understand the leaders in the GOP are bereft of any humanity and care not a whit in acquiring any. Whatever act or statement that would seem beyond the pale , is not. To this crowd nothing is sacred except for their scramble to please those who wield the power in business and the military. Until they obtain the prize their masters demand, they will not rest.
1
The thing is, only 3? One of them being that reactionary rand paul? Where have we come?
1
Isn't it rather ironic(and hypocritical) that while the "non healthcare bill" was imploding for the umpteenth time in Washington, once again, leaving millions of Americans unsure of what is going to happen next, V.P. and "so-called Christian" Mike Pence was giving a speech in Alaska deriding the healthcare system in Canada.
It is pretty clear now that when you are a rich, white, career politician who does not have to worry about such "trivialities" as to how the average person is going to provide healthcare for themselves and their families, I guess Pence and those like him can continue to live in their own version of reality.
1
The Patriots have been promised that Obamacare will be "repealed and replaced". This is a major let down.
The Patriots have been plucked young - usually 17 years old from High School. They have been indoctrinated that the greatest danger to American Liberty is the impending Obamacare apocalypse. And to be a Real Patriot, on must put ones mind and soul to Protect America from Obamacare. Opposing an abstract yet-to-be-implemented law was easy.
The Patriots delivered. The delivered the house. They delivered the Senate. A mock repeal was held and the it was sent to the President Obama to veto. It was thus demonstrated to them that the Patriots should deliver the Presidency too.
But now with Presidency delivered, the Republicans cannot fulfill the seven year old promise!
It was just not a promise. "Obamacare will be repealed and replaced" was the necessary mantra at the invocation of any Republican speech or meeting or interview. Everyday, at Faux News, we were told how important it is for the Liberty and Freedom of America that Obamacare be repealed and replaced.
Yet today, with control of all three branches and with a legal loophole to bypass filibuster they failed to obtain even 50 votes for even a 'skinny' repeal!!!
Touche'
2
yep - slipping the nasty through after people stop paying attention - this is how the money men work
while individual voters are busy working at their regular jobs and have limited time and energy to devote to fighting political battles, lobbyists for billionaires full time jobs are to keep pushing for the profits they want.
So - good people must keep paying attention - particularly after large battles.
I'm thinking of the Arab Spring - the people deposed the dictators and were dancing in the streets - I said 'this is the time the nasty ones take control - when the people are not paying attention!'
We need to keep paying attention - thanks for the reminder !
1
There will be no victory until both political parties sit down and talk about healthcare coverage for all Americans. The Obama administration made a grave mistake when they passed the Affordable Care Act without a single Republican vote. To make matters worse, they used a little-known procedural ploy to get the ACA past the House of Representatives. Oh yes, the Republicans were complicit for their eight years of stonewalling, but here is my point. Forcing the ACA through without a single Republican vote has driven the Republicans to try to Repeal the ACA without a single democratic vote. This is as grave a mistake as that made by the Obama administration. Without bipartisan support, there will be no compromise, and no end of the infighting. What's worse, no healthcare for millions of Americans.
What frustrates me the most is the way they try to spin that somehow states that did not expand Medicaid were victimized by states that did
Let's be clear. If your state didn't expand Medicaid it is entirely due to your elected legislature making the choice and choosing to punish their constituents. No other state took something from you. You should be furious with YOUR elected officials
7
I appreciate those that voted against this legislation, but in reality, it's like being appreciative that they didn't vote to fund concentration camps. It seems like a no brainer to me.
"But if the bill seems permanently defeated, Alexander will be able to resume the role of Senate statesman. He is well suited for it — in his third term, having previously been a governor and a cabinet member — and he doesn’t need to let himself get pushed around again.
Say what?!
Alexander was prepared to stand tall with Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy and vote for the bill.
And Leonhardt is prepared to call him a statesman?
Is there no accountability for being as craven a tool as the rest?
Alexander is nothing but a smarmy opportunist.
Most people reading this probably aren't old enough to remember how many times the Republicans in the 80s voted down attempts to de-fund the Contras in Nicaragua-- and how even when they did succeed in doing so still resorted to the Iran-Contra caper to go against the law to do what they had to do in order to win.
I'm not saying the Sandinistas were the best solution to Nicaragua's problems or that they were anything close, but they were better than the rule of the Somozas and their cronies.
The ACA isn't perfect, far from it. The Republicans made sure of that-- they made sure they planted enough tumors in it that it would fail, the same way we gladly embargoed so many tiny, weak nations during the Cold War but resisted doing so to the wealthy Afrikaners in South Africa for so many decades. What you can't defeat outright you undermine and what you cannot support openly you support covertly. This is their game now because it has always been their game.
Meanwhile, wealthy liberals who "earned" their lives of entitlement and "diversity" (read freedom to go to a multitude of ethnic restaurants of their choice-- especially this-- as well as employ the poor, uneducated loser who has no choice to clean their house/apt./condo/mansion, cook their food, care for their yard, watch their children, fix their roads, maintain their infrastructure, etc.
Ultimately they think their money will save them-- hand wringing is not that different than hand washing. They HAVE insurance, btw.
Well said.
You want improved health care? Fix the ACA and call the result “Trumpcare.” All the malignant ego in the White House wants is adulation and the erasure of his predecessor’s name. Win-win.
2
Yes. We should not be happy about the 3 GOP Senators that were opposed the TrumpCare but a large majority of them that supported it (for the fourth time, mind you).
They did it because: 1) They do not have any alternative plan benefiting people (they never had any during the last 7 years), 2) They had to vote for it because of the mounting fear of loosing their rich donor base who supported them to replace ObamaCare, 3) Their voting base is gradually realizing that the only health insurance they have is the one they are told to repeal, 4) Reducing health case costs by such tactics is the only way to pay for the corporate tax deductions.
So this latest effort by the GOP to repeal/replace ObamaCare was just delayed for a while, but neither the reasons nor the senators/congressmen/governors desperate to try it again are disappeared. Worst of all, there is not yet a better plan by Democrats to provide insurance to remaining uninsured millions of people. Unfortunately all Democrats are hoping desperately each time is that 3 maveric GOP senators will oppose any such effort by their fellow senators. Bad arithmetic!
Every single person who voted for these repeals should be voted out of office. They should be identified and listed for everyone to see and make sure people that would vote to throw human beings off of medical care to die should rmoved from office. They certainly do not care for the people they represent. It is unbelievable to me that there are people that feel this way and that they can be in power.
18
Health care reform in this country is too important to be dependent on narrow-minded political agendas. People lives depend on our getting it right, as does the economic health of the country (sick people and people bankrupted by too-expensive health care stop being productive members of the economy). This needs to be done the right way. Both parties working together. And both parties need to listen to experts testifying in open sessions so our ignorant and self-absorbed politicians can learn (if they're capable of learning) what really needs to be done to give this country a health care system that works for everyone and doesn't force anyone to just go away and die. The Republicans want to do everything based on their own myopic opinions, based on no facts and no expert opinions.
5
I am so tired of all this winning!
13
We'll get there and defeat this monstrosity. Why can't liberals accept that even at the height of Obamacare's approval (which is now) - about half the country doesn't want it ... Yes, half the country does want expanded government - but most of those people live in blue states - like MA, NY, CA, MD which together are responsible for 1/3 of Obamacare spending.
Why not just accept that we are not going to agree on this ? Let blue states be blue states ... and red states be red states.
It's only going to get harder from here for liberals. Passing Obamacare seems to have just wet their appetites. Now they want single payer healthcare, free college, universal income, etc. But what they fail to recognize is that all the countries which have these broad social services also tax their citizens much heavier - and not just the rich. Almost all single payer countries have a VAT (sales tax) of about 15% - 20%. And if the experience in VT, CO and CA (three very liberal states) is any indication, people simply do not want to pay higher taxes for single payer - even given the liberal argument that single payer is overall cheaper.
Right now, it's easy for the left. They can just play defense. And people are naturally resistant to change. But are they really ready to try to sell America on broadly higher taxes ? Keep in mind that they haven't raised taxes for the average person since 1964 (Medicare). That's 50 years ago.
3
They pay more taxes, so what?
It costs 20 dollars to see doctor in France.
If the US cut by a fraction the money that goes for
never ending war and homekand " security"
We could all have free healthcare and education.
Security is not losing your home due to chronic illness .
7
Please don't forget the powerful lobby of Pharmacuetical Companies in this country when it comes to maintaining expensive healthcare
2
I live in one of those "terrible" high taxes country. Thanks to all that terrible free education, our child is an electrical engineer and contributing to the country's economy. We are alive, own our home and are doing pretty, pretty well. And, by the way, in two days my wife is having knee surgery, for free, at a private clinic. You should try it sometime.
9
Barney Frank on Real Time said that universal healthcare is not the way to go but that Medicare should start at 55 instead of 65. Medicare is not free either. I have the most popular supplemental plan (F)along with Traditional Medicare that covers me me 100% without any deductibles or out of pocket except for my drug plan.
You are very lucky!
The GOP has been trying to extirpate Social Security since 1936. They will never stop. It is the same story with Medicare and Medicaid (which Trumpcare will destroy). Why does anyone think they will cease trying to eliminate the ACA, which has only existed for a few years? The Thugs know that the only thing that will prevent the death of the ACA is time: the longer it exists, the more difficult to annihilate it.
3
The GOP healthcare bill went down to defeat today for lack of adequate votes. Tomorrow the ACA will be strangled by budget cuts that will kill healthcare with a million cuts. Republicans are not to be trusted when it comes to legislation that supports actual sick human beings.
7
There never was any "Trumpcare." it was more farcical and fraudulent than "Trump University."
And quite beyond that, none of the Republicans in power had any "health care" plan at all -- what they did have is Ryan's massive tax cuts for the rich in mind, and they needed to gut healthcare to get the money for it; nothing else.
This is the last gasp -- once the Republicans cannot move this under reconciliation it is truly deader than the proverbial doornail.
The result will leave the Republicans struggling with their own folly and incompetence. Their propensity to double-down on stupidity and truculence is legendary -- some large fraction of the GOP will continue to do this.
It's improbable that "Republicans come to terms with their total lack of a reasonable repeal plan, more of them will be open to a bipartisan compromise to fix Obamacare’s flaws" ... will apply to very many Republicans.
But the salient point is that it would only require about 30 in the house, and 13 in the senate, to have the wherewithal to forge bipartisan health care legislation.
And the real question might be: "before or after the 2018 elections?"
2
The biggest takeaway from this travesty of repeal at any cost is that we need campaign finance reform. The ability of a small number of donors to coerce an entire party to vote against the interests and needs of its constituents appalls me.
Why does money control our elections and give power to the few? Sadly, I can't imagine either party initiating this much needed change to our process.
9
I suspect it is a bit like musical chairs. Many career GOP politicians know just how bad things will get if they have their way. They don’t want to be the last one standing when the music stops.
1
Orin Hatch showed his true colors yesterday when he told the group of disabled activists to "shut up" in the Senate chamber. It's obvious that he and his party have no respect for ordinary Americans. They've been bought and paid for.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/protesters-in-wheelchairs-tr...
10
How is signing up fully for Obamacare a “bipartisan compromise”?
3
If the democrats would introduce legislation to change the name of the ACA to Trumpcare he would be all over trying to strengthen it rather than repeal. He is so profoundly ignorant that it is astounding he sits in the Whitehouse! But ours is a representative government and the ignorant buffoon clearly represents his base!
5
We now know McConnell has given up. Finally! The republicans spent seven years lying about the ACA and making promises that many people knew would be impossible to keep. Oh well. Now the GOP can move on to big fat tax cuts for the rich! Trillion dollar deficits here we come!
4
Brace yourself, just as with Row v Wade, they will never stop. It will never be over for them until they win and public supported healthcare is gone.
1
Is Lisa Murkowski waiting for the highest bidder? Character, indeed!
7
Donald Trump is not Kim of North Korea, although he believe what he wants can be achieved by threats. He might have been able to fire anyone who did not agree with him as the czar of his real estate empire, but he cannot prevent me from muting "God Bless America" when I watch a baseball game. Nor can he dictate the votes of Senators who defy his fiats.
3
I hope and pray that Lisa Murkowski, who I respect, follows her moral convictions and moral compass and resists being bought by a couple of corrupt politicians. It is very obvious that the majority of Republican Congressional members, as long as they have their paid for cadillac healthcare insurance, do not care what happens with healthcare for the poor, underprivileged and middle class. I am certain if these same Congressional members had the same healthcare insurance, which they would have to subsidize or pay for totally out of their own pocket like the rest us, they would "sing a differend tune". Where is their moral compass, compassion and promise to serve the American people they represent? I guess it is missing in action for they are now only interested in enriching themselves and therefore they follow the money.
You're right, David. But the opposition needs to remain steady, even after September 30. Also, Obamacare needs some adjustments. Where is the push for that? We also need to engage in debate about the future of health care in this country. We are decades late figuring out a health care system for the citizens of the world's wealthiest country. Let's start talking about it. Let's keep that conversation going please.
6
It's not a healthcare bill. It's a tax cut for rich R donors, who are growing more and more impatient for the laundry bags with dollar signs that they were promised. So the repeal effort will be back in one form or another.
7
If Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is such a great guy -- "to his credit . . . working on a bipartisan deal . . . able to resume the role of Senate statesman," why isn't HE against this Graham-Cassidy monstrosity?
9
We need people devoted to the country and not their party.
5
We have them-the Democratic and Independent politicians who have consistently fought against Republicans who represent Kochlandia and Exonia and Norquistia and Popeland anecdotes Mercerville, etc., etc.,
1
Let us not forget that McConnell and Boehner vowed that any policy that Obamacare proposed would never happen. They were both racists and so are a lot of Senators and Congressmen. And now we have.a racist Trump who is determined to get rid of any policies that had Obama's signature. That said, I agree with that the fight to repeal Obama care is not over.
2
The resistance will have to be steadfast. One third of the country wakes up every morning enraged that 30 million lazy bums have health insurance subsidized by their hard-earned money. This is a huge injustice that won’t be remedied until all those unworthy folks lose their insurance. The Red State base is making this clear to their representatives and senators every day.
4
Oh the irony—many of Trumps supporters are the “takers” that they’ve been trained to hate. Unfortunately their hatred combined with gullibility makes them a problem. Dems have to wrestle back power and channel the information being put out there. The GOP will always play their base and ignorant, racist people are their perfect instrument.
I’m convinced that only attrition will reduce these numbers.
The GOP health care Terminators are not done - regardless. I don't trust Rand Paul, who could be playing us for fools should no one else come forward to increase the margin of 'no' and vote yes during the actual vote.
Trumpcare is really Trump-don't-care because he doesn't care if millions lose health coverage in exchange for a win and a tax cut for his oligarch friends like himself.
As for Orin Hatch, he needs to "shut up" and listen to those he is imperiling with his ugly actions and vote.
8
Republicans will just tie Trumpcare into the next Budget and Congress will be forced to vote on it.
3
I just called all the Senators Mr. Leonhardt listed in the article, and asked them to vote no, and to work in a bi-partisian manner to fix healthcare. I hope they listen. And I hope others call, too.
7
Obamacare is bad enough: it prolongs the profit system that rewards eliminating services to people. What kind of health care is that?
But the Republicans... they tried three times to pass a huge national health system on the strength of 50 votes, with no hearings, no experts, no amendments, no compromise and no hope of actually working.
We can't run a country if important laws will be repealed and replaced with every electoral shift. Elections are not territorial conquest.
42
I realize that each state has two Senators who go to Congress to bring home the bacon to their state. But the oath of office for Senators and House representatives is to the Constitution which represents ALL of the people. The oath of office does not reference the state that a person represents. So when working on a piece of legislation that will impact We the People, the idea that moneys might get shifted to Alaska to "buy" Sen. Murkowski's vote really turns my stomach. I hope she votes her conscience with regard to how the legislation will impact all citizens, not just Alaskans.
8
Let's not forget that when Mitch McConnell refused for nearly a year to even hold hearings on President Obama's nomination Merrick Garland, to steal the seat for a possible Trump pick, he couldn't get 60 votes to get Neil Gorsuch's selection ratified. So, instead, he changed the rules, and all 52 GOP Senators went along with that. After all, when they had blocked Obama's picks to the courts for so many years the courts were in crisis, Harry Reid opened the door to partisan rules changing (one of the many reasons he was a miserably bad Majority Leader). And the seat was stolen to place one of the worst justices in a 100 years, one who doesn't actually believe in the Bill of Rights (other than the 2nd ) or most of the subsequent amendments.
So why wouldn't Mitch change the rules again, as Trump is urging him to do?
He's resisted, so far. But Trump's attacks on him have been pretty relentless. Trump wants what he wants and the Constitution be damned!
Sadly, while McCain has finally found his spine when it comes to voting, his cancer prognosis is very, very bad, and his loss will be a BIG problem for the nation.
8
It's wrongfully named trumpcare, it should be named trumpdoesn'tcare. Enough is enough, trash it and move on, there more important things to get on to. Obamacare just needs a tweaking. Unite and maybe good things wil happen
5
This Trumpcare fiasco has once again shown Mitch McConnell for the jerk he is.
If Republican Senators have any sense of decency at all, they will push McConnell out of his Senate leadership role and install someone who puts Country above party.
6
Need I ask the obvious? After making the point that Repub pols have angered their donors,the NYT has yet to publish the names of Repub donors so angered that their political messengers have failed to deliver their tax windfalls by signing off on Trumpcare. Why?
10
The Republican Party perpetually longs to be the country's death panel.
4
"Trumpcare" only about himself...Trump doesn't care about anyone else.
1
"known by the name it deserves, Trumpcare". Wrong; a better name is TrumpcareLESS
2
I fear that McCain will soon die, and he will be replaced by a pliable Republican who will vote for Trumpcare next time. It will pass.
4
Sadly—if the folks in Arizina allow that—many of them will be hurt by it. This is what happens when hate is a guiding principle in ones life. It’s sad because the USA truly has potential to be AMAZING. The GOP know nothings are a detriment to this nation.
Cops dragging people out of their wheelchairs for asking anti-American Republicans to do something, ANYTHING humane. Great country.
11
the danger is not over till we pass the end of september !
only after september, all repub votes will not be good enough to pass
the disgusting TRUMCARE !!
Keep resisting and you'll get no heath are at all....
Surely it's time to call it what it is: Trumpcare-less!
2
They are Zombies. Anything to denigrate the uppity Obama. It's what their base demands, and their donors/owners are paying for. Please Proceed, GOP. 2018 IS Coming.
2
It shocks me personally that so few Republican senators have the integrity and courage to oppose this utterly cruel, senseless and idiotic bill. The ones who support the repeal bill have a genuine death wish for this country and its citizens.
2
Junk bonds, junk mortgages, junk health care, junk, junk, junk....What next? Junk immigration and tax reform? And here we were taught our government representatives were elected to watch out for the welfare of their citizenry. Ha! So yesterday!
2
The more relevant question is: who are the people voting for this disaster? Let's get that list out there, let's spread that list all over social media. The hall of shame.
And as much as I like the idea of calling this hot mess "Trumpcare," that would be kind. Let's call it what it is "Trump-I-Don't-Care."
4
Murkowski must vote after R. Paul and J.McCain.
Honor among politicians is empty, obsolete, broken, terminal.
A cure for Trump will be long after the cure for the big C.
3
There is no such thing as Trumpcare. Trump obviously has no clue when it comes to the specifics of this and other issues. His only concern seems to get a bill passed quickly so that he can boast about trashing Obama's legacy.
2
I think you mean Chumpcare. Only a chump would buy into such a plan.
3
Trump can continue to put forth a repeal of Obama care or he can bite the bullet & join,with the Democrats, which will increase his stature, which is at present in the sewer.However, knowing Trump he will not give up & continue go down with the ship.
3
Trumpcare is like a Zombie. You shot, you shot again, and it is coming back. And contrary to the Zombies which we can kill by shooting to the head, you can not do that with Trumpcare.
"Rob Portman of Ohio [is] on the list"
Please revise your list of uncommitted Republicans.
Mr. Portman, as always, is the Senate's leading export at hinting he might (or might not) do one thing and then doing the other or, far more likely, doing the lockstep Republican thing.
There is nothing that will sway him from this course: not the welfare of the citizens of Ohio; not the survival of the planet; and, obviously, not any sense of right or wrong.
He will bluster about his commitment to an issue and the need to see it funded, and then sell his vote for, oh, three or four pieces of McConnell silver.
He will invoke the stern Republican God of Whatever we say is true/Whatever we want is right. He will do his best to force the Ohio wayward to toe the line. And he will reverse course without comment, or commitment to setting things right for his victims, the second he finds his family or his self interest run counter to the party line.
No, Portman is the handsome-news-anchor-mindless-chameleon of the Right. You dare not consider him committal or non- until the money is counted and the votes are in.
6
Until middle class white voters get tired of crazy billionaires running the country mainly through the Republican Party, you can forget any legislative reform, or anything benefiting the middle class.
Given the fact that the people who actually vote are largely enjoying, or are about to enjoy, the socialist benefits provided by FDR and LBJ, which allows them to ignore economic issues, I seriously doubt any real change for a decade.
ACA repeal will happen because the crazy billionaires want it to happen. It is just a matter of when.
3
I believe that’s part of the issue. Folks living in trailers believe they are middle class. And those living below that are angry that they aren’t any longer. It’s easier to blame minorities, women, etc than to actually realize you’ve been had by the Grand Old Party. Once the trailer middle class folks are struggling even more, it’ll be too late. Wake up!! The 0.1% is taking everything from you. Fight!
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.
When are the Republicans going to wake up and figure out that killing the health care covereage of millions to give an enormous tax break to the 1% is a rather unpopular idea?
Maybe only when they get voted out offfice.
Please remember to vote on November 6, 2018.
Be smart. Vote for Democrats. Stop the stupidity under the dome.
10
When this bill fails Republicans will focus their attention on starving it of the mandated funds that are necessary to its functioning. They are the Party of moral evil and unethical behavior and ultimately of national destruction. Unless they change their policies the nation is moving inexorably to its demise as a republic or as a democracy.
3
The reason Republicans don’t have a plan to replace Obama-care is because Obama-care was the Republican plan.
It was Romney-care based on ideas from the Heritage Foundation.
The exchanges were the free market competition.
And the individual mandate was responsibility and accountability.
When Obama agreed to their approach, it became government takeover of health care and Death Panels.
But the real problem nobody is why we pay twice per capita what countries like Denmark and Germany pay and don’t even get universal health care.
And black infant mortality in Alabama is 15.3 per 100,000. It is 8.6 per 100,000 in Botswana.
If we paid what those countries paid, we could have universal coverage and still have money left over for everyone to have two years of post-high school education.
4
The real issue -- putting aside hatred of effective government, since sound public policy delivers no rents to Wall Street and Republican donors -- is the taxes imposed on unearned income earned by the wealthy, equivalent to what working people pay every week on every dollar to fund Obamacare, in the form of withholding taxes. This tax is intolerable, because rich people shouldn't have to pay the taxes owed by mere working stiffs. What's the point of being rich, if you can't buy the government you think you deserve?
Repubs will never stop trying, because repeal is worth a fortune to the people who matter most.
Thanks to all who oppose Trump and the rash of idiotic plans put forth by Republicans. Trump and the GOP controlled Congress are the worse thing that could happen to the average American just trying to make a go of it. They and their draconian plans, or deals as Trump is wont to call them, are simply terrible. Why would anyone not making at least a million dollars annually vote Republican? I ask because I know people who do, and for the life of me, no matter how credible they attempt to convince me, I am always left perplexed how they could make such awful decisions. Many seem like reasonable well-rounded people capable of common sense. Yet when the topic of conversation come around to politics, it is like a light bulb goes off, and they become completely daft. Trump is beyond the shadow of a doubt the worse president ever. Anyone no matter their education who believes Trump is doing any good needs to have their head examined.
DD
Manhattan
4
Residents of states that have benefited greatly from the ACA's Medicaid expansion should write Republican senators who have gone along with these "reform" efforts and demand to know why they're willing to back measures that will cost their state considerable hardship. Rob Portman, Ohio's Republican senator, is a prime example. The only way to put an end to this entirely political effort, once and for all, is for senators like Portman to just say "No!" Let's heed Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander and get back to a bipartisan effort to improve, not kill, Obamacare.
1
The NYT is reporting that with Susan Collins voting "no" on Graham-Cassidy, that vote for the bill is "virtually sealing its fate." The other "no" votes are coming from Rand Paul and John McCain. McCain, like Collins, seems genuinely concerned for the health of people. But Rand Paul doesn't think the bill is cruel enough. Could his vote be flipped? Then what about Lisa Murkowski? Or others?
There does not seem to be an obvious outcome at this point. Is this some sort of psychological warfare by progressives? If so, let's hope it works ...
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/352245-paul-outlines-demands-for-ye...
3
It is truly incomprehensible that most of the Republican senators could gleefully remove health care from many millions of citizens without a qualm. But I saw the evangelistic glint in Cassidy's eyes during a debate on TV last night. He spoke eloquently and enthusiastically without making much sense at all.
2
It is a pretty sad time in our country when three out of 52 Republican senators are called heroes for doing the right thing.
1
Let us not forget that those super rich donors who are "outraged" by the serial defeats of these inhumane, so-called health care plans developed by the Republicans in Congress, will be the very ones who would benefit the most by the next big project awaiting the Congress---tax reform. Be prepared, another big protest must be waged.
2
Ninety seconds. That's the time allotted for debate. Ninety seconds. My coffee takes longer to make in the morning. Ninety seconds. Millions of lives at stake.
Ninety seconds.
6
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that Republicans, as a group, are no longer interested in their constituents' healthcare. If they were, they would listen to what healthcare organizations, experts, and patient advocacy organizations have to say on the subject.
Instead, Republicans have made an entirely cynical, partisan, power-politics based calculation. They have concluded that the way to get elected and re-elected is to curry favor with the Koch brothers, the Chamber of Commerce, the NRA, the religious right, white supremacy and "alternative-fact" organizations and media outlets. This is the way Republicans now make all of their "policy" decisions.
2
Hopefully, the defeat of Trumpcare, the ghastly repeal of Obamacare, is now dead as a doornail. We remember our 45th President trying to obliterate President Barack Obama`s legacy by announcing to the world - as is his wont - that he `will repeal and replace Obamacare on my first day!`. Some first day! Graham/Cassidy`s defeat is in the cards. The Republicans still don`t get it that Obama`s legacy is secure and that their president is hanging onto the White House and Oval Office (and his three other Trump residences in Florida, New Jersey and Manhattan) by the skin of his teeth. Thanks for your thoughts, David Leonhardt, and long live the Trumpcare Opposition!
1
Please don't perpetuate the fiction the term you use helps to sustain. The correct term for the proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act is TrumpDON'TCare.
Well written and correct.
Trumpcare is like the mafia. Both have been heavily damaged but like cancer cells they can reappear at any moment rearing their lethal, ugly, vile heads.
However learn from history, hopefully when Trumpcare is finally killed don't do what Bernie is doing ie try to get it replaced with single payer ASAP.
While single payer is a legit alternative it is never wise to go from one extreme to another. America is not quite ready for something like single payer.
Also its gives ammo to the republicans who can say, you see all the dems offer is a radical, socialistic plan.
It can seriously delay us getting a plan like the rest of the civilized world has.
Better to shore up ACA. It is in place. It is the best we can hope for until dems take over the three branches of gov't.
2
How is the present situation "extreme" and how would truly universal healthcare be "extreme"? Isn't that terminology just an excuse not to do anything much?
Each year, 50,000 Americans die of untreated treatable illness for lack of ability to pay. Each year we waste $1 trillion on medical expenditures that do nothing except make the rich richer. How many more lives would you pile on that pyre? Whose suffering deserves to be prolonged for the sake of not rocking the boat?
Medicare for All is popular. It has majority support in recent polls.We need to push for a majority AT the polls, too. Now.
Anyone watch the healthcare debate between Sanders and the opposition last night on CNN? Is it reported anywhere in the Times today? I was unable to watch it and was hoping there would be some coverage in our paper of record, but I can't readily locate it.
Crickets.
1
This is like watching a new Confederacy led by rich landowners who dupe their poor, racist neighbors into sacrificing everything for nothing in return.
2
Turmpcare isn't the best name for it. I suggest Trumpdon'tcare.
2
"... Barack Obama’s signature achievement — extending decent medical care to the sick, the poor and the middle class." What planet are you on?!
The ACA was and remains a hoax perpetrated mostly on middle-class Americans. Remember what Obama promised: Premiums won't go up and you can keep your doctor(s). Premiums have escalated to the point where the program is all but unaffordable to millions of Americans and you cannot keep your doctor.
Obama pushed his Socialist agenda on us. This was one very bad example of why Socialism doesn't work. It cripples business and individuals like my wife who lost her doctors. Moreover, she could not afford the premiums.
ACA helps the indigents at the great expense of the rest of us. How can you blame Republicans with their very small majority - and no help from the obstructionist Democrats - from rectifying this? Trump was left with a mess and there does not seem to be a middle ground to be reached by the Senate. Don't blame him!
2
Actually, Medicaid helps the indigent. Actually, Obamacare was funded almost entirely by taxes on the very wealthy. That's why they're pushing for its repeal. Problem is, for them, that they're small in number, so they have to convince millions of people who aren't paying for it that it's responsible for rising premiums, and other problems with the current system.
Take care with labels. Your fire and police departments are socialized, although no one says so. So is the army. Social Security is social insurance. You may say they "don't work", but they've been working for decades, and will continue to, unless we actively destroy them.
Socialized medicine works in every industrialized country except ours. Sanders's plan, Medicare for All, stands to save the country $1 trillion annually in wasted expenditures, and save 50,000 lives at the same time.
What doesn't work is the system we have, one that lets thousands suffer and die needlessly and wastes 1/3 of the proceeds on profiteering. If that's the alternative, whatever you call it, I'll take socialism.
2
Honey—your mortgage is subsidized and therefore socialism. What you’re saying is—I’ve been duped into believing I’m paying for gays/people of color/women to have what I have and I would rather die than to do that.
The ignorant haters in the USA are on full display. Sugar—the feeling is mutual.
2
Socialized medical plans are OK if you don't mind waiting weeks or months for an operation. And then, you don't get the best. Canada is one example. I don't know about other countries.
Republicans need to be honest here. It is "Repeal Obamacare and Replace it with a tax cut". As long as they pretend they intend to repeal the ACA and replace it with a different form of health insurance, everyone knows they can't do it.
But repealing the ACA and replacing it with a tax cut for rich companies and rich people at least is honest.
The can be honest, or they can be elected. High do you think they'll choose?
If Republicans were focused on care, they would be supporting legislation that would increase it and reduce its cost, especially to members of its "base". But they are, even after that horse has left the barn, focusing on Obama.
Even when Obama was leaving office, not on any ballot, and unlikely ever to run for anything again, they were running against him and his signature legislation. They called it "Obamacare" so that their target would more clearly be that man, rather than the millions of Americans who could finally afford, in many cases lifesaving, health care.
After surprising most of America, including themselves, Republicans were stuck with years of promising to repeal the ACA and not having the luxury of passing symbolic legislation that had no chance of becoming law. They were backed into a corner of their own creation.
Their only option now is to let a bipartisan group of senators create legislation that will improve the ACA, pass it, pressure the House to do likewise, get Trump to sign it, and take all the credit.
They are welcome to the credit, and America will reap the benefits.
That a medical doctor whom, we can assume, duly took that unique profession's sacred covenant with future patients, the Hippocratic Oath, is a co-sponsor of national legislation that would callously, cruelly deprive millions of Americans of all ages and life circumstances of health and maintenance care, should be a disqualification for him ever providing such care in the future. If Cassidy is still licensed in the State of Louisiana, this scandalous situation should be prioritized for investigation by its professional regulatory authority.
How ironic that Trump, in one of his authoritarian screeches, calls upon N.F.L. owners to summarily "fire" athletes who are expressing their protected constitutional rights. I would hope that patient groups in Louisiana start filing complaints against this medical menace in their midst. Actions that could create deadly results must be met by a robust, decisive reaction.
1
Oh my dear—I’ve worked with doctors that have asked me to fax them a face sheet (insurance and demographic info) for a person in the ER needing emergency surgery and then turning the case over to another surgeon more than 8 hours later because the patient didn’t have insurance. Some doctors are just vicious Republicans in white coats.
"Hubert Humphrey spoke about the treatment of the weakest members of society as a reflection of a government: “the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
With taking people off medical insurance, removing protections for pre-existing conditions (and pretending that they are not) and decreasing Medcaid, the GOP continually demonstrate that they are absolutely unfit to govern.
4
This bill would leave millions of Americans with out insurance and even eliminate Medicare as time goes by, but I am sure if Trump decide to go to war with North Korea Trump, it will be no problem to provide the billions needed to destroy, maintain a presence and of course rebuild, (easily a trillion dollar, but logic forbid we use that money to help Americans fellows in need.
1
If you live in a state that has what used to be known as a moderate Republican senator, hound that senator for a NO vote on Trump care. I realize these senators figure they need the zealot vote, that portion of the electorate who revile Obama care because of the fact that Obama's name is attached to it. But to dismantle insurance for 700,000 people (I am talking Ohio, my state) because of the bill's goodbye to Medicaid expansion, must have political risks of its own.
All of this is predicated on the presupposition that no policy analysis or moral compunction matters a whole lot to most Republican senators, Mc Cain and Collins, not withstanding. (I leave Paul out because his reasons for voting "NO" are based on principle: the principle of "You are on your own, pal.").
Don't count on Paul....badger your Republican senators who continue to cling to the (hopefully) sinking ship.
3
My insurance agent told me that people call her office literally crying because they are so scared and confused about health care and its costs. Crying.
2
They'll be back. They'll be back next year and the year after and on and on, until the donor-first/party-second/destroy-Obama's-legacy-third Republicans lose their majority in both houses. And one day, they may win, and most of the rest of us will lose.
1
The problems with health care in the U.S. are like those with such things as wealth inequality, infrastructure, and climate change: they’re about selfishness, greed, and lust for power with the upper strata of society.
People always want more and more for themselves. Why pay for infrastructure improvements when you can get more money for yourself through tax cuts? The same goes for health insurance for others. Why allow yourself to be subjected to regulations that will hamper profits for your business, if you don’t have to do so?
We came from the forests and the jungles. When you were lucky enough to kill an animal without being killed in the process, you took all you could get. When you gained a competitive advantage with something, anything, you seized the opportunities that came with it.
Now, the only things holding our somewhat-evolved lesser angels in check are rules and regulations – laws and the associated enforcement of those laws. But what happens when our lawmakers themselves become compromised – their morals, ethics, and values slowly eroded by a variety of factors over time?
My theory: we won’t die in a nuclear holocaust. That’s the easy way out. We will remain here – continually being tested. It’s our lot in life.
Health care is the current test ground. We haven’t been doing too well lately. Will we conquer our inner demons, innate within us, fighting to be civilized in our civilization? Who knows? The jury is still out. Check back on Saturday.
1
An example of the slapdash latest iteration of Trumpcare was on display yesterday during the Senate Finance Committee hearings on the bill.
One of the senators gave an example of a young, healthy adult male with the choice of buying health insurance (no mandate) or a Harley, who decided to buy the Harley instead. A few months later he wrecks the Harley and is taken to the hospital. Senator Cassidy was asked how this latest Trumpcare bill would help with the medical costs in such a situation.
Senator Cassidy's response, with a straight face, was that the state could use their block grant to insure everyone in the state who did not have health insurance, obviously including those who could afford to buy insurance but chose not to do so. In addition to assisting those who cannot get insurance because of serious health conditions, the states should also pay for coverage of their irresponsible citizens - all of this with the pittance to be provided in block grants??
Senator Cassidy's response reminded me of a child with a $20 allowance who thinks he can buy hundreds of dollars of stuff with that $20. Who allowed someone so short-sighted on budgetary matters to draft legislation?
Let them vote on this junk bill. Senators representing less-enlightened populations want to prove that they voted to repeal the ACA (again!) Those in purple states want to see how their, so far, dodgy (R) senators will vote
"If Republicans come to terms with their total lack of a reasonable repeal plan, more of them will be open to a bipartisan compromise to fix Obamacare’s flaws."
No, they have got the repeal thing down. It is an utter lack of a credible replacement, after seven long years of promises that is so appalling.
2
"To his credit, Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican, started work on a bipartisan deal, before abandoning it last week, out of partisan loyalty to Republicans pushing Graham-Cassidy. But if the bill seems permanently defeated, Alexander will be able to resume the role of Senate statesman."
What kind of statesman is that? One who puts party ahead of principle... We had high hopes for Alexander and his bipartisan coalition, but who kind of hope can one have when the so-called leader abandons the effort so he can support the worst of all alternatives, just because it was put forth by his party. He should be ashamed. He should have stood up when the bill was introduced and said he would vote against it because of all of its terrible parts, and then said that a bipartisan effort to fix the ACA was the best option.
But nope. Once a Repub always a Repub, no matter how onerous the legislation proposed by a party member.
Please ask Mr. Alexander why Americans are so disgusted with the political process.......
2
'To his credit, Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican, started work on a bipartisan deal, before abandoning it last week, out of partisan loyalty to Republicans pushing Graham-Cassidy.' ?? Even as you say: Alexander abandoned principle (nb. Chuck Grassley[sic]) out of partisan loyalty? And you think he (who will most likely vote in support of Graham-Cassidy) deserves kudos? Really?
1
What every honest American wants is: Health insurance, medicines, medical services, and medical devices as cheap as possible.
What politicians want is: Votes from anyone they can pander to in order to keep their position in the next election.
Dishonest Americans - those who think someone else should pay for their needs - are happy to have politicians pander to them.
2
Reduce each state's allocation under the ACA by one dollar, call it "Trumpcare," pass it and move on to tax "reform."
Or we could start focusing on getting money out of politics. On this issue and every other, corruption is the reason that the Democrats act like Republicans and the Republicans act like lunatics.
1
Why is Mitch McConnell considered a legislative genius? From the beginning this entire matter was a loser. Not only was it a legislative loser, but it is a PR disaster for the GOP---as that song goes, good poker players know when to hold them and when to fold--McConnell should have never sat down at the table.
What a ridiculous premise. This effort failed for reasons that John McCain laid out. Just because the Democrats rammed Obamacare through doesn't mean that's how legislation should be done. Republicans doing the same doesn't make it any better. Let knowledgeable people develop a bi-partisan plan and then let the legislative process work.
1
Now is the time to simply pick up the phone and dial the US Capitol. It's time to do one simple act.
202-225-3121.
Make one call. Easy!
Follow the prompts. It's easy.
Say into the phone you want Alaska
That will get you to the office of Senator Murkowski.
Our best shot to kill this bill.
You'll get her staff or a way to record your response.
Say you strongly oppose the Graham - Cassidy bill.
Do it or you'll feel terrible.
I have taken this simple action today.
1
It is still a fresh horror to me that 49 Senators can be for something so transparently harmful to the people they serve.
1
I think Mr. Leonhardt is missing the tune of McCain's music. It is about process, not that the result of imposing some market discipline far away from DC in the states is a bad idea. Conceptualizing this as a war with victors and losers is exactly the problem that has brought the country largely to resent people like Mr. Leonhardt. "Thank goodness"? Since when was Mr. Leonhardt anointed as a priest of a commanding federal government who can say what is good or ill? Who might be the god of that?
Whatever happened to Trump's campaign promise to replace the ACA with something better and cheaper that covered everyone? Like his secret plan to defeat ISIS which also never existed Trump campaigned on lies and empty promises. But his supporters don't care. What they really wanted was a racist misogynistic tough guy to put minorities and women in their place.
2
As long as the GOP holds power in Congress and the Executive, they will come back over and over again to try to kill "Obamacare". They don't care about "policy" or the health of most Americans. They only want to kill the ACA because of their deep and abiding race-based hatred for Mr. Obama as a classier, more intelligent and infinitely more patriotic president than any of them could ever hope to be.
In short, the GOP is Captain Ahab and "Obamacare" is their White Whale. There is no logic or political strategy here - only blind hatred and jealousy.
And only four to eight years of a solidly Democratic federal government will protect and nurture the seeds of the ACA (which can and will be the toehold for eventual "Medicare for all") to the point where most Americans (even the racists) will vigorously refuse to go back to the Dark Ages of American healthcare "before Obamacare".
Never, ever forget this - not in 2018, 2020, 2022 and beyond.
1
In the Star Wars movies, the Empire gets to work on building a Death Star, a really stupid weapon, poorly thought out and seemingly designed perfectly so that our hero can blow it up.
Every couple of movies, the bad guys start building another one. You sort of lose track -- you just think "Evil, stupid, will be destroyed soon. Got it."
Sound familiar?
The Republicans keep offering dumb fake health bill after dumb fake health bill, and they keep getting blown up. The Star Wars movies are designed for very simple thinkers, and so are these efforts. In one case the audience is mostly young adolescents, in the other the Koch Brothers, which sort of amounts to the same thing.
But the Dark Side is also cunning. It keeps us distracted and confused.
Take note that defeating these godawful and poorly constructed health care bills seems like some kind of win.
Well, I ain't celebrating.
The state of health care in this country is a disaster and will remain so unless we implement -- horrors -- socialized, yep, I said it, socialized medicine.
2
Obama created a toxic dump hoping to grow a garden.. The Republican are trying to plant flowers but the dump will still smell. The Democrats are spraying the flowers with weed killer but the dump will still smell. The Insurance companies, pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers, fraudulent scavengers and irresponsible, ignorant citizens want to pick through the dump and remove anything of value but the dump will still smell. Put the money back in the hands of the people, create health savings plans along with State sponsored pools for pre-existing conditions, end of life care and catastrophic illness. So simple. Why doesn't it happen? As usual, the clandestine, avaricious special interests overwhelm the needs of the individual. Same old. Same old.
There is one aspect of the GOP attempts to destroy the health of Americans through GOPCare, that may not be widely known, and this is the health and fate of people with disabilities. I am a physician working wit disabled individuals and their families for half a century and I am well aware of their dependence of access to health care. Most cannot afford private insurance and without good medical care their mortality might skyrocket. I am being reminded of the project T4 in Nazi Germany, under which persons with disabilities were systematically murdered. In fact, T4 served as a trial run for the Holocaust. Of course the destruction of our health care system by the GOP has nothing to do with it, but the results for the disabled children and adults my be also catastrophic. T4 was terminated after vocal opposition of German population and the Church. Let us be vocal too. Good care of persons with disabilities (and others who cannot care for themselves) is an indicator of population's morality and values.
3
Oh for the Republicans of my childhood. In the '50's Repubs wanted gender equality, a stronger welfare state, civil rights and environmental protection. Today's Republicans demean the good name of what was once an upstanding political party. "Build a wall!" " Get rid of Obamacare!" "Keep out foreigners!" "Fire kneelers!"
I give up. Oh, and give the upper 2% a tax break!
1
Oh god forbid they ever consider working on a bipartisan bill that fixes the ACA so that it lowers premiums for people. Oh no, we can’t have that, can we. It’s gotta be all about what our evil overlords want, the Koch bros. The rest of the country, sick, elderly, pre existing conditions, and basically HUMAN BEINGS of a DEMOCRATIC NATION be dammed. All they want is their cold hard donor money and to smear Obama. They prove over and over and will continue to prove over and over just how cold and dead their hearts are.
Trump-care has a hollow ring to it. Something about the two words side-by-side.....
Republicans demonstrate over and over their sheer contempt of the poor, middle class, and the disabled by their repeated feeble attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. A new pathetic low was reached when the disabled were thrown out of the Senate Finance Committee hearing as if they were just trash to be disposed of. How telling.
1
I'll count Senator Paul's vote when he casts it. Why all these premature postmortems throughout the NY Times? Why such silence from so many other Republican Senators? Let us not let them sneak this through!
I'm a 75 year old white man and I am sick and tired of seeing pictures of McConnell,Trump, Cassidy, Graham, etc. with their smug little grins pretending they are doing ANYTHING for the good of our citizens. They are simply kissing up to their donors and hoodwinking their base.
Thank you, Senators McCain, Collins, and Murkowski, for thinking and acting like adults!
2
Love your photograph of the brave ADAPT protestor. They have led places their bodies on the line for healthcare for all, once again.
1
On Wednesday, in a discussion of the latest Republican health care bill, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley told the truth. “You know, I could maybe give you 10 reasons why this bill shouldn’t be considered,” he said on a conference call with reporters.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/09/graham_...
"Obamacare" could require an allegiance to Jesus in order to receive care and Republicans would still oppose it. It's not the bill, it's the name. If it were called "Romneycare" or "Bushcare", they'd fight to the death to protect it and accuse anyone opposed to it of treason.
This game is getting old...
Why does Lamar Alexander get credit for a bipartisan attempt while he still is supporting this outrageous Graham Cassidy bill? I think it is the height of hypocrisy if not cruelty. Shame, shame.
1
This is true. Unfortunately the rabid dog repeal ACA mutts also live to fight another day. Where is Attacus Fitch, when you need him, to put the rabies infested canine out of its misery?
2
Trump NonCare Bill. Again, if other countries can have health care why can't we? Boils down to character and conviction, none of which appears to be a strong suit of the Republicans and, particularly 45...
How many horrible, counterproductive, secretly written bills will trump and McConnell try to ram through without anybody given the time to even read them, let alone hold hearings, get a CBO score and debate? You would think the stench of rotting albatross carcasses tied around their necks might eventually overpower them.
2
Of course unless trumpcare passes, we won't convince many of how bad it is.
Donorcare is what they want and will fight to get. Without principles, policies and political character the only thing republicans have is money, blood money. When that flow ceases their house of lies falls. Tax cuts fund their own political business model. The ACA complicates their cowardly tax frauds so it has to go. They are deaf, dumb and blind to their nation's needs. Donorcare, it's real, beware.
The GOP are nothing but despicable and greed driven, the should suffer most severe consequences. The harder the better. Theses people are not our leaders but tormentors.
1
Trump will spend his entire four years trying to undo everything that Obama, a black man, did. Do not think otherwise. Since he was unable to get there directly, he will now spend enormous efforts and energy getting their indirectly. He is very likely to bankrupt the country in order to accomplish it.
When I saw so many physically challenged people being callously dragged out of the committee hearing yesterday I was saddened, appalled, inspired and hopeful that the committee members would actually see the light of taking critical health away from so many. Then Graham was interviewed and he talked about how many people were not there protesting because they agreed with him. I wonder if it occurred to him how great a physical effort it was for those folks to just get to the capitol building to shine a light on how much we all have at stake with health care.
Talk about tone deaf. I expected more from Graham who I always thought was a reasonable man. His rabid approach to this issue in the face of many profiles in courage from both ordinary citizens and his colleagues McCain and Collins defies belief. No wonder his bid for president went nowhere and he lost to a clown....at least the clown has the excuse of being stupid.
One can only wish and hope this Republican effort is finally dead and cooler heads can work out a bi partisan fix.
61
Lindsey Graham proposed this legislation for three reasons: it is desired by donors to republican re-election campaigns; the fact that his name is on it "might" help him get re-elected in an extremely conservative (and under-informed) state; and it saves money - but on the backs of the nation's poor.
I sincerely hope that, after this debacle, no one in the media will call Lindsey Graham a "moderate" of any kind. He has always been someone that heeds the call of his Party no matter where it leads.
I continue to be bewildered by the lack of understanding on the part of the GOP and others about how vital access to health care is in America today. If we want to have a healthy population we can't expect it to happen without providing the means to access it. And telling people not to get sick, not to be obese, not to smoke, not to do dangerous things (like playing football, going biking, or simply living) isn't going to work. Other countries have managed to provide for their citizens. Why we can't is not such a mystery after watching the GOP and Trump fail to come up with something better than the ACA.
The ACA was a start. We need to improve it. Too many of us are going to be unable to afford the premiums, or will be able to afford the premiums but not the rest. There is no reason for the richest country on earth to continue to treat health care for all as a luxury if it's interested in keeping its citizens healthy and productive. If not, well I guess we'll all be living in a Dickensian sort of America.
6
They are answerable to their donors first, Republican voters second, with the health and well-being of the country a distant third -- all within an overall context of obliterating Barack Obama's historical legacy.
1
Watch Paul flip at the last minute, which will leave it up to Murkowski to do the right thing.
It will be interesting to see what she's made of, and witness her legacy being written in real time.
20
Aside from once agian pointing to senators McCain, Murkowski, Collins, Pual, and maybe Cruz, who again is riding the safe protest wave to stand behind what, I ask, why is there no discussion and excoriating of President Trump's complete flip-flops and shifting stances in this policy matter? Have the media and pundits, op ed writers and ed boards now accepted his completely unprincipled and hypocritical behavior? A sad state of affairs, indeed, if a sitting president can completely abandon his declared principles and get away with it.
13
If I am reading the reports about this horrible bill, Republicans are even lying to their Republican colleagues to get a Repeal! At what point does a protective "Waste of Time" breaker switch go off and kill this thing once and for all!
I don't know exactly how I feel about a "Single Payer" system but it does not seem too far fetched to work out details of the plan that is in place now. That seems like the most constructive route. Trump and McConnel won't let this happen though and we are going to be fighting these horrible non-solutions for another 3 or so years. Ugh.... So many things to work on and these guys are worried about keeping this type of promise?
9
Trumpcare 3.0 crashed. The "operating" system was written by men pretending to have knowledge and the welfare of people at heart, but in reality (something foreign to Trump and his Republican worshipers) they turned out to be charlatans just like Trump. Trumpcare 3.0 wouldn't shoe up, much less boot up.
Trump does not like defeat, embarrassment, humiliation. Even though he has earned all of it. Every day heaps more disgrace on our nation, dishonors the Office of the President and our ideals, and highlights the hypocrisy and cynical partisanship of Republicans in Congress.
For certain, their deranged fight to repeal Obamacare is not over. The Republican controlled Congress will find new openings, try new tactics. After they lick their wounds and get "thoughts" of Trump, their plan to take away healthcare from millions will be released as We R' Dumpcare 4.0.
Meanwhile, look for Trump to further undermine Obamacare, doing whatever he can to destabilize the insurance markets, raising uncertainty, leading to higher premiums, greater public harm and outcry.
Hurting people, hurting America is a Republican strategy to make people hate the federal government, support states rights and win elections. Thinking people need to recognize Trump and his Republican cult will stop at nothing. The only way to end their Machiavellian power is to vote Republicans out of office; impeach Trump, impeach Pence. If they still haven't learned, impeach Ryan. Then elect a Democrat for president.
16
In Pennsylvania we can't pass a budget. And you want us to administer health care? By the way, it's a republican legislature
11
Like a tree who loses its leaves, repeal will not be dead until Republicans become the minority party in one ( any ) of the branches of government.
Get used to at least another 3 years of this charade. And that's the best case scenario.
11
A certain number of Republicans in our congress are, and have been, determined to kill the ACA. For shame. Who are these pols?
As one of the senators from Hawaii said, "Health care is a right, not a privilege!" She is right. May she be heard.
6
Current senators are Democrats Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz.
Perhaps it is premature to declare trumpDontCare dead. Rand Paul was very critical of previous attempts, but then voted for them anyway. And it seems that Murkowski has been bought off by special pork for Alaska.
I won't be convinced until October 1st.
10
All other industrialized countries have some form of universal government run health care, mostly single payor. They get at least as good care as measured by all 16 of the bottom line public health statistics, and they do it at 40% of the cost per person on average. If our system were as efficient, we would save over $1.5 TRILLION each year.
www.pnhp.org & www.oecd.org, especially
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SHA
Some data:
Here are the per capita figures for health care costs in 2016 in PPP dollars (which take cost of living into consideration) from the OECD:
US - 9 892.3
UK - 4 192.5
France - 4 600.4
Australia (similar obesity) - 4 708.1
Germany - 5 550.6
Denmark - 5 199.3
The Netherlands - 5 385.4
Canada - 4 643.7
Israel - 2 775.7
Switzerland (Highly regulated private insurance) - 7 919.0
Let's compare some bottom line statistics between the US and the UK which has real socialized medicine.
Life expectancy at birth:
UK - 81.1
US - 78.8
Infant Mortality (Deaths per 1,000):
UK - 3.8
US - 6.0
Maternal Mortality (WHO):
UK - 9
US - 14
The WHO using a formula developed by The Harvard School of Public Health ranks our system as 38th in the world. (France & Italy are 1 & 2). This formula doesn't include costs. Bloomberg ranked countries' systems on efficiency which does include costs. We came out as 50th out of 55.
As Einstein said,
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
27
The people of America should not even have to be thinking this way, that is, worried about what trick the Republicans might have up their sleeve, to take away healthcare benefits from millions of people.
How we saw disabled dragged away today was horrendous. Disabled people being physically pulled and tugged, spoken to like animals, made me sick and angry. A woman with no limbs who came to plead for healthcare removed while Senator Orrin Hatch shouted "shut up" worse than speaking to an animal fearing a cage.
What more would it take to ever convince Republicans that people have a right to fair and just healthcare benefits? If a woman without arms or legs cannot do it, or be allowed to, who can?
16
IMHO it is about time to uncover the names of those GOP donors and make them pay dearly for what they are currently doing....
11
While the stakes for the people are high, Trumpcare is a win for Democrats whether it passes or not. They need only hold steady and cooly tell Republicans: Go ahead. Make my day.
1
The Graham-Cassidy legislation that has been proposed is a cheap way to kick the issue down the road by handing it off to the states who have proven ineffective at handling their own budgets.
I have worked in the healthcare environment and have an understanding of the complexity of this issue. It is my opinion that Graham-Cassidy will not provide equitable care to those in need. It is just another feeble attempt to repeal Obamacare and in the process erase assured healthcare for millions of Americans.
It is time for the Republican Congress to get over its thin-skinned bruised egos about Obamacare and its genesis. For 8-plus years it has had a burr under its saddle and they continually fail to bring forward a plan that is workable and right for the American people.
I have written to John McCain, Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito, Cory Gardner and Rob Portman to drop the ‘repeal’ rhetoric and get down to fixing the ACA. I am happy to see that at least two have stood up to their party. Perhaps the message will get through to the rest.
4
I saw Rand Paul interviewed yesterday. He said that we "cannot afford" ACA and that the Medicaid costs are too high. No one asked him how we can afford giving the Pentagon more money ($700 billion). I wish someone in the media would call these politicians out when they say things like Rand Paul said.
17
If it is true that this latest attempt to repeal Obamacare has failed, then do Republicans know how big a bullet they have dodged?
I have made it across the finish line recently and have medicare. Hopefully, I am safe for awhile, but as a political junkie, I have been tempted to think just how bad it would get in this country had they actually passed this dog of a bill called Graham-Cassidy.
5
After the cruel consequences of this Republican Healthcare fiasco became apparent, those on the Right would have simply returned to their favorite excuses, blaming its failure on Obama or Hillary. Or another of their mantras---"It's your fault for getting sick. It's your fault for not being wealthy enough to afford good health insurance or outright pay for expensive procedures. Now go away and die somewhere quietly. I don't want to miss my tee time"
I think it is a disgrace that we citizens have to scrounge around for three Republicans to oppose this disgraceful legislation. Thankfully, the Dems have remained united, but these attempts should be failing with more Republicans refusing to vote yes.
The thought of going through this again is stomach churning. The Republicans should accept the fact that the approach they are taking is unacceptable to the American people, roll up their sleeves, and work with the Dems. After shoring up the ACA, they can call it whatever they want, since they seem to have the need to destroy anything that was created by the Obama administration.
6
Trump can still defeat Obamacare by denying subsidies to insurers that make it affordable. These subsidies were deemed beyond the powers of the president by federal courts, and the Supreme Court has not spoken but probably would agree. And Trump loves doing stuff all by himself, without Congress or anyone else to contradict his edicts.
2
We will now watch Obamacare self destruct. And this started well before November 2016. I am a physician and my group of doctors has discussed dropping out of medicaid because the reimbursement is less than minimum wage ($90 for placing a labor epidural in a pregnant patient's spine, and managing it in-hospital all night for an 8 hour period). So as we docs drop out, all those new Obamacare card carrying patients will have no one to schedule appointments with. Don't blame this on Trump; it was written into the original bill. One of a thousand problems with this mess of a law passed 8 years ago.
2
Perhaps if you didn't gouge patients and insurance companies all these years, your fees would be payable at a higher rate than now. I have no sympathy for doctors who cry about their fees. I cry about the potential patients you're placing in harm's way.
3
Many people work night shift. Sorry you missed your Tuesday Golf Day.
As a physician, surely you know that there is no such thing as an "Obamacare card". One hopes so, anyway.
BTW, every time a physician drops out of Medicaid, it brings us one step closer to single payer.
2
Republicans will never give up their fight for massive tax cuts for the rich (which is exactly what ACA repeal is all about). We must remain forever vigilant to secure the progress that has made our country great.
7
May a sensible, bi-partisan law to tweak the Affordable Care Act emerge. That's what our nation needs, though my fear is that Trump and the GOP will do whatever they can to continue to undermine the ACA. All they seem to want is diversion of more than $1 trillion of healthcare money into the pockets of the extremely wealthy.
5
I am still dumbfounded by Senator Cassidy.
He is the one who came up with the Jimmy Kimmel test.
4
First: Thank you, Senators McCain, Collins, and Paul. Your intelligent and humane attitude and vote mean a lot to so many. Second: Dear Fellow Americans in Kentucky: A question: Why haven't you initiated a recall election against McConnell so you can elect someone who will have your interests (And those of millions of your fellow Americans as well.) at heart? You have the power and the right to do this.
3
As a Tennessean the praise for Sen. Alexander is misplaced. He abandoned his education chops by supporting DeVos, his environmental chops by supporting Pruitt at EPA that his mentor Sen. Baker would have strongly condemned. He has voted almost 100% party line and is viewed by many as either weak or a hack. I hope, but do not think, that he will be a strong voice. An indication would be if he opposes the current health bill regardless if it comes to a vote. I think he will not.
8
We all have a pre-existing use- by mortality date. We will all naturally die when, where and how we are supposed to. Neither Trumpcare nor Obamacare nor the opposition to or for either scheme can change that reality. While American partisan politics and socioeconomics unnaturally select the availability, affordability and quality of healthcare that we receive between birth and death. Human beings die. Politics live.
1
Trumpcare will never die, it'll keep coming back like a zombie apocalypse until the GOP loses control of the House and the Senate and Trump is removed from office, either as a result of Mueller's investigation or for mental health reasons under Article 25.
6
This version of Trumpcare MAY be dead (I don't believe that anyone's vote is certain, except possibly McCain's, and Rand Paul is especially untrustworthy), but I don't think that efforts to gut Obamacare are over with. Not by a long shot.
3
No one likes to go to the doctor. One question to ask when comparing plans is coverage: Does PPACA cover everyone; if not, how can we equitably fix it? Why not adopt the same plan Congress gave itself?
Another question is cost. Administrative costs in the USA are said to exceed those in other countries.
We also face the matter of equity. Senator Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) cited a nonprofit hospital in Missouri found suing indigent patients whose hospitalization-costs were supposed to have been paid by the hospital's nonprofit status.
Why not give Americans the same plan Congress gave itself? Why not copy Virginia's law and offer tax-credits to doctors, dentists, and lawyers treating indigent people? See "Donations of Professional Services Virginia" and write your congressmen. Dr. Karen Summar is on Senator Grassley's staff in Washington.
H
1
I think that the Republicans will sooner or later kill the ACA. Minds change, McCain is sick, and the 2018 election will not change the current Republican stranglehold due to a lot of issues that are against Democrats willing any control.
Until McConnell and Ryan start to put the country first we (the people of the US) are in a heap of trouble.
2
Trumpcare is fiction at its best, destructive and cruel only if it is approved by republican loyalists, not because of its virtues (there are none) but because it was a promise republicans made (for at least seven years) even though incompetent in offering anything near the usefulness of Obamacare. Trumpcare would be treason, and cruelty personnalized, to millions of folks who depend on having an affordable healthcare insurance. To lose sight of the perversity of this bill is an act of cowardice, and hypocrisy, of republicans. Shameful and disgraceful, an abomination. And yet, I bet they'll find an excuse, once defeated, to wash their hands and blame its failure to obstructing democrats (obstinate obstructionism has been republican 'flag' for ever when in the minority, remember?). So, what's new?
1
The name for this piece of effluent is, more appropriately, Trumpdon'tcare. (Yes, it's grammatically ignorant, but that sort of reinforces my point.)
A few days ago, when David was skeptical of McCain's position on this thing, I was convinced John's common sense and compassion for America would prevail. And it did. Look, this man was tortured for five years in Hanoi, yet he was in the vanguard of the movement to establish and normalize relations with Vietnam. There is something in this man's constitution that few of us possess, and that some among us flatly reject. Foremost in the latter group being the 3-year-old in the White House. John McCain will take a bullet for America. Donald Trump can't handle a schoolyard spitting match.
As for the Republican insistence on barreling head-first into the wall, they should take a cue from an aphorism from Alcoholics Anonymous: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over, and expecting a different result every time.
3
I think it worth reminding the President and his party that they were elected based upon promises that he made to provide healthcare that was less expensive and covered more people, trust me. Nothing less will be accepted as a substitute by the voters, nothing like that has been presented. If you repeal Obamacare without providing something better, then no sick person will ever trust you again.
24
I wish I were as confident as you.
Many voters are ignorant of the many details.
The Republicans are smart and the effects any damage they do will go in after 2020. If a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans will blame the problems on the Democrats.
Of course they have already and will continue to do so even though Republicans like Marco Rubio have done all they can to cripple the existing bill.
And voters don't know these details and believe the Republican misinformation.
2
Unfortunately, trump and his fellow republicans were NOT elected on the basis of their promises to provide excellent affordable healthcare. Most of them had far less worthy motivations.
1
McCain, Murkowski and Collins for normal people have plain decency, and for Republicans are heros. there are still 48 Republicans who would vote to make 30million people lose health insurance or for whom even that is not enough.
keep the resistance
16
America's 400 richest families invested many millions of dollars in the Republican Party to take away health care from their fellow citizens. The money has been distributed. Where is their return?
21
"America's 400 richest families invested many millions of dollars in the Republican Party to take away health care from their fellow citizens."
There's something wrong with those people. It's an illness. They're so wealthy they can't even count their own money, but they still want more and more and will never be satisfied.
Look at Mnuchen who's incredibly wealthy, but he wants the tax payer to pay for his honeymoon and his weekend getaways -- he just wants more and more. And remember he made his fortune through foreclosure mills that destroyed lives.
2
What about the other rich people that invest equally in the Democrat Party???
You're being duped.
Will some Republican, Libertarians please explain to me why providing universal healthcare to all americans is such a bad idea. From what I can tell Canada, all of Europe, the UK, Australia, and most in not all of the industrialized countries on the planet (exceptions are: China, India, almost all of Africa, Saudi Arabia, and the United States of America) provide it to their citizens. It's because we want to be in that most exclusive of groups or groups that includes the likes of China and India???)
19
The truth is that it is a bad idea because the billionaire class has to pay higher taxes to accomplish this.
And they are not happy as this article explains:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/us/politics/republican-donors-obamaca...
1
I agree that Republicans will never give up trying to kill all progressive legislation. The ACA has been added to the list of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Housing, and any other Government support for people.
Nor will they ever give up their attempt to establish a one party plutocracy. Never.
14
The impression ones gets is that our poor Congress members are overworked and underpaid and cannot hold two disparate thoughts at the same time. Why cannot three efforts go on simultaneously: Graham-Cassady, Patty Murphy-Lamar Alexander for short term fixes for Obamacare, and Medicare for All under Bernie and others. Put them all through the proper processes, let the public observe the processes, and exert their influence on what will result. What do most people want? They want Congress to work together. The work that Murphy-Lamar do might be the most important path to an unfreezing of this political divide while also helping the most people. It also is more short term. Do them all. Take a few days off your fundraising agenda, Congress members, and do this important work of the people.
6
Lamar Alexander is against a living wage, against unions, and pro giving ANY business enormous tax breaks to bring jobs to Tennessee. This is not Democracy. Its corporate welfare.
Do you think Alexander will champion something that provides adequate care to citizens? No, he will cut deals with Health Care corporations, Big Pharma, and anyone who can lock down a monopoly and charge rents. He is a millionaire/billionaire that made his wealth that way.
20
"Alexander will be able to resume the role of Senate statesman. He is well suited for it."
Alexander and Murray can work on a bipartisan compromise until the cows come home but even if in some bizarre twist of fate it should pass, there's no indication that T. wants to do anything other than smash Obamacare to smithereens just because it's called "Obamacare."
10
And, in the background, the president is teating it apart.
Come on , press, give that some publicity!!!!
As long as we have a republican "president" in the Oval Office and republicans in control of the House and Senate, their donors will insist that they keep trying to repeal PPACA. The only way we can truly stop republican efforts to repeal PPACA is to change the balance in the Senate in the 2018 elections. Democrats need to pick up three seats which will be a long shot.
9
The Affordable Care Act is the most noble legislation to come out of congress in the last half-century. I'd also daresay that what the republicans have been attempting to do ranks among the most ignoble since the first congress was sworn in. If this latest GOP attempt goes down, it is not a final victory. As long as big money, the right wing media and demagoguery can elect these people to public office every progressive achievement, from Social Security to the Environmental Protection Act remains in jeopardy.
12
On the right, in opposition to the ACA we have a steady force pushing against all federal social programs, so any decrease in coverage is welcome- this force would like to gradually defund medicare, social security, public education and everything else the federal government engages in that goes beyond defending unfettered capitalism.
On the left we have the much shallower pockets of the likes of Bernie Sanders, who don't have a hidden agenda and openly embrace a more socialistic political system and are willing to debate the issues based on relative merit.
Unfortunately, in the middle we have the likes of the NY Times, who often ignore the real political conflict going on in this country, make very little of the relative expense of our health care compared to other nations and rarely focus on the private citizens such as the Koch Bros who invest billions into influencing our politics in the dark.
Please NY Times, stop focusing only on the clowns in the Republican circus and aim you journalistic flashlight on the owners (donors). Let them speak openly of what they seek for this country with their money instead of allowing them to secretly choreograph the clown dance of the Republican congress.
16
Well said: The only thing I'd add is that there should also be a spotlight on the Democrats on the hill who also "have a hidden agenda", as you say.
If more legislators on both sides of the aisle would find a means to rid us of Citizens United we'd see a big shift in the dynamics of health care legislation.
1
FYI, the NYT had more than one article on how the donor class drove the effort to move Cassady Graham in the last week.
It is time to label, and do so repeatedly, any changes to ACA as Trumpcare. And every time a bill that seeks to modify ACA goes down in flames, we must loudly proclaim Trumpcare to be dead.
That is the only way to keep a tally on the number of losses Trump has collected.
6
Of course it's dead, if they hadn't nailed it to the perch it would have been pushing up daisies months ago, but then has anyone else seen our politics as a Monty Python sketch? I'm just waiting for that big foot to land: squweeelch.
3
What we need right now are 48 exposés of 48 Senators supporting these abortions of healthcare.
Fox News to stop lying about it.
Someone to realize that the repair of healthcare is more than fixing the macroeconomic fiscal issues.
Mr Leonardt is just the man for the job to realize that the cost of medical care-the end user use of these funds-is the driver of the healthcare debacle we see today: hospitals, which have a poor track record of fiscal responsibility and patient safety , as the hub of the wheel of medical care; the distorted use of Medicare dollars associated with physician services and medical training; the cost drivers of medical care; the overhead costs throughout the system; the need to cover the costs of medicaid deficiencies; the private insurance industries' stronghold on the fallacy of cost containment; the discrepancies between specialist and primary care imbursement; the added cost of the dangers in our healthcare model; the stronghold lobby of the pharmaceutical industry.... until these issues are repaired, not even the ACA can control costs, improve quality, and produce a safe medical care system. This has already been demonstrated.
Ask real doctors whose only skin in the game is making a decent living and caring for you: your personal doctor. Because we are never asked; we are not Tom Price or Ben Carson. Our hands are dirty with your blood; theirs are dirty with your money.
8
And yet, if Graham and Cassidy ran for re-election today, they'd win with votes overwhelmingly from those who would have lost coverage. It's one thing to have zombies legislating, but when you have zombies voting, that's the true peril.
20
The sheer amount of time and energy the GOP has put into overturning the ACA is stunning. Unfortunately time and energy isn't the same as effort since all their plans have been tiny bandaids when sutures are needed. The whole ordeal for the past 7 years has been such a supreme waste. Think about what could have been accomplished if they had just let this ACA bone go and focussed on other things that are important to our country.
Oh, and the fact that Puerto Rico has no power and they're arguing yet again about deleting healthcare and dragging protesting, disabled individuals out of the chamber. The very definition of dysfunction.
5
If you watched the "debate" last night, Sen. Cassidy was able to weasle out of most of the criticisms of his bill in part because the CBO report was not complete and left loopholes he could squirm through.
Also Sanders was more interested in promoting/defending his Medicare-for-All proposal and Klobuchar was more interested in repeating how we need a bi-partisan approach than she was in discussing specifics
It's no wonder Dems have had a hard time shutting down GOP bills stuffed with horrible provisions - the Dem Senators in the debate either didn't have the expertise to criticize Graham-Cassidy effectively or wanted to promote other approaches, rather than trying to point out how Graham-Cassidy doesn't do what Cassidy and Graham were claiming it would do. So Cassidy and Graham got away with a lot of misinformation that made their bill sound viable while Bernie and Amy appeared to be on another planet.
3
This won't go away because money is involved. The big money donors don't care about healthcare. They have it whether the ACA exists or not. The big donors only interest is to eliminate the tax increase imposed to finance part of the ACA. These donors are more than willing for people to die, if it saves them some money.
13
Agreed. Victory is getting closer but vigilance will be necessary for a long time to come. As one window to repeal of Obamacare closes you can bet the burglars on the right will continue to find a way to destroy it.
4
Trumpcare might have had the effect of finally bringing down the Trump administration. It remains an open question as to whether the chaos and negative health consequences attendant to the implentation of the Republican Party's very bad joke of a health plan would have been a sacrifice worth enduring in order to rid ourselves of the scourge of Trump. Let us hope that we don't have to endure a nuclear exchange with North Korea in order to find that out.
4
Rand Paul is not a hard no vote. He said he was against the earlier "skinny repeal" but he voted for it. I worry that people are celebrating too early.
Thank god for the protesters. I can only imagine what it's like to navigate the Capitol in a wheelchair, or be dragged out of a hearing in one.
I live in NY but I've been calling and emailing Senator Collins, McCain, Murkowski, etc. I tell them we're all Americans and we should strive to provide every American with access to affordable care. We need to look beyond the tribalism of individual states. Yes, the 100 senators represent their states, but their votes affect all Americans. So go ahead and call them!
8
Yes! I've been contacting Collins, McCain and Murkowski as well, reminding them that they are voting for all Americans!
2
I thought that if the repeal was not done by 9/30 then any new bills would require 60 votes to pass. Is that not true?
1
In theory, they could combine tax reform and ACA repeal into one bill under the same process they attempted to repeal the ACA this time. That is unlikely. Their better option would be to push through tax reform, pass another budget resolution, and then repeal the ACA in 2018 (after 10/1). The worst case scenario is they lose the House or Senate in '18 and realize it really and truly is their last chance to repeal the ACA and do so during the lame duck period.
I wish someone can use a loudspeaker to tell the entire country the hidden agenda behind the Trumpcare, in the name of repeal Obamacare, is all about financing. Cutting Medicaid so that Republicans can shift the savings to fund the tax cut.
Can someone please speak loudly that Donald and Mitch essentially wish to sacrifice millions of American's health care to pay for the tax cut of the rich and the large money making corporates.
7
To truly succeed in implementing an ACA replacement all the Republicans had to do was repeal it and replace it with something that was actually better. That was, after all, their campaign promise. Yet, they are unwilling to do that because it would not send our tax dollars (in)directly to their donors.
In the meantime, with FEMA under enormous stress due to hurricane activity, the GOP is proposing a huge tax cut once again sending money (in)directly to their donors, a tax cut that will increase our deficit showing that the GOP is the least fiscally conservative party.
So now, it is out in the open, the GOP is not fiscally conservative. The GOP is the big spender party... just so long as it's our tax dollars being spent and not their donor's money.
3
The Republicans are missing an opportunity to show the country they can work together with the Democrats to put the country's people before their party when they continue to avoid working together to improve the ACA.
Trumpcare is something of a cross between Harold Stassen and Freddy Krueger. It doesn't know when to die, and it just keeps coming back.
2
In baseball, it's three strikes and you're out, but apparently not when it comes to health-care. Republican efforts to dismantle the ACA have often been compared to a zombie apocalypse. there's no limit on zombie resurrection.
Labeling these GOP efforts "Trumpcare" is misleading. president Trump has nothing to do with the aborted attempts in the republican-led Senate. it is highly doubtful that the president has a clue about the content of any of the attempts made so far. all that he has done is to rant against GOP senators who have opposed their leaders misbegotten efforts.
2
Has anyone else read the 271 page bill? I am currently reading it. I am not an intellect but I read with comprehension above the "normal" average adult without a college education. Obviously it is worded to discourage the majority of "We the People" from reading it. Thereby allowing the debate to be where it is. Graham-Cassidy cannot have a conscience nor truly care for us. Keeping their job/power is all they are concerned with.
How despicable of those that are voting for this health bill just to remove Mr Obama as well as "paying back" those that paid for their election. And those are not the majority of constituents.
2
The utter cynicism and cruelty of Trumpcare (why does a bill that has 15% support among ALL Americans have nearly 100% support among Republican senators?) is matched only by the bravery of ordinary citizens like those who got arrested at the Capital, who are fighting bravely to oppose it.
4
Any bill that pushes federal funds to the states is a dangerous thing. The majority of state governorships and legislatures are GOP controlled. How hard would it be for a republican governor to use health care funds to balance their budget as Perry did in Texas. Red states have a propensity to elect oddballs at the local level and health care is too important to let the Sam Brownbacks of the world be in control.
3
David - the problem here isn't the multitude of regressive and harmful healthcare packages the Republicans have brought forward. No, the problem is the massive amount of dark money which has been injected into the political process ever since the Citizens United SCOTUS decision. Rich fat cats like Shelly Alderson and Steve Wynn think they can buy whatever new laws and Congressional seats they want to, if they only spend enough on them. And they're right. This amount of money has distorted politics, perhaps past the point of no return. It must be stopped. No person should be able to influence as much of the political process as these oligarchs do.
What ever happened to "one man, one vote"?
6
This proposal is worded differently but worse than previous ones. It is simply hard to fathom that anyone would give it the light of day. What is wrong with the character of the authors of this bill?
It is time for the media to start calling out the Republicans for the "real" reason they want to take healthcare away or make unaffordable for Americans....and it has nothing to do with healthcare.
They need to repeal the ACA so they can give their rich donors and BIGGER tax break.
This has nothing to do with healthcare..and everything to do with tax breaks.
Just disgusted by the whole mess and the with the Republican party.
4
In this latest attempt, slick Rick Santorum managed to slip in removal of insurance coverage for birth control AND removing maternity care as an essential insurance benefit....so it is totally FAIR to say the GOP is waging a war on women. I encourage those who oppose this thinking to actively participate in the 2018 campaign season. Expose these misogynist proposals. How can they claim to be pro life, when they take away family planning and at the same time, eliminate access to maternity care?
4
It will pass after the 2018 election if the Democrats lose seats in the Senate. If the Russian scandal can't get trump out of the White House, repealing the A.C.A. certainly will after his base sees what happens to coverage and premiums.
1
I won't sleep or rest until 12:01 Friday night. Nor should anyone else with a conscious. Don't trust them for a second.
3
Again, can someone please tell me how basic healthcare needs vary by state? We are Americans First, not North Carolina citizens first, for example. Suggest we replace Confederate statues with statues to McCain and Collins.
67
That is a thought provoking question, and one deserving of The Times Pick you have deserved. Unfortunately I am not qualified to tackle such a thorny question, but I am willing to bet someone will. The truth is there are some varying needs, more region by region than state by state but those regions get blurry, too. This is part of the problem with the Federal Government taking control of issues, problems get solved on a one size suits all basis rather than tailored to regional or individual needs. That is why Medicare Parts B & D is working (very complicated but working), multiple plans are being crafted to fit needs of regions and individuals. With all that said, the Health Insurance Marketplace has been a disaster for 30 or more years and the ACA did much to improve it. Therefore I am willing to let the Feds take over on this, as Healthcare is a right, not a need.
The need for healthcare does not vary widely by state. But the cost can! The costs of most medical procedures that I receive in central Texas are lower than the cost of similar procedures that my brother gets in a large northeast city. Just two years separates us; we have had many similar procedures. And we have discussed how much they cost.
The Affordable Care Act, which I largely support, although it needs to be modified, is not healthcare. It is a third party payment mechanism, just like Medicare and Medicaid, to pay for healthcare services. Healthcare is what you get when you go to the hospital, doctor, dentist, etc.
How healthcare is paid for probably is correlated with the quality of care a patient receives, but the correlation probably is not as tight as many people believe.
I have lived in three countries outside of the United States that have a single payer system. Anyone who believes single payer is a panacea needs to rethink their point of view. It is not!
Technically, when the constitution was framed, we were considered citizens of our respective states first and formost before citizens of the United States. The idea was each state could set things up the way they like and everybody would be free to move to the state that best suits their lifestyle. We see some of that today with a handful of states legalizing marijuana for instance.
When the federal government was allowed to institute an income tax, all that changed. Whether for the better or worse, it's certainly not in accordance with the constitution.
Be that as it may, my opinion is if they are going to force a federal income tax on us then they can use it to help the citizens of this country, not the 1% and the military industrial complex.
I'd like to think that this long, twisted process has caused the scales to fall from the eyes of those who have been repeatedly taken in by GOP distortions and outright lies. But, I am not that naïve. Racism trumps reason, pun most definitely intended.
7
I can suggest a simple way to determine the accuracy of your assumption: Visit the fox news website or Facebook page and read the comments sections. Prepare to be highly disappointed in your fellow Americans, and maybe in the US education system as well.
Democrats and Independents have largely allowed the Republicans to control the airwaves on this issue. While my hope is that universal and then single payer will happen, it would be better for the attention to be focused on specific doable ways to preserve, protect and improve what the ACA provides. Everyday, over and over until there is a true groundswell of opposition mounted against these radical right wing proposals.
I read an article this morning about U S Congressman Matt Cartwright,( D. PA) organizing a group of industry and health representatives who will work on ways to shore up Obamacare. This is a good thing and I hope more will take action so the constant threat posed by these efforts to take it away is completely overshadowed by sensible, people centered ideas that we, the American people can demand our elected representatives adopt and enact into laws that work for all of us.
7
The main reason "Trumpcare" will never pass, besides the fact that the goal of the GOP plan is to essentially do away with any government health care at all, is that the GOP is splintered on what it really wants in a given replacement and Trump is sitting on the sidelines giving nothing more than "it'll be great, believe me" in terms of input. He has no leadership whatsoever on a health care plan that is remotely better or workable. He is more into bullying the Republicans into coming up with something that he can take credit for. What the American people want, if anyone in Congress is paying attention, is a stabilization of the health care system both in insurance and the cost of care, and putting the "Affordable" back into the ACA without a huge loss in the quality of care or the ability of those with "pre-existing" issues to not just have access, but the ability to continue to afford care. And we want it to be a bi-partisan plan that the rival parties won't seek to undo every few years.
20
I hope you are right but fear it's gone as soon as McCain has to resign and is replaced.
I thought it might be that this would do to Republicans what the Civil Rights Bill did to Democrats ...... switch!!
As a nation, we need health insurance now more than ever to deal with the deleterious effects of stress caused by the prolonged uncertainty as to whether or not we will continue to have access to meaningful affordable health insurance.
30
The ACA or Obamacare is far from perfect. But it's most serious flaw is the option of the states to participate in AN EXPANDED MEDICAID. This option was put in the bill at the insistence of Republicans. The red states mostly opted out and now wish they hadn't. So they wish to cut the aid to the states that had,
If the Republicans were really interested in providing health care they could now opt in and properly fund it, including promoting participation. The 2 red states that participated are W.Va. and Ky. It has been a great success in both states. Trumpcare would be a medical disaster on both.
21
Medicaid was expanded too far without an increase in reimbursement rates. A much better option would have been a smaller expansion and increased payments to providers. Doubling the Medicaid roles has been a fiscal and service disaster.
It seems that every Democrat proposal to "fix' the ACA is just to shovel more money at it.
1
Slight correction - Medicaid expansion became optional after a SCOTUS ruling, not as part of the bill.
1
There does not seem to be any recognition on the Republican side that they have failed because they have offered half-baked, unvetted garbage. So, yes, they will be back, probably in a year.
17
None of the 4 Republican plans floated since the election meet any of the campaign promises. They are not cheaper, they don't cover more people and they are not better. All of the plans are really service cuts to the poor and disabled to the benefit tax breaks for wealthy individuals who already pay far too little in taxes.
The most curious feature of all of this is how the state of Kentucky has voted for two senators, and a governor who have all campaigned on eliminating the ACA while 25% of the population of Kentucky is dependent on the ACA. How did they sell that? What is wrong with Kentucky?
36
What is wrong with Kentucky is the same thing that is wrong with Mississippi and a sizable chunk of other Southern and midwestern states: they have so shortchanged the education of their citizens over the last 4 generations that their voters are no longer able to think independently and critically about their own best interests, and are now led around by the nose by self-serving politicians who value their own financial gain over everything else.
1
Let me say this again: The Republicans did not want this bill to pass. They did not want to take the blame for taking healthcare away from millions. Instead, the Republicans are now trying to undermine Obamacare by sowing chaos and uncertainty. If there is enough uncertainty about the survival of Obamacare, the insurance companies will pull out of the exchanges, effectively wrecking the ACA. Then the Republicans can say, "We told you so," and never have to take the responsibility for its failure.
Everything they are doing is oriented to that goal. Advertising has been cut, the exchanges will be off line on Sundays, and Trump has been threatening to pull support for premium subsidies.
If Obamacare collapses, there will be no further attempts to provide healthcare for all for decades. That would be a tragedy.
46
Do not declare victory and move on. Experts need to make crystal-clear the horrible effects Graham-Cassidy would have had. We need a full CBO report.
The partial CBO report issued this week stated (bottom page 8 & top of page 9) that without the mandates and subsidies premiums would increase so much that only the sick would continue to buy coverage, premiums would spiral further upward and insurers would quit offering plans. But, the CBO didn't have enough time to estimate how much premiums would increase and how many millions of people would lose coverage.
We will need those estimates if Republicans try to bring back health bills with some of the same provisions.
Viable health coverage legislation must be based upon the three legged stool of: Availability + Affordability + Accessibility. Graham-Cassidy shortened the Availability leg by eliminating Medicaid expansion and Planned Parenthood coverage and by eliminating the employer mandate which would make employer coverage less available to those who lose Medicaid or private insurance. It cut off the Affordability leg by eliminating the individual mandate, which raises premiums for the remaining sicker people, by eliminating subsidies, and by cutting funding to Blue states by 30% and Red states by 10%. And it cuts off the Accessibility leg because few insurers will offer plans in markets when millions can no longer buy coverage and premiums have skyrocketed.
We need full facts to prevent more zombie bills by the GOP
14
The Sanders/Klobuchar v Graham/Cassidy debate about healthcare on CNN last night fully revealed the stark contrast between substantive ideas about improving healthcare for all Americans and the slippery, shallow arguments promulgated by the Republicans. This latest straw to be grasped by those hypocritical politicians who really want to completely remove the social safety net is to hand over funds to the states in block grants, a completely ludicrous idea given the lack of interest in expanding medicaid by those states who would neglect, even abuse their own citizens. The last time I looked we were one country not fifty separate countries and cancer is cancer in Alabama just as it is in Michigan.
15
Alright, already.
Let the GOP vote in the latest iteration of Repeal and Replace.
Let then begin the process of implementing it. Put the ball in their court. As it stands now, they have done their best to sabotage Obamacare, and it's working.
If they do nothing, millions will lose insurance and get sick and die.
If they vote through their plan, millions will lose insurance and get sick and die.
The only thing that will save Americans is the one thing they will not do - put their time and thought and effort into correcting the flaws in Obamacare - making it work - putting Americans - not political careers - first.
They have nothing better, cheaper, more inclusive. If they did, we would all have seen it by now, not just plans that even Trump says are "mean".
My god, people are suffering, worrying, getting sicker and facing death while politicians try to "win" votes or positions or save face.
The politicians history looks back on with honor will be those who break through this ridiculous stalemate, become statesmen and act in the best interests of the people.
Let them vote for this obscenity and then own it. Let the poor and the sick and the capped out and the elderly camp outside their doors. Let premiums soar as healthy people take advantage of the system and insurance companies write for 50 different plans. Let people move in droves from one state to another more caring one.
It cannot be any worse than the GOP doing what they have been.
12
That's a good argument for the GOP to finally trash and Balkanize the U.S., well beyond health care. Don't allow zombie trumpcare to pass. Ever. Call Congress (Senate) to oppose this latest incarnation of the monster. And also let Graham and Cassidy know exactly what you think of them as Americans, as Congressmen, and as people. Never let them go without knowing.
I think that the razor-thin margin by which the "repeal/replace" has failed a few times so far is somewhat disingenuous, perpetrated by the media.
In reality, there are many other Republican Senators that are NOT on-board with the "repeal/replace" bill (of all versions.) But the thing is, the Senators, who DO oppose "repeal/replace," and whose reelection chances are shaky are making deals with the Senators whose seats are not shaky. It's because, all that's needed is 3 Republican Senators ONLY to defeat "repeal/replace." That count met, the shaky Senators do not have to vote NO, and risk the next election loss; and they can keep their conscience clean about defeating the unfair "repeal/replace" bill.
Let's say Susan Collins or John McCain decides to vote FOR "repeal/replace." I am sure that another Senator, whose reelection is not in great jeopardy, would offer himself/herself as sacrificial lamb.
So, this "razor-thin" margin is just a drama created and perpetuated by the media.
The razor-thin margin may be a drama, but it's perpetuated by Senators who actually vote, not by the media.
Arun, why do you say the drama is created by the media? They're just reporting what happens. Even if the drama is fake, it's created by the Republicans trying to appear to be doing their best to eliminate ACA, to please their donor-masters, while in fact stopping just short of doing so.
Let's not forget Yogi: it not over till the fat lady dances.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Too bad one of our PA senators is MIA on care for the people of PA
The only positive thing that has come out of Trumpcare is that Americans are starting to ask themselves what kind of benefits they want from the healthcare industry. We didn't have that conversation when the ACA was being debated and passed because we were still reeling from the recession. Turns out we're tired of going broke due to a major illness and then being declared uninsurable, we think people with preexisting conditions deserve affordable insurance, we love covering our kids until 26 so they can establish themselves as adults, and we like the fact that the insurance industry has to provide quality insurance benefits. These are things we can build on.
What we don't like is the fact that deductibles keep increasing, the exchanges are not competitive enough to lower monthly premiums, and people who don't qualify for Medicaid or subsidises are finding themselves priced out of affordable quality health insurance. The insurance industry has taken advantage of the new law by passing the higher cost of healthcare on to their customers even though they're doing quite well. This is something that politicians should address but their too busy trying to destroy the ACA rather than fix it.
A reasonable country could fix the current system. Sadly we stopped being governed by reasonable people in 2010. There aren't any heroes in the current debate, just a bunch of children masquerading as adults.
11
We all hope for a solid Trumpcare defeat. However, I expect the vote to look much the same as last time. The reason is simple. A reversal is likely to leave a senator catching heat from both sides. You already have the first Trumpcare vote on record. Now you choose to bring the ire of the president and party leadership? It doesn't make sense. That's why I'm hopeful Murkowski will stick to her opposition. Selling out now is a bad move politically.
As for another Trumpcare revival, I'm not sure. We're correct to assume some Republicans and Trump will keep flogging the dog even after Graham-Cassidy is dead. However, we probably won't see zombie Trumpcare's return for quite a while. Republicans can only have one budget reconciliation procedure active at a time. Presumably, they want to use reconciliation for tax cuts as well. Otherwise, they'll need a bipartisan tax bill.
If I had to guess, Republicans will pivot to taxes instead so they can exclude Democrats. Once taxes are done. They can make health care an issue again or turn to infrastructure. Judging by the deficit explosion from the proposed tax cuts, infrastructure spending is probably a non-starter. That leaves health care. The goods news is the delay buys time for Alexander and others to finish a bipartisan measure.
If you write a decent Obamacare patch, Trumpcare is off the table unless the president threatens to veto. That's going to be interesting. Let's get the bill written first though.
5
So much wishful thinking. Republicans are vindictive people who want to see anything Obama related destroyed much more than they care about doing the hard work if creating something positive for America.
Trump's ink consistent governing philosophy is undo anything Obama did.
Republicans will let tax reform and infrastructure flounder in favor of repealing the ACA. That is what petty, vindictive people do.
Only Trump is so blindly vindictive. Normal politicians pivot. Sometimes ludicrously so but they do pivot. Trump though, he bears a grudge so heavy against Obama its likely to destroy him. He reminds me of the boar tribe from "Princess Mononoke." Like Nago and Okkoto, Trump is diseased by vengeance and pride.
Health care is an aspect of the economy that defies rationality - the greatest expenses tend to either accompany the most dire or uncertain of outlooks, most of the expense is correlated to the end of life, costs defy any facile understanding, the perspectives of "consumers," providers and gatekeepers are often at odds, and the entire process is suffused with emotion.
And the solution to this matrix is to be derived by a collection of ideologues and political hacks (most of whom are lawyers by training) whose intellectual horizon terminates at the next election.
What could possibly go wrong?
4
Term-limits and campaign finance reform are the ONLY path forward to reclaim our democracy from the career politician class who are beholden to the uber-wealthy donor class in America. The GOP actions on HC are beyong the pale, and unfortunately, their next action item is to cut taxes on the wealthy ( "reform") while leaving millions of Americans in worse shape.
8
You can take Senator Portman (R-OH) off the list of possible no votes on Graham-Cassidy. He has proven again and again to support whatever Trumpcare product the GOP rolls out.
He somehow always shows up in the "on the fence", "I'm conflicted" category, yet his party line "yes" vote has never been in doubt or actually wavered.
No matter how badly his yes vote will hurt Ohioans and citizens from other states, he can be counted on to tow the party line, helping to drag millions away from affordable healthcare.
7
You're right about Portman, but the reason he always appears in the undecided category until he votes with his party is that rational people cannot believe anyone would vote against the interests of his state in such a dramatic and public way. The same is true of Capito. But this thing is not over yet. Counting on Rand Paul and Ted Cruz to do the right thing (even for the wrong reasons) is likely not to work out well. They are just as craven as the rest of their party and could easily vote yes after all. We need to wait before celebrating.
2
Please don't celebrate this serious subject. We are left with the ACA which is not acceptable under any circumstance. Healthcare is bigger than a political win. Then again, so is everything else.
1
I don't understand why everyone seems to be assuming Graham-Cassidy is dead. I believe the opposition of Paul and Cruz is nothing more than a ploy to make the bill even more radical. In the end they will vote for it because it's the best deal they are going to get.
5
There will never be a victory on Trumpcare until there is regime change in congress. We shouldn't forget that Republican dominance also means more tax cuts for the wealthy, less help for the poor, destructive environmental policies, less oversight on financial institutions, and a host of other ill effects. Donald Trump is merely Republicans unmasked. Substitute Mike Pence or any other superficially less crude and vulgar a representative, and Trump's policies simply receive a thin veneer of respectability. Absent wholesale political change, Trumpcare, Trumponomics, and Trumpitude remain the three pillars of the Republican platform.
3
This is getting tedious. Contrary to a popular expression, it is not crazy to think that if the Republicans play this game enough times, eventually they will get the elusive result they seek. All it takes is once and most or all of the ACA protections are gone.
Given that the Republicans are likely to keep hitting replay, it is up to the Democrats to change their game. Very few of the Republican supporting voters were attached to specific impacts rolling back the ACA would have on their insurance coverage. What they liked most of all was that it was going to shake up the status quo and upset the entrenched interests that are attached to it. That anti-establishment sentiment remains strong, but as the fight has gone on, more people have discovered they like being able to get health care treatment without having to worry about hiring a bankruptcy attorney afterwards (getting people to like lawyers is always a tough sell).
As a suggestion, I think the time is ripe to take the anti-establishment appeal to the opposite extreme. Instead of leaving people with nothing (repeal) offer them everything. Full stop, national health care, not just national health care insurance protections.
Democrats have been afraid to do this because they will get nailed with the government-run bogeyman. Fine, just take that away and promise an independent health care corporation to administrator the system. Promise that the new system will force big changes. Ignore the details! Have fun!
2
Perhaps it might be best to simply stop referring to it as Obama care. Objecting to policy simply because it has the wrong label on it is about as absurdly ridiculous and irresponsibly petty as it gets. Seems to me it might be time for repubs to swallow their pride and simply deal with the fact that they never had nor currently have anything better to offer. Take the high road no matter the pain and work together across the aisle to build a sensible competent health system for and in the interest of the American public as a whole. Not simply in the interest of partisans or ideological beliefs. They can then call it whatever suits them. I have no doubt that president Obama will still rest easy knowing that the best interests of the health care of Americans are being addressed. What is more important, what we call it or what it does?
4
As Hillary Clinton observed in tonight's interview with Cris Hayes, The Funding Powers behind the GOP are driven by libertarian philosophy, religious and raw political power motives that she has been fighting for 25 years. I agree with her... they won't give up! Consequently, I can't see how they would allow Alexander - Murray to come up for a vote. The rational reasons for why this makes sense don't come close to surmounting the raw political power of mega buck donations.
4
I cringe every time I hear Republican lawmakers explain that their efforts to kill Obamacare (time after failed time) are in line with their promise to do so -- a promise made before, during, and after the 2016 election. Politicians break promises all the time, and they have my permission to break this one. The only promise I wish they would make -- and keep -- is not to seek reelection. In fact, if they would only pay attention, they would discover that the majority of their constituents now want them to fix the law, not kill it, and to arrive at that fix through bipartisanship. Unfortunately, dealing with this reality is beyond the scope of the Republicans' feeble capability.
2
The Republican way to passage: offer Alaska and Maine more money for their system in exchange for a yes vote. Not new money. Money taken from another state. We will save a few lives in Alaska and Maine, but others in a different state ( undoubtedly a Medicaid expansion state) will pay the price. And the big donor money machine will crank out the greenbacks once again. This is what the conservatives voted for.
3
Just being alive is a preexisting condition. Allowing states to waive the clause and allowing insurers to determine what is a preexisting condition is akin to walking into the lions den.
We ALL need and deserve decent medical care. It's not just for the rich and favored.
Why cant we all have the care the that congress has? They are drawing large salaries and not doing the work they were elected to do. In the private employment market they would have been fired long ago.
Alternatively, let members of congress find their own health insurance, like the millions of people whose fate rests in their grasping hands.
3
Mr. Leonhart you are right. Democrats must not let down their guard until all American's have the right to affordable healthcare protected by law. When and if bipartisan healthcare discussions start again, there must be agreement that those who are sick deserve access to affordable insurance and quality medical care.
If Republicans do not see all Americans as deserving of affordable insurance, they need to explain their position. Which populations should be excluded from healthcare access? Cost cannot be the reason since they are ready to increase the deficit with tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
It is time to push Republicans who do not support efforts to provide affordable healthcare insurance for everyone to explain their position and identify groups that are expendable. Come to think of it maybe that was the point of the Graham-Cassidy bill. It would make the states decide who could get medical care and who is out of luck.
The ACA repeal effort has long ago ceased to be about policy for the GOP; rather, it is about undoing Obama's signature accomplishment and keeping a promise to their base after seven years of ceremonial votes and using it as a fundraising tool.
This last bill was the most cynical of all of them. Give a bunch of money to the states and let them take the blame for cutting back the program, and pay for it (so they claim) by cutting Medicare. And for good measure, let's try to ram it through without a CBO score.
I wish I could say there was something noble about its defeat, but who knows what would have happened if John McCain didn't become ill or if they had put enough Maine or Alaska pork in the bill to win over Murkowski or Collins. 48 GOP senators thought this bill was a good idea. That's all you need to know about about the moral and financial bankruptcy of the GOP today.
2
This is becoming a bit like the 60+ times the Republicans voted to repeal when Obama was president. That it is a free vote for most to show their opposition, but it becomes a different matter if it were to pass. That the voting to remove 20+ million people from health insurance becomes a different matter if it might pass.
Surprising that the bill's most obvious failings - leaving it to the States to decide - aren't getting airplay. THINK. It not only creates bureaucratic chaos, (think the Fed centrally "managing" healthcare times 50), but also creates warped disincentives for people with health issues not to move to other states, for example, for a new job, if the other state has worse healthcare. The whole idea is so very deeply flawed I can't believe any Senator with half a brain even considered it.
2
I would ask the Capitol police to refuse to wheel and drag out disabled protesters. Perhaps the Congress members who asked for the protesters to "shut up" and called for their removal could walk down to the gallery? The two groups could have a discussion rather than a really disgusting exhibition of power over people who can't see, can't walk, etc.
Obviously this calls for willingness on both sides. Most people would talk to another person who asked respectfully, "may I hear your concerns" followed by "we need to continue the hearing, will you participate with us" or some other polite request. Yes, I am being overly optimistic. I really hate seeing citizens wheeled and dragged.
1
We all keep hearing about the "donors". The "donors" who are furious at Republican senators who can't repeal the ACA. (As well as get huge tax cuts for themselves.) The "donors" have threatened the Republicans with cutting off campaign contributions until they see results. Not dissimilar to an organized crime scenario extorting payments, many Republican senators are cowering at this prospect. Who exactly are these "donors"? I'm hoping some intrepid journalist will expose these creatures and reveal exactly what they want from us. The few "donors" that I have heard about seem to be crusty old billionaires who already have more money and power than can ever be spent or make them happier. What can be in their animal souls that their unquenchable avarice compels them to further disenfranchise the most vulnerable citizens of our beautiful diverse country?
3
In ouir government, it's called 'campaign contributions.' In any other sphere of activity, it would be a RICO violation.
Why are compassion and humanity partisan issues?
Is one tenth of a percent more in money really as important as one more tenth of a percent in lives saved which could be saved if the resources were available? If only one multi-billionaire health insurance executive could give up one hour of (most frequently) his compensation, hundreds of lives could be improved.
But that is clearly too much to ask of the unmitigated evil of the criminal conspiracy once know as the Republican Party.
2
We all know (at least those paying attention) that Trump is the laziest president in American history. That being said in this case it plays to the worst instincts of Republican lawmakers who know Trump will sign any repeal bill they place in front of him and he will call it the best healthcare bill ever and lie with a straight face about what is in it. This repeal effort will never end until republicans are no longer a majority in either the house or senate, I'm not holding my breath.
1
The republicans in DC continue to accomplish nothing and I should be grateful. However, I would just like them to do their jobs and work with the Dems to fix things.
The Republicans will not give up on repealing the ACA because their the billionaires overlords want their tax cuts. And Trump wants to further insult the black man Obama.
Harsh to say, but without doubt Trump and the Republicans in congress are counting on McCain's yet-to-be-appointed successor to flip the vote next year. The billionaires are impatient for their tax cut and they will be pressing on until they succeed.
Far too much damage will be done and the country does not have the luxury of waiting another three years to take back the White House. At this point there is only one game in town: Democrats must take back the House of Reps or the Senate in 2018.
1
This hearing was a farce from the get-go. Town halls when what is going on impacts perhaps only a couple thousand people are open more to the public than what is happening with Congressional power that affects hundreds of millions. Shameful. And the manhandling of disabled people whose lives are on the line is reminiscent of historical pictures of foreign countries we have disparaged. These people are literally and figuratively fighting for their lives and only TWENTY were admitted to the hearing. Yes, they were disruptive. Would the sneakiness of this hearing received the attention it did if they had not been? If the GOP had any grace at all, they would have cancelled the hearing, and withdrawn the shameful excuse of a "healthcare" bill.
2
September 30 is a critical watershed, because repealing the Affordable Care Act will be subject to filibuster in the new fiscal year, meaning legislation will need to clear the 60-vote threshold. A big victory may be looming. . . .
If only these Republicans, who distinguished themselves with their complete obstructionism and disregard for America over the past 8 years, would actually put their apparently limited abilities to work for the benefit of Americans, instead of stripping away services to those who need it most.
They are the party of incompetence. They only excel at protecting their political flanks through voter suppression and gerrymandering...truly the party of no ideas...
So glad to see that Republican-speak is failing the party once again. The Graham-Cassidy bill is simply ANOTHER empty repeal effort with highly charged negative connotation for REPEAL. Repeal of affordable healthcare, repeal of guaranteed coverage, repeal of legislation that provided healthcare to millions, repeal of an ACA that never was the job-killing Obamacare.
Go on GOP. Keep testing the insanity hypothesis. Do the same over and over expecting different results. Yeah, I know, there is a fine line between crazy and determination. Let me tell you, we may soon be using phrase GOP crazy to describe things a high level of craziness. Yeah, man, that dude was crazy. How crazy? GOP crazy.
It may be time for someone (donors, think tanks, the ghost of Reagan) to sway Trump, McConnell, Ryan and the entire GOP to try a new approach. Maybe a bipartisan REFORM approach will allow them a string of small victories. Maybe rebranding the ACA as an incrementally improved ACA will give them a small victory, albeit on the stump and in words only.
My guess is, that won't happen. The Republican Senators appear to be an insane bunch.
1
"As long as [the president] and McConnell believe that they are close to finding 51 votes, they will be tempted to try again. They can restart the process in October or beyond".
And they will. As long as there is breath in their bodies, the Republican party will never abandon their crusade to do away with Obamacare. Maybe if the health care law didn't carry the former president's name, the GOP would concede that is was the law of the land and move on.
Bill Cassidy tried to bribe Susan Collins with money for "the Mainers" while turning his back on millions Americans in the other 49 states. His narrow vision reflects the mindset of the Republican party's approach to the ACA.
3
It's time, as they say in Maine, to put the smelly, dead moose on the table for all to see. This is not about states' rights, nor federalism and is certainly not about the GOP caring one whit about comprehensive coverage or lowered premiums.
Republicans held an off-campus meeting this month where they learned that campaign contributions from the big donors, a la Adelson, the Mercer's and the Koch Bothers, were way down and that this trend, if continued, would negatively affect their 2018 mid-term campaign coffers. Way down, as in about $75 million, annualized.
They are in fear of not replacing Obamacare and losing even more money from the 1% donors. Nothing motivates a politician more than angry donors. So, I agree with what's in the article but, as always, follow the money and it's easy to see why the GOP is so desperate to quiet the big money out there.
As for healthcare, they could care less as long as they pass even this pig of a bill.
1
At some point in the future -as the author said - the GOP can start the process (reconciliation) again. So why wouldn't they?
What baffles my mind and saddens me was the cruel and inhumane treatment of those individuals today, physically disabled and many in wheel chairs, some pulled off their chairs and laid out on the hall floor. For what reason? A hearing in which an amoral group of senators could try to push a true death bill on "hold outs." The abuse, yes, abuse, toward these citizens today was symbolic of the mind-set, with the exceptions of Collins, McCain, and hopefully Murkowski, of senate republicans and Mr. McConnell. This group, and its boss in the White House, are shameless in their exploitation of the every day American. They have absolutely no decency, no compassion, no empathy. As this op ed implies, it is not over until its over. And even with a "success" today for those of us fighting for the ACA, that may change in 24 hours, a week, a month. We can not rely on Congress or the president. We can hope, however, that they will agree to some sort of compromise as presented by Senators Murray and Alexander. And we can hope - and try - to keep up our resilience, our fight, for some form of universal health care.
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"For what reason?" Surely you don't have to ask.
Mr. Trump will eventually prevail... because he can sabotage "Obamacare" by underfunding it in his budget, by undermining the clunky enrollment mechanisms, understaffing the departments responsible for ensuring the smooth implementation of the law, and diverting our collective attention by tweeting. A few months from now he will again declare "Obamacare" is "a disaster" and many voters will overlook the fact that it is a disaster of his making, a disaster abetted by the GOP. The GOP senators who oppose the repeal of the "Obamacare" need to insist that Mr. Trump fully fund the law, comply with the enrollment processes the law envisioned, and fully staff the Departments charged with oversight of the law. Otherwise, Mr. Trump and the rest of the GOP will gloat over the "failure" of "Obamacare" in 2018...
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This is a comment that should be read over and over again. This comment describes exactly how the ACA could fail because of Trump and the GOP process of sabotage. While the ACA needs to be addressed and adjustments made, it is still the best that can be expected considering the opposition of the GOP to Bernie's plan.
@ WFGerson
If you truly believe what you just posted then the course of action for you is quite clear. You and other like minded Americans need to banish the GOP to the dustbin of history. Until this malignant cancer is conquered by all available means the health of your nation and democracy will be at risk.
I
No, this will never end. Watching George Bush try to privatize Social Security in the early 2000s and these repeated attempts to dismantle the ACA shows that Republicans will never stop trying to subvert social programs that don't divert money directly into their donors' pockets.
Actually, there is a way to slow it down, though. Ban all door money to politicians and have the government apportion campaign funds through taxes. That way everyone has a say in how the government is run. I'm not hopeful.
172
The right wing "justices" of the SCOTUS have made money speech ( Citizens United). Until that changes billionaires (and Russia) will purchase our government.
It was horrifying to see the Republicans presiding over the removal of disabled Americans from the tiny room chosen for the Graham-Cassidy mock hearing. The expressions on their faces ranged from irritation to shame but they persisted because it is their billionaire donors they fear, not the American people.
1
While everyone- it seems is singing Hosannas to Susan Collins because she has decided to vote no on a GOP assisted-suicide death care bill; please lower your voices. That it would take this long to come to one's sense of decency and humanity to come to the conclusion this Bill is dangerous and deadly- isn't a mark of courage and conviction. The other Senator-Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski- is still ruminating over a miserly 3% blackmail funding increase over six years: Both remind me of someone waiting until the house has almost burned to the ground to call the Fire Department. But I guess- when the bar for doing the right thing is so low, these two Republican Senators are heralded as heroes.
120
No doubt the bar for doing the right thing is low.
But these two senators have prevented passage every other time. They are heroines.
Please consider excoriating the REST (mostly male) of the Senate, those under the bar.
1
Guess you forgot similar "bribes" to Democrat senators Nelson and Landrieu in 2009 to get ACA passed in the first place.
1
Do you think that President Trump's attacks on Senator McCain are trying to intimidate others to vote "Yes"?
We must keep resisting until a legitimate health care reform is achieved. Getting anything done right is Washington is not easy, but it is possible. the best first steps will be to strengthen the ACA and ensure adequate funding for Medicair. The next step, which is harder, is to take on costs .
6
I am more pessimistic than that. I don't think "victory" will happen unless the Democrats can will congress back. If the Dems take the WH in 2020, but not the Congress, then we will again have 4 or 8 years of GOP votes to repeal which are vetoed by the POTUS.
The GOP and their base are driven by hatred of Obama (#1), hatred of government anything, money, resentment of the poor and vulnerable who are pretty much judged as lazy and taking from "real, hard-working Americans" (synonymous with the GOP base in their heads), and, with the base, a pretty clear lack of understanding of the ways that they themselves benefit from various government programs and services. None of that will go away until the GOP passes some awful new iteration of healthcare coverage and the base finally and, too late, discovers that they have been screwed.
39
A simple solution is to add the numerous Medicare options to the state exchanges for the individual market. A reasonable premium, based on an applicants income reported from previous tax year, would be charged. This would not add to the deficit. The private insurers do not want the individual market anyway.
3
I cannot stand this continuing crisis of ACA repeal/no repeal, again and again. The uncertainty is making me make bad decisions about my health. I haven't had a mammogram this year because I am afraid that if I need treatment that extends into next year, under a new health care bill I might not be covered for the treatment, because it's pre-existing. We cannot and should not time our health care needs into a calendar-year timetable.
I don't think this is diva drama; my mother died of breast cancer at 54, my younger sister has been diagnosed at age 56, my first cousin just had two radical mastectomies at age 39. In a normal country, I'd be first in line to ask for a mammogram. (The sister in question lives in Ireland, and the cousin in New Zealand; both got treated with first class care at almost no cost).
I guess I am lucky compared to the patients who know FOR A FACT that they will die if pre-existing conditions block them from health care insurance.
How any decent person could vote for a bill that did not cover pre-existing conditions is beyond me.
Single-payer, please.
345
Jamie:
We do need basic health care for all citizens. That health care should be considered a public utility.
Insisting on single payer may fare no better than attempts to devolve the "system" to the states via block grants. The chants for single payer ignore too many ingrained features of our health care system: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1602009#t=article ("The Virtues and Vices of Single-Payer Health Care," New England Journal of Medicine, 14 April 2016).
I have no doubt that many people believe, with all their heart, that single-payer is the "only way." But beliefs in a solitary political theology (and that is what this is--since details are almost always absent) have led us to our current stalemate. We need to get past this.
Mr. Leonhardt is correct in that this is no time for a grand celebration, but there is reason for a brief sigh of relief, with the hope that the grueling work of fixing the system--one that will never be perfect--can continue.
Jamie, please get your mammogram. Do not delay if you have a family history of breast cancer. Looking at this new and sick, republican bill, mammograms, yearly check ups and maternity care, are not required to be covered by insurance companies.
1
I completely understand what you are saying. Like you, I have also avoided medical care for fear any diagnosis will mean the end of insurance coverage. I'm in my sixties and know I should at least have a yearly check up but I fear even answering questions about lifestyle could lead to loss of insurance. Something as simple as how's your diet or how do you sleep can be misconstrued as a pre existing condition.
The stress of this constant drum beat to destroy healthcare and our earned benefits of Medicare and Social Security has taken a terrible toll. My blood pressure is up and I now suffer from chronic insomnia. No one talks about the very real health damage these daily attacks are already taking on us.
I wish you well, I wish us all well.
Why are the Republicans hell-bent on overturning the ACA? Where do they explain, in full, their reasons? What needs to be exposed by the national press is that this is a cynical move to reduce the cost of government-supported healthcare -- so that they can turn around and pass a tax cut. Under the guise of "tax reform", they plan to cut taxes for their wealthy donors but know it will send the federal deficit soaring higher, without deep cuts in other government programs; hence the plan to kill healthcare (ACA, Medicaid).
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The tax cut is already baked into this and every other repeal. The primary impetus for gutting the ACA is to cut the capital gains taxes that partially fund the ACA. The slashing of benefits and funding is secondary to the primary purpose of cutting taxes on capital gains and corporations. If this was a good faith effort to try to fix healthcare they might try to reform the delivery of services without cutting taxes as a first step and then gradually phase in the tax cuts. But that's not the real goal...
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Tax reform? Let's all hold onto our wallets. What is rarely mentioned is that Obamacare, (ACA), is financed by taxes on the wealthy. Guess what, with Obamacare gone no need for the taxes, hence "tax reform."
The real issue for single payer advocates, is what do we do with all those minions that we see behind the counter at the doctors office who are endlessly shuffling paper forms, next to acres of files? The so called "medical staff". There has to be at least four of them for every MD. Not to mention (millions?) who work in the rip off health insurance field, or administration in hospitals. All of which are dedicated to pulling out the most money out of everyones insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. They are the coal miners of today.
They have explained it on various news clips I have seen. It was a promise they made to the voters, actually their big money supporters. Repeal and replace. Replace with what was never explained and foolish voters never asked, or gave any real thought to the simple idea put forward. Just chanted along. They may as well have chanted, "Off with our heads."
Trump ran his mouth with no thought or plan behind it (now there's a surprise), the Republicans in the Senate, McConnell especially, were dying to destroy anything Obama, and now they are trying to make it happen.
I always thought of congressmen and women as Americans first, but the sight of the capital police dragging disabled reporters put of the capital like garbage, convinced me otherwise. Thanks Mitch McConnel for opening my eyes to what you really are. Sociopathic gangsters.
I watched Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham try to sell their junk bill and my jaw fell open. They were good, but as everyone knows their bill is junk. Unfortunately we will keep electing people like Bill Cassidy who continue to be owned by the wealthy and I'm sure we will continue to see the sight of disabled protesters dragged from congress.
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"I'm sure we will continue to see the sight of disabled protesters dragged from congress."
I don't see them giving up Mark. The next stage may very well be successful and then the nightmare would begin. Elderly pushed out of nursing homes and deaths from lack of care become common place. McConnell and Ryan are gangsters doing the bidding our their 'Don's', the oligarchs that actually control the country.
For as long as the financial enticement of Koch, Mercer, Adelson and all the other oligarchs' money is more compelling than the wrath of voters, Republicans will keep coming up with these shenanigans, shamelessly, fearlessly, and doggedly. They will keep piling on the pork and eventually entice one of the three refuseniks while intensifying the racist, classist states' right rhetoric we saw for ourselves in last night's CNN debate, where Senators Graham and Cassidy gave some of the most shameful answers heard in a public debate.
Democrats, on the other side, will probably continue to remain silent in between attempts at repeal. For as long as Democrats continue to prefer big donor money over what Senator Sanders showed us can be done with $27 contributions from individual donors, true leadership and resistance to Trump and his GOP will continue to be muted.
Money in politics is clearly at the root of our problems in our politics, with triangulation being a main mode of operation for both sides, to the detriment of the public, in the absence of viable alternative political parties to break the stalemate in Washington.
The compromises of neoliberal triangulation is what got us here. Had Congress passed universal healthcare in 2010, we wouldn't be witnessing any of these spectacles and everyone would be assured their coverage. Democrats need to go back on the offensive. Now.
---
Triangulation: When Neoliberalism Is At Its Most Dangerous To Voters https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2Jr
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The driving force behind the efforts to repeal the ACA is the fear by republican members of Congress that they will lose upcoming primaries if they fail to vote for repeal. This fear is well founded.
For seven years republican voters were told ACA is terrible and promised Congress would repeal and replace ACA once there was a republican president. Most of these voters believe ACA is bad and expect their congressional republicans to live up to their promises.
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Mark,
Democrats had just as long to try and make their case. In some states, they succeeded, by virtue of having the ACA in place.
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The fact that there are 46 plus GOP Senators solidly as a block opposing the ACA while keeping their taxpayer funded gold healthcare says a lot about their character.
They don't mind throwing 30 plus million Americans by various estimates under the bus in the "stated belief" that block grants and the private healthcare market will give better care than the ACA.
I can't believe that various GOP run states like Kansas that have already decimated their savings and their budgets through ill-conceived policies will use these block grants for medicaid and the subsidies for the ACA or similar programs.
Yes, indeed I still believe in Santa Claus.
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I might support block grants to states if they were made in direct proportion to the amount that those states that receive them that they pay as much or more in Federal taxes every year than they receive in Federal largesse. Let me repeat myself: I am against block grants to states that already receive more in Federal largesse than they pay in Federal taxes. Of course we are talking only about Red States that get more than they give. So let me repeat myself: I say enough Federal welfare for Red States. No more of Federal tax dollarsto states that can't pay their own way already.
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-gov...
As it stands, under ACA our Congresspersons have to pitch in a pittance for their gold-plated healthcare. Were ACA to be dismantled, our congressional pikers would once again be free riders.
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Mr. Leo hardy is right. It is important now to keep pressure on any undecided Senator. The more no votes, the less chance of another zombie resurrection. Then, the solution is a less than perfect compromise.
Even Bernie Sanders seemed to comprehend, at Monday’s debate, that this is not the time to alienate voters by railing against the capitalist system. I thought he did an excellent job tonight of sticking to the question at hand and countering the fears of bogey men coming from Graham and Cassidy.
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You still don't comprehend Bernie Sanders in particular, and, apparently, social democracy in general.
One of the most perplexing issues in health care is the coverage of people with "pre-existing conditions."
The insurance companies did not like this requirement of the Affordable Care Act, and that is why they insisted that everyone must buy insurance (or else be penalized).
Now, in its most recent proposal, the GOP proposed giving states the option of covering pre-existing conditions or not.
Meanwhile, not enough "healthy" young people are buying health insurance, as the ACA authors thought they would, but are paying the penalty instead.
In turn, the insurance companies are raising premiums, even with high deductibles, and blaming their premium hikes on the patients with pre-existing conditions and the fact that not enough healthy young people are buying insurance.
Moreover, some states are having a problem, with no insurance company participating in their state's exchanges at all, blaming it again on too many people in that state having pre-existing conditions.
It seems the insurance companies have abdicated their responsibility to manage and distribute the cost of this risk.
Therefore, for all those people, who don’t have employer-based plans, and who have a pre-existing condition, we could at least give them the option, at any age, of buying into Medicare.
These Medicare PEC (pre-existing condition) policies could have sliding scale premiums based on income, and I would suggest using an income-based sliding scale for deductibles too.
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Toms Quill: I agree completely with your last two paragraphs. The ACA originally had the "public option" included, but it was dropped in order to garner more support.
I am not sure if the Federal government is in fact enforcing the penalty for not purchasing insurance, and letting those who do not purchase insurance completely off the hook. The penalty was supposed to increase annually until it had a real impact. I wonder if anyone out there has up-to-date information on this aspect of the ACA.
Just wondering: Monticello, VA, or Monticello, NY?
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Could it also be that Congress is not funding the high risk corridors?
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Marco Rubio de-fundedn the risk corridors in 2015. That caused premiums to rise. Those risk corridors were scheduled to end by now even under the original act. What is hurting us now is that the subsidies still available to insurance companies are may be de-funded by Trump.
By the way, the red states that refused to fund the medicare expansion used their inability to pay for the expansion as an excuse for opting out even though the cost to them was zero for the first three years and 10% thereafter. I wonder what the governors of those states will do if they have to provide health care to their citizens out of an ever decreasing block grant.
TrumpCare proponents have been perverse in missing the point that denying people an entitlement that has been in place now for years and has attracted a constituency, without replacing it with something that offers the people at least as much, represents political suicide. Republicans will suffer for not being able to fulfill a campaign pledge to repeal the ACA, but strategically that failure will save them, so long as they deliver OTHER things. But many Democrats also fail to see that merely focusing on “TrumpCare opposition” without putting forth a plan for a comprehensive healthcare solution that addresses all the failings of the current system, plugs the holes we still have, is effective AND fiscally sustainable without reliance on massive dedicated tax increases they’re ALSO depending on for so many other things (universal pre-school, beefing-up of Social Security, massively improved and uniformly effective public education – the list really is endless) … doesn’t get them out of the wilderness.
Forget about Bernie’s “Medicare for all” along the lines he flogs, which is a British NHS solution that simply won’t fly here. We can’t afford the Medicare we have much less the universal Medicare liberals want without those massive dedicated tax increases, as well as a reduction in our military expenditures that would render us as ineffective globally as Britain has rendered itself since 1945 in pursuit of Band-Aids.
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I’ve condemned in this forum every version of “TrumpCare” offered, but the defeat of Graham-Cassidy should not be taken by David or other Democrats as justification for jubilation. They’re still in the wilderness and no closer to an emergence. And we remain with a healthcare framework that is far too expensive, an ACA that isn’t likely to be supported by Republicans with funding necessary to minimally sustain it, with millions of Americans without basic health insurance and millions of others paying retail for their healthcare when they can afford it at all even WITH an ACA-approved policy due to stratospheric deductibles and high co-pays.
If neither Republicans NOR Democrats can impel a restructuring of a badly designed healthcare system that isn’t adequately serving our people, then Donald Trump won’t be the most Martian president our people elect in response.
Approach Trump. Dicker for his support now that Congress can’t kill the ACA for the present. Keep in mind that what’s needed is a ground-up reformation of healthcare in America that is NOT a clone of Britain’s NHS, but must contain a single-payer component that provides all Americans with very BASIC healthcare. If Trump can claim that it’s the only way he sees to eventually repealing the ACA … he might just support it.
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The Donald campaigned on the promise of wonderful health care for all Americans at low (LOW!) premiums. He has since supported every one of those GOProposals (even the "mean" one) that did not even come close to making good on that promise. Why should the Democrats dicker with a president who changes his mind as often as he changes the subject. The Affordable Care Act was not the creation of a Democratic Congress but, rather, of a president who knew what he wished to accomplish and who, along with his advisors, designed a bill that ended up providing affordable health care for 23 million Americans. His successor, who can't be bothered to familiarize himself with our Constitution, is theoretically capable of composing a document that contains more than 140 characters. Moreover, he has the right, if not the responsibility, to draw up a replacement for "Obamacare" that would actually fulfill the promise he had made to those who supported him with their votes on Election Day. What's he waiting for? Why complain about what Congress isn't doing when he has the authority to submit a detailed proposal and browbeat those legislators into signing off on his plan?
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stu:
I know that for some reason you haven't noticed, but Democrats should dicker with Trump because he's the only president we have at present, and if Democrats wait to see if they can seat a Democratic Congress AND a Democratic president in 2021 (fat chance), then that monumental act of bad judgment and irresponsibility by itself would justify keeping them in the wilderness for a generation.
But turnabout is fair play: in other comments to other columns and op-eds, I've repeatedly challenged sensible Republicans to do what I urge Democrats to do here.
Much of your response assumes that because he made a campaign boast, that suddenly it's Trump's responsibility to define a solution out of whole cloth. It's not: normally, it's Congress's.
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It seems like the replace-and-repeal tactics of the GOP will always fail due to some combination of resistance among Republican senators. A single-payer system proposal from the Democrats will be stymied by conservatives in the House, even if the Democrats make gains in 2018.
Given this, the best hope for improvements to health care policy is the revival of the bi-partisan committee headed by Alexander and Murray. I'm not hopeful that McConnell will follow this pragmatic course of action before the mid-terms, however.
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Why the plaudits for Senator Alexander? If he were sincere about wanting a bipartisan deal, he would not have abandoned it in favor of voting for Graham Cassidy. Had he been sincere, he would have been the first GOP "no" vote out of the gate.
Where does "he doesn’t need to let himself get pushed around again" come from? Are we supposed to believe that when voting multiple times over several years against Obamacare, he was pushed into doing so against his will?
Alexander is an unprincipled hypocrite.
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I agree, bipartisan until his campaign coffer is threatened.
Agreed. Leonhardt lionizes the actual definition of choosing party over country. Why he does so is a mystery to me.
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He is a smart pol. He wants to have it both ways. When he runs for re election he can tell his extreme republican voters he tried to keep Trumpcare but at the same time tell his moderate republican voters (who want ACA), he tried to save that also.
He is no Hitler, but also no Lincoln.
Despite the fact McCain never met a war he didn't like and was a disaster in foreign policy for this country and it took a terminal illness, give the guy credit for his vote against Trumpcare. Ironically he may be looked at, as the person who finally ended our pre ACA de facto criminal health system with his vote.
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If nothing else, the past few months have turned once-passive voters into activists. And started a national discussion on single payer. Every now and then I see a glimmer of what I think must be what motivated the founders to give us the country they did.
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Here, here!
The circus spectacle and machinations of GOP'ers trying to keep their zombie repeal efforts alive are in such stark contrast to the very famous painting of signers creating the foundation document which established our Senate and House:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/christy/
The mean GOP'er manipulations and lies, trying to notch 'a win' for the Yammering Yam of GOP donor-land, are so very very small, contemptuous, and demeaning of us all.
GOPers' doubling down, tripling down, being denied, and yet persisting in their repeal frenzy with no workable plan except:
1. Block grants to states
2. ??
3. Voila - healthcare efficiently administered by the 50 separate states
would receive a 'Fail' in any middle school in this country.
We're actually paying people to perpetrate such monstrosity !
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Absolutely. Republicans are behaving like characters in The Truman Show; 60+ different times they've tried to sabotage a working national healthcare program as if programmed to do so. Or maybe it's Dumb-and-Dumber: this latest Graham-Cassidy monstrosity even tells employers they won't be mandated to provide healthcare coverage to their employees. In what alternate reality do these Republicans live in?! What's the rationale? Why is anyone, let alone 47 some-odd senators, still on board?
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Because rich donors who don't want to pay for poor peoples' health care have found it's much cheaper to buy 47 some-odd senators.
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...paying people to refute global warming, paying people to trash public education, paying people to wreck the environment, paying people to keep gerrymandering alive, paying people to build a 1000-mile transparent, solar-powered wall....
Since a majority of the populace, including 45's base, want to keep ACA, I'd think the senators would not feel vulnerable for voting against G-C. If billionaire businessmen -NFL owners- can disagree w/ him, surely our representatives can show they support their constituents' desires.
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Follow the money. Bought and paid for. No longer OUR representatives.
Trump will never let go of getting rid of Barack Obama's signature achievement. This is personal to him. Trump want to be the eraser. He won't stop so long as that paper is in front of him. Ditto for Mitch McConnell. His Southern pride of white domination drives him onward on his quest to finish the erasure.
The best we can hope for is to flip at least one of the Houses of Congress in 2018. Could happen, but unlikely. So long as the Democrats try to field non-white, non-traditional, non-religious types in red state America, the Republicans will retain control over these seats.
In the meantime, our current healthcare system with all of its faults, will remain on life support and under constant attack.
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"So long as the Democrats try to field non-white, non-traditional, non-religious types in red state America, the Republicans will retain control over these seats. "
Agreed. I voted for Obama twice and Hillary once. But given today's polarization, I really think that next time Democrats need to field a white male candidate. Otherwise, the type of candidate described in the above quote will cost votes due to racist and/or sexist backlash in the red states. That's too risky, given the 2016 results. Don't give Trump, Bannon and crew anything extra they can use against the Democratic candidate.
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"This is personal to him."
Let's be crystal clear here. It is not personal to Trump. It is not about Obama and the 2011 Correspondents' Dinner. Obama was just defending himself there from Trump's birther attacks. Trump is a racist. McConnell is a racist. That sums those two up. The GOP-led Congress is driven by greed and fear of their donors and subsequently losing votes for themselves.
Follow the money? Sure. But the most robust blood trail to follow is the one paved with the basest of human instincts. It offers up the surest, and coincidentally the simplest, explanation for what is going on here.
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i like your point about difficult candidates. i cringe every time the dems put forward a candidate that can be destroyed by unified opposition from low information conservative voters, and is not seen as a real candidate by many others. for the sake of our sanity, they need to run a slate of clean cut, white, male, moderate candidates that can be reliably expected to vote with dems, but look like"traditional" pols. im sorry its just politics, i wish it wasnt necessary. i have Eric Swalwell for congressman. his opponent tried to portray him as a tea partier. he isnt. hes liberal. but he can PASS as a tea partier, and doesnt SOUND radical. get them in office, THEN start running others once we show america we are going to help them.
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A State (New York) needs to enact single payer. Once it's up and running (hopefully) the rest of the country may want to follow suit. The greatest fear of the GOP. . Until than they will never stop with the endless attempt to repeal the ACA.
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One state won't be enough, because it can't happen without raising taxes on the rich. But if a majority of the grown-up states--the places where rich progressives want to live--banded together and adequately funded a single payer system, it might well work.
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Democratic politicians in California did introduce a single payer bill, but it was brought to a screeching halt by - Democratic politicians. Sadly, money talks, and the health insurance industry doesn't plan to go down quietly. It will take all of us pushing our own Congressmen/women and Senators, repeatedly, to make the wheels of this particular overdue justice turn.
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States have to balance their budgets. The federal government does not and can cut funding to any state that tries single payer effectively bankrupting them.