Calling any member of the Republican party a centrist thesis days is laughable. Susan Collins, like the rest of them, is just trying to take everything we have and give it to billionaires.
Sorry, Ms. Collins, but the only way to be an honorable Republican these days is to quit the Republican party. You are tainted by your associations.
15
The only Republican voting against the Senate tax bill was Corker. Collins, McCain and Flake "sold their souls" to pass it. Despite their lofty statements to Congress McCain and Flake are no diffent than their Republican counterparts. Actually they are worse because they made these statements and directly contradicted themselves by their actions. As for Collins, her maintainng she voting for the tax legislation because she extracted promises for healthcare and entitlement programs-who is she kidding? Can't wait to see her "eat her words" when her Republican cohorts "blow" her off once they pass their tax bill.
22
Certainly sounds as if she was duped.
8
Don't forget that they promised Flake that they would take a new look at immigration. Right!
11
It seems Susan Collins is either very gullible - if she believes in the ironclad promises from the likes of Ryan - or very cynical and deceitful -- if she doesn't, but uses them as a way of passing as a "good guy."
Either way, I hope her vote shows her to be unworthy of reelection.
17
Susan Collins should switch parties.
7
Maine's motto is Dirigo: I lead. Unfortunately, Senator Collins does not. Her style is to play cagey until the last minute, playing a "will she, won't she" game that frankly lets her constituents feel jerked around. It's clear that she's being played by the Big Boys. Time for her to go.
19
The REALLY sad thing is that she is the only Republican in the Senate who does not want to cut Medicare, Medicaid AND Social Security.
And you're right ... she didn't take her chance when she had it.
So much for getting WRITTEN promises, as she says she has.
That and $5 will get you a Venti White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks.
15
Sure makes her look weak.
6
Senator Collins, your party's motto now is "never give a sucker an even break." I fear you aren't going to get an even break. In the age of fake news, "ironclad" means only this: your deal, weighed down with iron, will sink to the bottom of Penobscot Bay, never to be seen again.
It's time for you to caucus with the Democrats. If that doesn't work for you, it's time for the Democrats to do two things: First, fund a primary challenge to you from the hard right, and second, to run a credible candidate.
12
I said before the vote Senator Collins was being foolish. Of course, they lied to her face. Why wouldn't they?
Giving up Franken's seat and not throwing people like Seth Moulton and the young Dems full time into Alabama was a huge mistake.
Collins sold her state and the rest of us down the river for a wink and a nod. Murzersky sold us out for drilling rights that may not exist.
Flake- Seriously?
McCain has never had much of a bite.
But another huge problem is how old these people are. If most of these people were just an everyday citizen, their kids would having meetings about taking the keys away.
Disgraceful.
13
One should never trust a politician's word(s)....especially from Sen. McConnel....
Question however is what was said and given to the other republican senators for there vote? (isn't this after all the way politics is conducted?)
And in the end all will vote on a committees recommendations - both from republican and the democratic party members....let's see who gets what and when....and who votes for it and against it.
2
Or maybe once the honorary girl-scout leader Roy Moore slithers into the Senate, Susan will switch parties?
5
Collins isn't that stupid. She knew they had no intention of honoring her requisites. She's just using that as a get out of jail free card when her constituents call her out for voting for this massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and poor to the already rich.
17
She voted no to repeal the ACA and then seriously expected to “negotiate” with the leadership after that.
I suspect one of two things happened here.
Either 1) she knew the ACA repeal was a tactical piece of legislation and played her constituents for fools or 2) she forgot Machiavelli’s principle of never forgetting who you betray because they certainly won’t.
The ACA repeal was tactical, which is why it was only two pages long. The senators who voted against it did so for appearance, to maintain credibility with constituents who would’ve voted them out in 2018 if a repeal were passed. The GOP has wanted to cut social programs like Medicaid and Medicare for some time so why would they care about how people can afford it. But a repeal wasn’t the objective, the real purpose was to ensure republican votes for 2018 shored up by “a middle class tax cut”. Ultimately, the GOP gets all: tax cuts, cuts to social programs, and defacto ACA repeal.
For someone who has been apart of a finely tuned social manipulation machine for 21 years I’m skeptical she was ever planning on “negotiating” anything. They entire club knew the stakes and the plan way ahead of time.
Congressional rope-a-dope is getting people to nod yes by blinding their instinct for no. It’s emotional rape really. Understanding how these social criminals operate is the only way to getting people who care and deliberate social policy, back into the institution of government. Voting party is a vote against your neighbor.
14
Americans, if they genuinely feel Trump's policies are dangerous, not just wrong, need to take the kind of stand taken by those who refused induction into the military during the Viet Nam War, actions that risked both personal career opportunities and physical well-being.
I do understand the reasonable argument by politicians (Collins) and employees that they can do more to limit ill effects of Trump's idiocies by remaining where they are. But at a certain point, the argument simply becomes wrong. As with draft resisters during the War, there is consequently ethical and political imperatives for the rest of us to support those individuals who sacrifice their careers and well-being by either quitting or acting in a principled manner that gets them fired.
Bodies need to be put on the line, much as was done on the Pettus Bridge, and advocates and apologizers of Trump's most egregious policies need to be confronted at their homes, their businesses, their country clubs. And there must be highly organized boycotts of their businesses, especially sponsors of hate radio talk shows. Money talks. If America is going to suffer because of Trump, then his cohorts must be made to suffer also.
That said, it important not to characterize all those who voted for and still support Trump as "deplorables." Sure, some are racists, misogynists, theocrats, and homophobes, but most really are trying to send a message to elites that things just aren't working, and more of the same will not do.
5
"... conservative House Republicans started saying that they didn’t care about her deal."
I'd much rather read a quote than someone's interpretation of what someone else said.
1
I'm not sure Senator Collins is the one who has been duped. She has always made the right noise to get elected without interfering with her party's priorities. She seemed briefly to buck that trend with the ACA repeal vote, but with her tax vote she has once again found a way to let the Republican party do what it wishes - to destroy the individual marketplace and thereby destroy President Obama's legacy.
9
"... In Trump’s Washington, other centrist Republicans are going to face a version of her dilemma, again and again. They are going to have decide which matters more to them: being a loyal Republican or being an actual centrist."
HOW ABOUT BEING LOYAL TO YOUR COUNTRY FIRST, party second... isn't that the definition of democracy?
10
"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made."
4
Selling out is not the same as being duped. A Senator who has been in office almost 20 years is not duped. She is a willing participant that is trying to have it both ways. Ms. Collins, are you with us or against us?
14
Didn't Paul Ryan first claim the tax cuts would pay for themselves, & then over the weekend claim they were going to create higher deficits which needed to be fixed in '18?
If supply-side economics actually worked for once, the Republicans would be in an odd position of having enough funding for social programs that they hate WITHOUT having to raise taxes!
But I suppose they'd then go back to their standard "its your money" line, like W did in 2001, & there would be another, even bigger tax cut.
Because the real goal is to make the Federal government so weak that most important decisions will be returned to the states. Or to put it a different way, to return to the system of government we had under Herbert Hoover. The problem, though, is states could never afford to deal with downturns or other disaster because (mostly conservative) legislatures have filled their constitutions w/mandatory balanced budget rules.
All of this means that with the envisioned cuts-plus a couple more disasters-we could begin to have inequality on par w/most of Latin America. UNLESS the majority of the country could unite against the "Grover Norquists" & support new tax increases on wealthy.
But we've all seen how well ANY tax increase goes over! ("read my lips", 1993, fiscal cliff, government shutdowns).
If there isn't a united majority to stand up against cutting Medicare (& Social Security afterwards), we could be looking at poverty and suffering unseen since the days of Herbert Hoover!
11
What does an ironclad verbal guarantee from Mitch MConnell even mean?
The details were never spelled out, he can not control how others will vote, he cannot guarantee when the vote will take place, and there is no known date until when he will stay the majority leader in Senate.
The whole deal stunk from day one. More holes than cheeses. Susan Collins played along while acting as if she is holding the line for some great cause or principle. She is as as responsible for this Republican offering to the 1% as the rest of the Republican leadership.
8
Why isn't this tax cut, if passed, taxation without representation?
4
Susan Collins and her lobbyist husband are millionaires. How much is she going to benefit from this tax bill, while tossing candies, like people in Maine parades do, to those of us who are not in the higher tax brackets, who don't have the wherewithal to create pass throughs, and who need help with health insurance?
She has always been a "fake centrist," voting with her party almost all of the time.... I love the hopeful comments of my friends on FaceBook who have been duped into thinking Collins will save them, and us all, from this travesty. The Senator has created a persona that has spread across the nation, but in Maine, we know what side of the bread really has the butter.... and its not the one we usually get.
10
So why doesn't she become an independent and vote her conscience?
2
Qualified praise for Susan Collins! In this world, when our leaders make decisions so bad that they are best called betrayals, I ask myself - is he/she stupid, or corrupt? Almost without exception for today's "leaders", I lean heavily towards corrupt. But Susan Collins - Your stumbling into that horribly obvious farce of an "agreement" suggests that were and are completely STUPID.
Better a fool than a crook - right? You are most welcome.
3
If she wants to be a centrist, she needs to leave the Republican Party and caucus with Democrats. There's no other option, and there's precedent for it in Maine.
15
Why doesn't Collins announce that she will change parties unless the GOP makes room for centrists like her?
Right now, the center is being held by more Democrats than Republicans, so it only makes sense that she should announce her intention to switch parties or become independent.
I suspect that would force the GOP leaders to give thought to how far to the right they're willing to go.
6
At least you are in a big club, Susan. Party over country. And, by the way, she is naïve or worse to believe any of those people.....it's on her.
21
On her and on the rest of the Republicans who have been complaining about how business is done in the Senate. Flake (with a book, no less), McCain, Corker, et al, made all their words nonsense by voting for this abomination. Any sympathy for Collins is seriously misplaced.
3
" . . . conservative House Republicans started saying that they didn’t care about her deal. She did not make it with them, and they do not feel bound by it . . .
Senators usually don’t switch their vote at this stage . . . ."
Perhaps she will switch it. What are they going to tell her - "We're conservative House Republicans, and we have resources"?
2
When are the Republican cerntrists, if there are really any, going to switch parties? If not with the election of a ..... grabber or the possible election of a pedophile, when? They will certainly not change for a mundane things as destroying medicare, the environment, or civility. Sad.
11
Collins is either a knave or a fool, and she has never appeared to be a fool.
14
This is all about Susan Collins duping David Leonhardt,
7
It is obvious that the New York Times and its op ed writers need to brush up on their definition of political “centrist.”
Because, Susan Collins has never been a “centerist” but a phony politican playing the role of centerist when Mitch McConnell says Collins can playact as a “centerist.”
But, thankfully, the folks in Maine are starting to catch onto Susan Collns’ con.
Because, Mainers know that meaningless “protest” votes don’t count, nor do midnight votes to gut consumer protection or votes for “best friend” Jeff Sessions as Attormey General or votes for Betsy Devos as Education Secretary or votes for a working and middle class killing tax bill or even votes for meaningless legislation that do not challenge GOP orthodoxy or provide any real help for ordinary Americans do not make one a “centerist.”
Shamefully, this so-called newspaper of record continues not only to realize they have thoughly conned, but continue in the big con that Susan Collins or any GOP lawmaker in Washington acts as a “centerist.”
14
Sen Collins wasn't just a bad negotiator duped by those mean old men though I'm sure that's exactly what she intended everyone ( i.e. the media) to think!!! She has cultivated this portrait used to describe her : the serious centrist who cares so deeply for her less fortunate constituents. This is a fanciful reading of the Collins, McCain, Flake, (et.al.) paper thin "compromises". They only care when it it doesn't involve themselves. All these good ole "boys" are freakin' multimillionaires who are one of the target beneficiaries of their own tax package. Why else would they ALL accept and aid the lightning speed used to sail this monstrosity through Congress???
They could afford to act magnanimously re: the repeal and replace because it doesn't effect them. Don't forget, they all have tax payer provided Platinum Health Plans for life. And, as a bonus, they enhance that media storyline: the principled maverick, the selfless truth teller, etc. Charlatans and con artists all.
17
What an idiot! Make a deal with liars, hypocrites and thieves and what did she expect?
11
Collins does not understand that her party has moved the goal posts on her. this article puts it's finger on exactly the mistake made. But the outcome is awful. Maybe this was her plan all along, make it look like she gave a damn, when she's really just another big gray elephant.
6
"What was her mistake?" Don't make me laugh! Her mistake was incredible naivety. To believe anything said by McConnell or Ryan...or any of these free-booters in the Republican Party today shows a detachment from the realities of the last year. If she is this clueless perhaps she's in the wrong job.
6
The only deal you can count on in Congress is one that insures you will see those you dealt with point their thumb down once the roll is called. Collins has been around long enough to understand this, but desperately wants to stay in the "Club" as long as possible.
4
Ms. Collins may come from the old era of Republican leaders with morals, but she now must see that they are simply damn liars.
3
Here in Kansas, we don't have anyone remotely centrist representing our interests. I have written, expressing my opposition to this tax heist, to Roberts, Moran and Estes. I have called and emailed. I got an email reply from Roberts' office, cut and paste ALEC / Koch Think Tank boilerplate about "middle class tax relief, growth and jobs blah blah," and nothing from Moran or Estes. I called again to find out about any meetings they may have scheduled with constituents to get feedback. Got voice mail. No reply. They have stopped even pretending to care about citizens' concerns. They care only about the donor class and next cycle's campaign contributions. It's time for a political revolution. It's time to change this corrupt congress.
12
It goes all the way back to when Bob Dole ran for president. The republicans tried to destroy Medicare by calling it Socialism. Nothing has changed.
https://thinkprogress.org/flashback-republicans-opposed-medicare-in-1960...
7
If she is that naive she should not be a Senator. She wasn't duped, she is trying to dupe her voters. This is a classic dog an pony show. She should be ashamed for selling out her region.
9
Most of us could have told Susan Collins that she was being had when she mentioned the promise made to her about healthcare. "Republican honor" today is an oxymoron. Now healthcare, social security, Medicare, etc. are screwed. She should switch parties.
5
as a Mainer I am ashamed of Senator Collins.
12
Collins is just shifting the blame: "Those mean guys let me down. I'm good!" She's a big girl and has been around these slimeballs for years - she knows exactly what they're like.
She's always been good at talking the talk and not good at all at walking the walk.
And she just loves the suckers in the media who keep fawning over her and falling for her little act.
We aren't talking rocket science here - she takes care of herself, not Maine, not you, not me.
14
Susan Collins is like Jeff Flake, a showboater. Gaslight the voters back in Maine and vote the party.
10
I have no sympathy at all for Senator Collins. Supposedly she's an intelligent person -- how could she ever have been gullible enough to believe the ``promises'' McConnell gave her were worth anything? He didn't have the power to deliver them, if that was ever his intention.
It's beyond me how anyone who's lived in this country during the past year could believe any promise coming from anyone in the Republican caucus. Their goals have been both clear and clearly stated. ``Moderate Republican'' is now an oxymoron -- and a very ugly one at that.
7
Sen Collins' Yes vote on a terrible tax bill (aka welfare for the wealthy) was terribly disappointing. Inevitably, in order to pay for the 1.5 trillion in deficits it will leave, the GOP will only use it as an excuse to make cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and social security.
Though the tax code does need revision, this bill isn't the answer. The urgency by the GOP to rush it through and in secret, is completely self inflicted. Congress should take their time working across the aisle and fix the tax code in the new year.
5
Why did Sen. Collins ever believe Mitch McConnell to begin with? McConnell, even if he was not lying to her to begin with, must have known that he did not have the power to make an "Iron-clad" guarantee that other bills would pass. Sen. Collins ought to have known that as well. Did either of them think that McConnell could speak for Paul Ryan? Why did neither of them check with Paul Ryan?
Collins has positioned herself so that she can be shocked, shocked when Medicare and Medicaid are cut. But she did nothing to protect them.
6
Senator Collins has abandoned not only her constituents in Maine (of whom I am one) but also many citizens of the US who will lose access to health care as a result of her vote. I am deeply disappointed in her. My hope was that she would continue to show courage and leadership and stand up for what she said she believed. She is not a political neophyte and so her vote was not naive and to excuse it as such is problematic. Simply put, she choose party over citizens. Sad and troubling.
9
I do not a accept for an instant the Hon. Ms. Collins believed the promises she claims were made by Senate and Congressional Republican leaders to get her vote. Ms Collins has been in politics and the U.S. Senate long enough to know such promises are not worth the breath they are uttered with. Ms. Collins was well aware of the necessary legislative riders and other remedies she should have insisted on IF she wanted to hold Senate and Congressional Republican leaders to their end of her deal with the devil.
And now Ms. Collins will attempt to explain away her vote to her constituents who will LOSE their health coverage with empty claims of being "cheated" not by Democrats or liberals but members of her own party.
9
It was a stampede. The GOP and Trump needed some kind, any kind, of "win". Substance did not matter beyond giving the donor class something to make it happy. Susan Collins is a mild-mannered, good-hearted soul. She yearned to do the right thing but didn't want to get crushed. So she traded her vote for a meaningless face-saving fig leaf. She knew what she was doing.
1
Magical thinking is what I would characterize Senator Collin's recent vote YES for the so-called tax reform bill, not the mistake of placing politics above legislative policy-procedure.
Key Hill Republicans commit fraud when "..making verifiably false claims about it. And they have decided that taking health insurance away from Americans is a core Republican principle."
Collins didn't make a mistake.
She was all sound and fury, pretending what she said would make a difference.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
4
"Collins said that she would vote for the recent Senate tax bill so long as Republicans leaders promised to pass other legislation — in the near future — that would reduce the bill’s knock-on damage to health care programs."
Well, doesn't she fit the classic definition of a fool.
2
Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican senator from the great state of Maine who spoke out, plainly and forcibly, against Sen. McCarthy in 1950. Smith was intelligent, straight-forward and flinty.
Smith would not have been manhandled by the likes of today's chinless Republican congressional leadership. Collins is no Smith.
4
Anyone who takes the word of this Republican congress that they will fix a problem or send through a "better" bill in the "near" future is just plain stupid. First of all, even if leadership wanted to guarantee a fix they can't, votes still matter. And second, anyone who believes they'll keep their word in this climate is not just stupid but delusional. The reality is Ms. Collins wanted to vote for this tax bill to save herself a primary fight but couldn't completely cave without risking her constituent support. Yes, it's an untenable position but when the so-called good ones fold things are far worse than they seem. And they seem really really bad.
We voters would be hard put to find one legislator that still cares about doing the people's business; few even pretend anymore. Do they even realize they have sold their soul to a money machine and if so, what is it like to see that darkness in themselves?
1
She should have stuck to her principles. You know you can never trust a Republican to sell you out for a campaign contribution. What a dupe.
"Collins made the mistake of chasing after an impossible deal." Wrong!
She went blind. She had senior moment or something. Collins is a spectacular example of A SUCKER. She knew, had an in depth ringside experience of the lying, stealing and cheating of the the majority of present Republican Party.
One wonders what kind of mental trip she went through to convince herself to do what she did. Well,best thing is that she gets another chance. Let's see how she handles the next round. Nothing like being played to open one's eyes.
1
Republicans: one lies and the other swears to it. Shrug.
2
Collins was a fool for expecting demonstrated, well-known liars to keep their word. We'll all pay for her foolishness. She's been there long enough to know better.
2
When, oh when, are we going to name this for what it is? Republican ideology is Confederate ideology.
4
Gee wiz!! We didn't see this coming, did we? Please send Susan Collins a copy of this column. There has got to be an Aesop's Fable about this narrative. And...the good news is......she doesn't have to vote for the final version.
3
This article is merely being polite (not sure why). She needs to be called out on this. Collins is not stupid and is only using this so-called agreement as a fig leaf. To assume anything else is absurd. She obviously thinks the rest of us are too stupid to figure this out. Hopefully her constituents will remember this (although I doubt is matters as I understand she is thinking of leaving the Senate anyway). Some of us weren't born yesterday.
5
There are no legitimate centrist Republicans. As Maureen Dowd wrote this past weekend Republicans will do anything to win and they don't mind playing rough. Senator Collins knows that. Maybe she is just another Republican liar.
6
One wonders how an entire party can move that far right that fast, and make decisions that help the ultra-wealthy few who need no help while leaving everyone else out in the cold. It's as if there are hundreds of Russian hotel room tapes and everyone's been caught with their pants down.
5
Anyone interested in the potential illegality of part of the tax plan should read this column from Michael Hiltzik. Republicans are trying what is arguably double-taxation on blue states.
www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/la-fi-hiltzik-salt-deduction-...
2
How can Susan Collins have been so long in Congress and still be so naive? Even had she gotten these "promises" in writing they were nothing but hot air. I am disappointed in her.
Labeling Susan Collins a centrist is like labeling Roy Moore a ladies' man.
6
Her mistake was to fail to recognize that she was swimming with sharks not dolphins.
She is not a moderate. There are no moderates in the Republican Party. She is not stupid, however, she always wanted to vote for this tax cut bill but only need a political fig leaf.
Collins was not ‘played’ but rather is trying to dupe her constituents. Her position and vote on this unpopular bill is an insult to the intelligence of the Maine voter. She is fooling no one.
6
Flake, Corker, and Collins could all have very substantial impacts on the republican party just by switching their party affiliations. If they did so the weasel Senate majority leader would no longer be calling the shots. They could actually belong to a centrist party and could once again call themselves conservatives.
And that would be the ideal thumb in the eye of the so called president.
Instead, they have chosen to run away, hide, or pretend that their party listens to conservatives and centrists.
Cowards all.
6
When speaking of Maine and its politicians it should be remembered that Mainers elected the "Craziest Governor in the United States", Paul LePage, twice.
3
Centrist Republican? Moderate Republican? Don't believe it. If they're a Republican and their lips are moving, they're lying. If their lips aren't moving, they're just planning a new lie. They are traitors beholden to the ultra rich and rotten to the core, every single one.
3
"What was her mistake?" Remaining a Republican. The stain on her legacy can't be washed away.
2
Susan Collins lost her nerve. She WANTED to believe them so she did. Nice girls finish last.
isn't this much like her committee vote FOR DeVos when it could have made a difference followed by her ineffectual vote AGAINST DeVos?
4
Here is the loophole: Cuts will not occur "because of this bill." So when the cuts occur it will just be blamed on something else. Perhaps on Hillary or Obama or the sun rising.
1
Republican centrist will not save the nation from Trump or the greed of the oligarchs.
Republicans who vote centrist values have been extinct since Obama was elected president. The Republican party is now funded and controlled by large corporations and the super rich. The oligarchs have been working to takeover govt. since Johnson's Great Society gave rise to Nixon's Southern strategy and Reagan declared government the enemy of the people.
The takeover of all branches of government is nearly complete. Soon, the Roberts Court will be supported by a federal court system salted with supporters of the oligarchs. When that happens laws that favor the rich, discriminate against minorities, and target democratic voters will be locked in.
The mercenaries, purchased by the oligarchs, in Congress, the courts, state legislatures and the executive branches of gvt. are ready to cross an American Rubicon — midterm elections. If the
crossing is successful the Nation will become just one more capitalist republic created by the super rich, to benefit the super rich.
To forestall the takeover, an overwhelming electoral defeat of the Republicans in the midterms must be followed by a purge of the Democrats to jettison "owned" politicians. Then, a constitutional convention is needed to fix a flawed document that has been corrupted beyond the greatest fears of the Framers.
4
It is hard to believe that a seasoned politican would take an iron clan verbal statement seriously in the current environment. Did she make a mistake or a strategic gesture to satisfy both her constituents and her party.
1
There was something just not right about how Collins handled this vote. When she finally ended her "deliberations" and announced that she would support the bill she was overly effusive about how "all her concerns were addressed" and how great a bill it was. She was almost giddy. Like someone flipped a switch and a light went from off to on. Very, very strange. I wonder if something questionable happened in background that we will never know about, or if Collins is simply that much of a fraud.
5
"There are only three kinds of Republicans left: the wealthy, those with enough power to have been bought by the wealthy, and the duped."
Thom Hartmann
6
If the compromise tax bill needs to be approved a second time, won't Collins be presented with an ideal opportunity to tell her Republican colleagues to stick it, as the saying goes, where the sun don't shine?
3
We in Maine (southern Maine, at least) don't believe she was duped. Rather, we believe she attempted to dupe us, her constituents.
10
Once again the mainstream media is missing an important opportunity to do the American people some good. Rather that reporting on the few Republican Senators willing to buck "Moron" Don and his sham of a middle-class tax cut, the media should be concentrating on the Republican puppets who are willing to foist such a monstrosity on the American people. The same mistake was made during the health care debacle. More coverage should have been given to the Republicans who were willing to take health care from millions of poor and middle class Americans. What irony. Rich politicians with excellent health care and benefits willing to deny the same to ordinary Americans. Who are these cold, cynical politicians willing to to hurt the very people Trump promised to help? Their cowardice and fear of Trump should be pointed out. The media should be concentrating less on the Trump scandals and more on the disastrous Republican agenda, and how it's hurting the poor and the middle class. Mueller will take care of Trump, eventually. Or not. Meanwhile, the media should be about the business of explaining to the American people how Trump and his henchmen are daily trying to destroy the legacy of President Obama, to the detriment of the nation.
2
She's no centrist or a person worthy of admiration. She's a standard issue GOP sister wife who doggedly follows the lead of the old white men who run the machine she has supported her entire time in Congress. Don't let her demeanor or articulate wordsmithing fool you. She's a con, who's no less harmful to our Democracy than is Donald Trump.
5
Republicans in Congress will lie to their mothers if they can get what they want. How stupid of Collins to take them at their word. GOP goal is to abolish ACA, encourage health care price gouging, cut Medicare and Medicaid and return to only GOP health care program - Reagancare/EMTALA at the local ER with no funding. CHIPS, community Clinics and Hospital supplements for indigent care all have been defunded. Collins should no better.
3
"Centrists" don't vote for tax bills they haven't read. "Centrists" don't take the word of people who haven't told the truth since the earth was cooling. "Centrists" don't lie behind the myth of being a "centrist" and then play their constituents for suckers. There are no "centrists" in the republican party.
7
Whatever reputation for moderation Collins has, she hails from a state that voted for Gov. Paul LePage. Twice. She knows....
3
Ryan is going to destroy America to prove he's wrong. That guy is dangerous.
2
The big money finally got what they wanted , the dismantling of all social programs that their capos (Republicans) have pushed thru and the freedom to bleed the rest of the nation in search of more profits. Welcome to serfdom and owing your soul to the company store .
3
Sometimes I wonder how much of politics in America today is really theater performed by very bad actors. We seem to have an ensemble of psychopaths pretending to be populists. The audience for this farce is equally dishonest; disaffected loners pretending to be patriots. This is theater of the absurd in its most extreme form. Conservative governance? I think not.
2
The biggest mistake Collins made was trusting snakes not to be snakes. She being a member of the GOP knows very well how they operate. How could she have been so naive to even think that they might keep thehir word, even to her. SHE SOLD OUT ! When this horrid bill passes, we will certainly thank her for making the misey of millions possible.
1
Susan Collins has been duped. She is honest, but the rest of her party is dishonest and is led by a compulsive liar. Doesn't she KNOW this??
How COULD she fall for that??
Her conscience and she need to gave a good talking-to and she needs to make SERIOUS amends to the people of Maine and the rest of the country. She blew it, and it's a serious matter.
she’s been breathing the beltway air to long. She showed the niave side, trusting leadership that naven’t kept their promised since the inauguration. As Regean more or less said” trust but verify”. She did the trusting but not the verifying.
There are NO moderates in the today's GOP unless you considered Reagan a moderate. All have voted straight ticket for everything since Obama. House and Senate. All to the right. Nixon would be a wild eyed liberal in today's GOP.
And anyone who makes 'a deal' with this mob is a plain fool.
3
Senator Collins won reelection to the Senate in 2014 with 68.5% of the vote. The people in Maine have strongly supported her.
But I am very disappointed that she voted for this bill. The bill is wrong on so many levels: wrong in its scope (favoring people and corporations who don't need tax breaks), wrong in its timing (given the strength of the economy) and wrong for its longterm effects on the country (increased deficits, decreased social spending and many millions more uninsured).
This is not a "moderate" bill and the conference version will be no better.
Mainers should demand much more. To begin with a "no" vote on the conference tax bill. Then working with the Governor to expand Medicaid, working to lift economic prospects for the state and seriously addressing the the opioid epidemic.
6
There is no bargaining with intellectually dishonest, right-of-center politicians. Lying is a way of life, at least professionally and likely personally as well. Senator Collins allowed herself to be duped, even knowing that promises from liars are without value or credibility. When it comes to honest, responsible governance, Republicans are the party of no. They are losers who deserve to lose in the coming elections. That's the only message they actually understand.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
4
Trust? Not anymore.
First mistake (for today): Collins trusted a "promise" from McConnell and Ryan, two people for whom basic arithmetic starts at 2+2=5 and goes downhill from there.
Second mistake: we trusted that there were moderate Republicans remaining, but those who purport to be have lied to all of us repeatedly.
Third mistake: some people still believe that politicians, particularly Republicans, are there to govern all Americans, not just right-wing ones.
I have regretfully come to the conclusion that anything coming out of any Republican politician's mouth is now or will soon be a lie. There is ample proof writ large daily in the NYT and in other responsible media (for as long as it is allowed to publish). I don't want to wish my life away, but politically, the next election can't come soon enough - and it had better come with a Democratic sweep or the United States as we know it will be forever lost (if it isn't already).
PS - Alabama, you can start the trend tomorrow - y'all hear?
9
Dear Ms. Collins. Please do the right thing. Switch parties as your new England colleague, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, did in 2001 when he became an Independent and caucused with the Democrats. You can create your own Profile in Courage by simply calling on the integrity you have demonstrated during your long service in the Senate. You owe it to yourself and the country.
5
The corporate welfare disguised as a tax cut, during a time corporations are flush with cash (as are your GOP representatives), won't pay for itself despite the GOP lies saying it would. To add insult to injury, the deficit created by this wolf in sheep clothing tax cut, will result in cuts to medicare, social security, and other forms of federal aid. Perhaps then and only then will those who voted for GOP candidates will wake up when they see cuts to their benefits.
3
Collins was one of the few and rare voices within the GOP, always taking the road of caution rather than being another lock-step robot storm trooper. She took a big risk, asking her colleagues to show some flexibility. She asked for a bit of grace. Instead, Collins got used. She got Punked. Perhaps she will regain her better posture, her sense of ethics. Sadly, she has appeared too often like a grain of yeast hoping for a bit of rise in the sour GOP sea of lethargic dough--and "dough" also refers to money--a party bought off by the darkest pockets of the donor-corporate oligarchy. Perhaps Collins will come around, regain her decent (for the GOP at least) gyroscope, and find her grace, and not allow her decency to be so sullied by the Grifter party.
2
"In Trump’s Washington, other centrist Republicans are going to face a version of her dilemma, again and again."
By all means, take, oh, five seconds, and name all the other would be Republican centrists.
"They are going to have decide which matters more to them: being a loyal Republican or being an actual centrist."
No, they are going to have to decide (assuming they exist) between being a loyal Republican and a decent human being and responsible legislator.
5
Seems to me that this is just another variation of, "Yes, of course I'll respect you in the morning." Collins made a deal in good faith. She acted honorably up to that point. Unfortunately, her deal seems to have been made with scoundrels who have no sense of honor or integrity. They used her to get what they wanted, and then they dumped her without fulfilling their end of the bargain. It is a tale as old as Time.
1
Susan Collins was not duped and did not make a mistake. She is just a fraud. She is a different kind of fraud than Paul Ryan, but just as much a fraud. Paul Ryan tries to pretend he is a thoughtful policy wonk; Susan Collins tries to pretend she is a committed moderate. Both are lying. Ryan tries to cover up his lies with numbers (and magic asterisks); Susan Collins tries to cover up her lies with promises she says have been bade to her.
14
She is not too bright is she. Does not even appreciate the duplicitous nature of her own colleagues that is so obvious to anyone looking in from the outside. There is no honor among thieves.
10
Does Collins really "buck" her party? In 2017, according to Progressive Punch, Collins voted against her party less than 10% of the time on votes crucial to progressives. That's more than any other Republican, but it pales when compared with Joe Manchin's record. He is the most conservative Democrat and he ditched his party almost 40% of the time on those same crucial votes. Collins' 'centrism" doesn't really look much like centrism from that vantage point.
The hallmark of all "Modern" Republicans is dishonesty and hypocrisy. Collins fits in, just not perfectly.
9
Maybe Collins could have Ivanka define the word complicit for her. I'm sure she'll just go home and bake muffins in her gorgeous state of the art kitchen. Nothing like muffins and a huge personal tax cut to make your feel better about taking away seniors health care.
7
Susan Collins caved to her corporate donors while still attempting to appear as if she cared for her constituents; the two are irreconcilable. The plutocracy that has become the Republican Party will not be satisfied until we are a nation of slave laborers -- at least that is what it seems from their economic policies. Any memory of the Great Depression seems to have disappeared in the minds of its' survivors' progeny, as they dance wildly toward both national economic insolvency and a war that may actually become the war to end all wars.
5
assuming some elected republican officials are reasonably intelligent and principled, we should start seeing announcements that, hereafter, particular politicians are leaving the republican party and are now "independent", like sens. sanders and king. hopefully, collins will be one of the first.
2
Senator Collins votes with the Trump agenda 81.5% of the time. This puts her BADLY out of step with the citizens she purports to represent. Luckily, she is up for election in 2018. We have a chance to let her know precisely how we feel about her votes to steal from the poor to pay the rich. As a first step, I have donated to the Maine Democrats. As I see it, I can donate what I can afford up front, or stand by while this government steals everything I've earned over a 40-year working life.
9
Collins should learn that her party has no conscience. She is living in another time thinking they will honor anything in the future. They want to cut health care and Social Security and their excuse will be that it's because of the deficit which of course they have created. Hope she learns a lesson from this.
3
These centrist Republicans have more in common with Democrats than their far right republicans colleagues. So i would say perhaps Ms. Collins who is a respectable and intelligent person ought to consider why she remain in this party.
1
I think the Democratic leadership in the Senate should invite Sen. Collins to caucus with their party, and I think Sen. Collins should accept.
5
I guess Senator Collins, who I admire, should have gotten the assurances IN WRITING. Not only from Mitch McConnell, but also Paul Ryand (pun intended).
But those men might still have broken their words, and promises.
Senator Collins made the mistake of trusting people who are not worthy of her trust, and simultaneously injuring those who put their trust in her. She is now between a rock and a hard place. I hope she finds a way out - she is one of the few standing between Trump's version of America and ours.
3
Collins is not naive enough to believe her conditions would be met. She wanted to vote with the GOP, and her conditions are no more than excuses for her vote. I feel no sympathy for her.
4
Susan Collins is called a "Moderate" only because the rest of the Republican Party has become so reprehensibly right-wing. As someone who has been one of her constituents for over 20 years, I can tell you that Senator Collins votes against her party only when it costs her nothing!
11
As a Republican, she should know better than any that the word of the leadership means nothing. How incredibly naive.
The best option would have been to insert an amendment that the whole bill is negated if certain provisions don't happen.... like her health care conditions, or the growth guarantees, or whole story about the tax cuts paying for themselves. Such an amendment would never pass because the Republican know better than anyone that it is all a lie.
3
Susan Collins "protested too much" about a tax plan that she really wanted to vote for all along. She up put a somewhat convincing if tepid resistance while still getting her heart desire; a whopping big tax cut for her donors. I think that's called having your cake and eating it too. I don't think you can survive for 20 years as a GOP Senator in Washington without becoming just another swamp creature.
5
We New Yorkers and other northern states that pay Federal taxes to support the poorer red states need to band together and refuse to pay Federal taxes until the new legislation is destroyed by the cheating politicians who have their own luxury healthcare and retirement benefits. Just as in the American revolution, we must stop paying Federal taxes that go to the states that voted these bandits in. That is. the American way we revolt. Starting with taxes! Please Governor Cuomo, shield us from this mayhem by starting a NYS Health System for all and having all the money we would owe in Federal go to the state and city. Break the rules just as the Republicans do, If they can thumb their nose at the constitution and our pillars of democracy, let's show them who's boss. Without our tax money, these red states are really up the creek. They need to wake up to that fact and fast.
4
I'm confused as to what the GOP stands for any more. With the tax bill that will add $1.5 trillion to the deficit and with the election of Trump, and, likely Moore, we can take "family values" and "fiscally conscious" off the table.
3
Sens. Collins and Fluke and the other, less radical Republicans can solve this problem. They can formally break with the party, and become independent or switch to the Democratic party. They have huge leverage right now, and given the direction of the Republicans, I bet they would be very comfortable taking this stance. Show McConnell and the other far-righters that they're not the only game in town. As independents, they could caucus with the Democrats or simply hold out their votes. They would be, literally, the swing votes on most legislation.
2
Collins will not redeem herself by voting no next time around; she came through for them when they needed her vote, but they won't need her vote next time, so she'll be free to vote no and claim she was duped, duped, I tell you! Call me cynical, but I don't believe for a New York minute that she thought her buddy Mitch had an eyelash in his eye when he was wink-winking at her as he "promised" to fix the bill to her "liking."
2
Senator Collins is a perceptive and shrewd politician. She wasn't duped. She did what successful politicians do -- she told her constituents one story (with as much sincerity as she could), while knowing the real story was very different.
5
This is an opportunity for Senator Collins to loudly, publicly, wave this broken promise; she should start her own Centrist Caucus, and should the Democrats pick up a couple more seats (Corker TN and Flake AZ are vulnerable) in next years election she can threaten to switch parties unless the GOP makes good on its promises. In effect it's a chance to make herself into the vote that controls the Senate.
Centrist Republicans? You can count them on one hand, as long as by 'centrist' you mean far right centrist. Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt who championed consumer rights and broke up business monopolies - and Dwight Eisenhower who refused to cut taxes and refused to engage in new military adventures, which helped America soar in the 1950's - are the Republicans of yore. They would have no connection with today's Republican Party and would be disowned as liberal Democrats.
2
I was and am disappointed in Ms Collins. In my opinion, she was naive to accept promises rather than amendments to the tax bill before she voted.
I was also disappointed in Ms. Murkowski, who voted for narrow drilling interests rather than the interests of her constituents.
Sadly, their constituents are not the only ones who will suffer. So will all middle-class and lower-class Americans, and if Ryan has his way, all seniors as well.
2
The USA has the highest income inequality in the world and with the new GOP tax law will make that inequality worse enriching the oligarchs as they demanded as payback for their support. Its called return on investment and if cutting social programs like social security ,medicare etc, can allow for further windfalls for the oligarchs so be it , The US govt is now a business passing laws to enrich corporations with trillions stashed overseas to avoid US taxes, enable polluting fossil fuel entities to profit from polluting. GOP is trying to justify greed to honor their 1% paymasters.
2
Sen. Collins is providing the fig leaf of centrist legitimacy for the long term Republican agenda of destroying the middle class. The thing is, she's been doing it for years.
3
"Collins made the mistake of chasing after an impossible deal."
I don't think that Collins made a mistake at all: what she wanted was political cover to justify her vote to Maniacs and that's what she got. She's a happy camper.
3
Collins plan for lowering ACA premiums in lieu of repealing the mandate expires in 2 years (2020).
So does her Senate term.
Coincidence?
There are no GOP centrists. The Never-Trump Republicans still vote in lockstep with their party, no matter how ghoulish the legislation. There may be some performative gestures, like McCain voting against ACA repeal, but fundamentally every one would vote with Roy Moore.
2
She has been involved in shenanigans in the past. During the ACA negotiations with the Baucus Caucus, Collins lead the GOP team. The BC and Obama made concession after concession to her in the mistaken belief they would get a few GOP votes on the matter.
Not so.
Sad.
3
Senator Collins voted down healthcare reform due to the obvious negative impact it would have had on Maine's Medicaid population, most of whom are elderly and the clear financial risk that would pose for Maine's rural hospitals. Her tax cut vote should have been an easy one...build in protections for Medicaid or you don't get my vote....she's too seasoned to have "made a mistake", strategic or tactical. She bailed due to pressure from wealthy donors and the very rural Mainers who voted Trump, Collins and Poliquin will pay a hefty price when they have to drive hours for acute or long term care...if they even have coverage at that point. Access to healthcare requires funding from more than just private insurance and she blew it. She's just hoping nobody from rural Maine noticed...and given their tribalism, they won't until its too late.
1
She's not duped. She just wants plausible deniability.
2
It's time for more moderate Republicans from pundits like David Brooks to office holders like Susan Collins to leave the GOP, which as Brooks admitted, is rotten to the core, and become Independents or form a third party. By remaining Republicans they are providing cover for the rottenness within.
1
Collins stopped being a centrist some time ago.
2
Why do lawmakers so blithely lump Medicare and Social Security with welfare programs? Are they aware we pay into these programs but wait, maybe when they spent the money they didn't realize from whence it came. What happened to all the talk of lock boxes we heard so much about years ago. If the programs are such a drain on the finances of America means test it, then don't spend it on anything else. The tax bill makes it abundantly clear that the Congress cares little or nothing about the taxpayers in this country. We haven't even heard what pork is attached, I could weep!
3
Susan Collins, centrist, is a myth. If faced with a Republican position that would cause the deaths of 1000 people and a democratic position that would cause no deaths, this woman would try to craft a position where only 500 people would die. She is a wolf in sheep's clothing and always has been. It was her companion senator, Olympia Snowe, who actually was something of a moderate/centrist and Collins has merely ridden on her coattails all these years. When the vote really counts, such as when they want to get something out of committee, she caves and votes the party line.
One irony is that today's "Republicans" attack fellow politicians for being "elitist" and out of touch with most Americans, when the G.O.P. has been favoring the elites, and out of touch with most Americans since the New Deal through the Great Society. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid have been overwhelmingly supported by most of us for most of those programs' existences. Only a small minority of Republican members of Congress have consistently supported those types of broad-based programs. Most Republicans have not represented the will of the people; they have represented the will of some very wealthy people, the elites in society, whose consistent complaints are that their taxes are too high and poor people do not pay a sufficient amount of tax. But, at least through the Ford administration, there was a sufficient number of thoughtful, intelligent, and well-educated G.O.P. member in Congress, Since the Reagan administration, however, those numbers have been decreasing, replaced by small-minded Ayn Rand followers, Tea Party wing nuts, and people who have only contempt for government.
2
A personal commitment from Mitch McConnell isn’t worth the hot air he uses making it. McConnell ignored his Constitutional duties when a qualified nominee from President Obama was before the Senate. Why would he ever worry about an empty “promise” to a single Senator?
1
It's time that Collins and other GOP centrists and others who increasIngly seem to diverge from the general direction of their party admit that the Grand Ol' Party ain't what it used to be and move on.
1
Trump's been in office for almost eleven months and has proved to be monumentally worse than even his fiercest critics could imagine given his public bio to that point. Senator Collins must be not only an political optimist but also a very slow learner.
1
"And the meek shall inherit the earth"? This is no time to be meek.
1
Who wants to inherit, anyway. We want the world and we want it now.
1
Collins might try to rally Sens. McCain and Nevada's Dean Heller (Sen. Corker is a no on deficit grounds) to vote down the bill unless it includes what McConnell promised about health care, to show the republican leadership that talk is not cheap. Otherwise, she might look for another job.
1
if the people of Maine don't remove Collins, first chance, then they will be abetting the destruction of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
1
I'm one of those Progressives who has (twice) voted for Susan Collins. It was a pleasant feeling - our Senator from Maine, taking brave stands against her increasingly irrational and corrupt party. "It's good to have a smart, centrist Republican office," I said to myself, "She can help bring the sides together."
Those were the good 'ole days, before Trump, before the Republicans went completely off the rails and dedicated themselves to trashing the environment, and running up the deficit (tax cuts for the rich!), so that they would "have" to take apart Medicare, Social Security, benefits for veterans and so forth. Actually, that's been the Republican strategy since the early 80s, but now, they are within striking distance.
And Susan is helping them along. She votes with her party 80+% of the time. She just provides a bit of a fig leaf to cover some of their obscenities - the Reasonable Republican. She'll be able to move around a few of the deck chairs, but she's still part of the crew that's driving our country, and the people of Maine (we're an old and poor state) onto the rocks.
So - I've always like Susan. Somewhere I even have a nice photo of my wife and I standing with her in her D.C. office. A memento from less dire times.
But it's time for her to go. She's a luxury item - lipstick on the swelling ugliness of the current Republican Party. We can't afford her anymore.
1
"And they have decided that taking health insurance away from Americans is a core Republican principle." And they have decided that forcing Americans to overpay for rigid health insurance plans dictated by bureaucrats is a core Democrat principle, and they are against it. There...fixed it.
2
Maybe it is time for Ms Collins and the other centrists, if any exist, to change party affiliation.
2
Dude - there are Republican centrist, willing to not go along with their party in all things important? Can't make that claim for Susan any more?
A centrist Republican is nothing more than a Republican that makes public statements that people want to hear while voting to destroy social programs, the economy and the Constitution. In other words, there are no centrist Republicans.
The Republican Party is the party of bigotry, hate, debt, sexism and greed. Anyone still calling themselves a Republican contributes to that agenda.
At this holiday time, think about well-known characters from classic Christmas shows who would be great Republicans: Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch, Professor Hinkel and Burgermeister Meisterburger. So, Merry Christmas from Republicans! They're taking away your health insurance, retirement accounts and freedom!
1
All we have to do is determine who is contributing to her reelection fund. However, by the time the super pac bribes are unraveled, she will be ensconced comfortably in K Street.
1
All this blather about Susan Collins being a "centrist" or a "moderate" needs to stop. Anyone who could vote for this pell-mell, hodgepodge of a travesty that is the Senate tax bill has no claim to being moderate. Actually, no one who voted for it can even claim to be a responsible person.
Sure, Susan Collins has a record that shows she is no culture warrior. But, on the fundamental policies of her party, especially on economic issues, Collins is as extreme as the rest of the GOP.
I knew this would happen when I first heard about it. Why is anyone surprised?
Susan Collins is a nice lady, and God love her. I am glad she is where she is, because stopping this "turn down a dark alley" that America is taking - to its mugging - is going to take every number at the margins to stop.
I just can't fathom how desperate and gullible is the Silent Majority that forms Trump's "core" support, that the puerile Republican leadership can lead them, like sheep to the shearing, into the pockets of the One Percent.
When will they wake up and say,"Have you no shame, sir? At long last, have you no shame?"
1
I don't know who disgusts me more; a clueless Senator Collins who thinks that the men holding all the cards will honor the concessions they made for her a second longer that it takes to pass their precious tax bill or a craven and amoral Congressman Ryan who is gleefully throwing millions of his fellow citizens (including me) into a miserable old age so that he can reward his already wealthy donors. I wonder what will happen after they get the rest of our wealth; will there still be room for Ryan, et al on their side of the fence?
1
Collins is not a centrist, she just plays one on TV. She has made a career out of claiming to agonize over whether to vote with her party only to fall in line when it is time to vote, almost without fail. Please stop enabling her charade.
It's hard to believe that a senator with Ms. Collins' experience could be so daft. I suppose that she thinks the "promises" she received from the Republican leadership will provide political cover back home. It's scary to think she believes that her constituents would swallow that.
Collins wasn't duped. The people who believed in Collins were duped that she's on their side. She's not. She's all show just like John McCain and Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. They are all just little escape valves to keep the looting of the commons and the common man going on behalf of the rich, full steam ahead.
1
A. Susan Collins is not dumb.
B. Susan Collins is a Republican who needs the support of Republican donors as much as anyone else. She does not want to offend them.
B. Susan Collins made a 'deal' with the Republican leadership in which she gets some 'promises' of changes to the horrible tax reform bill.
C. The Republican leadership has as much integrity and honesty as my big left toe.
Therefore, when the Republican leadership fails to follow through on its 'promises' to Susan Collins, she can tell her donors that she supported them and tell her constituents that the leadership failed her.
Remember, Susan Collins is not dumb.
Senator Susan Collins is a member of the Party of Lincoln, but the GOP, once known as the Party of Lincoln, has not embraced the ethos of Abraham Lincoln for a long time. Unfortunately, she is now a member of the Putin-Trump-Moore Party, a party whose candidates continue to misrepresent on ballots their political affiliation as Republican. Rot, as David Brooks recently noted in a NYT op-ed piece, has already destroy that political party
1
Wow, that is one savvy politician, not realizing she was being "duped" when it was obvious to everyone else. Will that be her re-election slogan?
"VOTE FOR COLLINS I WAS DUPED!"
Who are these people who voted for Trump and continue to prop up people like Ryan and McConnell, whose only aim is to benefit the rich at the expense of the moderate or poor? Immigrants are not our problem, most of us Americans come from immigrants. Who calls Medicare and Social Security entitlements when we pay for them with our payroll taxes? The poor don't take a charitable write-off for donations we don't make, the government actually makes the donation for the rich, that's white collar welfare. If we believe in an America that is just and fair we are deluding ourselves. But for the sake of our country, we should be having kitchen table talks with our "kinfolk" who seem to think that the Republican Party is accountable, responsible, fair, balanced, ethical, Christian, moral or compassionate. Caring about guns and the unborn is fine, we all want to be able to protect ourselves responsibly and celebrate life. But destroying our planet, the air we breathe and the water we drink, our liberty to vote, denying us affordable medical care and restricting the livelihoods for most everyone except the wealthy is not. Democrats are not the enemy. Take a closer look at what Republicans stand for. Surely God or ethical, moral people do not support pedophilia, old men preying on young children, pilaging from the poor, denying poor, sick and elderly healthcare, taking away benefits that people pay for with their hard earned money. Republicans seem to lack sound reason and moral fiber.
1
Susan Collins made the mistake of listening to a couple of bald faced liars, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.
She needs to understand that with those two, untl you see what it is that you want, you do not sign on. She should have demanded to see that language in the bill.
It is "Pay for goods delivered." It is not "Pay in advance and wait for the delivery."
I think her only leverage is to threaten to caucus with the dems if the liars don't come through with their promises.
that would definitely work.
1
Collins is a woman. The only time her fellow Republicans are going to take her seriously -- or even notice her existence -- is when she's late delivering their coffee and donuts. She should be intelligent enough to realize this.
1
In the end she the differences between her votes and Roy Moore's will be tiny.
1
Her mistake was believing anyone in her party tells the truth or has any objective standard of honor. This party has sold out the country and our political system by being the "by any means necessary" party. Nothing they say means anything. Not to each other, not to the their party, not to us.
The GOP has rotted. It still stinks.
1
If Susan Collins really wants leverage, I would respectfully suggest that she renounce her party affiliation, become an Independent, and caucus with the Democrats while maintaining her moderate bent.
65
jim jeffords switched parties over a similar betrayal i believe during the bush years. If i remember it was an education bill. Principled man.
32
A much admired person. Remember him well and still miss him.
1
For years, Senator Collins has found a way to appear as a moderate even though her health funding votes typically say otherwise. Her healthcare vote was the one time where she clearly appeared to recognize Maine's rural healthcare depends largely on Medicaid funding, without which hospitals and nursing facilities face closure. So asserting she has been duped is a misread of her political acumen. She was not duped but rather made a political calculation that she can make her wealthy donor base happy while still retaining the largely poor rural voters who gave us our governor, Paul LePage, our loose canon-in-chief, Donald Trump as well as her seat in the Senate. She turned her back on those voters with her tax cut vote but as other readers have pointed out, she is trying to make weak arguments she hopes those voters will buy...and they will. The principled stand she appeared to take on the healthcare vote seems to have been a calculus to see how well it would play in advance of the tax reform debate as her tax vote as that vote is such a contradiction of her healthcare vote.There will be no jobs, no rising wages, no participation in the tax cut coming to those poor rural voters Maine and they'll slowly lose access to healthcare as entitlement funding becomes the next GOP target...but, as she has in the past, she'll make them think her motives were good and they'll buy it...again...and again and again....
3
The fair and sane approach would be to stop the magic and insist that Congressional leaders show the spending cuts that lie hidden in their sleeves. Congress should delay enacting long-term, large reductions in federal tax revenue until next month, when those cuts can be matched against increases and reductions in spending in next year's federal budget. For example, if Trump wants to propose new spending on infrastructure in January as is widely rumored, he should make clear how much of that will be financed by federal spending and how much by state and local governments who will face reductions on the deductibility of state and local taxes and the end to tax-exempt interest on private activity bonds.
6
The whole Republican gestalt is a fantasia. Take away the magic and nothing remains but bad faith.
1
. There is now a significant possibility that disruptions to specific sectors in the economy could be more important than the negative macroeconomic impacts of the Republican tax bill. Eliminating the Obamacare individual mandate, as is currently in the Senate version, would cause there to be 13 million less people with health insurance. Uninsured people spend less on healthcare than those with insurance. Most studies indicate a 25% difference. Thus, fewer insured people will result in less spending on healthcare than would have been the case otherwise. Other than the direct impact on GDP from lower expenditures, there could be financial distress as some firms in the healthcare become unable to pay their debts.
The risks of defaults stemming from weakness in the housing-related sectors probably exceed that of healthcare. The homebuilders are correct in their complaints that most of the tax advantages of home ownership will be eliminated in all of the Republican tax bills. The current version allows deduction for real estate taxes up to $10,000. As the homebuilders point out, many more middle- and low-income people will no longer itemize, since the standard deduction has increased, and many other deductions will be reduced or eliminated. Additionally, a lower limit on mortgage interest deduction for new home purchases reduces tax advantages of home ownership.
Thus, as the home-builders now argue, only a few relatively wealthy h. .."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4127862
3
Sweeping tax law changes are a costly headache for everyone that wastes time without productive effect.
Susan Collins is much farther to the right than you think, and it shows how extreme and right-wing the Republican Party has become. On the tax bill, Collins has said it won't increase the debt and might even "lower" it, claiming support from two Republican economists, who both have said that isn't true. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, one of those economists, said in April that anyone who thinks tax cuts like this pay for themselves is "detached from empirical reality." Yet here is Collins, detached from empirical reality, claiming the cuts can be self-financing. She is farther to the right on the tax bill than any respectable, highly conservative, Republican economist. And she's a "moderate?" Please. For the details, see this https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/07/for-the-last-time...
86
What makes me sad is that I don't think that Collins and others are "duped". I think they know very well what is what, but think they have enough political cover to toe the party line.
11
"Collins made the mistake" of believing that the GOP can make a promise and keep it unless its donors tell it to.
10
Wasn’t it Susan Collins who negotiated with Obama on the Affordable Care Act, got him to remove the federal option and then voted against the bill anyway?
She may want to seem like a centrist as opposed to being a centrist.
25
The vast majority of "centrists" are simply apathetic about politics, and their disinterest causes them to be at best superficially informed about public issues.
The American Revolution divided the public approximately into thirds, the pros, the cons, and the centrists. The centrists had the least impact on the outcome.
2
Since Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security have their own funding source outside the income tax, how are they possibly affected? If those are all cut, will the related taxes also be reduced?
6
Medicare taxes aren't sufficient to pay for the cost of Medicare over and above premiums recipients pay. And I'm not aware of any Medicaid tax.
2
re: Doug from NJ
Guess you never followed Washington politics for more than the last fifteen minutes and heard about the myth of the “locked box.”
Which simply means that nothing is safe from GOP cuts, just ask Medicare recipients who will have to shortly have to contend with 25 billions dollars per year in cuts when the GOP tax bill abomination passes.
1
Here's a contemporary riddle: Can you tell the difference between today's Republicans and passengers on the Titanic?
Answer: The passengers could tell the ship was sinking. Many of them chose not to go down with it.
20
I'd guess they all chose not to go down with the ship, which means "you can't always get what you want." Nor do you get what you need (sorry Mick & Keith).
Senator Collins deal reminds me of the the parable of the frog and the scorpion...Senator Collins and other centrists (or members of decency) are the frog; the Conservative Republicans (including Paul Ryan) are the scorpion. Sadly, not honoring the promise to Collins is exactly how the scorpion betrayed the frog (causing the demise of both).
7
Yes indeed.... the scorpion is stinging already
1
Murkowski rolled over when she was promised that drilling could begin in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Pretty cynical, huh, to mortgage the nation's future, add to global warming and ruin a pristine wilderness just so you can get your pet project moving?)
Collins, Corker, Flake and McCain are the only ones who might still be influenced, but they are, when all is said and done, Republicans. The GOP exists to take away from the people. Plutocracy is the goal.
32
She can still vote no, even if senators typically don't at this stage.
8
she needs to start packing
Sen Collins has been around a long, long time.
If she is a dupe, it is because she willingl accepts the role,, time after time.
Her career has consisted of giving her party cover, which makes her a willing idiot, not merely a useful one.
37
Susan Collins is embarrassing herself.
28
Centrism does not exist except in the Democratic Party, with half the Congressional Democrats falling under this designation. All Republicans are hard right wing, some outright fascists. Thugs and fascists don't negotiate in good faith. They are liars and knaves, or both. Collins is a just another poser, wishing we would see her "reasonableness," though when her vote is needed, she's lockstep with the thugs. She is not a moderate. Please, ladies and gentlemen of the NYT's readership, study a little political philosophy sometime, it could open your eyes to the political hell that is the current US Congress.
19
More than a sucker, an idiot.
18
We need a third party, NOW. It should welcome moderate Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. It will be small at first, maybe 10 to 15% of the House and the Senate, but it will leave both extremes with no illusion that they can control everything unilaterally. Nothing will pass without help from the moderates. Trump will work with the moderates, if he wants to claim any success in his one and only term in office.
2
I believe it is sadly true that our system of government, as it works in reality, is not suited for these times. How is it democratic for chairpersons to wield the power they do? Since when is it democratic for those like McConnell to decide what comes to the floor or what will NEVER come before the whole body for discussion and a vote? Maybe it's past time that we again look at the parliamentary system, as in our neighbors to the north, who seem to be doing a lot better than we are in almost any area you care to investigate. As a former hresident of Maine--- Presque Isle--- I can tell you that the Canadians I knew and with whom I spoke to were very happy with their system and just shook their heads in disbelief at the shenanigans going on in D.C. And elsewhere in this country. Are we too stuck in the past and stuck with a Constitution that was never meant to last forever? Possibly so.
1
The title should read "Susan Collins and the Duping of Republican Centrists." There are more than a few centrist and conservative Democrats, none of whom voted for the tax bill in the Senate.
8
I would say the same thing to Susan Collins that I said to Barry Goldwater 25 years ago: Dump the fascist Republican Party and become a Democrat.
11
She made the mistake of believing a Republican.
Malls in Alabama have higher ethics than this pathetic group of desperate, misogynistic, racist white men.
You can look it up.
20
Collins position is a 'cop out'! Same with likes of McCain.
They postured as thoughtful Centrists for Health Care vote ... knowing very well Healthcare would be adversely effected - but more buried within 'Tax Reform Bill".
15
It has been clear for many years now that Republicans have no standards and are united by the single goal of plundering the country for the benefit of the only group that needs no assistance. Those who have children and grandchildren are deeply in denial about their future, or they simply DO NOT CARE.
13
Assuming she doesn't want her legacy to be that of moron (sorry for the trollish terminology), her only rational choice will be to vote against what comes out of conference.
Actually I'm hoping that the healthcare issues will be among many irresolvable paradoxes which make it impossible for the bill to make it out of conference any time soon.
4
"Death of the Liberal class", as Chris Hedges authored is in full view. The surprising of all this is that liberals are shocked by the extreme right in US politics. They do not play by the old rules and are unlikely to do so.
5
I trusted my colleague. We made a gentlemen's agreement. Never again. I will never take this person's word on anything of importance to me. Ever.
Susan Collins has been a politician for a long time. She knows - and can't possibly be blind-sided the way I was - that her agreement wouldn't be honored. She had to have known on a gut level exactly what was going to happen. And now it has.
4
The author refers to Republicans as radicalized, when in fact, many of the attempts to derail the ACA came not just from Collins, but Murkowski, McCain, Graham, et als. Are there any comparable Democrats in the Senate who would stand up en masse to their own president and against the will of the party rank & file, save WV's Joe Manchin? The state of the Democratic party is such that a Diane Feinstein (lifetime ADA rating: 90%) is considered a "moderate," though she departs from the liberal orthodoxy on no issue of significance.
Because what we is US call
“Liberalism”, and what Republicans call “far left liberalism” is in fact centrism. There are very few true leftists in our government at the national level— Bernie Sanders is just left of center in any valid political spectrum.
1
Susan Collins is being outmaneuvered by tacticians. If she had any tactical or strategic sense she would seize the moment to switch from Republican to Independent. She could still caucus with the Republicans with the implied threat as further leverage to switch to an Independent who caucuses with the Dems and further threat to switch to the Dems completely. For a woman who is a Northerner to abandon the party of Trump and Roy Moore is not such a bold move in 2017 and it could inspire others - one of the few things Mitch McConnell would fear. But he knows he can walk all over her.
4
The Senate tally for the tax bill refutes the notion of credibility for the term "other centrist Republicans." Collins' vote seems to have been based on her receiving a cover story rather than a deal. Knowing her colleagues as an insider and having served with this batch of partisan colleagues, it seems the height of naivete to think she really expected them to really pull back from the crusade to gut the ACA and other social programs. But of course John McCain, the man who brought Sarah Palin to national attention and sought to put her in the line of succession for the presidency, didn't even require a cover story. The claim of "centrist" Republicans grows every more tedious.
3
Yes! You are so right. All this discussion about her "deal"was nonsense from the start. There was never a deal. There was a cover story excuse.
"Of course taking away health care from Americans is a core Republican principle - it has been for a long time. (So is taking away their Social Security, their public education, their environmental and consumer protections, etc, etc, etc)"
This concise summary from another poster on this board. If things can be framed just like this -- as they truly are -- perhaps the blinders will be removed from enough people's eyes to end this madness next November? And to provide a basis for powerful and loud opposition in the meantime?
We don't need more parsing of nuances or analyses of related issues--just a clear focus on the real intentions of the right-wing extremists and what the costs will be for the rest of us.
9
NYer, completely agree with you. And further, the dems need to REFUSE to take any GOP bait on issues like the baking of cakes, who uses what bathroom, and claiming that a parody of sexual aggression was sexual harassment instead of a boorish joke from a then comedian. They need to focus on the core issues of our country and of our democracy. Otherwise, we really have no future to even think about.
1
Why? Oh. why do people not learn that any deal with Trump is a bad deal for them? He has always, and it appears that he will always, lie and go back on any promises he made. Why doesn't anybody learn from the mistake of someone else? Why does everybody have to make the mistake for themselves? I guess that is the power of the con man "This time it will be different. You can trust me, baby"
4
This deal was NOT made with trump. democrats need to stop with the constant demonization of ONLY the HEAD of the GOP party, and start spreading the blame throughout the entire GOP-- who have worked for years to earn our scorn, but who year in year out, go unattached. And thus get re-elected time and again, until we end up the current critical mass of evil, which will destroy democracy and discard The Commons-- which is what the social safety net is a core piece of.
1
Now proclaiming she isn't sure she'll vote for the tax bill when it's finished going through the Senate-House reconciliation process, Susan Collins actually believes that this matters anymore? She gave away her leverage when she gave her trust to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and voted for the Senate draft out of her self-inflated believe that they wouldn't dare play HER like a political naif. After all, SHE's Susan Collins of Maine. Why, how COULD they lie to her? What a sad end to a career built on misguided compromise with the right-wing crazies in her own Senate GOP caucus. And what a sad reward for the centrists and liberals in Maine who trusted and voted for her.
3
Let's also hope the crazies in her own state-- and there must be lots who complain about the federal guvmint while utterly dependent upon it for retirement income and healthcare coverage-- have a giant wake up call and vote for a democrat next time. Who in truth is probably a centrist, unlike Collins who is merely a poser.
1
Even she grasps power as her single purpose. Our leaders work for themselves.
3
I don't agree that she was duped. She had to know exactly what would happen if and when that bill passed. If Collins wants to maintain her reputation as a "centrist" she needs to find at least one other Senator to join her in a no vote on the final bill. If she can't do that she should be lumped in with all the other Trump-owned Republicans.
3
California Trumpublican reps are voting yes on this bill. My rep is doing this with full knowledge that it will harm his constituents. We had devestating fires this summer. This rep votes to get rid of the deduction for losses in this disaster. In order to match step with his party he is willing to vote for a bill that gives him a tax break but hurts constituents.
10
Then why don't his constituents vote him out of office?
1
The pathology of people who work and glory and gloat to take away medical care for millions of people, many of whom voted for them, is incomprehensible. I can no longer look at people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell as ordinary people, but I thought Susan Collins was different. She is, but why would she support such massive damage as the tax cuts will do, in return for relatively small favours? And why ever would she ignore that the Republicans she has cast her vote with have a trail of lies behind them that is long and deep? Sen. Collins has turned a blind eye to too much.
2
The part that I find most frustrating, is that I think she, Susan Murkowski and Jeff Flake all know the promises made to them were whispered on the wind. For whatever reason, all three accepted the word of men who only lie when their lips move.
As for McCain, I just don't think he particularly cares anymore. Aggressive glioblastoma's have a median prognosis of 18 months to two years. You can already see the deterioration, probably secondary to the chemo. No more heroes to be found among Republicans.
1
Is she really so naïve as to believe anything people like Mitch McConnell promise? Really?? A Republican Party and Party leadership that has been lying about just about everything for 50 years. What a dud!
1
Another sad example of a senator folding to party pressure and not standing up for the American people to whom she has an obligation. Why, in your wildest dreams, Senator Collins, would you think Ryan and McConnell are men of honor and integrity? The past 8 years are filled with examples of their lies, dishonesty, back-room dealings and total lack of transparency and attempts at all costs to destroy the Obama legacy. Fool you twice - shame on you. And now you have helped to screw 150 million Americans with this phony tax bill.
4
She voted. GOP drains the swamp of fairness and pays off wealthy. Truthfully, the middle income voters always understands getting screwed and going home to rent and bills.
1
Shows how strong Collins is ..........NOT. She's another equivocating lamb occasionally mouthing some socially relevant statements. Face it: there are very very few Congresspeople with backbones to stand up to the likes of Trump, Ryan, McConnell, et.al. The American public is screwed and apparently about half the country doesn't yet realize this.
1
I've always had particular contempt for Collins and her former fellow Senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe. They pose as moderates, but they voted with the increasingly extremist Republican party virtually every time, only rarely showing any political courage. And this current ploy by Collins is nauseatingly transparent.
Only a small minority of Republicans-at-any-cost would accept Mitch McConnell's "ironclad" commitments on anything at face value. Collins's constituents don't accept McConnell's word, and I don't believe she does either. I suppose that her vote for this legislative travesty, one which many economists say could throw the USA back into a recession, must at least mean that she gets to keep her place in line at the Capitol lunchroom. I hope she's not screwing over Maine and the entire rest of the country without getting something valuable in return.
2
Collins had the chance to strike a blow for all of us peons but in the final analysis, she "went along to get along." A "No" vote on the final middle class tax hike (lets call it for what it is) won't matter much now because she has no leverage. So the Republicans are now well on their way to dismantling what remains of the social safety net and realizing their dream of walling themselves in with their wealthy benefactors and letting the rest of the country go to hell.
2
Sorry David. Collins was not duped or blindsided or lied too by her colleagues. She, like all the good republican soldiers, made a show of standing up for something that actually helps people, and then cast her ballot with the party of austerity and dismantle. Do you really think she believed what she was told? She had to know she was shoveled a spade full of coal, just in time for Christmas.
The weekend of her vote, she was on the Sunday shows talking about her 'ironclad' promise , while on another channel, at the very same time, McConnell was pointing out 'he' made the promise to 'bring it up' - not to implement it.
This is not the Republican Party in the age of tRump
This IS what the republican party is. Period.
She and McCain et al, stand there and rail for the people , for the good of the country etc and then when the vote comes......
they screw us all -Party over country even for her! For every last one of them.
4
Wasn't there a story about some snake (played by Mitch McConnell) assuring someone (like Collins) that it was OK to eat apples. Once the party's thought they had an agreement, God (Trump, of course) steps in and says, "Now you are screwed!" Haven't we seen this movie? Anyone remember how that turned out? Uh huh!
I'm not sorry that I do not feel one iota of empathy for Collins, nor any other alleged "centrist", that is on the right, and toed the party line. If they honestly believed the radicals that now run their party, then they are unqualified by being too gullible and ignorant to even be holding a congressional seat. People that inane get just what they deserve, just as the gullible masses that voted for Mr showbiz have received for selling their votes: nothing but screwed. Buy a bridge anyone? There's gotta be millions of takers inside the beltway and out! Cheap! Just sell your souls to forever lying Mr showbiz and his gang, and it's YOURS!
2
As a long serving US senator,Collins certainly knows her deal won't hold.She apparently was just trying to seek cover for her yes vote on the tax bill.And what in the hell is wrong with Paul Ryan? The guy is emotionally warped.Why does he want to hurt us older Americans who need their Medicare and Social Security and have paid into these programs for years? He is much bigger problem than Collins who,considering the Obama years, has used her phony "centrist" position to feel more important.Hopefully the voters of Maine will see through her public image manipulations.
1
Senator Collins should have known better. If anything was promised to her, there was nothing of a commitment, and only to get her 'YES' vote.
All along, the argument was that the tax cuts will be offset by alternative sources of revenue. The numbers were all there, all on paper. And, a tactic and strategy to have the bill passed thru.
People like Speaker Paul Ryan is already talking about cuts to Medicare and Social Security. These items were not anywhere, in any discussion, if there was any, as to how a 'Deficit' from the tax cuts would be addressed.
In referring to your last paragraph, it is not a case of being a loyal Republican or being an actual centrist. The question will be whether elected representatives are truly working for the people who have voted for them, and if their loyalty are to their constituents and to the country.
2
The only 'ironclad' promises one learns over time in any job or profession is that it has to be on paper, with juridical backing to be sure it will be upheld. Surely Sen. Collins has experience to know the climate in both houses of Congress is mercurial. It's surprising and disappointing to read of the potential losses to ordinary citizens from the tax changes, especially in health care programs.
2
I think it’s time for Collins to face reality and become an Independent caucusing with the Democrats just like her Maine cohort, Angus King. That would make the most sense for her as, clearly, her current party does not want or respect her.
5
All the criticism directed at Collins also goes for McCain who just demonstrated that his speech denouncing the process of ACA was just hot air. On the other hand before, we fully dismiss them as party hacks, there is one more vote coming during reconciliation. How they vote at that point will set their reputation.
9
Senator Collins has tried to thread the Trump needle more than a few times since the 2016 Republican primaries: not endorsing him, not voting for him, but supporting him more often than not to keep her option to run for Governor of Maine open. Thankfully, she has decided to stay in the Senate, and that provides unique leverage versus those who will retire in 2018. Collins did the country a service on the healthcare vote, and cultivated the centrist title, but then took this lousy fairy-tale deal to approve the senate tax bill. Senator Collins, I know you'll never be an Independent, let alone a Democrat, but you can be the nation's "vox clamantis in deserto" along with Corker, Flake and McCain, to bring the Trump agenda of destruction to an end. Don't try to be a centrist, be one of the only true Americans in the Republican-controlled Senate.
5
I thought Collins a fool from the get-go for agreeing to this so-called "deal." Republican leadership - as it were - cannot be trusted for anything.
As Leonhardt's column points out, Republicans keep moving the goalposts further to the right. But there's a lesson here for Democrats as well. For years now, Democrats have been chasing those same goalposts further to the right. The "center" of the country is no longer at the center.
7
The Republican fight to end entitlements has been going on since FDR's administration. If you don't like what the Republican party is doing in Congress, vote them out of office come November 2018, and don't sit home and not vote because you don't like the opposing candidates. Organize your neighborhood, get people registered to vote, if they aren't already, talk about the issues with your neighbors, and make sure to get people to the polls on election day.
4
I have no sympathy for Senator Collins. My sympathy is for the people of her state. They are stuck with her and her poor judgement and her vote for the tax bill. She sold her soul to the devils (McConnell, Ryan and the biggest devil of all Donald Trump. You sleep with garbage, you come up smelling like garbage.
8
"...the left should be preparing to challenge [this bill] in court on the basis of the clear political attack on Blue states, and the poor. This must be unconstitutional, since it does not provide equal treatment to all citizens."--Cynthia of Illinois
Yes.
Uh...Where are our Democratic "leaders," anyway?
5
Collins has made the mistake of thinking there is any honor left in her GOP colleagues. Wake up, Senator. This is now a kleptocracy and they will take whatever they can get. Truth is the first casualty of their war, and it's been tortured and twisted endlessly on its way to death for the past few years. That you didn't see this coming when a lot of us did perhaps said you had more faith, or perhaps only says you had more misplacement of faith. What's clear is that neither has paid dividends for any of us ordinary schmucks. Because there never was an interest in helping us..
4
If Collins’ mindset was actually as described in this article, she is a MORON.
7
Just try to triangulate with the devil!
This is the very thing Senator Voinovich of Ohio did when he was the lone Republican holdout against George Bush's holdout against their tax cuts for the wealthy. He finally voted for the tax cuts when he was promised they would be for 10 years only.
Ten years later, Voinovich was dead and the tax cuts became permanent.
8
Susan Collins' reputation as a moderate Republican is forever tarnished. What an idiot for believing the promises that were made to her. Shameful!
4
Would that I could get paid to be so stupid.
8
McCain has a brain tumor. Probably fatal.
Collins has spasmodic dysphonia. Chronic, but not fatal. So she apparently has no problem joining the Trumpcare Congressional Death Panel.
5
I hope the people of Maine who align themselves more with the philosophy of Angus King get the message: when push comes to shove, you cannot count on Susan Collins to do the right thing. She is a Republican, and when the party leaders call the shots, and come a-calling for Collins to circle the wagons, she will. She knows her ability to be effective in the slightest way depends on how crucial her vote is. When leaders of her party in the Senate make a "wish" that she tow the party line, make no mistake which way she'll vote.
Maine voters have a dilemma. They have Angus King voting one way and Susan Collins voting the other. They are cancelling out the voice of the people of Maine. What happened to "As Maine goes, so goes the nation"? Show us some chutzpah, Maine. Or get off the pot.
DD
Manhattan
12
"What happened to 'As Maine goes, so goes the nation'"?
Or, as FDR said after his landslide 1936 election, with his loss of two New England states, "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont."
10
Dear B.:
Thanks so much for bringing up that old chestnut. FDR, boy those were the days. My Mother considered him a god, Republicans the Devil Incarnate. I love my Mom, she always knew best. I know FDR lies somewhere in-between, but for me he along with his inspired and inspiring wife Eleanor will be the ones to whom we will look through our history as having taken this nation to First World status. The modern history of the United States began with FDR. Before their arrival, we were mired in provincialism, a backward nation. There still remains parts of this nation which are bringing up the rear but because of FDR's Progressive programs he set a course this nation will not be able to backtrack from. And that is why FDR will forever be the bane of Republicans. Something I will always cherish.
DD
Manhattan
3
But the emails!!!!!
3
She has totally betrayed the people of Maine, (who have supported her for two decades), New England, and the United States. No wonder Olympia Snowe resigned rather than be considered cut from the same cloth of this mendacious woman.
11
Susan Collins discovered something that she should have known all her career: you cannot believe nor trust a Republican..........including Susan Collins.
6
GOP Congressional leadership cannot be trusted part infinity.
1
Susan,
You are so likable. You need a new job, though.
Enough of the alleged centrist " stuff ". Anyone voting with this cabal of cruel, heartless misanthropes is complicit, or a complete idiot. Which is she??? Only the voters in her State will decide. Bigly.
7
Ms. Collins is truly a disgrace. I am so tired of that voice and her "Maine" politics. She is like McCain in a dress...never saw a camera she couldn't pander to. Do us a favor dear and switch parties. You are not a Republican.
2
Paul Ryan gets his morality from Ayn Rand's fascist doctrines!
3
Enough already with this nonsense about centrist Republicans. The term is an oxymoron used to influence morons. It is simply impossible to belong to a caucus that votes for leaders like Trump, Pence, McConnell, Ryan, Moore and also be a centrist.
4
Senator Collins and the rest of the Republican Senate Caucus can now turn their attention to welcoming Roy Moore, religious bigot and possible pedophile,
to their side of the aisle should everything go as expected on Tuesday. Perhaps Senator Collins can bake some cookies for the new face of the Republican Party? MAGA.
2
So Collins will cry boo hoo hoo, my fellow Republicans lied to me!
Quelle surprise!
And "the American people" they fool all the time will pay the price, but they never notice!
Look: Abortion, quotas, gays, illegal immigrants, no guns, kneeling during the national anthem, sharia law, #MAGA!
1
"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." J. Wellington Wimpy
Like the short order cook, Susan Collins got took.
Ms. Collins, you will see your iron clad guarantees brought to reality when hell,.. well you know. You've been had.
1
Duped ???? Then why elect someone so naïve ?
Liar ??? ... The why elect someone so dishonest ?
Susan, you broke our hearts.... and our country....
4
That's why Collins voted for the bill? She trusted those wazoos? What a fool. After all those years in Congress she is just a fool. She will not get squat, and the right wing will be laughing their butts off at her. I figured they had blackmailed her.
1
When you learn your party's promises mean nothing, what do you do? Become an independent like your fellow Maine senator but most importantly shove a NO vote in Ryan's face!! If you just go along with vague promises that have already been broken, and that will shaft thousands of your constituents then you don't belong in Congress!! Step up to the plate and show the idiots running your party that you are not going to be lied to .Show some leadership and perhaps you could reach across the aisle and craft a bill for all of us, not just GOP donors!!
3
I have been told by people I know who live in Maine that they experienced a "Donald-Trump-kind-of-guy" with the Republican, oops, there is that word, governor, Paul LePage. It was not long before the 2016 election that a Maine Facebook friend posted a warning about Trump with a link to LePage and a map of Maine voting districts from LePage's lastest run for office. The wealthy and more developed coastal districts were blue, the poorer more rural inland districts were red. AMERIA IN MICROCOSM. When are Americans going to wake up and realize that the Republican Party in its current guise is bound-and-determined to hand the country over, lock, stock, barrel and two smoking guns to its biggest donors? When you take away the things that hold fear at bay, you can use fear as a political weapon. No health care? That's scary. No education? That's scary. No clean water? That's scary? ETC. ETc. Etc. etc. It is happening here.
7
Susan Collins should have known better: you just can't trust Republicans.
1
I have given more money to defeat this fraud then all other contributions combined. She looks over her shoulder constantly for the "LaPagers" in the second congressional district. You'll get one more good deed out of her over the next year....then back to normal.
Susan you know who I am and you know I am truthful!!!!
2
Senator Collins in this case was a useful idiot for Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. It is to be hoped that her constituents remember what she did to them when their Social Security and Medicare go away.
2
Voters in MAINE: YOUR MOVE.
9
A very astute column about a very dumb decision.
4
If Collins is so naive as to trust these thieves who duped her into signing the original bill with promises she needs to be voted out of the Senate. Maine deserves better.
2
The problem here isn't that Collins is a centrist who made the political mistake of trusting republicans. The problem is that she's a politician, who trusted other politicians. Did she flunk out of Politician school or something?
From this article I learned two facts:
• Politician can't be trusted if they don't sign legally binding agreements, and
• Politicians are idiots, because they never understand bills they vote on.
Pretending to be Duped is
in the syllabus.
2
Collins was fooled because she wanted to be fooled. She is a fraud.
1
Why is Ms Collins given any credit, any benefit of the doubt?
She is an intelligent person who has been politically involved throughout her life and knows which end is up.
As indicated by her behavior and experience she is not so naive as to accept on face value any promises from any politician. My sense is she, like every other wealthy career politician, found her niche early and stuck with it.
The rewards offered career politicos in our system were there for her to choose, she did and has profitted handsomely.
To think she is above the fray is to consider her field of endeavor as more than another politicians venal pursuit of wealth and power.
It isn't and neither is she.
1
She's either stupid or not being truthful. I don't think she's that stupid...
3
I had hope that Ms. Collins would be a thoughtful and caring Republican. But her vote for the GOP-tax-scam proves that for her, like the rest of the GOP it's always "party over country"!
Still hoping that SOME Republicans in the house or senate will side with We, the People, instead of Donald and his greedy overlords!
Kill the GOP tax bill!
Good ol' Senator Collins, willing to look stupid in a bad cause.
1
Sher's not a centerist; she's a weak-kneed RINO, but I repeat myself.
Senator Collins proves once again that you don't swim across the abyss with a scorpion on your back no matter what it has promised.
1
How you describe the position Collins put herself in is eerily reminiscent pf the way Hitler became Chancellor. Those in a position to oppose him couldn't believe he meant what he said, but he did. Same is true of Trump and company, including the majority leaders of the Senate and the House. They're getting what they've always wanted: a return to the 1920's, and we all know how that ended.
2
GOP: You [messed] up, Susan. You trusted us.
Did she did she just fall off the turnip truck?
1
So Susan, go the route of Arlen Specter. Give them one less Republican.
1
"In Trump’s Washington, other centrist Republicans..."
Mr. Leonhardt; who are these unicorns?
2
Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are Lucy to Susan Colins' Charlie Brown. Sure, Charlie Brown, we'll hold that football for you to kick. Arghhhh!
2
Mouth moderation, but vote as a coward
2
What is "knock-on damage?" Never heard that term before. Mildly curious.
Poor Susan Collins. She is hopelessly behind the times regarding the status and direction of the GOP. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. To compete effectively, legislators like Collins have to accept that D.C. is a gathering of sharks, predators and narcissist and adjust her thinking accordingly.
1
Dear Saint Susan,
You got played. Or you perpetrated another lie under the cover of the so called moderate. There is no such thing left in this government.
Enough already! We all know that you work for the oligarchs in support of a autocraic regime. You walk the line between surving your real masters and pretending to have compassion for those at the bottom of the economic scale- like so many of your Maine voters. Luckily for you and the Republican Party, the voters are the stupid ones; after years of Fox News and republican propaganda and soft peddling by the local media that our Senator is our last hope for reasonable policies. Well, she has not and willl not. She works to sooth the voters while working hand in glove to facilitate the monstrous gang of thugs who bought and paid for this gutless ramble of politicians. God help us all. And you, Susan.
2
Dupes: Collins and Flake.
1
She’s as sharp as a knife. A butterknife.
Among all the possible explanations for Senator Collins behavior, the only one that holds water is that she knew McConnell and the Republican Party would ignore her demands and that the "promises" were useless and that Paul Ryan never made those promises and isn't going to respect them. She is simply posturing for the electorate and toeing the hard core conservative support for campaign donors and to hell with the voters.
After all, during the healthcare debate John McCain was confronted with a similar situation in which he voted against the healthcare bill because he needed to rely on Paul Ryan to follow an agreement made by McConnell. McCain decided that he couldn't trust Ryan, and said so publicly and openly enough that the principle surely was heard and understood by the full Senate. It was openly and repeatedly reported in the media. If Collins didn't understand that she is clearly nowhere near as smart as people give her credit for.
2
You dance with the Devil and your hands will be burned. Simple.
you should be reporting on the real story...the American oligarchs Koch, Mercer, Adelson
1
When my daughter was little, I made a personal commitment to so conduct my life that I would be able to say to her one day (if necessary): "K****, I have never lied to you, and I'm not lying now. That boy is bad for you."
Being human, I may have slipped a bit with my honesty here and there, but overall I have really tried, because the stakes are so high for the daughter I love and for myself personally. So please believe then that I am not being flippant when I say to you, Senator Collins: "Senator, the Republican party is bad for you. It is bad for this country. It is no longer a party of honor. It has become the party of the very rich with a dangerous, amoral president and a radicalized agenda that will harm millions of middle and lower class Americans. If you would listen to one older American's advice, please consider changing party affiliation. Our country is at the edge of a precipice. Please consider your life's legacy, and how you responded when our democracy was in danger of falling into the abyss."
"And one more thing, please pass this note along to others in the Senate." :)
As soon as the "deal" that Collins made was announced, I thought only a fool would take a promise in exchange for real changes in the actual language of the bill. Especially from the group of corrupt and dishonest Republican's that she was dealing with. It was obvious that "promise" would never be kept and anyone could see that from a mile away.
But I am going to assume that Collins is not a moron. She's been around the Senate for a long time and knows these people. She has seen the track record. So if it's obvious for armchair quarterback political observers at home or someone who happens to write columns for the NY Times, than it is insulting to assume that it was not obvious to Collins.
Therefore the only reasonable conclusion is that she just wanted to vote for the bill and accepted the "promise" to give her political cover. It just seems naive in the extreme to think, as Leonhardt does, that Collins didn't get all of this and that she's really trying to be a "centrist," as opposed to just trying to play the role of a centrist on TV while really being nothing other than another lockstep loyal partisan.
Much the same can be said of John McCain and his faux "maverick" persona. The real fools are the voters and columnists who take this stuff seriously and don't understand that it is political theater. On the other hand, maybe Leonhardt just had to write a column and is merely playing the part of someone with meaningful insight.
1
If she truly believed those promises for even one minute then she’s an idiot and must resign immediately.
Poor Collins.
She stinks like all the other wishy washy republicans in the senate.
Time to vote her out.
Duped? No. She's a liar, like all republicans. Who do they lie to? Themselves first and then our nation. The future, think long term, a couple of admins down the road, holds the death of these fascists and the real taking back of our, as in we the people's, nation. These old, ancient, living in the 1800s, politicians of the republican-fascist party, are digging their own lily-white gravestone presided graves. The republican party is doomed.
1
Where are the Dem Centrist? The ones that cross the isle and vote for repeal of Obamacare and lower taxes. Crickets, crickets, crickets...
1
Susan Collins is an adult, responsible for her own actions. I would love to make excuses for her because I like her, but she is as capable as anyone else to see what is happening around her. When Mitch McConnell and others go into private rooms to negotiate a Tax Reform Bill without public meetings or working with the Democrats to come up with something reasonable and fair, Susan Collins is able to see what her party has become. When she goes home and is met with boos instead of congratulations, she knows very personally what is happening. She let herself be fooled.
3
Mitch McConnell sends Susan (Little Red Riding Hood) Collins off to pick flowers while he and Paul Ryan make their way to Grandmother’s House to gobble up her Medicare and Medicaid.
A familiar story, I’m afraid.
1
How funny that she was so naive that she trusted the party of liars and that she still claims she is a Republican, the party of liars. Check mate. She won't lose because she HAS great health insurance...but her constituents will. Hey Ms. Collins - time to go "rogue" and change to Independent, since you wouldn't be caught dead as a Democrat.
1
Kennebunkport sold out Bangor.
2
Can't help but compare Senator Collins to that British Prime Minister of yesteryear, Neville Chamberlain.
1
When I heard Collins comment about an “Ironclad” deal my immediate reaction was that I thought Collins was smarter then that. But now she knows she just another “sucker” who fell for the Trump con Along with Trumps coconspirators Ryan (who would throw his mother under the bus) and McConnell ( the Kentucky) gentleman, so called.
Collins, how do you get your self respect back?
Those of us in Maine think this is nothing more that a political ploy by Senator Collins.
She found a way to vote in favor of the bill so that she can have a chance to vote against the final version.
Her vote in favor of using reconciliation and then the bill itself placated the GOP bigwigs and her donors.
The final bill will not contain her 'ironclad promises' which allows her an easy 'no' vote. This allows her to reclaim her 'moderate' status.
More so, she calculates Pence will break a 50-50 tie and the bill will ultimately become law.
People in Maine are tired of her double talk and her party first principals.
Unless she votes for impeachment and conviction of you know who, her reelection is seriously in doubt for the first time.
4
An accurate portrayal of Ryan’s remarks and Collins’ betrayal. Thxe question in my mind is: “What persuaded Collins to think McConnell’s word was his bond?” There’s no evidence for that. Just wishful thinking. And even more: why think McConnell could bring in the votes for Collins’ bills, which contradict everything the GOP has been trying to do since Obama was elected?
I really don’t think Collins was duped. She just gave up.
3
Face it: she caved. Her “deal” was a figleaf and, if she’s half as smart as she seems, she knew it. Susan Collins is not a moderate, she just plays one before the vote. Ditto for her concern about people’s’ healthcare.
2
LIke the rest of us, Collins needs to see the real Mitch McConnell. He promised to work to make Obama a one-term POTUS, but failed. Did he slink away to lick his wounds? No, he knew that senators can serve for far longer than any POTUS, and so he waited. Now, grinning like the proverbial baboon, he stands on the edge of a new dawn when he can see all the cherished policies of conservatives enacted: the social safety net ripped apart; the winners, i.e., the wealthy, confirmed in their plutocracy; and Democrats and democratic principles consigned to history. Senator Collins needs to wake up and smell the rot.
2
Susan Collins sold her soul to liars and she may lose her seat over it. Maine is a very poor state and she signed a death warrant for many of her constituents
We are seeing the demise of a long serving senator
2
It just goes to show how gullible and light weight she is. Of course, "women" will talk of male perfidy; I, however, am going to insist on the stupidity of someone trusting people with such horrendous political track records in every regard! When does she get blamed for being too stupid to know whom to trust? Or is that someone else's problem? Oh, yes, it is: her constituents.
Susan Collins let herself be conned. Now everyone else will pay the price for her gullibility.
"They are going to have decide which matters more to them: being a loyal Republican or being an actual centrist."
How about being a public servant as opposed to serving the donor class? Susan Collins has a bovine level of intelligence. Here, let me put the banana peel where you can see it so as not to confuse you. Crazy thing is, she will probably be re-elected with a larger majority than her last election. We are like the battered wives that keep returning to the abusing husband again and again to be beaten to a pulp. And we do it willingly.
If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
1
Susan Collins is not a centrist. She is a conservative, albeit not one coming from the Religious Right. Much more often than not she votes with the party, after making a reasonable statement for public consumption about the need for this or that.
And who are the other "centrist Republican?" Don't say Flake, Sasse or Corker because they are consistent conservatives, just less crude in how they publicly arrive at their decisions.
The Democrats are the centrist party. There's nothing crazy going on there. The party's platform reflects public opinion across the board. Hillary, to the extent she articulated a campaign theme, campaigned as a centrist, committed to the status quo. There was no embrace of single-payer health care or providing free college for qualified high school graduates. That's the bigger story -- how we've re-defined political ideology. That's what crazy is now conservative, what was once John Birch nuttiness is now the Republican status quo; and preserving the status quo is liberal.
The tenor set by a president who doesn't care about anything other than people tuning in. The more outrageous the better. Consequences be damned. And the Hill Republicans will enable him as long as they can pay off their donors.
Even Reagan was better than this -- and there was Democratic opposition in Congress. Now it's just a runaway freight train.
4
there is blood on the hands of Sen. Collins, John McCain, Jeff Flake and all the rest of these beasts who voted to slash the soul out of the American public's essential well-being. McCain especially should be bathed in shame, having received massively expensive medical treatments that will be dened millions of Americans---including many vets---who are just as worthy as he is.
These are horrible horrible people. There is no excuse.
3
Shame on Susan Collins. (from a voter in Maine)
4
Susan Collins should be accusing her Republican Party in total of sexual misconduct, because Ryan, McConnell and Trump seduced her with false promises and they didn’t even kiss her after it was over.
It's simple: Dems should remove the word "republican" from their vocab and replace it with "trumpist." It's that simple - every time one is called that, it forces him/her to take a stance on an unpopular president. In the long run, Dems would tighten the noose the Ts have already placed on themselves. It'll pay off big time. Collins is merely that: a trumpist. (Sen. Collins (T-ME)). No better than Flake (T-AZ).
1
This is not going to end well.
1
The wrong Maine senator left the senate!
1
WeI’ve heard “I was in favor of the war (in Iraq) before I was against it.” We’ve heard “I voted for the war based on the (mis)information I had at the time.”
All that, while makes the politicians look naive, make them look sincere (to a point).
Susan Collins, on the other hand, thinks her constituents are stupid to buy into her baloney that she voted because she was promised a great future deal.
I’m sorry, but Susan Collins showed her real stripes when she gutted the stimulus package during the great recession. The senator is great that show, but on the real issues she simply doesn’t take her constituents into proper consideration. I hold her in much higher distain then the idiots on the far right .
1
Remember when Mitch McConnell stood there and flat out lied when he said the Senate bill *had* gone through full Senate procedures? And Collins—and McCain—believed him? Sad! The triumph of vain hope over obvious reality. (To paraphrase: What fools these “centrist” Roypublicans be!)
A republican got duped by a republican. How ironic.
1
Collins says she has guarantees in WRITING! Perhaps she'd like to see my deed to the Brooklyn Bridge?
As another New Englander, Phineas T. Barnum, would say, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
1
The public will be better off when it realizes that Collins never intended to be effective on this bill. She is there for show, and Mainers who fall for her song and dance will, as always, in the end be harmed by her. She could have voted NO on the deVos nomination, a woman clearly unqualified to be Secretary of Education, but she didn't. She pretended years ago to care for a woman's right to choose, but consistency votes anti-choice judges out of committee. I can't say it enough times and am surprised a writer for the Times is duped by her claims to be a middle road vote. She has NEVER voted against a Republican Right issue when her vote actually counted, never. Wolf in sheep's clothing, that's Senator Collins. Just check the record, for a change, and stop letting her get away with such embarrassingly amateur duplicity.
3
It is shocking that a sitting senator could be so naive. "Get it in writing" should be the motto when dealing with skunks like McConnelland Ryan, and even then they are likely to use invisible ink.
Can we officially rename her "Pontius Pilate Collins" now? After all, HER hands are clean...
1
Susan is just doing what a lot of Republicans do...
" You can't have your cake and eat it "
Something many in the GOP fail to grasp....
Dear Senator Collins:
This is your legacy.
Be proud of it.
It is on your head.
It's great to be on your deathbed with no regrets...
One would have to be an idiot to keep his word when going back on it gets what he wants.
Integrity is so over-rated.
Collins' lost her credibility with me. She was a fool to believe any assurance she got from McConnell. Her problem is that the Republican brand is soiled. Dirt rubs off, and she just got smeared.
So, don't reelect her, okay.
You’re much too kind. Susan Collins loves to present herself as a centrist, but at the end of the day she’ll do pretty much what the leadership tells her to. How can anyone in the GOP fold credibly call herself a moderate? These days, it’s a little like calling oneself a moderate Nazi, or a centrist member of the KKK. If Collins were truly a moderate, she would either announce her retirement, as have many of her colleagues, or she would declare herself an independent, like her colleague from Maine Angus King. I only hope, if she chooses to run for re-election in 2020, that Down East voters will remember her fecklessness in representing their interests and choose accordingly.
1
When you make a deal with the devil, what do you expect---honesty??
1
How can Susan Collins have failed to learn that Republicans lie?
1
Any student of history knows of the danger and folly of making "deals" with fascists.
1
Collins is a hypocrite, a fool, or a bit of both. I look forward to her being Ex-Senator Collins.
1
I am sure she thought she was doing the best she could but honestly - who in their right mind could believe anything the Republican leadership says at this point? They are a soulless rotten bunch willing to support a child molester for the Senate as long as they can destroy this country and make themselves richer at the same time. Hard to imagine that someone who has been in politics for so long could be so naive?
1
If you really are for the people vote No Ms. Collins! You are being duped by your party!
2
It's black or white, Ms. Collins. Sometimes it's just wrong. No excuses, please.
2
anyone who makes a 'deal' with trump, ryan, or McConnell is a fool. they are liars, frauds, and traitors.
1
Gosh Susan Collins has to play nice with the big boys or maybe she will get primaries too ... she needs her job I guess ... the citizens bedamned... an easy bargain to make.
HAHAHAHA! The only "centrists" being fooled are apparently people like the author. Collins does this so she can have cover for voting in a way that will please the plutocrat donors she's courting, especially for her planned gubernatorial run. She made an imaginary deal with people whe knows would never keep such a deal anyway, got a couple of them to publicly pretend there is one, and now she'll make a big show about how upsetting it is that she was betrayed. It's Kabuki Theater, and if you believe her for a hot red second, then you're brain damaged.
1
It is difficult at this moment to fathom the Republicans' political strategy for the mid-term elections, unless, in the meantime, they are prepared to suspend at least elements of the Constitution to make permanent their control of the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court.
That's not meant to be a joke. Just listen to hysterical campaign in the pro-Trump media against Mueller and the FBI, and Republicans' frantic efforts to appoint unqualified judges (unqualified, that is, according to the American Bar Association).
This corruption of the judiciary is a slippery slope, possibly with a result not a million miles from Roland Freisler and his Nazi "People's Court".
So why, despite the fact that 58 per cent of the electorate detests Trump, do Republicans give him unwavering support? The answer, I submit, is that the GOP, as presently constituted, has moved so far to the right that even neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan feel at home in it.
Centrists like Susan Collins really have to stop kidding themselves.
1
"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you." Matthew 7;6
Wise biblical guidance to avoid being duped.
How many times have I fallen for , "I'll gladly buy you a hamburger on Tuesday, for a hamburger today."? Or was it a cheeseburger?
She's weak and ineffectual. Unfit to serve.
2
Maybe try being an actual American.
Well of course they took advantage of her! Why any modern woman would align herself with today's Republican Party is a mystery to me. Maybe she thought Southern Republicans such as Moore of Alabama still believed in Chivalry. Hope she wakes up and crosses the floor.
Tinker Bell, meet Machiavelli.
The focus of Senator Collins' deal is on the projected cuts to Medicare and Medicaid cuts if the tax cut is approved. The equally significant impact on healthcare is the nullification of the health insurance mandate. It has consistently been reported that the nullification of the insurance mandate would result in a 10% increase in healthcare premiums and 10-12 million people losing health insurance. To offset the loss of the health insurance mandate, Senator Collins allegedly received assurance from Senator McConnell that Congress would pass legislation to "shore up the insurance markets". We have received no details about this alleged legislation or its prospect for enactment.
Senator Collins rejected the Republican healthcare bill because of its nullification of the insurance mandate. Will Senator Collins be forced to specifically justify her new found willingness to undermine the Affordable Care Act ?
while i admire susan collins, at least i did until she flipped
Collins, Flake, et alia, actually prefer to be duped so they can vote with the pack of wolves that is the GOP and yet claim to retain the Moral High Ground with their "deals", furrowed brows, and wrung hands. Charlatans all.
2
Susan Collins and her "ironclad" deals; John McCain and his love of the "regular order" ...yet he voted for this back-room hatched, dead-of-night bill.
A Republican is a Republican is a Republican and when their donor-class masters say jump, the ALL jump as high as they can.
4
Absurd!
Does David Leonhardt really believe Susan Collins is more naive than he is, having worked with these far-right extremists for years? Is it really news to her that her colleagues hate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security?
Collins wants cover for doing what Republicans, including Ms. Collins, have dreamed of for years: selling out the public, in the interest of Republican donors, on the time-honored Republican principle that "those who own the country ought to govern it".
Shame on Collins. And shame on Leonhardt, for buying her blarney.
3
With respect, you’re being much too kind to these so-called centrists. Today’s self proclaimed centrists are history’s colluders of fascism. While pretending to be centrist, they sit back and allow the forward match toward fascist oligarchy. I fear the press is also allowing this march by describing senators like Collins as centrists who have been duped.
2
In other words, Collins pretended to be duped by her fellow Republicans.
3
Very true. Anybody who believed the stuff being put out by Trump and McConnell on the tax cut had a fact devoid understanding for what was happening. This was all about steam rolling a huge debt increasing tax cut down the throats of Americans. Susan Collins could not have believed that the sharks and crooks like the Republicans could be influenced to moderate their greedy feeding of the richest by plundering the weakest.
1
It is difficult to imagine that Sen. Collins was truly duped. She is intelligent enough to have been a key vote in keeping the ACA on life support. Yet she could not bring herself to have actually voted for the ACA because that would have meant not towing the party line. Now we have a sham tax bill to “fix” an economy that is doing better than fine, at the expense of swelling the national debt. The bill also allows Collins to undermine the ACA and gives her political cover that she had received worthless promises she can claim she believed.
This is all nonsense. If Collins had any principles at this point besides pretending to be moderate so she can get re-elected, she would have switched parties. She doesn’t and she won’t. I hope she likes being a member of the party of liars, bigots, haters and child molesters; she has sure earned her place.
2
I'm not inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt here. Who in this country doesn't understand what the GOP is doing with this tax bill? Why is she excused from something that is so obvious to nearly everyone who has followed the path of this party? This is a party that has been bought and now owned by the super rich. They care about NOTHING other than their own pocket books. They will stop at nothing to take as much as they can, country be damned. Collins, and all the other so-called "moderates" in the GOP, are complicit to this crime. We need to hold them accountable.
2
anyone that works for or with trump will be diminished.
4
I think Senator Susan Collins thought she was making a deal with people of integrity, people who keep their word. How quickly that she (and we) now learn that it was not so.
I keep calling her office and begging her to step in the shoes of Margaret Chase Smith, to lead her dreadful party away from their hateful war against poor Americans. I just laughed when I heard about her 'ironclad' assurances. From Ryand and McConnell? What a joke.
Senator Collins: naive and weak when when you really need her. She's nothing against the scoundrels.
2
Craven politician gets played.
2
Collins was played like a violin for a fool. Even if Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan had written and promised her in their own blood doesn’t guarantee anything. They lie.
2
She feels she can get away with it in Maine, the northern version of Alabama.
1
Let's hope her career is now over and Maine, like the rest of New England, moves into the Den column.
1
If Susan Collins truly believed Mitch McConnell's promises, she is more naive than your average first grader. If she thought Mitch McConnell's promise would be binding on the House (or, for that matter, even on all Republican Senators), no matter his intention, she knows less about our government than said first grader.
If Susan Collins was awake and paying attention, she would realize that the GOP left her behind long ago and fight against, rather than enable, their attacks on so much of what the country stands (or, rather, stood) for.
If the people in Maine are awake and paying attention, this will be her last term as a Senator.
3
This president, mcconnell and ryan are all traitors to everyday working Americans. Why would you believe any promise they made to you. Here is a promise they will keep, they will destroy health care and cut medicaid, medicare and social security all to give the rich more money. Wake up people!
3
Senator Collins is a dedicated and intelligent woman who should have known better than to 'dance with the devil in the moonlight'. Too many of the GOP, especially the quiet snake-in-the-grass Ryan, McConnell the callous proven bigot and sexist, lie, and have been proven untrustworthy. They are working for a higher order, their wealthy donors who are pulling their strings, and not for the common good or welfare of most Americans who are under siege by Trump and his GOP.
They unilaterally despise anyone without money and work hard to suppress our collective voice in this WH administration. They are focused on taking from the 'poor' to give to the 'rich'. They lie expeditiously and their greed, callousness, disdain for democracy and overall corruption runs deep.
When you are a person of integrity who supports truth and is as good as your word you become a dupe for others, and this is what happened. Fight back for us Senator Collins. These people you are dealing with think anyone who believes them deserves to be shafted. They violate our Constitution and their oath of office daily, boldly, and publicly. They are abusing their powers at our cost, and are the most unpatriotic, self-promoting, selfish, cruel, infamous bunch of people to ever get to Congress.
Only big money comforts them and allows them to sleep at night without any twinges from their conscience. We need those GOP members who want to serve their country and Americans to stand up and fight for us.
2
The horror of american health care is that you have to get it through the employer. They control your life. That is the Republican Party. Everything through the Bossman so he/she can control your existence.
2
Basically this tax bill is a Donald Trump wish list. He has organized all his business interests as partnerships so that pass through cut is more for his benefit than the picturesque small mom & pop shops he talks about. The omission of exemptions is fine with Trump because exemptions get wiped out as income gets higher than about $400k. The AMT does away with tax deductions after a certain income level & insures high earners pay at least some taxes. That cost him about $30 million in the 2005 return we saw part of. So exemptions and AMT go.
The corporate tax rate cut is something most agree on so that sucks in a lot of votes. But making our taxing of corporations territorial means that corporations don't have to pay US taxes when operating overseas. That will make even more companies shift operations overseas. It also helps Trump in that all the income from his business interests overseas won't have to pay US taxes.
Trump didn't get the Estate tax removed but the exemption was doubled.
Trump WINS.
1
She's a woman.. her opinion doesn't count to these guys.
2
McConnell broke a promise? Shocking!
4
Collins caved. Now that Corker and Flake are leaving the Senate and perhaps McCain as well, Collins is now on an island. Collins is going to get nothing for her votes...nothing. Unless, she were to become a true make or break swing vote in 2019 in a 50-50 Senate with a Republican VP. In which case, her vote would be more valuable than anyone's including the VP's.
I'm sorry, I simply cannot buy the "Susan Collins was duped" argument. This woman is not naive and knows well who she's dealing with in her party. To accept the "promises" of the likes of McConnell and Ryan (not to mention the Liar in Chief) is unconscionable. She made a terrible decision with her eyes fully open, and I (a former Mainer) and many current Mainers hope she pays for it with her seat.
4
My guess is, this lady's not too swift.
"I will gladly pay you two hamburgers next Tuesday for one hamburger today!" Only in the comics does someone fall for that one.
1
Senator Collins’ vote, based on a promise she knew was utterly unenforceable, is at best malpractice and more likely a knowing betrayal of her constituents.
Ms. Collins is an actress. She enters stage left, delivers a few lines professing a centrist’s interest in helping average Americans, then exits stage right and measures how her lines played with the audience.
Obviously Ms. Collins got terrible reviews in Maine for her vote on the Senate tax bill, so she now has re-entered the stage to profess a possible change of heart.
But it’s too little too late. There may be no second Senate vote, and if there is one, Ms. Collins knows full well there is one Republican nay vote to spare, which she may need to claim to save her hide. But she knows the bill will still pass. If there was no vote to spare, we wouldn’t be subjected to this insipid encore performance.
Don’t fall for this Maine. With or without any wafer-thin promises Ms. Collins supposedly extracted, the Senate bill was a drunken cowboy’s bill, which among other horrors releases a raging bull into the Obamacare china shop.
Ms. Collins knew it, but nevertheless put on her ten gallon hat and voted “yay,” hiding behind the laughable promise that both houses of Congress would, some day, down the road, pass as-yet unwritten legislation to protect the integrity of Obamacare. Is that a joke?
Shame on Maine for subjecting us to this conniving, duplicitous actress. Enough with your “centrists.” Vote her out.
5
This opinion piece makes Ms. Collins seem stupid, which she is not. The Republican senators have another vote on this and several held their noses when they voted in favor of the original. Ms. Collins is taking her turn as speaker for the opposition.
If Collins really believed anything coming from the GOP TP and sold her state down the river, she should be swept out of office for sheer incompetence.
1
Very disappointed in Collins. Naive and shortsighted.
So did Susan get bullied, or paid a small fortune, or what? Or threatened with the loss of of her committees in the Senate? Obviously she got conned....and more! The fact that she is trying to sell it to the people of Maine says she did so willingly. Ugly. Maybe she wants Sarah Hucksters job.
1
When I first heard Sen. Collins talk about promises from Trump and McConnell I thought of Neville Chamberlain standing on windy tarmac,waving a piece of paper over his head and proclaiming 'Peace in our time.'
2
Senator Collins should have gone to Trump University.
1
Ms. Collins should have known better...they saw her coming.
It saddens to make this analogy but Susan Collins is the Neville Chamberlin of 2017
1
There was a moment of time I considered Collins a stateswoman not a pol. But that vanished. As the saying goes, "You can't cheat an honest man," and you can't dupe an honest pol, if that's not an oxymoron. Had Collins genuinely wanted an ironclad deal she would have gotten one - no, she's just trying to play both sides of the street, and is looking bad doing it.
On the other hand, if Collins were a Democrat I could believe she was just an honest dupe, for never have the Democrats more proven Will Rogers true when he jibed, "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." That was seconded by a friend worked on the Hill in the mid-70s, who said the watchword among committee staffers, regardless ideology, was that the R's were glassbowls and the D's idiots. Some things never change...
She got rolled. Plain and simple.
Margaret Chase Smith she is not.
2
Sen. Collins doesn't care about Medicare/Medicaid cuts or her constituents. She will cry that she was duped by evil male Republicans and she will be lying.
2
Youor column treats Susan Collins as having made a mistake; but she is no naif. Collins was just looking for an excuse to support this pig's breakfast of a bill- as correctly pointed out by other commenters, there are many horrible aspects to it. They're all hacks with no spine or concern for the good of the country. Every. Single. One.
1
COLLINS IS a throwback to simpler times, when people honored their word as a matter of principle. She is naive in her dealing with liars, criminals and psychopaths. If Collins is to maintain her role as one of the guiding moral, principled lights of the Senate, she is going to have to change her vote. To admit openly that she has been duped. Otherwise people will see her as a nice, doddering old lady who stood by passively while the country was flushed down the toilet. She can easily be a match for the big boys. All she has to do is to get together with the women's Congressional caucus and strike up the band with them. No reason for her to go it alone. I hope that Collins can be persuaded to revisit her decision and withdraw her support. The lives and rights of many Americans is riding on the back of her vote.
3
With all the lies being spouted by the Republicans related to their tax bill, did Susan Collins actually believe that the Republicans would actually pass the legislation they promised to deliver to shore up the health care system and to undue the automatic reductions to Medicare and Medicaid. From the party that did everything in its power to kill ObamaCare!
This naiveté is astounding. Susan Collins is a terrible disappointment. I wonder how she can look herself in the mirror each morning.
Ms. Collins: Shame on you.
2
After her vote killing the ACA death bill Lisa Murkowski was welcomed in Sitka with hugs, flowers, and tears. I thought she might be President in 2021. She'll never darken our doors again: she may sneak in under cover of darkness and leave before dawn but she is done.
2
A pity. The few that moderate Americans could count on have decamped ot the dark side. Bye Susan.
Collins looked for a time like an intelligent person but she bought into the cesspool and is now irrevocably damaged. So did a few others I had hoped were made of better stuff, e.g. McCain. She who sups with the devil had best bring a long spoon.
2
Nowadays, Centrist Republican is an oxymoronic misnomer.
Time for them to acknowledge the reality of their team's platform.
They're running in midair like Wiley Coyote.
Time to get out while they have some semblance of a moral compass left.
1
You are being way too kind on Susan Collins. She still calls herself a republican after the republican party became a racist, bigoted, totalitarian organization. Just like her republican colleagues, she is devoid of principles and humanity. As demonstrated by her vote for an abominable tax bill that favors the wealthy and hurts the middle-class in a hundred different ways. The only difference is, she goes the extra mile in keeping appearances of reason as part of her fake image. That is what you call speaking with a forked tongue.
1
Let's see. She's either a fool or a liar. Take your pick. "Moderate" Republicans, no matter the issue, after a great deal of public hand wringing vote the party line. One day, maybe their constituents and "MSM" will catch on.
2
Trusting Mitch O'Connell and other Republicans is like trusting the scorpion on the frog's back, it's a fatal mistake.
1
All of Congress's first priority is Getting Re-elected. That is what this tax bill is about. Everything else has to fall in line. Term limits will take care of this. Only then, will the Congressman and Senators put doing their job as their number one priority.
2
Sen,Collins, become a democrat. I’m not asking you to convert, just change parties. This isn’t Russia. Have no fear. If no one then is willing to have lunch with you,invite a friend.
2
Susan Collins and John McCain are the classic examples of talking out of their mouths on two sides. Total hypocrites. That is also the reason for legislation that any man or woman in Congress who reaches the age of 65 should be manditoraily retired from their seats. I firmly believe that after the age of 65
their brains are no longer funcationing correctly. John McCain he could not vote
for the Bill on Health Care that evening, as it was not done collectively with both houses involved, yet when he knew and Collins knew that this Tax Bill was done only by Republicans in the back room, they both voted yes.
Hypocrates, and miserable liers, both of them. A pax on their houses....
3
Hi Susan C.,
As a card-carrying long-term Democratic, I invite you to join the Democratic Party. We have centrists in our Party, we have farther left and far left in our party. I assure you we will listen to and work with you. The coming mid-terms might be a really good time to effect this change. PS I hope you will make this change. There will be a smallish price to pay, vote against this stupid, evil Tax Bill. But after that smooth sailing...well except for re-election, but surely you can smooth the way with your constituents.
4
I knew she was a "centrist Republican," so-called. And that she had indeed bucked the party. I didn't think she was that stupid.
Senator Collins should switch parties. The Democrats are now like the Republicans of the 1970s caring about healthcare, caring about the environment. If she remains a Republican and votes with the racist, misogynistic, promoters of the rich, she'll be gone from Senate and will be a moral disgrace.
2
It's Maine. The Maine mind. Senator Collins is a good senator. It's just Maine.
"....she ... put a higher priority on politics than policy...."
Susan Collins is either the dumbest most naive Senator in the Senate, or the biggest phony in politics.
She hasn't the guts to stand up to the despicable members of her party who are fleecing the American public in every way possible, including taking their health care away. You can't cut a faustian deal with the Republican devils.
She misses out being on the list of profiles in courage by a mile. She put her job and her party before the interests of her constituents and the
American people.
She can't hide behind a lame excuse that she was duped. We won't buy it.
She sold out because she was intimidated. Trump and the Republican leadership is laughing at her and the people of Maine and all of the US know it.
1
Why in the world would anyone put stock in someone like Susan Collins to do the right thing for their country?
1
Absolutely. The time warp was a long time in coming to these cowards, and now as political reckoning, utter doom to the GOP and a more tolerant swing situation, so they are so Alabama now, deadenders for a Cause
So Senator Collins has an “ironclad agreement” with her fellow republicans...
I’m sure she also mentioned to them that Santa would be watching.
For more on moderates trusting the word of their GOP colleagues and respect for rules, laws and tradition, see McConnell (R) Kentucky, Senate Republicans and Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland (2016).
This tax bill benefits the members of Congress, and Donald Trump and cohorts, more than anyone. It is legal looting of the US Treasury, self-dealing, and the left should be preparing to challenge it in court on the basis of the clear political attack on Blue states, and the poor. This must be unconstitutional, since it does not provide equal treatment to all citizens.
3
When I was in high school, a classmate tried a variation on the "dog at my homework" excuse - he tried the "hamster at my homework" - but he had the evidence, the remains of a notebook mostly eaten by a rodent, with clear teeth impressions. The teacher was suspicious - "how did the hamster get to eat the notebook?" .... "it was in his cage...."
The problem is that Susan Collins knew it was a 'bum deal' when she made it - any observer could have told her that she was not going to get the "quid" she'd been promised for her "quo.". Such was her contempt for the intelligence of the voters of Maine that she thinks, possibly correctly, that the 'hamster ate my homework' argument will persuade the voters of Maine - and maybe it will - maybe she will run for Governor, maybe they'll believe her. But intelligent people don't.
1
Just another Republican bait and switcher. No care for constituents, just for her campaign donation piggy bank.
1
She has always struck me as someone who is Naïve, she has been eaten by a pack of wolves dressed in men's cloth.
Seriously? Form the coalition that will bring us back to something that used to resemble normal....VOTE in 2018.
It's the Senate Shuffle again. They make noises about 'prionciple'. "I have concerns about the bills as written.' "I need some assurances.' Then they cave at the end. People are left with the impression they have more integrity than the others but they don't. McCain and Graham are the masters of this little song and dance, but it's all a con.
1
Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ben Sasse, and a few more like them are the Neville Chamberlains of the current Republican Party. They are cowards who proclaim xyz values, but cave to the tyrants and bullies running the party. Another coward from Maine was Sen. Olympia Snowe. During the debate over the ACA she betrayed the Democrats and joined the hate caucus because she was afraid they would run a lunatic against her and defeat her in the primaries. Well, you know what happens to cowards right? She was defeated in the primary anyway and the Senate seat went to an Independent Angus King, who has been an excellent and principled senator. Susan Collins need to retire and go enjoy her millions and her grandkids, like all of these other phonies. All the good she may have done in the past is not going to wipe out the awful things she is enabling with her cowardly continuance in the Senate.
What we are seeing is the wholesale exploitation of the younger generation of Americans, irrespective of their race, religion, gender or color. The Republicans are using the fact that they have no vote to pander to those who do vote by borrowing in the name of these children and doling out the monies to their donors and paymasters, while bankrupting the country and leaving all the debt and no investments to these children. This Evil MUST be stopped and stop it we will. Wake up fellow citizens, they will strip these kids of Social Security and Medicare, etc... Thieves!
1
Collins is smart. She knew exactly what she was doing. She can maintain the mantle of "thoughtful centrist" who was betrayed by the right wing. Anyone who banks on the "word" of a politician to "do" something in the future is either a fool or a fraud. Collins is no fool.
Trump, McConnell and Ryan are not trustworthy leaders. They have lied repeatedly, consistently and for years. Why would Senator Collins think that they would honor a commitment made to her? Women senators matter almost as little as black presidents to these men.
You cannot negotiate with terrorists. You cannot collaborate with fascists. This is not your father's Republican Party, and it is not what the United States was in its previous 200 years. Look at all of the historic obstructions that McConnell threw in front of President Obama, and the unprecedented lack of knowledge, background, or fitness of Trump. Between the Hastert Rule in the House and the way McConnell is running the Senate, Democratic elected legislators are not permitted to have any role in legislation. This is against the Constitution and representative democracy.
Maybe in the past Senate or House leaders would have kept their word. I doubt they would have been effective leaders otherwise. But this is no longer democracy. It is a kleptocracy with tints of theocracy.
Senator Collins, McCain, Flake, and Murkowski betrayed many millions of Americans who were hoping they would help form a thin wall against the cruelty and heartlessness of the current GOP and Trump. Many will die. Others will fall into poverty. Anyone but the wealthy will be maliciously and viciously harmed by this tax bill. RIP.
4
In the end they all seem to sell out.
1
How could Senator Collins be such a naif as to believe the promises of her Republican cohorts?
What of the possibility that she was only developing a plausible defense of her vote in favor of the Tax Cut Horibilis?
In other words, would you rather think of Senator Collins as a hypocrite or a fool?
There is a reason why Collins is a Republican. Should not forget that.
1
“I also got an ironclad commitment that we’re not going to see cuts in the Medicaid/Medicare program as a result of this bill,” Collins said on “Meet the Press.”
Ms. Collins, you have been a member and work with these private GOP Club members for 20 years. You want me to believe that your party members, who have created this tax reform bill behind the secrecy of closed doors would honor this 'ironclad commitment' that you received in word only, nothing in writing? I don't think so Ms. Collins.
No, you have not been duped. You took a big gamble and you knew better. You caved in to a vote that speaks to the blind loyalty of your party. You have compromised the health care of the people in the state of Maine you were to represent.
Shame on you Ms. Collins. It is time to retire for you have lost site of the job and your one responsibility, representing the welfare and the voice of the people of Maine.
1
There is no such thing as a centrist Republican. There is no such thing anymore of a decent republican. Anyone who calls themselves a Republican now days in the party of Trump is quite clearly a deplorable. They stepped on their tongues when they denied Obama the right to govern by declaring immediately that they would oppose anything he proposed weather it was good for the country or not. Period. They stood on their tongues when Donald Trump declared the president of the United States an alien. They said nothing when the Republican Party stole a Supreme Court justice. They said nothing when the Republicans stole a presidential election with George W. Bush and then again with Donald Trump.
Republicans are the party of polluters, liars, sexual deviant enabler’s, Ebenezer Scrooge’s. Susan Collins is just one of them. Maybe not the worst of the group but certainly one of them.
2
Please be real. She was not duped. She threw up a smokescreen to cover her actions. This woman, along with most of Congress, is wired to lie.
1
“In Trump’s Washington, other centrist Republicans are going to face a version of her dilemma, again and again. They are going to have decide which matters more to them: being a loyal Republican or being an actual centrist.”
We already know the answer, don’t we? Party over country and conscience. Don’t believe me? Watch and see if Alabama elects Roy Moore. He’ll be greeted with open arms and seated as if he was the “second coming” of Jesus Christ.
Collins and others who purport to be "moderates" have a much simpler choices:
-- They can either remain Republicans or they can be good Americans. They cannot be both.
-- They can either remain Republicans or they can be decent people. They cannot be both.
Every modern Republican is, ipso facto, a moral leper and a traitor.
Ms. Collins is either deceived or deceiving, either a fraud or a sucker. So are those who believe that in these times there can be such a thing as a centrist Republican.
1
Bait and switch. As old as the deal.
Maine
Florida
Arizona
Cape Cod
NJ
All area with high concentrations of retirees.
....
Play with Medicare and Social Security and you are playing with fire.Seniors have the highest percentage of voter participation. Welching on this deal, not being able to deliver a promise, there’s nothing good here for the GOP
Ryan’s arrogance will surely be his comeuppance when he winds up looking for a new job mid November 2018.
Democrats make hay while the sun shines . These fools have handed you a gift. Run sprint race with it. It doesn’t get any better.
Thank you GOP for your arrogance.
1
There is no honor among thieves.
1
Duped implies not knowing ---
But Collins did know that McConnel, Ryan and their ilk are in-your-face outright liars, because their history of lying is as plain as day.
"Duped" is too generous. She sold out the Mainiacs, big-time.
1
Headlines can sometimes be misleading, but "Susan Collins" and "Duping" appears pretty apt.
What would you expect. She is a repub first and besides, I believe her family wood business benefits. What is wrong with that for a congressperson.
1
She needs to retire if she is this easily duped.
What Republican centrists?
Why doesn't she switch parties?
It really seems that Susan Collins was more than happy to be "duped."
There are no moderate Republicans anymore- she is a Conservative and the others are Radicals to be completely honest. Every time she needs to step up and be counted she falls in lockstep with her Party.
On the ACA, she pretended to be interested and then pulled the Football away like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip. she backed the stonewalling of Judge Garland when he was properly nominated by President Obama, she voted for the illegitimate justice Neil Gorsuch to the stolen seat on the Republican Court d.b.a. the SCOTUS. She voted for this joke of a tax bill, etc.
Please stop pretending she is anything other than another hack.
2
"...Centrist Republicans are going to have to choose" which matters more to them, as you say. But the choice they make is not between centrism and loyalty to party, but indeed between patriotism and party. The current Republicans are anti-democracy, anti-citizen, pro-oligarchy and proto-fascist.
Centrists are the last bulwark and sadly, it is crumbling.
So in short, Ms. Collins fell afoul of the Republican party.
Just like the rest of us, really.
1
Senator Collins was sold the Brooklyn Bridge by the GOP leadership who was schooled by the Don the Con (salesman). Just as he sold condos to folks in the Trump Soho (scandal), college education is TU, Trump Air, Trump steaks, Trump water all now kaput!
Was Sen Collins duped? you betcha.
Susan Collins and other so called centrists in the Republican party made their intentions about helping Americans afford healthcare very clear in their vote against the ACA. If they were serious about exerting a moderating influence, they would be choosing to caucus with the Democrats and deprive Republicans of their majority in the Senate. The only way to send a message to Trump and his enablers in the Republican leadership is to deprive them of the power to set the agenda.
3
Senator Collins, just this. Margaret Chase Smith. The first women elected to the U.S. senate and sent there by the good people of Maine. What would she do, this mentor of yours and of women in politics on either side of the aisle? Perhaps she might say, when they go low you go high. Vote NO on this egregiously inhumane tax bill. Remind the boys what decency looks like, all those eagle scouts. And make Margaret smile.
1
What sort of sick political organization artificially creates a huge new deficit, just so they can use it as a "reason" to take away life sustaining resources from their fellow citizens?
Callous disregard of their fellow citizens and self-righteous disdain for their own voters. This is not governing; this is evil.
5
Republicans have made it clear who they value: wealthy donors. The retirees who receive Medicare, who voted for them, aren't rich donors, therefore they don't matter. Like Senator Chuck Grassley said, the rest of us, who aren't rich, just wasted all our money on women, alcohol, and movies.
1
I am sick and tired of our representatives following Party Line instead of doing what is right. We have lost our morality and sense of right and wrong. Disgusting!
1
Susan Collins has never really been a "centrist" in the tradition of Margaret Chase Smith or others. She is actually very conservative (except on the abortion issue) but nonetheless operates under some ideological constraints given that she represents Maine. She has never been a reliable force for pragmatism in the Senate. Her vote to avoid gutting ORomneycare was actually an unusual moment when she actually helped bring the Senate back from the radical brink. It's true that she is not a fire breather, but that does not equate to "centrism."
1
Everyone I know is deeply disappointed in Susan Collins.
4
But are they surprised????
1
I think so she is a different kettle of fish from most Republicans. At least she was.
The Republicans are ruthless. Not sure what this country will look like in 2020. It feels like the R team is destroying much of what our country had built and the many promises to the elderly who worked for their benefits.
1
"What was her mistake"? Believing the GOP liars that she presently is part of. What will come after their cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ryan's dream of cutting SS with people working into their 70's. Ryan is all heart.
2
Ryan has talked about means testing receipt of Social Security benefits. In Ryan's scheme, you would only be able to receive Social Security benefits if your assets were below some upper limit. Social Security benefits would become welfare rather than a defined benefit programs for all qualified workers.
The entire GOP tax overhaul scam has been an exercise in dishonesty and blatant disdain for the consistent objections of the majority of Americans.
Collins is just another duped casualty who’s trust in a handshake deal was hugely foolish and naive.
Little that is honorable survives in Washington.
1
"What was her mistake?" To believe, or want to believe, that today's Republicans, reactionary true believers, have anything in common with yesterday's Republicans, moderate/conservative pragmatists.
Silly...
2
Apart from the bought-and-paid-for water-carrying for the plutocratic set, the GOP is best known for lying. How sad that Collins, a Republican, is the last to know. Maybe she'll realize that she's not really a Republican, given what the party has turned into.
1
I still can't believe nor understand how a well seasoned and supposedly enlightened politician such as Collins could accept *promises" from a bunch of proven liars.
1
Collins should switch parties, or at least caucus with the democrats. That would at least restore her integrity and reputation (it would insulate her from being portrayed as weak and/or stupid), and what does she have to lose at this point?
1
she has been suckered like all of Trump's rural supporters. she will get nothing.
3
If Mrs. Collins fails to vote 'no' on the final bill she will have confirmed her status as a concerted liar and traitor to the people of Maine.
Not that they aren't busily inflicting massive damage on themselves (LePage).
Already there seems to be little doubt. Collins is not naive or innocent or trusting. She is a master manipulator, a fraud and liar to rival my own Rob Portman, a sham and a political hack.
2
A young girl walking along a mountain path to her grandmother's house heard a rustle at her feet. Looking down, she saw a snake, but before she could react, the snake spoke to her.
"I am about to die," he said. "It's too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you."
"No," the girl replied. "I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. And if I pick you up, you will bite me and your bite is poisonous."
"No, no," the snake said. "If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat you differently."
The young girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and she had to admit he was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.
Suddenly, she said, "I believe you. I will save you. All living things deserve to be treated with kindness."
She then reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and continued toward her grandmother's house.
Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her!
"How could you do this to me?" she cried. "You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!"
"You knew what I was when you picked me up," he hissed as he slithered away.
2
Collins made her big mistake when she chose party over constituency. How she thought the party leadership would support her concerns for her vote is unfathomsble. They have no intention to support other than their big donors. Maine is the big loser.
3
Susan Collins falls in line with her Republican colleagues: she is spineless. Even though she voted against the repeal of the ACA in August and seems to be weighing the pros and cons of any given law, she cannot be trusted in the long run. She refuses to stand up to her party and to the President and she does not answer questions clearly and to the point. Susan Collins does not want to vote against this scam of a tax bill because she cannot in "good conscience" go against her party's wishes. As a Mainer and many other Mainers I know, I will do everything in my power to see that no Republican, not even Susan Collins get elected as a Maine Member of Congress next year and beyond.
3
Anyone who thinks that they can make a deal with people like Ryan and McConnell, let alone with Trump is an utter fool. Susan Collins obviously cares that people have health care; it's time that she realizes that Ryan and Trump want people not to have health care. They are perfectly happy to see people die. It's a feature not a bug of their death care plans. And they are laughing behind her back at how they conned her.
2
Collins was either duped or is extremely cagey, hiding behind the Republican promises of concessions thrown her way in the unprecedented rush to pass a bill Americans do not support. And it's probably the latter. I feel naive having believed that perhaps there could be a female heroine in this bunch of dirty rotten scoundrels. No longer. The reality of Collin's allegiance to her party rather than her constituents is now quite clear.
1
My 1970's political science course studied the patterns of 'The Cult of Personality' as a characteristic of governance seen in both Fascist and Communist governments of the 20th century. From Benito and Adolph to Papa Joe and Mao we examined cases of countries that bestowed this peculiar form of living sainthood on individuals in moments of popular fervor, and how these men then exploited their status as Great Leader to
1) Consolidate Power, and
2) Crush Internal Opposition.
Less comfortable were the later classes when the Professor challenged us to discuss which American leaders showed some aspects of Cultism. Could we ever go there too?
Sen. Collins and many other Republicans want to work with MAGA Man to accomplish goals they share, normal strategy in democracies. Yet working for the Great Leader's public goals consolidates his power. As that happens, the purges (primaries, enemies lists, etc.) begin, and we will see the end of Collins, Ryan, McConnell and the rest if favor of Roy Moore-ish toadies. To crush the anti-fascists, he must first crush the center. That is how Cults of Personality work.
Sen. Collins - I too am a Moderate Republican. Our breed is being driven to extinction, and not by the Left.
3
She wasn't duped. She knew what she signed up for & it wasn't pretty. She has absolutely no credence in her colleagues' pledge to pass fix-it bills later. She just needed an excuse to do what she was going to do anyway, which is to shovel even more American wealth to the fat-cats.
Her error was neither strategic nor tactical. It was moral. She proved herself a coward.
She knew that her fellow Republicans wouldn't honor their pledge, she was just looking for a way to save face while voting for the bill. One hopes the people of Maine won't forget how she sold them out.
A notable American affirmed decades ago the notion that there is a sucker born every minute. Taking all this in at face value, Susan Collins is a sucker.
Look at the agreement as stated in the article: AFTER the tax bill is passed, other bills will be passed to satisfy the Collins agreement. The tax bill passing and the additional Collins-agreement bills are NOT coincidental.
Even a third-rate deal maker would never agree to this sequential scenario.
2
The triggers that will result in cuts to to Medicare and Medicaid were baked into the Republican Tax bill. I watched endless discussions about the inequities of the tax bill by "informed" commentators and these triggers and potential cuts to Medicare and Medicaid almost never came up. I could not understand why. These cuts will have an even greater negative impact on the American people than the tax bill itself, and represent stage two of the Republican agenda that attacks the middle and lower classes.
2
Collins' claim that her Republican colleagues will support her fixes for this vicious fiscal legislation is a fig leaf. She knows they'll never do it but wants cover. The Republican Tribe believes in tax cuts for the rich & oppression for everyone else & she has no inclination to leave the tribe.
Complete bewilderment. Collins and Murkowski voted against repealing the ACA because it would hurt their constituents, but are now going to vote for a bill which removes the individual mandate. This is the central pillar of the ACA, so if you remove it the ACA is toast, and many people in Maine and Alaska will lose access to healthcare.
Are these senators seriously stupid, or are they playing their constituents? Either way it's too depressing for further words.
The real mistake she made, which the article fails to mention, is her failure to realize that the people she is dealing with are so totally disreputable that not one of them can be trusted to sustain an agreement from one minute to the next. Or maybe she isn't that stupid and just folded because she herself is the same kind of opportunist as the rest of them and shriveled at the prospect of the opprobrium that would break loose from denying Trump his one potential legislative "achievement" for the year.
She wasn't stupid -- it was a calculated move, meant to deceive -- to pretend she was duped so she can claim 'innocence' and surprise when her mendacious, sadistic colleagues do exactly this.
She is a fraud as much as they are. And an appeaser of authoritarianism and cruelty in service to their 1% owners/masters. Along with the other Republicans like John McCain, Murkowski, et al who crow loudly about their 'concerns' but vote with their hate-based party 99.9% of the time.
Mendacity. Nothing but mendacity (and sadism).
1
In her "ironclad commitment" statement with McConnell, the key words are: ...."as a result of this bill". Of course the GOP will cut Medicare and Medicaid along with Social Security although the latter may take a little longer. Americans cannot rely on the GOP to do what is right for the majority of us. They are shackled to their donor masters.
1
Or maybe she never cared about those deals. Not many people make it into the Senate if they're stupid. Maybe she's just putting on a show of caring for her constituents so she can keep her job, while at the same time giving the lobbyists and leadership what they want (and be handsomely paid in the process).
So which is it, is she stupid? (unlikely) ...or is she cynically duping the people of Maine while delivering for her donors and leadership. I think its the latter.
Good opportunity for another Independent to challenge Collins in a forthcoming election. Unless Collins herself wants to turn Indie, but that's doubtful. Let's see if Maine remembers.
1
Is Susan Collins that naive, or playing along, or perhaps both?
The proof of the pudding is in how she will vote on the final version of this godawful bill.
The non-secret is out! Paul Ryan announced the second half of the nightmare. Yes, there is a 'trigger' to make us not only pay, but suffer for the corporate tax cuts. Medicare, Social Security (our savings) and Medicaid will be slashed.
We'll soon know if Collins is a centrist or a hostage to the Pirate Party.
2
Collins is an experienced legislator--she's not naive. She is however, a sell-out and every bit as dishonest as the rest of the outlaws she rides with. I'm so sick of listening to legislators lying every time they open their mouths.
And just when I thought Çollins was one of the better and more intelligent republicans, she disappointed me big time. She fell into step with the pack who are making a huge mess of our country. It's all so deplorable.
At what point have the GOP members of the Senate or House acted in good faith on a deal? They have rejected almost every compromise, every act to keep things running. John Boehner couldn't get them to agree not to default the nation.
He left singing "Zippity Doo Dah" for a reason.
McConnell would not even consider a Justice nomination in good faith with an election coming up.
Good faith is something that the GOP does not have. Collins saved face: she knew the promise was fake and was nothing more than political cover for her to cave. But if she seriously expected McConnell or Ryan to respect her terms she is one of the people who sees a pile of manure and is certain their must be a pony.
Note to centrists: There is no pony. If you back down, you've lost.
You are too kind to Collins. My view is that she did her best to have her cake and eat it too. So she voted for this hideous bill based on false promises? Of course not. She voted for it to keep her donors happy and her rabid colleagues off her back, and made a "deal" she knew would never be kept so she could tell her constituents that she hadn't knowingly sold them down the creek. Wait till the final vote - I'm putting money on her voting again for whatever monstrosity they come up with. She does not, does not, belong with other truth tellers.
This op-ed is, of course, rather ridiculous and exactly the kind of article she wants.
She wants to vote for the bill while looking like a victim of bad faith, claiming plausible deniability because she knows her support for the current Republican legislative agenda is against the will of her constituents, including most Republicans.
Flake, McCain, Graham, Corker, Collins...the same horribly crony, right-wing, corrupt politicians were made out to be the new heroes of the Left because they were mean to Trump. Even war criminal George W. had a come-back amongst Democrats to the tune of 51% approval rating.
One look at Susan Collins' voting record, which is the only thing that matters in politics, makes it clear that she is not a moderate, she's just a phony, "vocally centrist" because she has occasionally staked out a centre-right position on highly visible votes (especially when it has been clear it would have no impact on the outcome). Strictly for appearance's sake.
She's not that dumb to really believe that Paul Ryan would keep the deal. She knew.
People are going to have to face the fact we are no longer governed by decent people and that there are no "centrist Republicans" that will come riding in on a white unicorn and save the republic.
They speak up to score political points, some posturing to get some pork barrel heading their way, and then in the end they always put out for the party and their mega-donors.
Same as always.
I always thought that Susan Collins was one of the few Republicans with her finger in the leak in the dike. It turns out that the dike is leaking like a sieve. Susan Collins has been had.
I still had respect for Susan Collins before this event and her caving to of all people Mitch McConnell. Her position can now be summed up in one word.
"Sucker"
Too bad for the people of Maine and the rest of the nation.
Senator Collins wanted to believe what she thought she was promised because she wanted to be with her party. Like her Republican colleagues, her's was another "profile in courage." All put party above country and have sold their constituencies down the river.
I am furious at all the Republicans who are lying to their voters about what the bill will do for them while in reality it is a theft to further enrich the already rich! For shame!!!
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Collins is no centrist. Republicans began purging their ranks of centrists/moderates beginning in 1995 with Gingrich and the government shutdown.
The media, including the NYTimes, however, perpetuates this fairy tale for the sake of a "story" and to assure its viewers/readers that our democracy remains vibrant. What utter nonsense!
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Any intelligent person who is a centrist should know there is no dealing the the RIGHT. Ryan has been a pathological liar for years. Collins is either a fool , or someone who wants to go along, with her dignity intact. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
As Jeff Flake put it not so long ago. Republicans are "Toast" Between the rigged tax reform, attacks on healthcare, defense of misogyny, predatory sexual acts and the desire to destroy the social safety net, their days as a ruling majority are severely numbered.
For me, Collins and McKain are among the biggest disappointments with regards to the tax bill. Neither is a profile in courage. Neither is a maverick. And both abdicated their conscience for the sake of party stench.
Duped, pure and simple. She's either a fool or disingenuous. The only way to get out of that box is to vote NO. If she votes YES, she's a liar like the rest of them.
I agree tha Sen. Collins will be disappointed in the promises made to her, and I feel sorry for her. I sincerely hope that at least three Republicans senators can be found to stop this awful bill in its tracks. If not, millions of Americans will suffer medically and financially.
The Republicans, from the Trump down, are selling out the average American to suck up to the wealthy.
The republican party is not to be trusted.
Only a little over a year ago Lindsay Graham said the same on Trevor Noah's show where he played pool on stage as a metaphor of mistrust using pockets to illustrate his disdain. Soon after, he rightly called Trump a "kook" Today, he stands in front of cameras asking the nation why the media is incensed with labeling Trump a kook.
How can we, or Collins or any foreign nation trust the majority in Washington who work so hard against the people they represent pulling health and human services bulldozing their own lands and bombing others?
Collins is a fool for trusting the party of Trump and Moore and Bannon and Flynn and worst of all, guided by a military general as Chief Of Staff. A fool.
If we take Sen. Collins' word then, at the very least, she was dumb enough to trust her fellow republicans. She was "suckered." Hope this teaches her a lesson.
Here's some wishful thinking. Susan Collins should change parties. That would teach 'em to keep their promises.
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Susan Collins is less honest than Trump. Trump is what he is. Collins pretends to be the conscience of the Senate, but she is like the feather in Forest Gump, floating from CNN, to CBS, to MSNBC and acting the part. She's an enabler, no more, no less.
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I'm wondering if they would have treated a male representative that way.
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Breaks my heart that Senator Collins has turned her back on the citizens of Maine. Look around Augusta, Maine's capital, and you'll see a lost generation. Good paying jobs simply cannot be filled by the untrained and unskilled under-40 men and women who grew up in and around central Maine. The healthcare, sustainable energy, and tourism industries offer the people of Maine a better economic future and yet the current governor, like Trump, want to punish and deprive the same people he promised prosperity. Senator Collins, it's not too late. Stand up for the people of Maine.
Chelsea, ME.
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We've reached a point where even Republicans can no longer trust Republicans.
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How any Congressional Republican with two functioning brain cells can vote for this abomination is just beyond my ken. They're already talking about going after Medicare/Medicaid and of course the ACA. Just as what happened in 1980, when they did this under Reagan, the deficit/debt will explode and a recession will set in.
When people, particularly the old folks who are still diligent voters realize that their health care is sliding out from under them, its cost digging into their Social Security checks; when they can't deduct their property taxes on their 1040's; when teachers can't charge off the cost of construction paper they bought for their classrooms, Collins and her friends in high places will be thrown out on their ears and it will be—as in the past—for the Democrats to clean up the mess, probably by repealing the breaks for the uber-wealthy who are the singular benefactors of what's before the Congress.
Paul Ryan, a professed practicing Catholic, is the absolute antithesis of Catholic teaching, wherein we are, in fact, our brothers' keepers. In Ryan's world it's every man for himself. (Well, with a little help from your rich friends, no?) And this is Ryan's House of Representatives now.
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Your column assumes that she actually believed McConnell's promises, rather than just pretending to in order to give herself cover. Considering how long she has known and worked with him, and how well aware she must be of his level of trustworthiness, I find that dubious at best.
And if she really did believe it, and believe that he was acting in good faith, that just shows a level of naivety that would be hard to accept from a political neophyte, much less a 20 year veteran.
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Susan Collins made her fateful mistake years ago, when she voted with Republicans against the ACA. In doing so, she voted against the principle of universal healthcare, helped legitimize Republican lies about having better plans, and about the Democrats being at fault for the lack of bipartisanship. In short, she validated the extremists of her party and their approach to governing.
The Republican governor of Maine proudly refused to expand Medicaid, depriving Maine which is suffering from the opioid epidemic, of much needed help.
So excuse me if I don't give her credit for her good intentions. The best I can say is that she is out of touch with her party, a sentimental relic from a bygone era who no longer recognizes the political landscape.
Or maybe she is just too full of hubris to acknowledge that she is on the wrong side of history.
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Republicans -- I mean Republicans in office and their powerful backers, not ordinary citizens -- have always been whatever was necessary to win power. These days that means being Roypublicans -- but underneath they have always been Roypublicans. Remember Nixon's "southern strategy"? Remember lovable old Reagan's "government is the problem"? Remember nearly every Republican's religious posturing and anti-women positions? All that Trump and Moore have done is take off the genteel cloaks. They are emperors with no clothes -- and proud of it! The GOP has not changed its real nature -- it has just gotten over its sense of shame.
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Charlie Brown: Lucy, promise me you're not going to yank the football away just before I kick it?
Lucy: I promise, Charlie Brown, I promise!
There is a word for centrist Republicans. Since Bill Clinton they have been called Democrats.
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So, she believed Mitch McConnell's lie to get her vote. She betrayed those who voted for her and the country.
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Collins sold off any legitimate claim to being a moderate the moment Trump took office (if not sooner). She held onto a shred of it in her support of giving Merrick Garland a hearing and meeting with him while most of her Senate colleagues scoffed at the Constitution, but she threw it away in her original tacit support of this awful administration and her now open caving into it.
She waited until the genuinely horrid Betsy DeVos had secured enough votes to ruin the Department of Education and sell American students out to greed and religious extremism before she announced her opposition.
She introduced the vile bigot Jeff Sessions at his hearing to be AG and unwaveringly supported him.
Maine and the nation deserve better.
She has no credibility as a moderate and clearly her years in Washington have blinded her to the toxicity of her party.
She was once a bright spot in a sea of GOP muck and destruction. No more. Now she just goes along and she is as complicit as any of them in their quest to burn the nation to the ground so a few billionaires can hoard a bit more lucre.
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Don't be naive. She knew what she was doing.
Its just like McCain, Flake and Corker's "beautiful words".
Its nothing more than that.
They all pretend to have some integrity, but then show with their voting that in fact they are just as bad as the rest of them.
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I believe Collins is, or at least aspires to be "centrist" non ideological, etc, but There is no "centrist" party- until there is a third party its impossible for pols like Collins to be be accurately assessed, let alone authentic, when they have to accommodate themselves to a two party straight jacket policy wise. She is doubtlessly threading the needle of Maine politics (where. Despite its poverty and opioid crisis, there is an equally strong sentiment for self reliance and low taxes though you wont see NYTimes readers in Maine posting for those agendas....our politics are so debased, and the electorate so misinformed, uneducated and sheeple like that her latest charade will be accepted as defending Medicare -thats easy to sell when you consider how duped the electorate is trigger now about this being "middle class" tax relief LOL !
Our two party system inexorably crushes free thinking and putting the nation above the party-there is no oxygen between the two extremes, and no room for diversity of opinion within parties. ...we desperately need a third party to create that space in our politics, reduce political volatility ,increase real choice for voters, provide for serious discussion of real policy alternatives, and focus on REAL problems we ALL face in this nation )or at least 90-99 per cent of us !)
Collins’ naiveté was costly but the biggest and most depressing vote was from John McCain. His hypocrisy was monumental. All his eloquence about open processes, transparency, protecting all Americans, not favoring the very rich, especially at the expense of the rest of us, was totally negated and ignored by his pro-tax scam vote. And he is not even running again. He should read his own speeches (or was he just mouthing what his staff wrote).
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No Republican who helped craven political hack Mitch McConnell steal a Supreme Court seat is trustworthy, and they ALL need to be voted out of office.
We get the government we deserve.
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