Trump, June 2017: From [Covfefe] with Love

outic & ymp otm

yeah the dems tried to boycott committee hearings over some of the cabinet noms, but the GOP just went ahead and modified the rules so they could pass the noms through without a quorum

no reason why the GOP wouldn't just convene a 52-person senate and vote the bill into law.

The Republicans are going to be pissed and pass what they want anyway. Slowing it down creates opportunities for their plans to be thrown off course.

activists should be focusing on pressuring "moderate" GOP votes *and* (if we want to get into ratfucking) encouraging people like Lee and Cruz and Paul to also vote against it cuz it "doesn't go far enough". McConnell can only lose two votes here, and the odds of him holding his caucus together on it - including Collins and Murkowski and others - is still pretty slim. That's where the wedge is, that's where pressure should be applied. Getting an inconsequential delay while also pushing GOP votes *towards* the bill to spite Dem intransigence is a dumb idea.

x;p

The upshot of this is that the Democrats stop governing or having any voice in Senate proceedings.

WTF have any of them been doing at all the last few months? Sure, the GOP has not passed legislation, but related to that, neither have the Dems. Those not actively sitting on investigative panels have been up to ... what?

They would go nuclear if it was called the Murder Sick Americans Act I hope. That's what the bill does.

hey, let's be fair. is it murder if you watch someone desperately in need of medical care die, even though you could have helped them? there's no legal obligation, at least not in the US and that's why this act should be called the Anti-Samaritans Shitting Hellfire On Lonely Enemies Act

Even if the Senate passes it it still has to go back to the House. Via a CBO review. Right?

If Democrats fail to make a big show of blocking this sneaky, evil bill in order to keep a spotlight on Russia, they are imbeciles with backwards priorities.

it's not about making "a big show" it's about stopping a fucking bill!! these things are sometimes different!

if the Senate passes it yes it goes back to the House and the two bills have to be reconciled in "conference", but there will be massive pressure on the House GOP to capitulate and accept the Senate's (presumably) less draconian vision. Who knows what would happen there, if the Freedom Caucus would go for it, etc. but it would be better to just stop the bill in the Senate in the first place.

The most fruitful advice, I think, is to get friends in Maine to call Collins, Murkowski in Alaska, and Capito in West Virginia. If McConnell loses even two, it's over.

Those not actively sitting on investigative panels have been up to ... what?

https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/d_three_sections_with_teasers/congrecord.htm have fun

They need to do something to put the AHCA back in the headlines and whip up public fury again.

thank u shakey

no reason why the GOP wouldn't just convene a 52-person senate and vote the bill into law.

I know this is a joke (or I hope it is) but no, they can't do that. It would be unconstitutional.

https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/d_three_sections_with_teasers/congrecord.htm have fun

US Government=TL;DR

It would be unconstitutional.

Join the club.

Simon, FWIW, I generally agree - and I thought the filibuster of Gorsuch was necessary, though it didn't keep him off the SC. I'm only sounding leery/jaded because I have seen this argument play out before and know the rhetorical moves.

On one hand, Ds need to demonstrate fealty to the fired-up base to keep that relationship marginally healthy. On the other hand, clogging up business on other committees could potentially do more harm than good, as Outic writes.

Anyway I also know that some folks will never think well of mainstream Ds no matter what they do or don't do. It's not like showing spine on Gorsuch made anybody here suddenly think Schumer's a righteous dude.

Gorsuch filibuster was necessary because Dems essentially had nothing to lose and it was a big deal. No GOP Senators were ever going to vote against Gorsuch, it wasn't even a question. But this is different because there potentially *are* GOP Senators who may vote against the AHCA, and the Dems need to get those votes. That is the goal.

Have even all the GOP senators seen it?

🚨CODE RED: Senate Dem chiefs of staff from NV, WV, OH say Heller, Capito, Portman are likely to vote yes on Trumpcare. 🚨

— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 13, 2017

those are the three non-Murkowski/Collins swing votes

Collins also spoke out in favor of the bill earlier this week, so I guess the best plan is to activate NV, WV, and OH dems to spam phone lines

Gorsuch is on the Court anyway, and good ILX leftists still think the Dems are spineless pussies anyway.

Ah, the old "spine" thing again. That is not the problem with Democrats. The problem is most of them (Schumer, the Clintons, Obama) are corporatist RIGHT-WINGERS.

(Using a sane definition, not post-Reagan "move the whole spectrum" Lewis Carroll shit.)

CONDITIONS for any interview: Previously granted permission from senator AND Rules Committee of Senate

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) June 13, 2017

Sorry, that's a reply to a previous tweet, which is here:

ALERT: Reporters at Capitol have been told they are not allow to film interviews with senators in hallways, contrary to years of precedent

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) June 13, 2017

I would think Flake in AZ might be pressurable on AHCA as well...?

McConnell keeping this all behind closed doors, with no CBO score etc. is very smart - it makes it really hard to rally opposition because there's no talking points, no handy metrics, no specifics that people can point to as being especially odious. It makes it easy to frame any opposition look irrational, misinformed, premature. Like what can Dems oppose when there is literally nothing there, no bill to dissect, no hearings to ask questions at? All the Senators can do is maintain ranks and maybe try to personally buttonhole colleagues, while the grassroots works the phone banks for possible GOP swing votes. I don't think there's too many other viable tactics.

doesn't the senate bill requires a CBO score before it can be voted on?

fixed

It makes it easy to frame any opposition as irrational, misinformed, premature. Like what can Dems oppose when there is literally nothing there, no bill to dissect, no hearings to ask questions at? All the Dem Senators can do is maintain ranks and maybe try to personally buttonhole colleagues, while the grassroots works the phone banks for possible GOP swing votes.

Yes Senate Bill requires a CBO score but it probably won't be released until a couple days before the vote, so there won't be much time.

it makes it really hard to rally opposition because there's no talking points

idk "the GOP is trying to pass a healthcare bill so awful they're ashamed to talk about it public" is a pretty good one

yeah, and I'm seeing that passed around

xxxp I also totally advocate beating the drum for more public outcry about how the sausage is getting made.

And yes, to Dan S., there must be a CBO score. But the tactic seems to be to send it to CBO first. Then pass by reconciliation in a flurry, without hearings, before there's time to react.

So yes delay is good but how.

McConnell's plan is to keep the details of the bill totally hidden up until the point when he thinks he has the votes, then he will submit it to the CBO and try to get it voted on as quickly as possible before anything bad in the CBO score can be used as ammo to swing votes against it. This is probably all going to happen in the last couple weeks of June/first week of July.

xp

btw this tweet is now "unavailable" for some reason so idk how much stock to put in it:

🚨CODE RED: Senate Dem chiefs of staff from NV, WV, OH say Heller, Capito, Portman are likely to vote yes on Trumpcare. 🚨
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 13, 2017

(I admit I'm naturally inclined not to trust anyone who goes by "Topher")

"They're afraid to let the PEOPLE see what they're up to / they're afraid to talk to the PEOPLE" should an effective populist message in this alleged age of populism.

If the inevitable countercharge is "wull, Obamacare was rammed down our throats TOO," well, A. Demonstrably not so; there were a zillion town halls on ACA (it was in the papers and everything). And B. Which side is supposed to be the people's champion vs. the elites here?

tldr: Boring lazy-ass tu quoque shit is boring; film at 11

what time is the sessions hearing?

2:30 ET

if there's manila envelopes maybe he's planning a Budd Dwyer 2.0

The universe is rarely so generous.

Everyone's happy to own this

Alexander, on Murray's request for a hearing on AHCA: That bill isn't my jurisdiction; talk to SFC. "You might take it up with Sen. Hatch."

— Erin Mershon (@eemershon) June 13, 2017

Good luck with that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRt7tqlD-og

damn

Victory has a thousand fathers, but they're all insisting everyone else in their group get the paternity testing.

the press needs to start seriously pushing back on the new hallway interview restrictions

Ah, but no, for you see, it's for everyone's financial health

Incredible defense of cracking down on TV cameras from Senator Tim Scott: cameras could catch the PIN numbers of senators at ATM machines.

— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) June 13, 2017

Anyway, I wouldn't want to make any juvenile associations based on the name of a certain Senator and the activity in which he was involved at the conclusion of this excerpt, and you shouldn't either, because that would be, as I said, juvenile. We are pure.

Here's what a Senate communications director told me about the Senate press rules changes. https://t.co/7lltv8Ee7H pic.twitter.com/ZWKDjSwk4x

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) June 13, 2017

The press has a very good reason to follow Idaho senators into the bathroom.

haha

I don't really care about the hallway restriction thing tbh, if you've seen recent footage it is pretty insane how clogged those halls are now that Trump has put everything into this hyper-aggressive news cycle/all scandal all the time reporting

otoh making Senators uncomfortable is a good thing so idk