Trump's America, March 2017: Using His Inside VOICE

--- “We’re going to live with health care reform that we pass forever, or until it’s changed in the far distant future,” he said.

Odd as now is not really 'the far distant future', let alone 'forever', from the POV of when Obamacare started.

Let's ask Cotton about whether his 45+ votes to repeal and/or gut ACA constituted "moving too quickly"

w/ how this is all somewhat predictably playing out i am actually kind of surprised that the first thing the GOP wanted to tackle was ACA repeal

you'd think they'd want to do a more popular tax cut or something

Lance H • 12 minutes ago
These a-holes had SEVEN YEARS to come up with an alternative. SEVEN YEARS. There is NO EXCUSE for the POS bill that's being circulated. NO EXCUSE for there not being something acceptable ready to go way back on Jan. 20. NONE. Apparently the Republicans don't like their jobs because they're not doing them very well. TERM LIMITS!

I thought for sure that these people who've made a career out of inaction were secretly formulating a plan of action behind the scenes. I feel so betrayed.

w/ how this is all somewhat predictably playing out i am actually kind of surprised that the first thing the GOP wanted to tackle was ACA repeal

― marcos, 8. marts 2017 16:08 (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you'd think they'd want to do a more popular tax cut or something

― marcos, 8. marts 2017 16:08 (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The idea was that through cutting expenditure along with the ACA they could then give a deeper taxcut. Everything has to be done through budget reconciliation to avoid filibusters. (I read a much better explanation for it somewhere, but I can't find it)

“We’re going to do something that’s great, and I am proud to support the replacement plan released by the House of Representatives,” Mr. Trump said. “This will be a plan where you can choose your doctor, and this will be a plan where you can choose your plan. And you know what the plan is. This is the plan. It’s a complicated process, but actually it’s very simple, it’s called good health care.”

I feel reassured

the way this guy speaks reminds me so much of Tommy Wiseau, it's uncanny

try to think of any previous POTUS who would've declared of a population-wide fed program "This will be easy"

xpost to Fred, I think this excerpt from Chait sums it up:

The artificial role of the House GOP’s self-created deadline played a crucial role in the development of Trumpcare. After the surprising election handed them full control of government, Republicans quickly decided to capitalize on power with a pair of lightning-strike budget assaults. First, they would repeal Obamacare while delaying any consideration of its alternative, perhaps for several years. Having eliminated Obama’s health-care law — and, especially, the taxes on the affluent that helped finance it — the baseline of expected revenue would be lower. This would enable Republicans to then pass another huge tax cut later in the summer, which they could construct in a way to appear not to lose any revenue (and thus, because of arcane but important budgetary rules, be permanent). After passing their tax cut, they could leisurely set out to design a new plan to replace Obamacare.

I don't really see any holes in that plan. People who suddenly found themselves uninsured would just be all like, no seriously you guys chill out and take your time with this, I still have one functioning kidney, it's cool.

if you're too poor to pay out-of-pocket for medical expenses you don't deserve to live, it's pretty simple

Kill the Workers part CCCXXII (apologize if prev posted)

You can die on the job now and not burden your boss with unnecessary paperwork. From The Washington Post:

In a narrow result that divided along party lines, the Senate voted 49 to 48 to eliminate the regulation, dubbed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. Finalized in August and blocked by a court order in October, the rule would limit the ability of companies with recent safety problems to complete for government contracts unless they agreed to remedies. The measure to abolish it had already cleared the House. The next step after the Senate vote will be the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it. A half-dozen other worker safety regulations are in Republican crosshairs, with one headed to the Senate floor as soon as this week. Many are directed at companies with federal contracts. Such companies employ 1 in 5 American workers — meaning the effort could have wide-ranging effects.

As you can imagine, there's a truly horrible real-life adventure involved here.

That concern prompted the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulation. Among the strongest data points: Rodney Bridgett, 37, a worker at a Tysons Foods beef processing plant in Nebraska, was crushed by a piece of heavy equipment when a chain snapped on the plant's "kill floor" in 2012. Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman called Bridgett's death "a tragic accident" and said the company aspires to "have zero work-related injuries and illnesses, and continue to improve our culture related to safety every day." OSHA investigators found that Tysons supervisors had repeatedly failed to inspect the faulty chain. While OSHA sought to fine the company, the Obama administration moved separately to target a major source of Tysons's revenue: nearly $300 million a year in federal contracts.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53695/worker-safety-republicans/

every time an unsafe work environment kills or injures a worker it means it creates an opening for an unemployed person to step in

JOB CREATION

have we mentioned that the bill is literally called 'World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017'

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1275

i did not know that

ok that's seriously really funny. \

How many other healthcare plans of 2017 do they expect?

@laurenduca
"Listen, for all of the criticism, you have to admit that @realDonaldTrump's cabinet was remarkably well prepared for #ADayWithoutAWoman"

lol

omglol

The fundamental level of these people's unseriousness contrasted with the seriousness of their jobs is fucking mindblowing.

w/ how this is all somewhat predictably playing out i am actually kind of surprised that the first thing the GOP wanted to tackle was ACA repeal

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump warned House Republicans Tuesday if they can't pass health care legislation after seven years of promises it could be a "bloodbath" in the 2018 midterm election, according to one member present in the meeting.-CNN

Even a stopped clock

yep

The right wing ideal is based on an idea of meritocracy and working against the odds innit? Reminiscent of Karma and the caste system or Victorian ideas of deserving/undeserving poor.
Easy to look from a position of privilege and say the other half deserve their lot.
Or any other viewpoint is too close to socialism so obviously inherently flawed. Innit?

nice job on Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico cannot possibly repay its debts on anything like a short-term schedule, and probably not ever. It needs, first and foremost, a reduction on the amount owed, and an extension of the payment schedule — which is only fair as the debts were largely the product of moronic federal policy and Wall Street greed....

By rights, it ought to be made a full state immediately, in addition to the reform package outlined above, as compensation for decades of colonial domination.

Instead, President Obama and the Republican Congress went the opposite direction, imposing a quite literal dictatorship under the Puerto Rican Oversight, Management, and Stability Act (or PROMESA, Spanish for "promise," how cute). Its seven-member board is not accountable to the Puerto Rican government, and has final say over "budget, laws, financial plans, and regulations." The act also granted special permission to lower the island's minimum wage for workers under 24 and a blanket exemption on new overtime rules.

The new PROMESA structure did delay the day of reckoning somewhat. But Obama mostly appointed financiers and bankruptcy lawyers to the board. Incomprehensibly, one of the non-financiers he appointed was a conservative policy analyst who has spent his career agitating for sweeping cuts to Social Security. Hilariously, the new executive director selected for the board in January turns out to own at least $265,000 in Puerto Rican bonds and debt — possibly a violation of conflict-of-interest provisions in PROMESA itself.

http://theweek.com/articles/684377/america-turning-puerto-rico-into-greece

The fundamental level of these people's unseriousness contrasted with the seriousness of their jobs is fucking mindblowing.

A different story in the Senate, really.

"It’s true Democrats hold only nine of the 20 seats on the committee, and would only have been able to condition Rosenstein’s approval on his willingness to appoint a special prosecutor if they had stood together and persuaded at least one Republican to join them. But had the parties been reversed, the Republican Party would have formed a united phalanx to demand that Rosenstein, as a patriotic American, must look beyond party and promise to give the country a truly independent, non-partisan investigation. There would have been press conferences with all nine senators wearing flag pins and looking stern, a major media offensive asking which Democrat on the committee cared enough about this nation to join them, and possibly the composition of some songs about brave deputy attorneys general.

"Instead, the Democrats only managed some grumbling and a few uncoordinated questions at the hearing."

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/07/senate-democrats-blow-best-chance-to-demand-special-russia-prosecutor/

How were they supposed to persuade a Republican to join them?

lol wtf @ that nonsense

is there an add-on that means I don't have to read links to/from the intercept?

How were they supposed to persuade a Republican to join them?

you know, the art of necessary blackmail that the Dems suck at

xxxp

haha waht none of the Dems on that committee have any leverage over Team McConnell

so maybe stfu about the special prosecutor fantasy then

there might still be a special prosecutor out of all this, but it won't happen until a variety of other factors click into place. Dems won't be able to get it on their own.

What happened to OBSTRUCT, DEFY etc? Standard Dem chickenshittedness is being entirely enabled by this "meh, they have no leverage" handwaving.

have any Dems indicated they're going to vote for Rosenstein? I don't expect any to. That Intecept piece's major beef is that the Dems' committee questions weren't... confrontational enough? ok whatever.

Dems can't do shit with real

grr. without real GOP support.

Dems would've given Rosenstein a Columbian necktie in the middle of his hearing if they were true patriots.

I'm not totally opposed to your way of thinking, Morbs, but it'd be easier to follow you with some specifics on what, specifically they should have done in this case. The flag pin press conference thing sounds like a complete sad flop to me.

This isn't directed at you but: as with fantasies of how we're going to flip the Senate, I no longer want to read any article on a specific committee thing like this that doesn't get precise about exactly which Republicans are in there, what the politics in their states look like, what their last elections/primaries looked like, how often they've voted with Mitch, etc., and then ranks them by who seems most flippable (to the extent that anybody in a majority party is flippable on anything, and I do think things like Puzder's scrapped nom suggest there is hope).

Like, give me at least a limited approximation of the tactical information the Dem Senators on the committee are working with. Otherwise we start verging into ''oh man if I'd been there at that gas station robbery I would have saved the day, I took karate for six months in middle school and let me tell you, these guys are so dumb...'' territory.

AKA "It’s a complicated process, but actually it’s very simple, it’s called good health care.” territory

The base is revolting! (Use meaning as you please.)

https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/03/tell-the-republicans-to-do-their-damned-job

After all, wouldn’t you love to catch Team Obama red-handed? Well, Trump has the means to do so. Nothing is stopping him. Right now, even. So why not squeeze when you’ve got their nether regions in the palm of your hands? Dude already went back on his pledge to “lock her up.” Now he’s not gonna declassify the documents that could bust Obama, too? Come on, man.

Stirring stuff.

shit-stirring stuff, that is

its almost as if steve deace threw his lot in with maniacs and morons

Otherwise we start verging into ''oh man if I'd been there at that gas station robbery I would have saved the day, I took karate for six months in middle school and let me tell you, these guys are so dumb...'' territory.

Start verging? We've been there for a while now.

I was gonna say

So why not squeeze when you’ve got their nether regions in the palm of your hands?

Conservative Review, you've taken this metaphor too far, and thought about it too deeply

Oh this is more all on Deace. Consider this from last year:

https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/08/why-conservatives-lost-part-4-a-parable-of-gop-betrayal