The latest version of the Senate health care bill has a host of provisions designed to woo hesitant lawmakers — but perhaps none is more blatant than a change targeted at Alaska’s two GOP senators.
Both Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski have not committed to supporting the proposal, and Murkowski has been one of the harshest critics of the bill’s closed-door drafting process.
Mich McConnell cannot afford to lose any more votes, so this is how desperate he has become:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., apparently hopes to appeal to Murkowski by slipping in a provision that could allow her state to access more than $1 billion in federal money.
States with high premiums would receive access to a $182 billion fund designed to stabilize their insurance exchanges. One percent of that money would be earmarked specifically for states that have premiums more than 75 percent higher than the national average — and Alaska is the only state that would meet the standard.
This means the state could get more than $1.8 billion over the next decade. Alaska has some of the highest health care costs in the nation because of its remoteness and lack of medical facilities in many rural areas.
Sullivan said that the program, dubbed the “Kodiak Kickback” or “Polar Payoff” by pundits, would serve as a big boost for his state.
Dan Sullivan is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch brothers, so he will vote as they tell him to.
Murkowski on the other hand at least has some semblance of independence, though she will vote in what ever way will ensure her reelection.
So I guess as Alaskans we need to pressure her into doing the right thing, for all of her wrong reasons.
Personally as an Alaskan I do not want to be singled out so that we are protected from a policy that hurts millions of my fellow Americans. And I was raised to believe that Alaskans were kinder and more giving than those living in other parts of the United States.
That may not be as true anymore, but back in the day when all we had was each other to survive in one of the harshest climates on the planet, nobody sat in a broken down car on the side of the road for more than a few minutes without somebody stopping to help.
And nobody went hungry in the winter without the community coming together to help their family get enough to eat and warm clothes to wear.
THAT is who we used to be, and THAT is how many of us still would still like to see ourselves.
We cannot have while others have not.
So Lisa Murkowski needs to vote NO on this bill, and then needs to lead the GOP to work together with the Democrats to fix Obamacare and make it work better for ALL of us.
THAT is how she ensures her reelection.
I don't believe that even if Alaska ended up with the $1.8 b, that it be enough to offset health care costs fit the next 10 years.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much wrong with the ACA appeal effort.
Simply build on the ACA, it's not perfect. Nonetheless it's a good start.
Lisa be smart, look at the big picture.
Fuck the president!! He is a moron!!
I've thought for a long time that healthcare is going to be the make or break of many politicians' careers.
ReplyDeleteHere in Oregon, excepting a blue strip down the coast, as red as red can be. This from our senator Jeff Merkley:
"I've been traveling across some of the most remote—and reddest—parts of Oregon and have heard it myself. The farmers, ranchers, teachers, small businesspeople, and retirees coming to my town halls are worried. After all, about one in three rural Americans, and nearly all residents of some rural nursing homes, are insured by Medicaid."
Let's hope that Murkowski does the right thing for Alaskans. After all, when you're gasping for your last breath, what good is a pocket Bible and a cookie? That was "someone's" bright idea......
Where is turtlehead getting the $1 billion dollars from?
ReplyDeleteShort changing other states?
Never any money to fund programs for those in need, slashing to the bone environmental protections that prolong the lives of all, but ALWAYS money for a bribe!
DeleteDo I trust her to do the right thing?
ReplyDeleteHell NO.
Please vote 'NO' Senator.
ReplyDeleteA JOB FOR SARAH PALIN?
ReplyDeleteIf Murkowski holds out a little bit longer, maybe she can get Mitch McConnell to add funds under the table for the Bridge to Nowhere?
After getting the funds, use the funds dubbed "Kodiack Kickback or Polar Payoff" by Washington pundits to make the world's largest ice rink in Alaska.
Hockey-mom Sarah Palin has experience in a ice rink project like this and could be in charge of The World's Largest Ice Rink endeavour in Alaska if she agrees the land should be purchased first.
Sen Lisa Murkowski you can say you are against the Bridge to Nowhere and use the money for another project.
Sen Murkowski, "The new Senate healthcare bill contains a big sweetener for one particularly important senator"
That's you!
Sen Lisa Murkowski,
ReplyDeleteAmerica or Alaska?
GOP medical plan for Alaskans is simple.
ReplyDeleteSick people will be fed to starving polar bears.
I don't know....lower 48 here, but the picture of her seated at his left hand during some meeting is hardly encouraging. I'd be as far away from him as possible.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard Murkowski and Collins were coming against the bill, I was pretty happy. I felt that Murkowski, despite having been put in her position by her father originally, was proving to be a fighter for Alaska and for the people.
ReplyDeleteNow, if she allows this to happen, it would be embarrassing, and unethical.
Let's see where she goes with this. That Sullivan guy is of coarse beyond despicable. He tries to act like he's a person operating on his own substance when really he's a Koch plant.
Don Young? Those old farts will hold their seats whether they are productive for the people or not. He sold out so long ago I don't think there's any part of the original Don Young in there. Just a crusty old white man filling a bracket to obstruct progress.
Attempts?
ReplyDeleteHe succeeded.
Both have been mum since the bribe. That means they've probably changed their minds and will vote yes. They just don't want anyone to know to avoid flack.
Yes, the pressure needs to be increased on Murkowski.
Sullivan is a lost cause.
She had better vote NOT to pass McConnell's baloney or she will assuredly NOT be reelected in the great State of Alaska! I don't trust the woman as far as I can throw her!!
ReplyDeleteAre you from Alaska? I have been here 30 yrs and I do not trust Murky or any other republicant representing AK in DC. I think she will take the bribe. Sen Sullivan's interests are with family business in Ohio so he is never going side with alaskans who are not wealthy. Don Young is for what ever lines his campaign contribution war chest. So sad but this is probably true.
DeleteThe Ayatollah’s Billion-Dollar Alaskan Bag Man
ReplyDeleteDid an elderly Korean-American salmon exporter become a money launderer for Iran?
...And the unlikely figure at the center of this story—which encompasses shadowy Iranian businessmen based in the Middle East and Caucasus; high-ranking South Korean state banking officials; an Iranian-American airline magnate whose planes have been linked to covert work for the U.S. government, including the CIA; the difficult politics of multilateral sanctions; the abstruse world of illicit finance; and laundered property and goods spread across three U.S. states—is a septuagenarian Alaskan ex-salmon exporter and restaurateur, Mitchell’s father, Kenneth Keun Zong.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/14/iran-money-laundering-kenneth-zong-215372
Wonder if Toad Palin knows them.
http://www.chicagonow.com/politics-now/2017/07/44-years-a-republican-1-year-an-independent-today-im-joining-the-democratic-party/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chicagonow.com/politics-now/2017/07/ive-been-democrat-for-a-week-and-i-wonder-what-took-me-so-long/#/
ReplyDeleteKris Kobach is coming for your votes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kris-kobach-nvra_us_59698037e4b017418627ac98?section=us_politics
"On Nov. 9, the day after Trump was elected president, Gene Hamilton, a member of Trump’s presidential transition team, emailed Kobach with what he called “Day One immigration policy action items.” Kobach responded by saying he had already begun work on proposed legislation targeting the NVRA.
“We will... be putting together information on legislation drafts for submission to Congress early in the administration,” Kobach told Hamilton in an email. “I have some already started regarding amendments to the NVRA to make clear that proof of citizenship requirements are permitted (based on my ongoing litigation with the ACLU over this).”"
"The email lends fuel to accusations by critics that Kobach and the Trump administration could be using the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, of which Kobach is the vice chair and de facto leader, as a pretext for changing the NVRA with the aim of making it more difficult for Americans to vote."
"In 2011, Kansas passed a law requiring voters to show proof of citizenship when they registered to vote. The ACLU sued Kobach over the law, saying it violated the NVRA, and federal courts stepped in last year to block it. A ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in October forced Kansas to register more than 20,000 voters.
On June 28 of this year, the same day Kobach sent a letter to all 50 states requesting publicly available voter data, the Department of Justice sent a letter to the 44 states covered by the NVRA, asking them to detail their compliance with the voter-purging procedures outlined in the law. Voting advocates said the DOJ letter was deeply alarming, with some interpreting it as a signal that the department is gearing up to sue states to kick people off the voting rolls.
The November email is the first piece of evidence of Kobach’s intent to amend the NVRA ― something that critics have suspected since Kobach was photographed last November holding documents that listed potential alterations to the law. Kobach initially refused to turn over those documents to the ACLU in the lawsuit over Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship law, only doing so once a judge forced him to. The judge also sanctioned him with a $1,000 fine for making “patently misleading representations” about the documents to the court.
Kobach marked the documents as confidential, but the ACLU filed a motion in court Friday to have them unsealed."
This is why he doesn't give a shit if people unregister. He doesn't want them voting any way.
Alaska has the highest percentage of people on subsidized ACA plans, I hope they both vote for TrumpDon'tCare and maybe that will get Alaska to vote blue. But at this point Alaska voted for this so, like many other red states will have to deal with the consequences of their actions.
ReplyDeleteWrong. We have one of the highest percentages per capita of people on Medicaid. Our subsidized ACA enrollment is quite low, only a little over 22,000 people, while there are over nearly 190,000 on Medicaid.
DeleteIn the last couple of elections in Alaska, they prove the State is beginning to turn more blue....yea!!!
ReplyDeleteThe next big steps are getting Murkowski and Sullivan out of Congress! Neither are representing Alaska well at all and assuredly do not represent me.
And, I'll wager the Alaska Legislature's, Legislators that are Republican, will lose some of their seats too! They have been the majority and spent us into the red!!!
Republicans are a friggin' mess of humans - just look at Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan!!! Damn, but we are in trouble. Way past time to get our acts together and vote them all out of office soon.
Murkowski is looking as haggard in the eyes as is Donald Trump. Think their jobs are getting to them! They are very much alike - plus, she makes sure she is near him when he is on camera. Not a smart move Murkowski! You are going to have trouble being reelected when and if you run again!
ReplyDelete"Kinder and more giving"? Really?
ReplyDeleteI've never noticed Alaskans responding to Outside disasters the way that people in the Lower 48 responded when the bush ran out of money back in 2009. Come to think of it, I could even name you some Alaskans that did not give a damn that people were going hungry. I don't believe Alaskans are kinder or more giving.
McConnell said they had enough money to buy votes. This is a classic case of taking care of your state, and letting the country as a whole go to hell. I hate politicians.
ReplyDelete