... you can talk about whatever you want.
(The photos are from Bryce Canyon National Park, March 8th.)
(And remember to think of doing your shopping through the Althouse Amazon Portal.)
March 24, 2017
At the Canyon Café...
... you can talk about whatever you want.
(The photos are from Bryce Canyon National Park, March 8th.)
(And remember to think of doing your shopping through the Althouse Amazon Portal.)
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89 comments:
Yeah, those are special photos.
If you guys had a drone now...
:)
Yes. Nice pics. When we departed Bryce after a too short visit last mid Sept, the far north mountains were just showing a light dusting of snow.
NYT headline: "Paul Ryan Rushes to White House to Tell Trump Votes Are Lacking to Repeal Obamacare."
What is wanted is a one sentence Bill that actually, simply, and clearly does that: "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enacted by the 111th United States Congress is repealed in entirety."
How surreal.
@Meade, Wisconsin is the last Big Ten school still in the tournament. Hope they are up to carrying the hopes of the conference.
There are reports that James Comey is at the White House, I suppose following the closed door session of Nunes' committee.
Bryce is the most photogenic of all the canyon parks in Utah. Seeing many drones in SoCal. Surfers use them for action photos and perverts for bikini gawking on the beach.
For the last three months I have been planning a long road trip from Toronto down to New Mexico (Carlsbad, White Sands), up to the Grand Canyon, on to the parks of Utah followed by a stop at Mount Rushmore before heading home. Been hedging on whether I can logistically make this trip happen but with every click on your blog I have been pushing to get it done. Loving all the photos. Can't wait to see the Utah canyons with my own eyes and I'm ready for the "gargantuan shrine to democracy" that is Mount Rushmore! Keep up the good work Althouse.
tshanks78, All of the venues you list are great, except Rushmore. I found Rushmore mundane, but maybe that's just me. Nearby Deadwood was more interesting to me than Rushmore, but I LOVED the HBO series, Deadwood.
Thanks for the tip ndspinelli...I will see if I can squeak that in. Personally I am a massive Westworld fan so I have to make stops at Paria, Escalante, and The Maze before I hit anything Deadwood related.
When and why did we stop referring to Mohammedans as Mohammedans?
Martin McGuinness died three days ago. His passing should be noted. I met him once, shook his hand, when he was visiting Chicago. So did the Queen, and Ian Paisley.
ndspinelli said: tshanks78, All of the venues you list are great, except Rushmore.
Rushmore is OK, but not great. If you've never been there, it's worth a stop. But the real South Dakota destination is Badlands. Magical.
Mark, Agree wholeheartedly about Badlands.
tshanks, Taos, NM is a great stop. A mix of rednecks, artists, and Indians.
I am sorry for being ignorant here but someone help me out. Why can't Congress write a different reform to ACA to vote on, now that the first draft has failed? Why does it appear to be one chance only?
Hammond, clearly there are a lot of Republicans who want something different than your one-sentence bill. Including 45.
Are you so sure that you're in the majority view nationwide? "What is wanted," but by whom?
"Why can't Congress write a different reform to ACA to vote on...?"
"Congress" doesn't write bills. Caucuses of individual House members do. Democrats presumably see no reason to touch ACA, its perfect as is. Republican leadership tried to craft the Trump election rhetoric into a bill and you see where that led. So you think the Freedom caucus will draft a bill that will make it out of committee? (I doubt even most Freedom caucus members think it's worth the time and energy to craft such a bill.)
The Uber driver about to pick me up is named Leonilson. what kind of name is that.
he looks hot
Badlands is cool, but the Black Hills are the high point of SD for me. Rushmore is just the icing on the cake. The wife and I have a running argument which is the most beautiful geological formation in the lower 48. I say Zion, she says Bryce. But we both agree that the best experience to be had is DC. If those monuments don't emotionally move you---sorry for you.
If you believe that "access to healthcare" is a civil right, you need to argue for the establishment of a "VA system for all," or at least a means tested system for the poor, and pay for it out of the general fund.
Trying to do it by making the medical insurance industry - what remains of it - into a government front organization and controlling the medical industries indirectly by specifying how much the insurance industry will pay for what procedure and how, is not going to work.
Our local Fox station reported this morning that the London attacker had been identified as "Adrian Russell Lajao" while running a chyron that said "London attacker birth name was Adrian Russell Lajao". No mention of his current name or religious motives, no reference to ISIS ties or their claims of responsibility. Just some random guy without any known motivation for perpetrating these intentional murders.
Yep, the truth really matters to the media doesn't it?
Hagar,
Right. On. Point. Why are the Republicans even considering a replacement? (duh-retorical question). A question that has come to mind is how badly has the insurance industry been modified by the ACA? Is it still possible for them to provide INSURANCE in the near term? Say if a total repeal of the ACA should happen.
Why provide insurance if going into government service will provide a guaranteed profit with no risk or effort?
Employer-provided health "insurance" as tax free compensation has corrupted the whole free market in health care, as legislated mandates and labor union negotiations turned health care insurance into the funding mechanism for routine health care services, not just catastrophic diagnoses. Obamacare delivered the final coup with the guaranteed issue pre-existing conditions and unlimited lifetime costs.
Patients have no control over cost of service, insurance providers have no regulatory incentive to control costs (since they earn profit as strict percentage of their gross revenues).
Repeal of ACA by itself will do nothing to introduce consumer-based cost control, since everyone mostly likes the illusion of insurance without lifetime limit of pre-existing conditions. Sooner or later every investor-owned multi-line insurance corporation will exit the market due to the inherent unsustainabiity of that model.
@Big Mike, I don't see how anyone will beat Florida. I know you saw them completely take apart your Cavaliers last weekend. And Virginia is a damn good solid team. Do the '16-'17 Badgers have one more shining moment in them? I hope so. We will soon find out but I have an uneasy feeling Florida will be the team on top when it's all over.
The ideal here for the remaining too-large-to-fail "insurance compnies, is sort of a call-center operation that will largely go of itself. Maybe eventually all AI with the only human presence by the IT guys and building and ground maintenance crews.
I don't think these people understand that "Frankenstein's Monster" is a fictional story. They think that if they just make it complicated enough, it is going to work.
But it won't.
The interesting thing will be to see how the medical professions will react, and then, of course, how will Congress react to what they do?
And so on.
The political education of Donald Trump has begun -- and not a moment too soon.
@Meade, hard to say which was the harder loss to take last night -- Purdue playing tough for about 3 quarters before being blown out, or Michigan by a point. Florida has 8 losses on the year, and three of them were to Vanderbilt, which beat the Gators every time they met. If I were Greg Gard I'd have spent all of this past week on the phone to Bryce Drew (Remember the year Valpo ran so deep into the Tournament? That was Bryce putting the ball into the basket for his father the coach.)
@Hammond X. Gritzkofe,
What is wanted is a one sentence Bill that actually, simply, and clearly does that: "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enacted by the 111th United States Congress is repealed in entirety."
That certainly is what I want. But, that's necessary, but not sufficient.
GOP has only 52 votes in the Senate. Probably, it wouldn't pass the Senate or it wouldn't pass the reconciliation process.
Myself, I want the biggest dent taken out of Obamacare that can pass Congress. That simple.
Old Keurig parts came in handy today. A curtain bracket appeared to be sagging. A 1/4 inch thick block of aluminum with a hole in each corner was among the old, dissected Keurig parts. Bracket now reinforced.
Enjoyed Mt. Rushmore; but preferred Crazy Horse. Don't miss driving through the narrow tunnels on the Norbert Highway in the Black Hills. Other points of interest are Spearfish Canyon, Lead (near Deadwood), Wall Drugstore, Sturgis and Devil's Tower. If you are driving north from New Mexico to South Dakota, visit the Wagon Ruts along the Oregon Trail in Wyoming.
"The Uber driver about to pick me up is named Leonilson. what kind of name is that."
The first descendant of immigrants from Rivendell to the upper Midwest?
No, it's Brazilian.
So far the biggest National Park surprise for me has been Little Big Horn.
Reading Orwell's "The Prevention of Literature" recently.
This is no surprise, I know, but many of his comments on the state of things in his time are just as easily made today, and have been of course, at great length.
"In our age, the idea of intellectual liberty is under attack from two directions. On the one side are its theoretical enemies, the apologists of totalitarianism, and on the other its immediate, practical enemies, monopoly and bureaucracy. Any writer or journalist who wants to retain his integrity finds himself thwarted by the general drift of society rather than by active persecution."
In modern times of course, there is a fair bit of active persecution, as we know. Plenty of journalists not with the program have been got rid of, from their MSM perches anyway, even from conservative outlets. The rest, above, stands.
"The sort of things that are working against him are the concentration of the press in the hands of a few rich men, the grip of monopoly on radio and the films, the unwillingness of the public to spend money on books.."
Also valid today.
The rest, not so much. There is no background of official censorship, state entities interfering (unless the FEC manages to someday, or Citizens United is overturned).
"The organized lying practiced by totalitarian states is not, as is sometimes claimed, a temporary expedient of the same nature as military deception. It is something integral to totalitarianism"
And so also the organized lying by the well-organized and centrally directed US MSM. This is a permanent institution operating for the sake of a body of persons with interests which they seek to advance. This is not an emergency reaction to the matter of Trump.
"on a long view the weakening of the desire for liberty among the intellectuals themselves is the most serious symptom of all."
Ditto, in spades.
etc. - worth a bit of study.
Freeman Hunt, the sagging curtain bracket is an ongoing existential trial. Which part? I've tried hard to like the Keurig, but I've been drinking cold brew for 23 years, and I just can't adjust. So I have a full array of parts on hand. For variety, I do love the Nespresso, because espresso really is a different animal.
"Seeing many drones in SoCal. Surfers use them for action photos "
The Newport Beach facebook group that I also belong to posts many great videos of whales off the southern California coast taken by drones. I had no idea there were so many whales around there.
There may be more in winter. The gray whales are transients going back to Alaska last month but these are big ones, like humpbacks and blues.
"The political education of Donald Trump has begun -- and not a moment too soon."
"I alone can fix it!"
Um...no.
What is wanted is a one sentence Bill that actually, simply, and clearly does that: "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enacted by the 111th United States Congress is repealed in entirety."
Speaker Paul Pelosi, et al.: We can't do that because . . . because . . . because reconciliation. Yeah, that's it.
Observant citizen: But both the House and the Senate last year passed a straight repeal bill and didn't need all the drama of reconciliation or some other nonsense. So why not pass a straight repeal now if reconciliation wasn't an issue last year?
Speaker Paul Pelosi, et al.: Because . . . shut up, that's why.
Observant citizen: So all those votes before were complete gimmicks and frauds, weren't they? And you are all untrustworthy POSs, aren't you?
Speaker Paul Pelosi, et al.: You just don't understand . . .
Observant citizen: Oh, so you are condescending POSs as well.
Why the rush? Why set a deadline before you have the necessary votes? And why is it now "over?" Why not continue to work for a deal that will get majority support? I really don't understand.
Denied and defeated.
Government? Hate. Govern?
robinintn, the Nespresso is proof that God really loves us after all. Although if I force the kitchen small appliances to compete with one another, it's hard to say who beats the toaster oven.
"Which part? I've tried hard to like the Keurig, but I've been drinking cold brew for 23 years, and I just can't adjust. So I have a full array of parts on hand."
I took it apart years ago and dumped the parts I liked into a Ziploc bag. I can't find a picture of it online. Now I'm wondering if it's a part that I took off of something else and dumped in that bag.
I didn't use the Keurig much as intended. I used it as very hot water on tap. When it died, I didn't replace it.
Life imitates art!
Kamala Harris: "Judge Gorsuch has consistently valued legalisms over real lives. I won't support his nomination."
Ayn Rand: "Oh, we had a perfect case all right, but the man who presided at the trial was Judge Narragansett, one of those old-fashioned monks of the bench who thinks like a mathematician and never feels the human side of anything. He just sat there all through the trial like a marble statue-- like one of those blindfolded marble statues."
Not Ayn Rand's personal sentiments, of course...
"on a long view the weakening of the desire for liberty among the intellectuals themselves is the most serious symptom of all."
Ditto, in spades.
Buwaya, I have a theory that there are true intellectuals and there are educated fools who think they are intellectuals.
To the GOP in Congress:
You keep forgetting that in Trump you are not dealing with an ideologue.
Trump insisted that the current healthcare law, commonly known as Obamacare, will collapse under its own weight, and then Democrats will want to make a deal with the White House.
"I truly believe the Democrats will come to us," Trump said.
To be clear I did not like the defeated bill. As Rand Paul claimed, it was Obamacare Lite, a legislative capitulation to socialized medicine. There was too much stuff that was supposed to happen in the future and politicians never follow up on that kind of shit. The GOP in Congress is itself proof enough of that truism. Leaderless and factional-ized, it is fabulously ineffectual. A lot of sound; very little action. They were elected to change things for the better.
As long as insurers are forced to accept new customers with pre-existing conditions, an Obamacare provision that became immediately popular, and parents are allowed to keep their offspring up to age 26 on their coverage, you have socialized medicine . No matter what you call it, when you inject this type of anti-capitalistic sugary filling into the healthcare pastry what you have is socialized medicine. I think we are stuck with it.
It looks to me that perhaps the best that can be expected is to try to make the American version of socialized medicine better than the other versions that exist around the world. In other words, try to “fix” Obamacare … after the Democrats come to Trump.
Why set a deadline before you have the necessary votes?
Nancy Pelosi may be a dingbat, but she never would have done what Ryan did.
Earnest Prole: "Nancy Pelosi may be a dingbat, but she never would have done what Ryan did."
I think perhaps Ryan had been reading his press clippings and he encountered a scenario where he was simply not prepared to get all the gaps bridged even though he clearly assured the White House he could deliver.
In Ryan's defense, I would have expected Price, Mulvaney and Pence to have had a better sense of where things really stood.
Freeman Hunt said... [hush][hide comment]
Old Keurig parts came in handy today. A curtain bracket appeared to be sagging. A 1/4 inch thick block of aluminum with a hole in each corner was among the old, dissected Keurig parts. Bracket now reinforced.
Repairing something without having to go shopping for a part gives me as much satisfaction as accomplishing the repair itself..
On the other hand, makes it hard to throw away a lot of "useless" stuff.
Harriet, the 72-year-old Prostitute says…
You would think that -- after sixty years of having sex for money -- that I would have a lot of things to be embarrassed about. The truth is, I don't: Life is Messy, and if you can wipe off what Life does to you with a paper towel or a couple of Kleenex, then why complain...?
That said, I have only taken money for someone pooping on me once, and it DID change my life...
It was in the Eighties, and I got called up into service to the penthouse room of the One and Only David Copperfield. You youngsters may not know who he is now, but he had phenomenal thick hair and the most piercing eyes...
He was the Greatest Magician of the Time, doing a Show in town, and I was being paid by his manager to show him a Good Time! Me! And he was a TOTAL Gentleman! Before getting down to Business we had Champagne and Triscuits, and he kept pulling ridiculously long colored scarves out of his sleeve, over and over and over...
Despite being a Great Celebrity, he struck me as being very Shy. Finally, I said to him:
"David, I bet I know what your next Magic Trick is going to be..."
"And what is that?" he said, smiling bashfully while putting a pimento on top of a Triscuit..
"You're going to make your cock DISAPPEAR into my ass!"
Oh my, how he laughed! So he fucked me in the ass for awhile, and then said:
"Do you want to see a REAL Magic Trick?"
Well, of course I did! So he said:
"I am going to crouch over you and take a shit, but it will NEVER touch you: it will just levitate in the air above your breasts and turn to Gold, before I command it to vanish."
Well: that wasn't quite what I expected. I don't know, I was thinking maybe he'd pull a rabbit out of my vagina or something, but it was his Money, and I always LOVED Magic....
So David Copperfield crouches over me, scrunches up his face, and poops. But the poop didn't levitate, it plopped right down onto my breasts, And it didn't turn Gold, it just stayed poop-colored: it didn't even glitter or anything. He saw the confused look in my eyes, and laughed ominously.
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC, LITTLE GIRL! THRE IS ONLY... SATAN!"
Then his eyes glowed fiery red and he disappeared in a puff of sulfuric smoke. So there I was, laying on the bed, with the Poop of Satan on my breasts. Like my Pimp could do anything about THAT...
Since that night, I have known that the Devil exists, and that the Devil likes to poop on Girls. I have told my story to other prostitutes as a warning, but you know young girls: they think they are invincible, plus they have no idea who David Copperfield is...
Oh, don't get me going: once I start telling these stories they all come rushing out...
I am Laslo.
"We all learned a lot, we learned a lot about loyalty, we learned a lot about the vote-getting process, we learned a lot about arcane rules," Trump said.
Loyalty? Arcane Rules?
Give me a break.
The fucking Republicans had 8 years to build a health care system that industry, and insurers could have helped craft.
Instead they wait till after the election to come up with a Bill that is complete crap. All it does is shift money around. That's not what the fucking peasants want.
I heard Trump say it is all on Pelosi and Schumer, that the Bill failed to get any Democratic support, so that those two now own health care in America, which is rapidly going bankrupt.
I think most Americans gave the Republicans the Legislative and Executive branches so they could change the "do nothing Congress(tm)" into getting off their campaign swings and sit down and design a health care system that would be the envy of the world.
Instead, Trump wants more nuclear weapons, more Army troops, and more Navy ships. Fuck that. We have enough nuclear fucking weapons. We don't even have the will to use the ones we own now.
As far as I'm concerned, this was a tragedy for Republicans, and millions of Americans are going to suffer. In their suffering there will be a violent crash, that will make the French Revolution look like a Tupperware party.
I support returning the government back to the Progressives. Communism is now the only way forward now. Complete socialization of the health care industry. Tax and spend centralized government with 5-year plans. Get your affairs in order, and get ready for the new role for peasants in Amerika.
I'm not mad, I'm happy, I think Communism is much more low stress on peasants.
Too much of a hurry to try to fulfill a campaign promise. This will hurt Trump for a while, but I think he will work out of it. He does have the opportunity to remind us over and over that Obamacare is the Democrats' baby. Will this have an impact on the House in 2018? I doubt it. Most of the dissenters were from pretty safe seats - and they were not completely wrong in their opposition.
Was this Ryan trying to prove he had the balls needed to run the show? This was, after all, Ryan's bill. Replacing Obamacare is a bit like trying to replace Social security- an entitlement that is self destructing, but the loss of which scares a lot of people. I don't know why some of the Obamacare deconstruction can't be done piecemeal. I think these massive bills are too difficult to structure well enough to attract needed votes. One question that seems unanswered for both the ACA and any replacement is what are we really trying to accomplish? Do we want everyone to be insured? Do we want healthcare centered in the states? I don't know if we really can agree on the answer to what the goal/s should be. Until we do, there is going to continue to be a hodge podge of failed experiments.
"Buwaya, I have a theory that there are true intellectuals and there are educated fools who think they are intellectuals."
Let me guess: you and/or folks you agree w/ are the true intellectuals, folks you disagree w/ are fools.
Carry on.
Wow, that's a devastating headline.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-cave-on-obamacare-repeal-is-the-biggest-broken-promise-in-political-history/article/2618413
"GOP cave on Obamacare repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history"
"What's so utterly disgraceful, is not just that Republicans failed so miserably, but that they barely tried, raising questions about whether they ever actually wanted to repeal Obamacare in the first place.
Republicans for years have criticized the process that produced Obamacare, and things certainly got ugly. But after having just witnessed this debacle, I think Paul Ryan owes Nancy Pelosi an apology."
I think Congress has written laws to protect the insurance companies. I can't really know what all the rules are, because there are billions and billions of words in the law.
But it seems to me, a HUGE opportunity. We could offshore the insurance industry.
Hospitals could accept insurance from Bangladesh, Libya, or North Korea. Then Americans could go online and buy insurance from these foreign based insurers.
The competition would "Make America Great Again(tm)".
>>"GOP cave on Obamacare repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history"
It would hurt a lot worse if I didn't have that $2500 extra in health care savings, a lower monthly premium, and better health care than before.
Oh, and the sea levels are so much lower now it's getting hard to launch my boat.
Not for one minute do I think anyone’s done on healthcare. My only hesitation in saying that is that there is no way to square that circle. What are our choices? Go back to the days of the insurance companies dictating what will and won’t be covered and dicking you out of coverage here and there. That was pre Obama, and if you were buying your own policy, it was too expensive and the coverage was bad. We can tinker with the policy we have now, but the Republicans just said they’re going to let it “explode,” I think it was Trump’s word. And with his First Executive Order, he gave the IRS permission to not enforce the penalty. So, there’s that. There are probably things that can be done, but there’s limits. So, just go to single payer. That or do away with insurance altogether. Does anyone remember those days? I don’t.
"I think most Americans gave the Republicans the Legislative and Executive branches so they could change the "do nothing Congress(tm)" into getting off their campaign swings and sit down and design a health care system that would be the envy of the world."
Um, no they didn't. They elected these fools to repeal Obamacare. Full stop. Oh, and keep Hillary out of the White House.
It'll be interesting to see what lessons Trump draws from this little experience. He won't make a mistake like this again.
"He won't make a mistake like this again."
Oh yes he will.
The whole point (beyond the intrinsic joy re making sure the takers/losers suffer, as they deserve) of the benefit cuts in this bill was to make room for job-creator tax cuts in the future (i.e. beyond the job creator tax cuts that accompanied the moocher cuts in this bill). This freed up budget space was meant to setup the job-creator tax cuts re the 2018 budget and a reconciliation vote.
Seems like that's a bit tougher now.
And, even more interesting will be seeing who leverages the debt ceiling vote to get what they want. Will the Freedom Caucus get whatever it is they're into? The only other option is grabbing Ds, as occurred w/ the W Bailout thing-y. What would they want?
Time will tell.
The "optics" of this healthcare fiasco are terrible.
The man is beatable.
And now the "Kentucky Rooster" can't wait to beat him up again. Short the market on Monday.
PS> Wisconsin up by 10(!).
BTW, somebody has been messin' with those NCAA baskets. Too many balls hanging up.
Geez, what's with Insty and the rightosphere? They, rightly, condemned the democrats for a party line vote on a bill that you had to pass to find out what was in it. Then when Ryan/Trump try the same thing they get wee-wee-ed up that it didn't pass on the first vote. It's the Hindenburg!! Sheesh.
Note to GOP: Do a better job than Pelosi did! Better drafting, better debate, better explaining. Not just pass something on a party line basis.
Some of those hairstyles on the Wisconsin players need a Weed-eater or something. I'm rooting for them, though. For Althouse's sake. All my teams are winning thus far except AZ who lost by a nose.
It'll be interesting to see what lessons Trump draws from this little experience.
"Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other."
We gave the Republicans the House and they said, "well, we can't really do anything with half of a third of the government", so we gave them the Senate and they said, "Well we can't really do anything because the President will veto it", so we gave them the Presidency and now they say, "Well, we can't really do anything because.. reasons".
You had *one* job, One!
Nigel Hayes is a very good player.
"Not for one minute do I think anyone’s done on healthcare."
No, the Dims will filibuster Gorsuch and McConnell will finally go the full Harry Reid. Once the filibuster is gone, the whole "reconciliation" thing is gone and they can write a clean repeal and replace bill and not worry about the Democrats' suicide mission.
The left is going to die on this hill. They have decided.
I think the swamp drain is clogged.
Time to call the plumber. Anyone know where Pedro is?
Anyone know where Pedro is?
His ass got shipped to El Salvador.
Call Joe. Not sure he was actually a licensed plumber. Likewise not sure re his plans to make more than a quarter of a million bucks a year.
We gave the Republicans the House and they said, "well, we can't really do anything with half of a third of the government", so we gave them the Senate and they said, "Well we can't really do anything because the President will veto it", so we gave them the Presidency and now they say, "Well, we can't really do anything because.. reasons".
You are spot-on, Unknown. They don't know how to wield power when they have it. Trump is the best thing they've had going for them since Reagan and now they're going to screw him up, too.
"You are spot-on, Unknown. They don't know how to wield power when they have it. Trump is the best thing they've had going for them since Reagan and now they're going to screw him up, too."
Makes sense. It's not possible that y'all are suckers who are being played. Definitely not that.
At least nobody is talking about Flynn and the planning re the Gulen grab. So much grabbing.
OTOH, has anyone heard from Flynn? Maybe it's not a good sign that Flynn's gone silent for a bit. Talking' to FBI?
Time will tell.
Wisconsin!
Charles Krauthammer said the best thing would have been to pass the defective legislation, and pass it on to the Senate. There the democrats would have filibustered it, and it would not have been a black eye on the Republicans.
Can you say black eye?
To me though, you can't really continue with trillion dollar annual deficits. Sooner or later you are going to have to actually "do your job(tm)".
Not yet, I guess...
McConnell will finally go the full Harry Reid.
I'm not convinced there are fifty Republican votes for the nuclear option. More than one Republican relishes the compromising tradition of the Senate, and more than one Republican may as well be a Democrat.
That was pre Obama, and if you were buying your own policy, it was too expensive and the coverage was bad.
Where were you getting your insurance? Our policy is both inexpensive and great and I have the best doctor I've ever had in my life.
"McConnell will finally go the full Harry Reid.
I'm not convinced there are fifty Republican votes for the nuclear option. More than one Republican relishes the compromising tradition of the Senate, and more than one Republican may as well be a Democrat."
If it does work, I suppose we won't hear Rs tell us that the Ds rammed ACA down America's throat (w/ 60 Senators) anymore.
JK, of course there's some reason why the D's are still rammers, but the R's are just MAGAing. Totally different.
Carry on.
Michael K said...
"Not for one minute do I think anyone’s done on healthcare."
No, the Dims will filibuster Gorsuch and McConnell will finally go the full Harry Reid. Once the filibuster is gone, the whole "reconciliation" thing is gone and they can write a clean repeal and replace bill and not worry about the Democrats' suicide mission.
The left is going to die on this hill. They have decided.
3/24/17, 10:53 PM
Maybe so, but who actually has a plan with good futures? There is so much that doesn't seem to be in the mainstream of the public debate. Or else I haven't seen it. I need to read the Rand plan maybe.
But it's almost as if nobody really understands the issues. There are a few doctors in Congress, right? Why don't they have a medical caucus and the ?five or six? people who actually understand the situation can suggest what they think would actually work.
In any case, if they want to do something to fulfil promised action, they could run a clean repeal. And give it a year deadline to run. That forces the issue (although I guess they can always vote themselves another year.) But I honestly wonder if the unreadiness on both sides is so deep that it really has to be started from scratch.
Anyway Trump is fine out of this. If anything shows Paul Ryan for what he is.
Blogger Etienne said...
Charles Krauthammer said the best thing would have been to pass the defective legislation, and pass it on to the Senate. There the democrats would have filibustered it, and it would not have been a black eye on the Republicans.
The best thing would have been to pass excellent legislation, pass it on to the Senate, have the Democrats filibuster it, and cut their throats.
Do members of Congress get Congressional healthcare if they have pre-existing conditions?
I know I can get healthcare no matter what my condition. Being retired military I have access to three nearby healthcare facilities, and they have free prescriptions (OKC, Lawton, Wichita Falls).
I realize the taxpayers pay for this. The doctors, nurses, and medical staff don't become millionaires, but they are commissioned. My doctor is a LtCol, so she drives a BMW, no problem.
I think the best thing, going forward, is to emulate the military healthcare funding, to all citizens. Sure it will cost a lot of money. But there will be no insurance problems. You just pay an access fee.
Then we can move military retiree's out of DoD and into this new social medicine for all. Why should military and congress have social medicine, and the peasants do not?
If it costs too much, we can sell Wyoming land to ranchers, or scrap a few useless battleships and sell the steel to China.
But it's almost as if nobody really understands the issues. There are a few doctors in Congress, right? Why don't they have a medical caucus and the ?five or six? people who actually understand the situation can suggest what they think would actually work.
In 1995, I learned that Republicans thought of healthcare as a matter for tax lawyers. I'm not sure they have changed their minds.
Obamacare has greatly complicated matters as the whole industry was reconfigured by the perverse incentives.
Hospitals moved into chains and bought up medical groups to set up a vertically integrated system. They thought that would be a moneymaker. Doctors are now all on salary and have surrendered their freedom to treat patients as patients. The young doctors I talk to hate their practice situations. Everything they do is controlled by faceless bureaucrats. A doctor friend I've known for 30 years and who is a pulmonary medicine specialist is no longer allowed to decide when a chronic lung patient of his needs to be admitted to the hospital.
That decision is made by a salaried Emergency Medicine doctor who is paid to "screen" admissions (Read ration care) and decide who gets to go into the hospital. Not every hospital is like that but those that enthusiastically adopted Obamacare are. If Obamacare goes away and a form of free market medicine comes back, that vertically integrated model becomes too costly.
Casting about for an analogy, car manufacturers began 20 years ago, to offer rebates on cars. It began as a year end clearance but gradually became a feature of most car sales, unless it was a luxury car where prices are less important. They tried to go back to the original price structure but buyers resisted and now the rebate model of car sales is there all year round.
It is going to be painful to reverse all this restructuring, The employer based system is the only one that is still working much like it was. Obamacare converted the individual market to Medicaid.
In the meantime, we are stuck with an "insurance" law that cannot work unless everybody are forced to enroll whether they want it or not, and the Republicans have no intention doing that.
So I think the Deemocrats gloating may be a little premature.
"That was pre Obama, and if you were buying your own policy, it was too expensive and the coverage was bad."
Coverage was better, and it was less expensive. Our state even had an insurance program for people with preexisting conditions.
In a move that I am sure Althouse must approve of, Se. Harris has announced that she cannot support Gorsuch because he relies on the law in his decisions rather the feelz,
http://downtrend.com/71superb/kamala-harris-wont-vote-for-gorsuch-because-he-rules-with-the-law-not-feelings?utm_source=fn3&utm_medium=facebook
Coverage was worse pre Obama, and policies starting for me at the time were $470. Then they could pick and choose what to cover you for, and of course there were the pre-existing conditions. No question, it was worse, and more unaffordable.
My daughter, pre-ObamaCare, paid about $400/month with $3,000 deductible. She now pays $550/month with $7,000 deductible!
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