Courtesy of NPR:Here's the moment the Skinny Repeal failed. pic.twitter.com/y6kiT2HzC5— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 28, 2017
In a moment of unexpected high drama, Republicans were stymied once again in their effort to repeal Obamacare — and they have John McCain to thank for it.
The senator who earned the nickname "Maverick" over his long tenure showed why in the early morning hours Friday.
McCain, who was diagnosed with brain cancer and returned to Washington to advance the health care bill, turned around and bucked his party's leadership — and President Trump — by joining two moderate Republicans and every Democrat in voting against the so-called "skinny repeal" of the Affordable Care Act.
Personally I am in no way ready to throw a parade in McCain's honor.
This is clearly the right thing to do, and the fact that he was one of only three Republicans to do it should shame the GOP into hiding under their beds.
However as we know Republicans don't feel shame.
Having said that I am going to give another shout out to Lisa Murkowski who kept her promise to the Alaska natives who helped her hang on to her Senate seat when the Republican party abandoned her.
Losing Obamacare would have been devastating for them, and she stood by them as they stood by her.
So I think this thing is really dead dead now.
There are now calls from some on the GOP side to start working with the Democrats to move forward and repair Obamacare so that it works better.
And I think that is really the best we can hope for at this point.
I forgive McCain for Palin.
ReplyDeleteSo do I and I never thought I'd say that! Trump must have shit his drawers when McCain cast his vote last night. Love it, love it!
DeleteThen you're a fucking idiot.
DeleteMcCain is getting the credit, but these women are the ones who really saved Obamacare
DeleteSens. Murkowski and Collins have always stuck to their principles.
https://thinkprogress.org/women-who-saved-healthcare-86bc2b5adbfe
Enough about McCain. It was Collins, Murkowski and red-state Democrats who killed Trumpcare.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/28/enough-about-mccain-it-was-collins-murkowski-and-red-state-democrats-who-killed-trumpcare/
To 12:01 pm. Aaaay Mooch - is that you baby?
DeleteI don't.
DeleteI still want an apology. A really groveling one.
I love how Mr "Art of the Deal" can't get anything meaningful through Congress despite having a majority in both houses.
ReplyDeletePitiful (and fortunate for the good of the country).
Yes.....sad.
DeleteShows what a LOSER The Rump really is.
DeleteI watched the entire thing on TV last night and found it riveting! Republicans flunked big time and deserved doing so. They have all lied about the Affordable Care Act (Obamamcare) for all these years and have not been listening to the American people.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans: Americans like their health insurance and want to retain it. McConnell stood up there (after loosing last night) and lied through his teeth. Republicans are going to lose so many positions in Congress when they come up for reelection again. They truly are a deplorable bunch - McConnell, Ryan, Trump, etc. - what a nasty group!
They assume most Americans are as uninformed as their easily duped base. It makes lying easier for them (they would lie anyway) Most of us do not get our news from RW oligarchical propaganda outlets.
DeleteG. Thanks for throwing us Alaskan Natives under the bus. We weren't the only ones who voted for Lisa. Yes, I called and encouraged her to vote independent when that crazy ass Joe Miller won. Who wouldn't?
ReplyDeleteIf we Alaskan Natives were primarily instrumental in getting her voted in at that time consider it our honor. We saved Alaskans from some one who may have been more bought into the Tea Party than Palin.
That would have been wonderful to have everyone notice that all the crazy is springing from the North.
Let's not single out one group, okay? Yes, we helped get her elected but there were others that were non native that did the deed too. And yesterday she did us proud.
Just not about the healthcare. But for showing you can be a woman, a Republican, an Alaskan, and stand up to an evil asshole like Trump.
Thank you Lisa. Keep up the tough work since no one else had the balls to stand up to Cheeto Hitler.
This headline should be Brave Senators Collins, Murkowski Kill Trumpcare;McCain follows.
ReplyDeleteCollins and Murkowski stood up for ACA despite great pressure.Good for them and McCain followed.Iam writing and thanking them.
DeleteObamacare Repeal Isn’t Dead. It’s Undead.
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/zombie-obamacare-repeal-senate-2018
Spokesperson for Barack Obama releases statement on repeal failure
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/mikedelmoro/status/890961246111105024
A political scientist explains the real reason Obamacare repeal is so hard
ReplyDelete...Pierson sought to explain why even very conservative leaders are unable to roll back big social programs. Ronald Reagan couldn’t get rid of Medicare or Social Security; Margaret Thatcher couldn’t dismantle the National Health Service. Pierson argues that social programs create a new politics, and in particular build a constituency of people benefiting from the programs that is politically powerful and can resist efforts to dismantle them.
Pierson and I spoke in March about his theory and how it applies to the Republican repeal effort; at that point the fight was still going on in the House, but his points remain salient today. A transcript lightly edited for length and clarity follows.
https://www.vox.com/2017/3/24/14953202/obamacare-repeal-ryan-trump-paul-pierson-retrenchment
What McCain did was hard. What Murkowski and Collins did was much harder.
ReplyDelete...Murkowski and Collins were the only Republicans to vote against a motion to proceed with the health care bill debate. Both women cast votes against the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which could have led to 22 million more uninsured Americans. They both also voted against the Obamacare Reconciliation Act — repeal and delay — which could have led to 32 million more uninsured Americans.
Both senators said they could not support bills that would leave millions of people without health insurance. They also opposed provisions to defund planned parenthood. When skinny repeal — seemingly the last shot for the GOP — came down, they stood their ground and voted no again.
Through all of this, the backlash against these two women senators was severe. Two House Republicans threatened them with violence.
President Trump publicly shamed Murkowski on Twitter:
...Murkowski then got a call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who reportedly threatened to punish Alaska’s economy based on her health care vote, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.
McCain’s vote was crucial in ending the latest health care repeal effort — but no more so than the votes of Murkowski and Collins, which were consistently courageous in the face of threats and suggestions of retaliation.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/28/16055132/murkowski-collins-mccain
Why Alaska's Lisa Murkowski isn’t afraid of Donald Trump
ReplyDeleteThe unusual Alaska political coalition that’s bedeviling Republicans, explained.
Thousands of Alaska’s indigenous people would have been at risk of losing their health insurance if Senate Republicans had successfully executed their plans to repeal Obamacare this week.
But many of the Alaska Natives were optimistic that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — whose political career they helped save in 2010 — would not abandon them, even in the face of an all-out campaign against her from President Donald Trump.
“The Alaska Native communities once saved Lisa Murkowski’s political career,” said Lloyd Miller, a natives’ rights attorney in Anchorage, ahead of the final vote. “And now she’s doing her best to save their health care.”
In the end, she delivered: Sens. Murkowski, Susan Collins (R-ME), and John McCain (R-AZ) killed Senate Republicans’ “skinny repeal” bill late Thursday night with three “no” votes.
On Capitol Hill, Murkowski has emerged as a key obstacle in Senate Republicans’ months-long campaign to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Despite furious vote whipping from Senate Republican leadership and even threats from the White House, Murkowski was one of just two Republicans to vote against the motion to proceed on the GOP health bill on Tuesday.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/27/16030520/murkowski-republican-health-bill
Obama camp praises everyone who “made their voices heard” against GOP health care bill
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/28/16056150/obama-gop-health-bill-reaction
The utter failure of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump to pass a bill rolling back the Affordable Care Act makes one thing perfectly clear: love him or hate him, Barack Obama is one of the most consequential presidents in American history — and that he will be a particularly towering figure in the history of American progressivism.
He signed into law a comprehensive national health insurance bill, a goal that had eluded progressive presidents for a century — and built it strong enough to withstand assaults from the Supreme Court and avoid repeal from a Republican administration. He got surprisingly tough reforms to Wall Street passed as well, not to mention a stimulus package that both blunted the recession and transformed education and energy policy.
He's put in place the toughest climate rules in American history and signed a major international climate accord. He opened the US to Cuba for the first time in more than half a century, and reached a peaceful settlement to the nuclear standoff with Iran.
You can celebrate or bemoan these accomplishments. Liberals hail them as moves toward a social democratic welfare state and a foreign policy more skeptical of military intervention; conservatives critique Obama's efforts to expand regulation and the government's reach, and accuse him of abdicating America's role as world hegemon.
But no one can deny that the changes Obama has wrought are enormous in scale.
Obamacare: a big ****** deal
https://www.vox.com/2015/6/26/8849925/obama-obamacare-history-presidents
He has been the BEST POTUS! He'll be on Mt. Rushmore vs The Donald!
DeleteIt’s not even clear if Republicans will now abandon the idea of repealing and replacing Obamacare via reconciliation (and returning to regular order)—or simply move on to tax reform and infrastructure. Republicans are stuck in a quagmire. They can’t move on—and they can’t pass a bill. Yet they keep trying. And the more time they waste, the greater the argument for giving repeal and replace one more try. Republicans are victims of the fallacy of sunk costs.
ReplyDeleteInstead of forcing a “come to Jesus moment,” these defeats often lead to a new scheme (see the idea of “skinny repeal”). Don’t be surprised if the idea of simply ending the legislative filibuster (something Trump has advocated) comes back.
It’s also unclear how Trump will react to this latest legislative defeat. Instead of chastening him, it will probably just cause him to double down on his bad behavior. His administration threatened Alaska after Lisa Murkowski voted against the motion to proceed; what might be in store for John McCain’s Arizona?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/epic-health-care-fail-wasnt-mcconnells-fault-it-was-trumps
They need to move on. They need a budget. Healthcare can wait.
DeleteThat budget will be very telling.
Are they going to strip funds from everything for Trump's boondoggle wall?
Are they going to gut and starve Obamacare via the budget? Sure they may have to endure lawsuits but while they are pending Obamacare is being strangled.
The Death Party needs to move on to the budget now. And while they are they need to pivot and start referring to health care as the ACA. They need to distance it from Obama. Then if they decide to tweak it and improve it and fix it so that it works better, they can call it anything they want. The ACA or Trumpcare or whatever. They can fix it and then own it and if it works better they can take the credit for it.
We'll know differently and history will record it as part of Obama's legacy.
While they're busy congratulating themselves on stealing the ACA for the Republicans, the Democrats will be crafting a single payer universal healthcare bill based on Medicare and Medicaid. Plus free college tuition.
Trump’s Trick as Repeal and Replace Bills Fall Short: ‘Help’ Obamacare Kill Itself
ReplyDeleteIn theory, Republicans could pull this off by pulling the money that subsidizes insurance for the poor. Voters won’t be fooled, though, about who’s to blame if that happens.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-trick-as-repeal-and-replace-bills-fall-short-help-obamacare-kill-itself
You're fired!
ReplyDeletePeebus is out.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/344394-trump-appoints-new-white-house-chief-of-staff
Reince Priebus is out
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reince-priebus-out-john-kelly_us_5979fc40e4b02a4ebb739010?wp&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Today, Donald Trump made a rare public appearance and used it to encourage law enforcement officers to physically injure cooperative suspects while arresting them. During Trump’s last speech, he told a story about chopping up young women with knives. Before that, he told the story of a friend’s exploits on a yacht to a group of kids. Whenever we see Trump not behind a podium, he’s usually wandering off, blank faced, with no idea where he is.
ReplyDeleteIt’s dangerous enough that a man as deranged as Donald Trump is in the Oval Office. It’s arguably even more dangerous that Trump has now dissolved into straight up incompetence, unable to write his own tweets, clueless about what he’s saying or whom he’s talking to when he surfaces in public. His staff is doing the best it can when it comes to covering up his rapid decline, but it’s not enough; the cracks are becoming rifts. And before long, the entire nation will figure out what’s been obvious for awhile to those who closely follow politics: Donald Trump has become an invalid.
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-invalid-staff-can-no-longer-hide-it/4085/
Trump is building our nation toward civil war within our streets. It's coming - I've been saying it forever it seems.
DeleteI plan to be one of many out there protecting minorities who are my neighbors and friends - I'm sure there will be many of us.
Trump - leading the cops - FBI - military (national guard) will be the initiating it. Mark my words - it's coming!
He is a dictator and wants to control each and every one of us!
'Mooch is going to have to start trying to suck his own c*ck': Scaramucci mocked over divorce
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/mooch-is-going-to-have-to-start-trying-to-suck-his-own-cock-scaramucci-mocked-over-divorce/
"‘Deidre is not a fan of Trump’: Scaramucci’s wife reportedly files for divorce over his ‘naked political ambition’"
Delete$moochie and Bannon are into FUCK BUTT Buddy PLug$ BIGTIME!
I hope she takes the Mooch to the cleaners.
DeleteWonder if she has dirt on his mistresses? Photos good, video better.
Yeah, Ol' Tony is out in five more weeks.
Cooked.
ReplyDeletehttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/DF2cBQQUIAAjase.jpg
@Scaramucci tonight
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/MarkMayhew/status/891038633804935168/photo/1
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/mooch-is-going-to-have-to-start-trying-to-suck-his-own-cock-scaramucci-mocked-over-divorce/
Let us not forget Zinke the thug ! He threatened officers of this country! He is a low life snivelling piece of rat shit. Karma, bitch!
ReplyDeleteI praise the strength of the two courageous individuals. Senators Collins and Murkowski.
I personally love seeing the pee pond cry.
ReplyDeleteWhere is their savior??
Good LORD, idgits, haven't you figured that out yet??
The Court of Mad King Donald is not a presidency. It is an affliction, one that saps the life out of our democratic institutions, and it must be fiercely resisted if the nation as we know it is to survive.
ReplyDeleteI wish that were hyperbole. The problem is not just that President Trump is selfish, insecure, egotistical, ignorant and unserious. It is that he neither fully grasps nor minimally respects the concept of honor, without which our governing system falls apart. He believes “honorable” means “obsequious in the service of Trump.” He believes everyone else’s motives are as base as his.
The Trump administration is, indeed, like the court of some accidental monarch who is tragically unsuited for the duties of his throne. However long it persists, we must never allow ourselves to think of the Trump White House as anything but aberrant. We must fight for the norms of American governance lest we forget them in their absence.
It gets worse and worse. The past week has marked a succession of new lows.
...Why bring in Scaramucci? Because, I fear, the mad king is girding for war. Trump is reckless enough to fire Mueller if he digs too deeply into the business dealings of the Trump Organization and the Kushner Companies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-worst-is-yet-to-come/2017/07/27/9c2bef6a-72ff-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html
Why did the Democrats allow themselves to make it unanimous to put this piece of shit back on the calendar? Bitch McConnell can now bring it up whenever he likes. He'll just wait for McCain to die and then try again.
ReplyDeleteIt's not dead. It's just a festering cancer in remission, lying in malignant wait until it can explode again and kill the patient.
Actually a bit surprised that more rethugs didn't withhold their vote until it became clear that it wouldn't pass and then jump on the no side.
ReplyDeleteYa know, being such stout individuals that they are.