The Congressional Budget Office is a nonpartisan outfit, and its prognostications are taken seriously. So when they analyzed the Senate’s GOP-inspired bill, and found that if it passes 22 million Americans will lose their health insurance, it doesn’t look good for the Republican Party. By cutting Medicaid, so the poor lose benefits, it will also reduce the budget, but I’d weigh sick and dead Americans more than the predicted $321 billion decrease in the deficit in the next decade. After all, the Republicans could just decrease the deficit by increasing taxes on the grotesquely wealthy, or getting rid of the new tax breaks for the same group.
What a heartless party Republicans are! I’ve just learned that Senator Mitch “Let ’em Die” McConnell, lacking sufficient Republican votes to pass this odious bill, is postponing the Senate vote until after the July 4 holiday. In the meantime, I suppose, he’ll be maneuvering to get those four or five votes.
The only upside to this, and I’m not sure it is an upside, is that many people who voted for Trump will realize what they got, and how America’s marginalized people will lose in the end. But that’s not really an upside, because who wants to lose by getting sick or dying?
My son is but one of those 22 million.
“…many people who voted for Trump will realize…”
I’m sorry, but I fear that this is just wishful thinking. (This has also been my take on recent writings by Robert Reich, Rebecca Solnit, and others whose every editorial seems to claim that THIS–whatever “this” might be on the day–is the straw that will finally break the camel’s back, and that the demise of Mango Mussolini is now imminent.) The one true genius that Der Drumpf has shown has been to gain the unquestioning loyalty of those who are going to be the first screwed and the most screwed by his so-called “policies.” The worse that he treats them, the more they love him.
Like this: http://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a20072
I’ve come to this conclusion, too. I don’t think there is a point at which the Republican base gains a sense of reality. They have been trained, over many decades, to be suspicious of expertise. These are people who don’t have much experience with critical thinking. They will be prepared to think that anything critical of their leaders is a conspiracy of libruls.
Yes, his cult-base won’t budge in the face of any evidence. It’s not surprising that the majority of his base are the deluded faith-followers.
Mega-dittos! 🙁
I agree. If “pussy grabber” didn’t change the minds of his loyal core of voters, nor any of the many other examples Trump has provided of his low character and possibly even lower competence, then it seems doubtful that anything could. Many from the same demographics (some individuals even) that proudly wore “I kill Commies for my Mommy” T-shirts in the ’70s and ’80s are today perfectly willing to dismiss or ignore any evidence of Trump’s involvement with Russian money and politics. Whatever commitments and or delusions that can cause that kind of turn around, or hypocrisy, I don’t think a mere disastrous bit of legislation will break though it.
Not to mention the years of focused propaganda by the Republican Party preparing the people for the coming of the Trump. Or that even though many Republican politicians don’t care for Trump either most of them have and will support him hoping to safeguard their own and their party’s power.
This is the low place to which American Celebrity Culture has ultimately brought us.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are celebrities of a sort; but they came by their celebrity in the political arena, where there’s a permanent opposition and a critical press — where no victory goes unchallenged, no defeat unexploited.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, came by his celebrity through tabloid media and reality tv, where the press and celebrities have a joint economic interest in maintaining the kayfabe — where no publicity is bad publicity (save for really, really bad publicity of the dead-girl/live-boy sort).
I’d wager that most Trump voters (and especially the hardcore third of the American public that still supports him) got to know him primarily from his ludicrous “Apprentice” series, in which he was portrayed as the all-knowing, all-powerful boss whose every decision was final and, perforce, infallible. They came to see him as the mighty corporate caudillo alone fit to lead them from American carnage to the promised land of prosperity.
That, and his knack for sticking a thumb in the eye of the elites who perceive themselves to be their cultural and educational betters, are what got working people to vote for Trump, and what wound us up in this national disaster.
In addition to an informative comment, thanks for the link to kayfabe, a word I did not know. I think Trump actually had some sort of business association with professional wrestling at one time.
I agree that very few die-hard Trump supporters will desert him. But, some people who voted for Trump simply because he wasn’t Hillary may. In addition, the cruel Republican healthcare bill may inspire an electorally significant number of non-voters to come to the polls in 2018. More than anything, the key to Democratic victories is convincing the apathetic that their votes actually mean something.
Yes, I think not-Hillary voters and lethargic voters are more likely to be moved to vote against Republicans due to Trump calamities like this, and that is where our hopes must lie.
I’m skeptical of the idea that there are a significant number of tRump voters who did so because he wasn’t Hillary. Not that they didn’t claim this motivation. Those “not Hillary” voters who wouldn’t have voted for him anyway likely didn’t vote at all or voted 3rd party.
At least that is my hypothesis.
Indeed.
If the Dems had simply turned out in 2016, Trump would have lost, in a big way:
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/M/stuff/inc/El/Popular_Vote_B.jpg
And, in my opinion, the many on the left that spent the campaign of 2016 publicly proclaiming that HRC was a peice of sh!t (more or less) were not employing the best get-out-the-vote strategy.
The bedrock of GOP-America invented the consumerable show that is Trump, et al.. They gave Trump credibility in plain view of all of his repellent features. I would not say they are deplorable, but they are deluded. And like religious people, the Trump-GOP clan will die with their minds fixed to the ‘reality show’ they want to be real.
Yes I agree. If Trumpcare passes and millions lose coverage they won’t blame the GOP, they’ll blame Obama, Hilary, and the Democrats. Does that make any sense at all? No. Will it happen? Yes.
They will likely blame *both* Clintons, and maybe even Jimmy Carter and JFK.
I’m with everyone else here. Sure, the GLOP may lose a few votes, but no matter how evil they get, the ignorati will continue to support them in large numbers. Racism, and religion will continue to be their big draws.
GOP: Greedy Old Pr*cks
I have to say I’m having a hard time ginning up outrage over this*. Trumpcare would replace another unsustainable and ridiculous system whose sole result (and aim) is government sanctioned profits for insurance companies and personal bankruptcies for many. As our nation swirls down the drain, relentless and now unstoppable, this or Obamacare simply add a bit of Coriolis to the spin. They got a lot of nerve calling this “health care”.
*except the reverse wealth distribution part – THAT gets my knickers twisted.
False equivalence. Obamacare increased coverage for millions of people. Trumpcare would remove it from millions.
Those two things are not the same.
They ARE equivalent, though not in toto. Obamacare does mean more paying customers for the insurance companies (that is the proper framing of this) and that is qualitatively better; more people will have access to some form of health care than under Trumpcare. Plus under Obamacare there are provisions to help some pay their insurance companies, which will be lost under Trumpcare.
But neither is sustainable and neither is any way to run a health care system. Both ARE good ways to run profitable insurance industries, however, and both produce lots of personal bankruptcies.
As someone nearing a retirement I cannot afford, and facing real penury, I have no faith in Obamacare to save the day. In fact it will not. Good thing I have no intention of living long enough.
sorry about the lost html tag.
Just so I’m not misunderstood… I’m a fan of universal single payer healthcare… Medicare for all.
That said, I simply must disagree that “neither is sustainable”. Both are sustainable, given political will to sustain them.
I’m also nearing retirement and have made it near enough to be on Medicare. My wife’s coverage comes via Obamacare. It has “saved the day” for her since she’s four years behind me. Trumpcare will eliminate her coverage.
These two things are not the same in any meaningful way.
Then we disagree.
I will second this. The ACA is certainly a CONSERVATIVE rather than a liberal approach to approximating universal healthcare, but it’s not unsustainable.
If anything, Republicans are making a dumb move by ditching the ONLY sustainable conservative plan in favor of outright grift that will fail immediately. The ACA is very corporate-friendly already. They could keep it running forever. But they’ve gone for the tried and untrue plan of cutting the golden goose’s head off to get all the eggs at once.
Well, watch out for Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell — they plan to take away Medicare as well.
Everyone who can’t afford to pay for health care with cash? You-all get to work until you die. The ultimate GOP ambition here.
An Onion piece said republicans were struggling with whether they wanted the poor to die, or to prolong their suffering.
No, the ACA can be greatly improved if they weren’t hell bent on weakening the bill instead of strengthening it. But republicans only have one goal as lawmakers: to make the richest richer. I put any “swirling down the drain” at the feet of republicans.
Hopefully these evil senators and congressmen will get an ear-full over the 4th of July recess.
What is so difficult about fixing the problems with Obamacare? Republicans have put in a lot of bitter pills (like Rubio’s disallowing cross-state competition). And also republican governors not expanding Medicaid. So much can be done to make the ACA a better bill and proceed towards single payer. Alas, the plague that is the republican party is immune to facts, immune to guilt for murdering Americans, immune to common decency.
I’ve been seeing a lot of bumper stickers with RESIST! lately. Keep up the pressure people.
Look at John Cornyn’s twi**er feed; he’s getting hammered. I’m not exactly sure how to link to it, but hopefully this link will work.
Admittedly, it’s hard to imagine Cornyn (or any other Republican) caring–their goal being to give tax cuts to their rich supporters, and give poor and old people a hard time–but still, it’s fun to pretend that all those people complaining might someday actually make a difference by voting him out.
I believe the republican’s attempt to do anything about the ACA is finished. For eight years now they have been trying and the game is up. Even the stupid are beginning to see their plan. All it is, for the record, is less health care and more money for the rich. It was rotten to the core and still is. The cut it was going to be for Medicaid was the absolute killer in this plan of theirs.
I hope you’re right, but I haven’t seen that. Admittedly it could be because of the conservative small town I’m in.
I don’t think where you live really matters, although if you are only looking at things like fox news or just sound bites the view is very poor. I personally have no dog in this hunt, the health care thing, at least the insurance part does not affect me. So I only look at the specifics of the ACA and what the republicans have been trying to do. They have put no thought into it at all really and it is pure greed – take away benefit and give the rich a tax break they sure do not need.
Also, the house republicans already failed so the only hope they had is the Senate. Now the Senate is failing because they cannot get 50 out of 52 to go for it. They had some who wanted it to be even worse and a few who wanted it better. So it is lose or lose. They have been working on this thing for nearly 8 years and they will probably continue for 8 more.
I read a piece somewhere recently suggesting that this entire clusterfuck (is that term allowed on a family website – sorry if verboten) might inadvertently break the system and usher in a basic medicare for all with some additional private medicine. Whatever happens there is likely to be pain in the process. I know plenty of people who will end up with a tax break, but have yet to talk to one who actually wants it, given the perceived social costs.
As noted by mickeyc, the subsidization of for profit insurance companies is just crazy, it wastes a huge chunk of the money in the system.
But, as a way for Obama to gain acceptance of his goal, he needed a huge compromise like this. Without it Obmacare would be called socialism, which is anathema. The hope would have to be that once folks feel secure enough it could be transformed by getting rid of the insurance companies.
The problem is that Obama began negotiating against himself almost immediately. The public option was off the table so fast you could blink and miss it.
It’s understandable that compromises needed to be made, but when you start caving before your opponents make any demands, you are handing them additional bargaining power. This is why the ACA ended up a de facto Heritage Foundation plan. Better than nothing, but a far cry from real liberal reform.
And, as I remember, after all that bending over backwards, the Affordable Care Act received no Republican votes in either the Senate or the House of Representatives.
A tax-reduction sop to the one-percenters, with a shitty medical-care rider attached. Offered as prologue to an even bigger tax sop for the ultra-rich to come.
But, hey, keep voting against your own economic interests, all you working stiffs. Next time you see a puffy orange self-proclaimed billionaire riding his gilded escalator into the presidential campaign, his Eurotrash trophy wife riding three deferential steps below him, … run. For your own economic welfare, if not for the thousands of other good reasons.
I think Warren Buffet is the only rich guy who shows any honesty. He said – What is wrong with this country is people like him. He has roughly 75 billion and would be thrilled to pay more taxes.
The Americans on my FB breast cancer support group are pretty worried. This could literally kill them. They are actively calling their politicians to get this stopped. I hope they do! It is heart breaking when people live in a wealthy country that has the means to treat them but decides not to because of money. It’s immoral.
It’s one for all and all for me. Greed and stupidity can be a deadly combination.
I reasonably gather that certain noble, ethical capitalists would charge us for the air we breathe if they could.
One of the things that made me care about the environment was seeing a dystopian science fiction painting where kids (like me at the time) had to have oxygen tanks and so on to go outside. I thought “what of the kids who couldn’t afford it?”
*This* is an example of the *legitimate* use of “intersectionality”. Not the BS that turns into “oppression Olympics”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if McConnell found a way to ram this through this week even though he now says that he won’t. Paul Ryan told us the Healthcare battle in the House was over and then… surprise!
Yes, “What a heartless party Republicans are!”
David Brooks has a pretty good article today on what gives with the republicans. He explains their bizarre behavior by pointing out that the current Republican Party has iron, dogmatic rules about the role of government[small], but no vision about America. Give it a read.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/opinion/the-gop-rejects-conservatism.html
Somehow that made me want to modify LL Cool Jay’s song: Going’ Back to Cali
“Her government, small; legislation, tall
She said, she’d ban abortion….”
“…She said, she’d ban abortion….”
Oh, a soul singer.
Give a link, or it didn’t happen.
I don’t have a link – I just made that up now, but here are the original lyrics that I modified.
Why don’t they just reduce the war budget… oops, I mean, defense budget of course? Seems to me one zillionth of a percent decrease should pay for a lot of things.
‘Course, I’m being unrealistic. Reducing the war budget would mean less money for defense corporations, whose “investors” are among the “grotesquely wealthy” the Professor referred to. It does all hang together. Hopefully, they will all hang together … one day.
Actually, what the CBO is saying is that 22 million fewer people will have health insurance, not that 22 million people will lose health insurance. There is a difference, since many of these 22 million are people for whom Obamacare costs more than they think it is worth.
This, of course, is disgusting.
60% of US nursing home residents are on Medicare. The McConnell plan will eventually be inadequate for every one of them. Kick Granny to the gutter.
The main thing this bill would do is kill Medicare.
The Conway chick had the nerve to say recently that people on Medicare should get jobs — jobs with employer-provided health coverage. Yes, you children, you elderly, you working poor — just get a job!
And why? To further enrich the already very wealthy. (And we know they are suffering so much!)
And, Ryan and McConnell have other plans for you working class Trump voters!
They plan to get rid of Social Security (less than 30% of Americans have any retirement savings at all).
And they plan to get rid of Medicare: Try getting private health insurance at age 65+ with pre-existing conditions — and everyone has those by age 65. The premiums would be more than your annual income — even if you continued to get Soc Sec, which you wouldn’t under their plans.
The Dems need to get out there and portray this for what it is: Screw the 90% of the US to enrich the very top few percent.
The GOP is crying crocodile tears for the few tens of thousands of people who currently only have one “choice” on the insurance exchanges. And to remedy that, they will throw 22 million off health care (and many, many of them into bankruptcy; and all of us will pay more because they will get care through ERs). Genius.
And maybe it is — since the people most impacted by it continue to vote for the GOP. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
You’ve confused Medicaid with Medicare. Even the “Conway chick” was talking about medicaid. As bad as the GOP is, I don’t think they have plans to get rid of SS or Medicare
At least someone has tried to tell the truth.
(“Telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”)