In a humiliating failure, President* Donald Trump and GOP leaders yanked their bill to repeal "Obamacare" off the House floor Friday when it became clear it would fail badly - after seven years of nonstop railing against the health care law.The Republicans had seven years to come up with a plan to replace Obamacare.
They failed. They couldn't even get a bill through the House of Representatives, a chamber that they control.
Of course, Trump blamed the Democrats, which might play well in his own mind, but few will be fooled. The only way that the Democrats would have helped if the Republicans had tried to come up with a bill that would fix things that might need fixing.
But the GOP couldn't or wouldn't do that. Their fix was akin to curing illness by killing off the sick.
Trump's also going to deny that he ever said that he'd replace Obamacare immediately, even though he spent months on the campaign trail promising exactly that. That won't matter to his base. He'll keep lying to them and they'll remain in WETSU mode forever.
The hidden truth is that the Republicans never expected that they might have to do anything. They don't know how to do much of anything expect rant and rave. They have no ability to govern. It's been over a decade since the Republicans had control of Congress with a member of their party to sign things for them. There are a lot of House Republicans who, even though they've been in Congress for several years, have no experience at actually getting shit done.
The same is somewhat true in the Senate, especially when you consider Senators like Cruz and Rubio: Tools who have no use whatsoever.
Oh, they'll get a few things done. Like giving your ISP the power to collect your usage history and sell it to the highest bidder. That sort of shit they can do.
I was expecting and hoping for this. Reality is setting in.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the rest of the Republicans learn from this. I don't expect Trump to learn anything, ever.
You are right about RyanCare.
ReplyDeleteWhat a steaming pile of shit.
The GOP voters want FULL repeal. And the GOP Representatives and Congressmen know it.
Enough remembered that that Ryan couldn't muster enough votes.
I am glad. Nearly always glad to see Gridlock in government....But especially in huge legislation like this. Wished we'd have seen it 8 years ago, so we didn't have to "pass it to see what's in it"....Might have turned out better for the country.
The Democrats still own the crap that we have though.
No, B., Republicans have had the ability to work to fix this and address their concerns, but instead spent 8 years posturing. This situation is theirs, and theirs alone...especially because a large number of their caucus backed out because their states NEED the Medicaid expansion.
ReplyDeleteOne more time: There will never be a Republican replacement for the ACA because the ACA IS the replacement; thought up by Heritage as a "free market" alternative to the Clinton plan in the '90s, implemented by Romney, and passed in 2010 as the only politically feasible option to help a healthcare system that was killing tens of thousands of citizens unnecessarily, bankrupting at least as many, and costing roughly twice as much per capita as other countries systems, often for poorer outcomes.
ReplyDeleteThe ACA is a complicated system and far less efficient (thus far more expensive) than single payer, which is the only sane way to deliver a service that is both a life and death must-have that literally every citizen will use at some point, and a fifth of the economy.
I have American single payer health insurance, and I like the hell out of it. It's called Medicare, and the ACA extended it's solvency by more than a decade. And it's more efficient and less expensive than any private insurance because it's regulated and doesn't have to make a profit or pay a CEO.
And don't even start with the "it's bankrupting the country" bullshit, it's the least expensive healthcare going and the other option from healthcare is death. And misery, don't forget the misery.
And about the spectacular failure of the AHCA, it's both staggering and entirely predictable. Like the dog that caught the bus, the Republicans didn't know what to do, so they threw together a bunch of tax cuts and budget bombs and called it the AHCA, which is a fraud of a name because it is not a healthcare bill, it's a budgetary bill, because that's the only kind of bill that can pass in the senate with 51 votes, which is what it was designed to be able to do from the very start.
Having said all that, I'm not gonna celebrate too much because Tom Price is now free to screw up the ACA to the point that it could indeed start to fail, and politically that seems like the best option they've left themselves, other than actually trying to improve the situation, but we all know that's not gonna happen.
Causing death and misery for spite and their plutocrat paymasters' pleasure is the Republican way, and if they want to prove me wrong about that I say go for it.
-Doug in Oakland
Doug:
ReplyDeleteYou (and apparently our politicians) are under the impression that healthcare is a right.....that it is the responsibility of the federal government to provide health insurance for Americans who don’t have employer-provided coverage.
And that, right there is the problem.
Yes, B, thinking that governmen should provide healthcare will turn America! into a socialist hell-hole like Great Britsin, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, ............
ReplyDeleteOh, and BTW, can you show me which piece of road or highway your gasoline taxes paid for? Just asking for a friend.
B., if some minimum healthcare is NOT a right, you and your friends should start the debate by saying that, rather than by making up lies about it. "Better care at lower prices", "great plan for everyone", "removing the maternity care mandate doesn't cause women's insurance costs to increase", "we simply promote choice" (a truly hypocritical position for the anti-abortion party), and removing the pediatric mandate (another insane choice for the "pro-life" party) are just some on the insane choices made or promises that were made.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, expecting to be lacking the numbers to pass a pure repeal bill, the promises above were made. Simply promising to repeal ACA would also likely have defeated Donnie, so the Republicans made a deal with the devil...and got the horns.
HR 676 is the "better, cheaper" way Trump could do healthcare, but it isn't gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteiHealthcare is not a right
ReplyDeleteThat gets stated by the Conservatives as if it's some immutable truth. Which it is not.
We decide what is a right. Like "the right to a free and appropriate education". Or the right to a jury trial. Or any other "rights".
We get to decide what is a right.
This is a public service announcement
ReplyDeleteWith guitar
Know your rights
All three of them
Number one
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a crime
Unless it was done
By a policeman
Or an aristocrat
Oh, know your rights
And number two
You have the right to food money
Providing of course
You don't mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation
Know your rights
These are your rights
Hey, say, Wang
Oh, know these rights
Number three
You have the right to free speech
As long as
You're not dumb enough to actually try it
Know your rights
These are your rights
Oh, know your rights
These are your rights
All three of 'em
Ha!
It has been suggested in some quarters
That this is not enough
OK, let's look at it from a different perspective than the "right" of healthcare (or not) and instead look at it from a purely capitalistic "impact on the bottom line" perspective.
ReplyDeleteA healthier workforce makes their employers more money.
Can we accept that as reality?
A healthier populace costs the government less money.
If you make it as expensive and difficult as you can to get basic and preventative care, you save on the initial outlays, but lose by an order of magnitude later, when preventable illness becomes severe, chronic, and disabling.
Unless your position on that is "let them die", which still doesn't account for lost time and productivity and taxes collected.
Libertarian individualism sounds good on paper, but has never worked as policy among self-governed populations. It's not efficient, so it's not good policy before you even get to the part about it not being decent or humane.
I grew up raising livestock, and we would never just let the cows or hogs get and stay sick because to do so would be stupid.
The actual truth is that everyone will consume healthcare. Planning for any of them not to do so is delusional. We can ignore that and let the resulting problems spiral out of control until they stomp the economy into the dirt, or we can try to do something that makes sense about making it financially feasible for it to happen.
And if you are thinking that you are rich enough to float safely above the carnage, you are mistaken. Anyone, no matter their life choices, can get cancer or heart disease or have a stroke, and burn through however many millions of dollars you have in a matter of months, leaving you to the same tender mercies of the safety net as the rest of us.
-Doug in Oakland
There is another single-payer health care system. It's the VA.
ReplyDeleteI do have much better health care than Medicare, from Kaiser Permanente. It is provided by a very good employer. That employer hired me in large part because I stayed out of stupid trouble, generally tried to do my best, and made as eries of mostly good choices in life despite those who encouraged me to make stupid choices and discourage me from trying because the world is out to get us.
I am not averse to helping those less fortunate than I. But those in a bad spot because the path they chose led to no job and no everything else are leeches, and I'm tired of them.
I'm tired of my money going to those not interested in making their own way. Health care is part of it. "Obamacare" is okay with me because those who can do contribute, and I will never understand why some Republicans don't like the mandate that everyone contribute. -Allowing people to join when they learn they need care is a stupid loophole, though.
[/soapbox]
One problem is the leeches drain blood, all the more so if they get really ill and hospitalized on charity. Given we should not just wish people to die, what's the better solution? And how often is the leech produced because of societal results rather than planning or intent. There are plenty of places in the country where there is no prospect for getting out for upwards of 50% of the population, no matter how hard you struggle...and that's areas with all different racial groups.
ReplyDeleteBeta "The GOP voters want FULL repeal."
ReplyDeleteLook at the current polls. Among the general public, support for ACA is at an all-time high. Even out of Republican voters, fewer and fewer of them actually want complete repeal. The few who do are probably the morons who don't know Obamacare and ACA are the same thing.
Most of those 24 million who would lose insurance are poor, white, and rural....that is, Trump voters. More and more of them are figuring out what ACA repeal would do to them.