July 18, 2017

Health bill succumbs.

Just because the old law is dying doesn't mean its replacement won't be stillborn.

NYT: "Health Care Overhaul Collapses as Two Republican Senators Defect."

AND: At Politico: "Trump blindsided by implosion of GOP health care bill/While the president strategized with Republican lawmakers at the White House over steak, two senators were finalizing their statements tanking the current proposal."

Let them eat steak!



ADDED: Speaking of cake, I'd never seen this before, from Trump's election night party...


... snarked at, early in the evening, in The New Republic: "This cake is a nightmare... Does he know he’s going to lose?"

65 comments:

Tank said...

The Stupid Party !!!

rhhardin said...

The replacement is something the swamp dreamt up anyway.

rhhardin said...

I'd make preexisting conditions be covered by confiscation of democrat party donations and go private market for everything else.

Darrell said...

The replacement is something the swamp dreamt up anyway.

This^

After pretending they had a better, workable plan all ready to go for years. Trump gets a complete pass for believing the liars.

Heywood Rice said...

Let them eat tweets!

rhhardin said...

It's bad luck for McCain. He doesn't get to grandstand.

rhhardin said...

The workable plan is repeal Obamacare. It takes only two words and a colon.

Darrell said...

I think they're in for a surprise when they open up McCain's head.

Tejeshwar said...

Everything is well explained in the blog, Anything can happen with the health bill.
Even renting is difficult

Lucien said...

Boy, it's a good thing the people running Congress are the experts who really know how to get things done in Washington. Not like that clown with the funny hair in the White House who used to be on a reality show.

sunsong said...

Joy!!!

sunsong said...

I am so grateful that this cruel attempt has failed!!!

David Baker said...

Pass or fail, it's high-fives in the Obama camp.

Tired of all the "winning" yet?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Best option: Repeal the ACA.
Second best option: Do nothing, letting the blame rest on those who passed the ACA
Worst option: Fuck around with the ACA, and take all the blame for everything that was inherently wrong with it from day one.

Darrell said...

Winning is not getting a Bill as bad or worse than Obamacare.

Laslo Spatula said...

The still image of Kirsten Dunst for this post creeps me out.

The dark red lipstick against her pale skin makes her thin-lipped mouth look like a slashed throat with tiny teeth.

The facial expression is pure Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

And her face is reminiscent of a potato.

The French sub-title adds the final unsettling detail.

NOT a good look for a sex robot.

I am Laslo.

Birkel said...

David Baker has some serious butt hurt. Do they make a salve that is covered by ObamaInsurance?

Kevin said...

Just because the old law is dying doesn't mean its replacement won't be stillborn.

Aborted. Killed by a few moderate Republicans lest it complicate their otherwise comfortable lives.

Not only true, but much funnier.

David Baker said...

"Winning is not getting a Bill as bad or worse than Obamacare."

Isn't Obamacare "as bad" as Obamacare?

Paul from Decatur, GA said...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the name under which it was passed) has never been completely implemented and probably was never intended to be so. The Democrats never showed any interest in revising it when they ran Congress or at any time during the Obama administration. I doubt that the Democrats will ever take part in a bipartisan reform of this obviously flawed legislation.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Trump tweets MacArthur, "We will return." It did take Obama until Christmas to get a bill through the Senate and more than a year to close the deal. Trump could still prove the better negotiator, but ...

john mosby said...

On that cake: i wonder how many bakers refused to make it? Maybe the campaign can still sue!

JSM

Sebastian said...

The difference between Dems and GOPers is that when Dems are in power, Dems expects results, while when the GOP is in power, GOPers expect failure. The ACA "repeal" fiasco confirms my confirmation bias.

Darrell said...

Isn't Obamacare "as bad" as Obamacare?

Yeah, but the blame goes in Obama's column. We'll put together a workable fix, one that allows sales of health policies across State lines. Policies not bloated with crap.

Birkel said...

So, I am trying to keep up with the arguments.

Apparently NeverTrump folks believe it is Trump's fault that some Republican senators stick to conservative principles and Democrats oppose any changes to ObamaInsurance. The remaining sellout Republicans are too few to pass a law and that is Trump's fault, also.

The word mincing comes to mind.

Bay Area Guy said...

I wouldn't yet call it a fiasco. It might just be a bump in the road towards full repeal.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Birkel said...

Apparently NeverTrump folks believe it is Trump's fault that...

I think Trump rightly deserves some blame for bad PR/optics, in terms of promoting/supporting/promising things that he can't get done.

On the other hand, I thought Trump rightly deserved most of the blame for losing the election, so that shows what I know.

sunsong said...

Everything has changed :-) What a beautiful day!

Dude1394 said...

Unbelievably deceitful GOP congress. They have been lying for seven years now. Its the same with whining about trumps appointees versus doing something about it.

They truly are the opposition party, they even oppose themselves. Pathetic.

David Baker said...

"We'll put together a workable fix..."

There is no "workable" fix to government-managed healthcare. In any and all its bureaucratic forms, socialized medicine will drag the American economy into third-world status.

The only way to "win" is not to play.

Birkel said...

Ignorance is Bliss:

What "can't get done is not fixed. The question is how to get what many elevated Republicans don't want done (but voters do) actually done.

Karen of Texas said...

"Everything has changed :-) What a beautiful day!"

For those who believe that what we currently have and where we are heading is oh-so-fabulous -


Go ahead. Revel in your ignorance.

Robert Cook said...

"After pretending they had a better, workable plan all ready to go for years. Trump gets a complete pass for believing the liars."

Trump doesn't give a shit one way or the other about what the Republican plan was or might be. His only interest is in being able to say he "beat Obama" by overseeing Obamneycare's repeal.

And, of course the Republicans don't have and never had a "better, workable plan all ready to go." Their only concern is to find a way to funnel more of the American people's tax payments to the wealthy corporate parasites who pay for their election campaigns and junkets.

Birkel said...

Robert Cook: mind reader

The new CBS show will air Fridays at 17pm I'click on the morning.

Birkel said...

...o'clock in the morning...

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Teh democrats should love it. Moar big gubbermints!

rehajm said...

rhhardin said...
It's bad luck for McCain. He doesn't get to grandstand.


You're on a roll this morning...

Anonymous said...

@David Baker I think you are correct, but we are already half way down the road. There's so damn much money there for the politicos to play with they can't resist. I just finished Gates' book "Duty". He condemns all those in Congress as being only interested in their status and how much pork they can bring "home". They don'y give a damn about solving problems for the American people. We are seeing that here in spades.

What surprises me is the support that Governors are giving Medcaid expansion that, along with pensions, threatens to consume their entire budgets. I guess they know they don't have the money so they want to get it from us!

Gahrie said...

Their only concern is to find a way to funnel more of the American people's tax payments to the wealthy corporate parasites who pay for their election campaigns and junkets.

I'm beginning to believe that Comrade Marvin is an attempt at performance art.

tcrosse said...

Their only concern is to find a way to funnel more of the American people's tax payments to the wealthy corporate parasites who pay for their election campaigns and junkets.

As opposed to the wealthy corporate parasites who bought Hillary.

n.n said...

Euthanize the old... bill. It's old. Abort the new... bill. It's not viable. Progress.

Michael K said...

Trump, Pence and McConnell say clean repeal will be next !

"I am so grateful that this cruel attempt has failed!!!"

Sunsong's world ends tomorrow. Nobody else affected, except the celebrating Democrats who most resemble the people on top of that building in the movie " Independence Day" who were there to welcome the aliens.

Then the spaceship bottom opened and Obamacare was repealed !!!!!!!!

BOOM!

Michael K said...

They truly are the opposition party, they even oppose themselves. Pathetic.

52% of Americans think Democrats have no agenda but opposing Trump.

According to a new poll by The Washington Post and ABC, over half of Americans believe the current Democratic Party doesn’t stand for anything besides resisting President Trump.

I'm almost getting tired of the winning.

Unknown said...

"Trump doesn't give a shit one way or the other about what the Republican plan was or might be. His only interest is in being able to say he "beat Obama" by overseeing Obamneycare's repeal.

And, of course the Republicans don't have and never had a "better, workable plan all ready to go." Their only concern is to find a way to funnel more of the American people's tax payments to the wealthy corporate parasites who pay for their election campaigns and junkets."
----------------

Trump never had a grasp of the subject. He was flummoxed by the entire thing. "Who knew health care was so complicated?!" Indeed, not him.

Unknown said...

"Trump, Pence and McConnell say clean repeal will be next !"

And they won't get the votes for this either.

Gahrie said...

The Republican Party controls the House, Senate, Presidency and and the Supreme Court and they still can't pass a budget or kill Obamacare.

I can't wait to hear the GOP pleas in 2018..."Vote Republican and we'll do all the shit you want us to do, and that we have been promising to do. No really..we will this time. Honest. Trust us."

Gahrie said...

Commie supporting Guthrie

If you were trying to refer to me, you don't know how wrong you are.

Unknown said...

Hahahahahaha! Now is the Time! is on a roll! Sounds like a Trumpist off his meds.

Robert Cook said...

"As opposed to the wealthy corporate parasites who bought Hillary."

Certainly. The wealthy corporate parasites happily work both sides of the aisle and have bought many of our "our" (sic) representatives in the House and Senate, the judiciary and White House. This is very apparent.

(Princeton University conducted a study a few years ago, which concluded we are an oligarchy, and the wishes of anyone not in the wealthy elite are essentially ignored by "our" (sic) representatives in Washington.)

Those who look to Trump to "make us great again" (sic) are as deluded as those who looked to Obama for "hope" and "change."

Unknown said...

"Steve Bannon reportedly called House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) “a limp-dick motherfucker who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation,” referring to the think tank whose fiscal conservative policies the representative espouses."


Hahahahaha, this is good stuff.

Michael K said...

"Who knew health care was so complicated?!" Indeed, not him."

Certainly not you or the Democrats who pretended to write Obama acre as it was composed by insurance company lobbyists and some 25 year old lawyers on Nancy's staff.

Health care is very complicated which is why is has to be left to the market system.

If command economies worked we would still have the Soviet Union.

And Obama's "stimulus " would have worked.

Michael K said...

(Princeton University conducted a study a few years ago, which concluded we are an oligarchy, and the wishes of anyone not in the wealthy elite are essentially ignored by "our" (sic) representatives in Washington.)

Cookie, you are half right. What you don't get is that Trump is Godzilla coming after these people and they are in a panic.

That's why 52% of the country likes him, no matter what the polls say.

Socialism doesn't work.

grackle said...

Realities.

Does the GOP have a real majority in the Senate? On paper, yes. In reality, no. On the crucial issues the GOP moderates vote with the Democrats – thus the failure of the “repeal and replace” bill that died in the Senate.

It should be noted that the GOP moderates have very little choice in this situation because if they behaved otherwise they would probably suffer defeat in their next election.

In the past the decision was made that instead of doing the hard labor of winning over the voters in “purple” states by developing good conservative candidates it would be easier to tolerate the RINOs. Thus the battle was conceded before it had begun. And once the GOP settled for blue state RINOs they were stuck with them.

True GOP conservatives such as Ted Cruz have more political leeway. They can vote for a politically unpalatable bill if it is somehow sweetened, such as with Cruz’s amendment, which illustrates Cruz’s political adroitness, BTW. If the bill had passed Cruz would have not been subjected to the same high degree of political risk as the GOP moderates.

Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas have the same political capital back in their home states as Cruz does but chose not to spend it on the failed bill, a decision they might come to regret. They’ll be safely re-elected in the 2018 mid-term elections no matter what doesn’t get done in Congress but other Republicans are not so secure.

Another reality: I agree with Mark Levin that the political spectrum is skewed toward the Left. This is illustrated by the eGOP siding with the Democrats to obstruct or kill most of Trump’s agenda. An agenda which, item for item, is ostensibly also the Republican Party’s agenda – but not really.

The eGOP is soft on immigration, healthcare and tax reform, major issues for the GOP and also major agenda items for Trump, which the eGOP professes to support but works behind the scenes to impede.

Majority Leader McConnell in the Senate is allowing Senator Schumer to block confirmation of 149 of Trump’s executive branch nominees. The excuse? “There’s a rule” is the excuse.

… before taking a vote on a nominee, the Senate must have a two-day waiting period and 30 hours of debate. The rule allows the Senate minority, in this case the Democrats, to halt other business.

Any rule that allows one Senator to block 149 executive nominees is a STUPID rule. Rules can be changed but the eGOP, ever the compliant tool of the Democrats when it involves Trump, shows no intention of doing so.

MayBee said...

Sunsong--
(or anyone cheering this) what is your insurance situation?

Sebastian said...

"the wishes of anyone not in the wealthy elite are essentially ignored" Not quite: most of the money still goes for entitlements, now including massive "disability" payments, which certainly satisfies the "wishes" of a large part of the populace. Sure, even those entitlements, esp. the health-related programs, serve the "oligarchy" as well, but that does not refute the notion that the welfare state is (also) a bribery scheme.

Of course, the real lefty alternative inevitably creates a new nomenklatura or Djilasian New Class, so I invite Cook to join the actual GOP base, which would like to put an end to government bribery and a pox on all them oligarchies.

Yancey Ward said...

None of this surprises me. The Republicans in Congress should have had repeal first as the goal or do nothing at all. Repeal and replace was sure to split the caucus along exactly the lines we have just seen.

None of this is Trump's failure, though- this rests entirely on the Republican leadership in both houses. One has the suspicion that the Republican leadership is dominated by Never-Trumpers who think they can get rid of Trump by hindering his entire agenda except for Court nominees to the point he will either resign in frustration or get unpopular enough to impeach and replace with Pence. This is a horrible miscalculation on their part, and almost inexplicable to me. Time isn't on their side- it is on Trump's side.

Yancey Ward said...

I predict, if the Republicans move on full repeal, it will, of course, be blocked by a filibuster and the Republicans will debate final elimination of the filibuster as a rule and will fail to do so. The next time the filibuster is used by Republicans, the Democrats will get rid of it without thinking twice.

sunsong said...

Sunsong--
(or anyone cheering this) what is your insurance situation?


Medicare

MayBee said...

Medicare
-------

I'm on the exchanges. And I've had a lot of issues. So I'm not cheering this.
People don't know what they are cheering for, I think. They think they are being benevolent to be against replacement of Obamacare, but they aren't.

Michael K said...

Majority Leader McConnell in the Senate is allowing Senator Schumer to block confirmation of 149 of Trump’s executive branch nominees. The excuse? “There’s a rule” is the excuse.

… before taking a vote on a nominee, the Senate must have a two-day waiting period and 30 hours of debate. The rule allows the Senate minority, in this case the Democrats, to halt other business.

Any rule that allows one Senator to block 149 executive nominees is a STUPID rule. Rules can be changed but the eGOP, ever the compliant tool of the Democrats when it involves Trump, shows no intention of doing so.


This is from the days when the Senate was a collegial institution that considered everything as gentlemen.

Harry Reid ended that as he was certainly no gentleman. Schumer is not either.

Times to treat the Senate as if it was the House, which is the reality.


mtrobertslaw said...

Pass a bill repealing Obamacare in its entirety, but give it an effective date one year from date of passage. This will put real pressure on every legislator to come up with a replacement bill before the repeal kicks in. But if the democrats continue with their obstruction and are successful, then they will be blamed for the country having no health care plan.

rehajm said...

Swamp wins another round.

grackle said...

Time isn't on their side- it is on Trump's side.

Exactly. That’s why Trump is playing the nice guy full of optimism about this healthcare fiasco. “Hey, we’ll still get it done,” is the gist of his message on this, placing the blame on obstructionist Democrats and a “few” unnamed Republicans.

Trump has made it perfectly clear that he will sign any healthcare legislation put on his desk and has carefully avoided any negative tweets about McConnell and Ryan, who are the center of what I believe to be a totally fabricated failure.

Ryan and McConnell may not realize it but they are pushing the GOP into a political tight-spot. Come the 2018 mid-terms the GOP cannot credibly blame the Democrats for lack of action on healthcare, tax cuts and other issues – not when the GOP owns the Congress AND the Whitehouse. And they can’t blame Trump, either. That leaves them.

Perhaps they are playing a waiting game, with the goal of thwarting Trump’s agenda and hurting Trump as much as possible before they take legislative action for real. If so, they better hope all this meaningless, designed-to-fail dick-dance hasn’t robbed them of ability to get bills passed even when they are really trying.

Michael K said...

"Perhaps they are playing a waiting game,"

If they wait too long the House may start to campaign against the Senate. The Senate isn't really at risk. The House is.

jaed said...

They think they are being benevolent to be against replacement of Obamacare

I find myself no longer willing to believe this. They're hateful and malevolent. They are among the Protected, and anyone who buys insurance on the individual market, and therefore is subjected to the full force of the ACA, can die or go bankrupt (or go bankrupt and then die), as far as they're concerned. Virtue signaling is everything; the well-being of the unprotected is nothing to them.

It took me years to get to this point. I thought they were misinformed but well-meaning, for a long, long time. Not any more. They oppose any relief at all for the victims of Obamacare—not only oppose it, but screech like angry apes at even the mention of any relief. They even advocate assassinating anyone who makes a gesture at offering relief from this law. That's not something that can come out of "well-meaning". That's evil.