#mcconnellcare

[dragoni]

GOP Donors: 99% Pay Up otherwise #GetSickDieQuick 

Paul Ryan and Republican Controlled House Pass Tax Cuts for the Rich and Corporations  

[token-white-friend]

ACTION ALERT: Obamacare Repeal Vote

The Obamacare repeal act went to vote for the first time in the Senate Tuesday night. If this bill passes the Senate, it will absolutely pass the House. The first vote was won, but there are still many debates // votes ahead, and we cannot win this fight without the support of reasonable, Republican leaders. With that in mind: 

CALL / FAX THE FOLLOWING REPUBLICAN SENATORS TO THANK THEM FOR BEING VOICES OF REASON. 

They could still change their votes in the next few days of debates, and they'll get a TON of pressure from their GOP colleagues while the Senate debates "BCRA" aka BRCA (cuz it's cancer) aka Trumpcare/McConnellCare. The GOP "Nays" need as much encouragement as they can get!!!:

PHONE CALLS are the most effective way to reach Senators, but any contact is good:

Susan Collins (ME): Phone: (202)224-2523 Fax: (202)224-2693 Email contact form: https://www.collins.senate.gov/contact

Bob Corker (TN): Phone: 202-224-3344 Fax: 202-228-0566 Email contact form: https://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailme

Lindsey Graham (SC): Phone: (202) 224-5972 Fax: (202) 224-3808 Email contact form: https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/…/inde…/e-mail-senator-graham

Dean Heller (NV): Phone: 202-224-6244 Fax: 202-228-6753 Email form: https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form

Jerry Moran (KS)**: Phone: (202) 224-6521 Fax: (202) 228-6966 Email form: https://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-jerry

Lisa Murkowski (AK): Phone:(202)-224-6665 Fax:(202)-224-5301 Email form: https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/contact/email

Rand Paul (KY): Phone: 202-224-4343 Fax: (202) 228-6917 Email form: https://www.paul.senate.gov/connect/email-rand

Tom Cotton (AR)**: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (501) 223-9105 Email form: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=contact

Mike Lee (UT) Phone: 202-224-5444 Fax: 202-228-1168 Email form: https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

**This Senator has recently, outwardly supported an Obamacare repeal but does not like the specific BCRA bill (AKA Trumpcare) -- tell them to NOT repeal Obamacare despite whatever replacement there is (or isn't!). (List of these types of votes may not be complete -- still worth contacting them!!)

[abandonedsandals]

[aulunthe]

Just 38 percent of people polled knew the Republican health care bill makes major cuts to Medicaid.

[dragoni]

Facts Matter! Healthcare Matters! #SaveObamaCare

NO #TrumpCare NO #RepublicanCare NO #McConnellCare NO #RyanCare 

Obamacare is working. The Republican lies and bitterness are exposed.

[toshootforthestars]

From the report by Chris McKenna posted 15 July 2017:

...the aspects that have generated the most political friction, and that might affect the most people, in New York are those dealing with Medicaid. The government insurance program expanded its reach under the Affordable Care Act and now covers nearly one in three New Yorkers.  Pending bills in Congress would cut or cap New York’s Medicaid funding in four separate ways.

Jason Helgerson, the state’s Medicaid director, told the Times Herald-Record last week that he estimates those changes, once fully phased in, could cost the state as much as $8 billion or $9 billion a year, for a program that costs $65.5 billion this year.  The result is a sharp debate over Medicaid’s role and cost and the effect that “Trumpcare” would have on its beneficiaries and on hospitals in New York.

Helgerson argues the cuts would reverse coverage gains New York has made and have a devastating effect on upstate hospitals and the local economies they support.  “Medicaid is the biggest payer of health care services in New York,” he said, arguing that reducing that funding would force hospitals to lay off employees or even close.  In rural areas where those operations are the largest employers, the impact could trigger a ripple effect on the economy, Helgerson said.

Rep. John Faso, the Republican freshman whose district includes Ulster and Sullivan counties, has been prominent in the debate because of a bill amendment he sponsored that would force New York to stop requiring its counties outside New York City to shoulder part of the Medicaid expenses. He argues that the federal government must slow Medicaid’s spending growth because the current pace is “not sustainable,” and that New York would adjust to the changes without the dire consequences that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other critics predict.

But he also suggests the Medicaid program itself has grown beyond its original purpose and now covers more people than it should.  “We now have about one third of New York’s population on Medicaid,” Faso said. “Some people in Albany may look upon that as an accomplishment. I look upon that as a failure.”

On a broader level, Faso said that increased dependence on Medicaid is “not a desirable thing,” and that government should be “striving to get people into private insurance.”

“It was not meant to be an insurance policy for able-bodied adults,” he said.

Helgerson counters that at a time when fewer employers give their workers health insurance, Medicaid has helped the state cut its rate of uninsured residents in half, a feat [New York State] celebrates without apology.  “Does Congressman Faso want to double the uninsured rate in New York?” he asked.

Bill Hammond, director of health policy for the Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy, said he sympathizes with Republicans’ quest to control Medicaid spending, which he said is “growing faster than our ability to pay.” He also agreed with Faso that New York’s Medicaid program contains a “fairly large amount of waste” - as any public or private insurance program does.  But he pointed out that cutting Medicaid spending to absorb the county costs would have a double impact, since the state would then lose a dollar-for-dollar amount in federal funding.

And he argued that the legislation under debate in Washington would have to offer Medicaid enrollees enough financial support for private insurance to make that a “reasonable alternative.”

“It’s just unreasonable for them to find a couple thousand dollars a year to buy health insurance,” Hammond said.

[ilovebooksnanimals]

Alot of ppl thought if anyone could understand the fear there having with this #repealandreplace #obamacare with #trumpcare #ryancare #mcconnellcare it would be #johnmccain I mean he has preexisting conditions just had a relapse nd was in the hospital but he came out of the hospital to say I don't like the bill like it is but let's debate :/ What is there 2 debate 22mil losing healthcare 32mil losing healthcare etc https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/07/25/politics/vote-tally-senate-health-care/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59778e8ce4b0c95f375f3802/amp https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5977ae12e4b0c95f375f9a25/amp https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/news/politics/mccain-speaks-senate-floor-vote-dismantle-obamacare-article-1.3355437 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/07/25/politics/john-mccain-floor-speech/index.html

[furryalligator]

Fresh ink from RJ Matson, as published in Wednesday’s @standardex. http://pic.twitter.com/QfcfE7cJkO

— (((Greg Halling))) (@ghalling)

June 28, 2017

[matildazq]

Jackholes yelling in a hole

BIRTH CONTROL IS NOT HEALTH CARE Lots of jackholes yelling that in various places today. Lots of jackholes yelling that ALL THE TIME. And we get distracted. We talk about “good” birth control users (Hey, I totally was one until relatively recently—menstrual bleeding to the point of anemia without it), like it’s a “you must be this virtuous to ride the bodily autonomy ride.”   It’s a problem. It’s a big, URGENT problem that very well may get a lot worse if Mitch McConnell fucks that atrocity of a bill into existence (you are welcome for the image). But it’s a symptom of much more deeply rooted bullshit when it comes to medicine—hell SOCIETY—and the female body.  I can’t make an appointment with my gynecologist online. I can only make “primary care” appointments online. Is that a privileged inconvenience that maybe doesn’t bear whining about, because see above re: BFD and urgency? Sure. Definitely. I am, for the moment, lucky as fuck that insurance through my husband’s employer affords me access to care at all. (And, hey, I’m a white, middle-class lady with fancy degrees, and in August, it’ll be the first time in 13 years I’ll have access to insurance through my own employer, but that’s not why I brought you here.)  Oh, also, I have a gynecologist. A specialist that arguably makes sense for me at the moment, because see above about my Certified Non-Slutty Birth Control User status, but my reproductive organs  are implicitly some kind of after-market add on. 

Again, I’m not just privileged, I’ve been lucky to mostly have a primary care doctor (internal medicine), who didn’t view my body that way.  For many years, when I had a yearly physical, I had a yearly physical for MY WHOLE BODY. 

But when the above-mentioned health issue emerged, I had had to switch away from the PCP I had really liked (a “choice” I had to make based on decisions made, once again, by my husband’s employer), and my new doctor only grudgingly provided routine care for my reproductive system, because that’s an option for primary care doctors.  (And by the by, having a pap smear under that doctor’s care was an exciting time travel experience.)   When she finally concluded that I should see a specialist, she and her staff was aghast that I didn’t already have gynecologist. WHY WOULDN’T YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE?  How could a woman EXIST without a gynecologist? Well. I’m about to undermine my own status as a non-slutty good birth control user, because I have never actually used my reproductive system for reproduction. Yes, once upon a time, I used birth control to control birth,  so my reproductive system has just been there, utterly without obstetrical interest, for my whole life. Yes, it’s been of clinical interest at a few points—one of which led to  an old man yelling at me “Oh, stop. It doesn’t hurt!” as he burned off part of my cervix. (Plot Twist: It bloody well DID hurt. It hurt like a MOTHERFUCKER, and he was yelling at me for squeezing my eyes shut and gritting my teeth.)  So why the hell am I boo-hooing? Because when we shoot down jackholes yelling that birth control isn’t health care with stories about GOOD birth control users, we’re already way too deep into territory where the female body is aberrant. Where reproduction is separate from health, autonomy, and integrity. Where care of it and the unquestioned right to control one’s body it is carved out as a “special interest.” I’m not crying out for purity of argument. Shoot them down. Shed light on everyday and not-so-everyday problems birth control solves that are and are not related to reproduction. USE ALL THE ARGUMENTS, because this shit is DIRE. But don’t lose sight of the fact that there are deeply insidious principles and practices behind the jackholes.  

[jbginsberg]

Few details have leaked about the secretive process by which Senate Republicans are repealing Obamacare.

[patriotsnet]

Did The Republicans Vote To Repeal Obamacare

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-the-republicans-vote-to-repeal-obamacare/

Did The Republicans Vote To Repeal Obamacare

When Did Obamacare Start

Do Republicans Have The Votes To Begin Obamacare Repeal?

The timeline of key events leading up to the passage of the Obamacare law began in 2009. Here is a list of those events, along with key provisions that went into place after the law was enacted.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a group of Democrats from the House of Representatives reveal their plan for overhauling the health-care system. Its called H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

;Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a leading supporter of health-care reform, dies and puts the Senate Democrats 60-seat supermajority required to pass a piece of legislation at risk.

;Democrat Paul Kirk is appointed interim senator from Massachusetts, which temporarily restores the Democrats filibuster-proof 60th vote.

;In the House of Representatives, 219 Democrats and one Republican vote for the Affordable Health Care for America Act, and 39 Democrats and 176 Republicans vote against it.

In the Senate, 60 Democrats vote for the Senates version of the bill, called Americas Healthy Future Act, whose lead author is senator Max Baucus of California. Thirty-nine Republicans vote against the bill, and one Republican senator, Jim Bunning, does not vote.

Poll: Obamacare More Popular Than Ever

A sign in favor of the Affordable Care Act is held up outside the Supreme Court building after the courts ruling in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, June 28, 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the core of President Barack Obamas health-care overhaul, giving him an election-year triumph and preserving most of a law that would expand insurance to millions of people and transform an industry that makes up 18 percent of the nations economy. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

BLOOMBERG NEWS

The Affordable Care Act wins 55% support among the public for its highest rating since becoming law nearly a decade ago, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll released Friday.

Kaiser said the clear majority of support is the highest in more than 100 polls the nonprofit health foundation has conducted. The ACA was signed into law in 2010 by President Barack Obama and has expanded health insurance coverage to more than 20 million Americans.

The recent uptick reflects strong support among Democrats, 85% of whom now express favorable views, Kaiser said in its analysis. A narrow majority of independents also view the law favorably. While most Republicans still hold unfavorable views towards the ACA, the poll suggests that Republican voters have largely moved on from efforts to repeal the ACA and now rank opposition to a single-payer government health plan like Medicare-for-all among their top health priorities.;;

Lesson 1: Replacing Obamacare Will Remain A Struggle Without A Clear Replacement Plan Or Goal

On one of his last days in office, President Obama, in an interview with Vox, issued the Republican Party a clear challenge. Now is the time when Republicans have to go ahead and show their cards, he said. If in fact they have a program that would genuinely work better, and they want to call it whatever they want they can call it Trumpcare or McConnellcare or Ryancare if it actually works, I will be the first one to say, Great.

I suspect, Obama continued, that will not happen.

So far, the former presidents prediction has proven right. Republicans have struggled over the past six months because they never came up with a clear replacement plan that the public actually wanted.

The day before Obamacare was signed, Republicans decided they would not campaign only to repeal the new health care law. They would instead vow to repeal and replace it with a more conservative health policy.

The repeal and replace message was a concession that simply promising to return to the days before Obamacare was unrealistic. But it also committed them to coming up with a plan of their own and that part never happened.

After Republicans swept the House, the Senate, and, finally, the White House, they still had no clear replacement plan. The GOP had spent seven years running a scorched-earth campaign against Obamacare, while turning a blind eye to the deep divisions within their own party on the replace part of their pledge.

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Lesson 5: The Drive To Repeal Obamacare Is Strong And Often Underestimated

Early Friday morning, bleary-eyed reporters couldnt see the path forward on Obamacare repeal and replace no matter how hard they squinted. The Senate hadnt just rejected one health care bill it had rejected four different options, all the repeal bills it had going into this week.

This means Obamacare repeal-and-replace efforts are in a hard place. But it does not mean they are over.

It is true that three Republican senators voted against the skinny plan to repeal Obamacare. It is also true that 49 Republican senators voted for that bill.

There is a strong drive in the Republican Party to deliver on the campaign promise they’ve made for seven years, and if we’ve learned anything in this process, it is that this drive cannot be underestimated.

Within moments of the bill’s failure Friday morning, the conservative Heritage Action group released a statement arguing that “Repealing and, ultimately, replacing Obamacare will require moderate Republicans to come to the table and follow through on their repeated campaign promises.”

House Republicans, meanwhile, continue to hold out hope for a path forward. Vox’s Tara Golshan was at the conference’s regular Friday meeting this morning, where she spoke with conservative Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows . He was already talking about paving a new path forward, citing a yet-to-be-seen bill from Sens. Graham and Bill Cassidy.

Republicans Learn The Limits Of Reconciliation With Failed Aca Repeal

Reddit

With late night drama not often seen on the Senate floor, Republicans latest attempts to pass a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act failed last night, thanks in part to a divide the partys congressional leaders, especially in the Senate, could simply not bridge.

At the end of the day, however, individual Senate Republicans concluded that even if leaders had judged that repealing Obamacare was in the best interests of the party collectively, they could not support the different proposals drafted to actually get there. This was perhaps most true of Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski , who opposed beginning debate and all three alternative proposals considered this week. There were also, however, 11 other senators who voted no on at least one of the alternatives offered this week. While some of those votes may have been strategic, as members knew that the proposal would not ultimately be enacted, they do help illustrate the persistent divides within the Republican Party about the best way to proceed on health policy. In an era of high party polarization and a well-sorted electorate, this kind of cross-pressuring, where whats good for the party is not necessarily good for the individual member, is less common than it once was. But as the experience of the last few months suggests, those situations can still and do arise.

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans In California

Gutierrez Says Hundreds Of Republican Amendments Were A Part Of Obamacare

Republicans continue to sell their health care plan in an effort to deliver on a party-wide campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Yet during a roundtable discussion on State of the Union, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., pushed back on charges of Democratic obstructionism regarding health care legislation.

Anchor Jake Tapper asked if Gutierrez was involved, or if;Democrats were;just sitting by the sidelines opposing everything.

Very different process, Gutierrez replied. 2009-2010, lets remember, hundreds of Republican amendments were adopted in the ACA.

We decided to look into Gutierrezs claim that the final version of the Affordable Care Act incorporated hundreds of Republican amendments.

When the ACA was making its way through Congress, former President Barack Obama made a similar statement in September 2009. During a joint address to Congress, he said that his plan incorporated the ideas of both Republicans and Democrats. We rated that claim Mostly False, because many of the amendments Republicans introduced were technical in nature.

Republicans had several opportunities to introduce amendments to the Affordable Care Act, in both the Senate and House bills. Ultimately, for procedural reasons tied to the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., the Senate version was the only one that moved forward. But Republicans offered changes in the committees that considered the bills before the whole chambers voted on them.

Featured Fact-check

Our ruling

Trumps Promise To Repeal Obamacare Is Now In Limbo

President Donald Trump expressed disappointment after Republican lawmakers’ failure to muster enough votes to repeal Obamacare placed one of his loftiest campaign promises in limbo.

A series of defections by Senate Republicans scuttled two separate efforts to dismantle the sweeping U.S. health care law put in place by Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama.

“We’ve had a lot of victories, but we haven’t had a victory on health care,” Trump told reporters July 18, as it became clear the latest Republican legislative efforts would fail. “We’re disappointed.”

A slim margin of error constrained GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare and forced a delicate balancing act between the party’s conservative and moderate members.

But defections by Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah on July 17 brought to four the number of Republican senators to publicly oppose the bill , effectively killing the repeal-and-replace plan. Senate leadership could only afford to lose two Republican votes for passage.

Senate Republicans then turned their attention to a measure that would repeal major parts of Obamacare over two years, in theory buying lawmakers enough time to agree on a replacement plan before the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, was largely dismantled.

“I did not come to Washington to hurt people,” Capito said in a statement. “I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians.”

Recommended Reading: Can Registered Republicans Vote In Democratic Primaries

Republicans Give Up On Obamacare Repeal

Most GOP lawmakers arent interested in another failed effort to gut the health law in an election year.

By BURGESS EVERETT

02/01/2018 11:45 AM EST

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. Republicans are giving up on their years-long dream of repealing Obamacare.

Though the GOP still controls both chambers of Congress and maintains the ability to jam through a repeal-and-replace bill via a simple majority, there are no discussions of doing so here at House and Senate Republicans joint retreat at The Greenbrier resort. Republicans doubt they can even pass a budget providing for the powerful party-line reconciliation procedure used to pass tax reform last year, much less take on the politically perilous task of rewriting health care laws in an election year.

I dont think leadership wants to, said Sen. Bill Cassidy , who worked with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on a last-ditch repeal effort last fall. In the sense of Graham-Cassidy, a partisan exercise? Doesnt look like it.

Republicans’ decision to abstain from another attempt at gutting Barack Obamas health law at least this year goes back on a pledge the party has made to voters since 2010. And it underscores how Republicans overpromised in their ability to reform the nations health care and never fully recognized how divided the party is over key Obamacare planks like protecting pre-existing conditions and preserving the laws Medicaid expansion.

On Groundhog Day Republicans Vote To Repeal Obamacare

Republicans vote to repeal Obamacare

met at the White Housetold reportersfeelWashington Postreported

The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on overturning President Obama’s veto of legislation to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. The vote, appropriately scheduled for Groundhog Day, is expected to fail, leaving conservatives to gear up for a final year of budget fights with the president.

PostscriptUpdate

Recommended Reading: Do Republicans Support The Death Penalty

Support For The Affordable Care Act

Then along comes Donald Trump and threatens to cut off subsidies for low-income Americans, ostensibly as a method to force Democrats in Congress to come to the negotiating table. A New York Times editorial summarised it: It sounds more like a two-bit Hollywood villain promising carnage if he doesnt get his way. Holding his own voters hostage to prove a point is not really the best political move for someone elected by a combination of low-wage workers from rural and industrial America and high-income families. But the Republican health plan what pundits are labeling TrumpRyan care advocates decreasing financial support for those worse off while decreasing taxes for the rich. And just to top it off, support for the ACA is currently at its highest point ever with 55% of Americans approving of it a complete reversal prior to the November election.

Even one of the most conservative columnists in the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer a nonpractising psychiatrist wrote a column in April where he admitted that the ACA had changed the zeitgeist. It is universalising the idea of universal coverage. Acceptance of its major premise that no one be denied health care is more widespread than ever.

Now, how is that for progress!

Republicans Who Think Nobody Would Miss Obamacare Should Ask People Who Depend On It

Some of the Republicans agitating to repeal Obamacare say they arent worried about taking health insurance away from more than 20 million people. Their theory: The program is wildly unpopular and even the people with coverage wouldnt miss it, no matter what takes it place.

People have crappy insurance, Rep. John Shimkus told Politico last week. This fear that theyre going to lose something that they dont think they have anyway is crazy.

Anna Meyers would beg to differ.

Meyers, 42, lives in the eastern part of North Carolina. She and her husband, 59, have been getting insurance through healthcare.gov for the last three years. Meyers also has a son, 14, who has autism. He gets coverage through Medicaid a program that Republicans say they would like to shrink just as soon as they are done with Obamacare.

Meyers works as an office manager for an accountant. Her husband does repair work for a company that manages rental homes. Between the two of them, she figures, their income is about $40,000 a year maybe less when his business is slow.

We dont get to go out to the movies a whole lot, Meyers explained to me on the phone. But we do travel a lot on the weekend, in our car, and see some of the bigger towns in the area just to get out.

Also, there is date night once a week. They drop her son at her parents house, and then bring home takeout. Smithfields Chicken is a favorite.

The Majority Of People With Obamacare Seem To Value It

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Trump Signs Executive Order On Obamacare; Impact Unclear

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave federal agencies broad authority to defer or delay any part of the Affordable Care Act that costs anybody any money.

More formally, the order tells agencies they can “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act that would impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications.”

That’s a mouthful, but what does it mean, and how far does it go to repeal Obamacare?

Larry Levitt, senior vice-president at the respected and neutral Kaiser Family Foundation, said in a series of tweets that while the impacts are unclear, it shows the administration is “moving to unwind the Affordable Care Act, but it won’t be immediate.”;

Levitt added, “One sure outcome is it creates uncertainty for insurers at a critical time.”

Health care analyst Sabrina Corlette at Georgetown University echoed Levitt’s point.

“For insurers already uncertain about their future in the Affordable Care markets, the uncertainty this executive order generates doesn’t help,” Corlette said. “At a minimum they’ll have to factor it into their 2018 premiums, which are due to be filed by May 3 in most states.”

But that hasn’t happened yet.

Why Mccain Screwed The Gop On Obamacare Repeal Again

His friendship with Lindsey Graham was less important than his grievances with the process.

By BURGESS EVERETT and SEUNG MIN KIM

09/22/2017 06:34 PM EDT

Not even 24 hours after John McCain dramatically tanked a Republican effort to repeal Obamacare in late July, his best friend, Lindsey Graham, started working feverishly in private to try again.

Graham whos never shown much interest in health care policy quietly trekked to the White House with Sen. Bill Cassidy to try and sell President Donald Trump on their latest proposal that would transform Obamacare into a block grant program for states.

It seemed like an afterthought at the time; Obamacare repeal was all but left for dead. But momentum behind the so-called Graham-Cassidy plan snowballed this month. The unexpected passage of a fiscal deal well ahead of schedule freed up valuable floor time. And McCains stated openness to the bill combined with his friendship with Graham raised hopes within the GOP.

Ultimately, his friendship with Graham mattered less than McCain’s grievances with the lack of scrutiny and lack of bipartisanship surrounding the bill.

Ive never known John on something he believes strongly to defer to a friend, said Charlie Black, a longtime adviser who speaks to McCain regularly. The GOP leaderships view that McCain would buckle under new pressure or reverse course because Graham was involved didnt make sense to me, Black added.

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[dragoni]

KFC Classic

Crooked chicken s_it( @SenateMajLdr ) #RussiaGate #trumpRussia #trumpcare #trump

— Rob -  Sep 15, 2017

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

On July 13, the Senate Republican leadership announced its revised proposal to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The new plan tweaked the first two Republican health-care-overhaul bills but retained their substantial cuts to Medicaid funding and to the already-meager subsidies ACA gave low-income workers to help defray the costs of private health-care plans.

Luckily, it now appears that the Senate will not pass even this version of the bill. To explain why, the media has focused on divisions within the Republican Party, in particular between the remnants of the libertarian Tea Party and the more mainstream congresspeople facing tough reelection campaigns. The Republicans’ failure, however, also reflects the deep division within the American capitalist class over federal health-care policy.

On one side, the Chamber of Commerce supports Mitch McConnell’s new bill, arguing that it will repeal taxes and mandates on employers, give employers greater flexibility in reshaping employment-based health insurance, and lower the cost of individual insurance policies by granting state governments greater autonomy. However, organizations representing hospitals and health insurers continue to defend the ACA, which provides them with huge tax subsidies. Both the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care, an organization consisting of the largest hospital chains, and American Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry’s main lobby, have condemned the Republican bill.

The divisions within both the Republican congressional delegation and the capitalist class may force party leaders to negotiate with Democrats to change — rather than replace — the ACA.

No matter what happens, poor and working people will pay the price. Any Republican-written proposal will include deep cuts to Medicaid, upon which the poor and disabled rely. Millions will lose insurance after their subsidies disappear.

More likely, we will see minor changes to the Affordable Care Act, which still leaves 28.2 million people — 8.8 percent of the population — uninsured. The exchanges in many states will continue to implode, forcing millions to pay more for less and less coverage, while private insurance companies rake in profits from the premiums paid by working- and middle-class taxpayers.

The American socialist and labor left has been arguing for an alternative to the Republicans’ slash-and-burn proposal as well as the Democrats’ public handouts to private companies — a single-payer or “Medicare-for-All” system that would effectively abolish the private health-insurance industry.

As Jacobin’s Dustin Guastella recently argued, the debate on national health policy represents an important opportunity for the Left to give single payer popular resonance.

Activists have planned effective local demonstrations in opposition to Trump/McConnellcare and in support of Medicare for All — including sit-ins by disabled folks and their allies at numerous Republican congresspeople’s offices. However, we need a march on Washington. Unlike local actions, a national mobilization would give our movement national presence.

A Medicare-for-All march could accomplish two tasks. First, it could put the movement back on the national agenda, drawing media attention and helping to cohere wider support for the demand.

(Continue Reading)

[abandonedsandals]

[aulunthe]

#McConnellCare #TrumpCare #WeDontCare

[jurgan]

ACA Repeal: Stage Two

The ACA, also known as Obamacare, is vitally important to my family.  My wife could very likely die if insurance companies were allowed to turn away people with pre-existing conditions.  We also rely on Medicaid to pay for doctors’ visits and medications (thankfully we now live in Colorado- South Carolina still refuses to accept free money, so it was much more expensive in our previous home).  Aside from climate change, health care is the most important issue to me.  Naturally, I’ve spent a lot of time fighting to slow the GOP’s attempted repeal.  I’ve repeatedly called my representatives.  I went to Mike Coffman’s local office on a Monday morning to ask one of his assistants not to cut Medicaid, and there’s video of me telling him our story at his last town hall.  It seems to have paid off, as he did eventually vote against the hideous monstrosity known as AHCA.  Still, the damn thing passed the House by two votes, and now it’s up to the Senate to decide what to do.  Health care has largely fallen off the radar in the wake of Trump’s alleged treason and confessed obstruction of justice, but it’s still a live issue.  In back rooms in D.C., thirteen (male, mostly white)senators are writing their own version of AHCA, including my state’s Cory Gardner.  It’s possible that they decide there’s nothing that will satisfy enough people to pass and quietly shelve the issue, but I wouldn’t count on it.

If I were Mitch McConnell- if I were a soulless Machiavellian who would stop at nothing to deliver for my corporate masters- what would my strategy be?  Because he definitely has one.  Paul Ryan and Donald Trump may be a pair of bumbling con artists who are in over their heads, but McConnell is a canny operator, and he plays the long game.  Last year, he pulled off an unprecedented blockade of a Supreme Court nomination, and now we have Gorsuch on the bench, perhaps for decades.  He knew how to ignore the short term media blowback and focus on the future.  In that way, he was a perfect foil for Obama (the difference is that McConnell disdains compromise, while Obama was often conciliatory to a fault).

McConnell infamously started Obama’s presidency by devising a strategy of 100% obstruction.  He knew that if any Republicans voted for an Obama policy then it would be seen as bipartisan, but things that pass with only Democratic votes could be portrayed as extreme leftist.  Thus, we have the situation where Obama, Pelosi, and Reid desperately tried to compromise with Republicans to create a law that could get buy-in and still got no Republican votes.  Anyone who understands policy knows it’s absurd to think of the ACA as ultra-left, especially compared to the health systems in other developed countries.  Many still complain the the ACA is not leftist enough, which is probably true but it was also probably the best that could get through at the time, thanks largely to McConnell’s filibustering and the need to buy off corporate whores like Lieberman.  Policy doesn’t matter in politics, though, so much as perception of policy.  Many people do see anything that is supported only by Democrats will be seen by many as extreme left.  On the other hand, the House’s repeal bill is extremely far right by any standard.  It would take away health care from over twenty million people, possibly causing thousands to die.  It was something of a relief when the Senate said they aren’t even considering passing the House bill, but they’re still going to try to pass their own.  By design, the Senate is more moderate than the House, since senators have to appeal to whole states instead of gerrymandered districts.  Still, I would assume whatever McConnell comes up with will be bad for a lot of people.  Again, perception is what matters: the ACA will be perceived as far left, the AHCA will be perceived as far right, and McConnellcare will be somewhere in between.  And we all know the mainstream media’s most infuriating framework: Both parties are to blame, and the truth is in the middle.

When I thought of that a few days ago, it was an instant epiphany.  Of course that’s the strategy, and it shows that McConnell’s 2009 plan is still paying dividends.  By portraying his plan as the sensible compromise between Barack Obama and Paul Ryan, fence-sitting politicians will be encouraged to vote for it.  The media will say that Democrats are being partisan and obstructionist by fighting it.  These pressures will make it that much more likely that the Senate passes whatever awful law they come up with.  Then the House will feel even more pressure to accept a compromised version of their seven year long dream of repealing the ACA.  It’s possible the Freedom Caucus will declare that it’s too moderate to accept the compromise, but I wouldn’t count on it.  The ACA was passed in the Senate as a compromised version of the House bill, and then the House had to accept and vote for the Senate’s bill or else the whole enterprise would die.  It would be fitting if the repeal happened the same way.

I am not writing this to say we’re doomed, though.  The resistance has done a great job already.  Remember Trump’s promise to repeal “on day one?”  We’re four months past day one and the ACA is still law.  Everyone credits this delay to the fierce pushback at town halls and through phone lines.  We beat them once, but to do it again we need to focus on principles and not politics.  If the focus is “save the ACA and beat Ryancare!” then I think we’re following a losing strategy.  It might work, but that framing treats it as a game that we want to win, and that’s not a persuasive argument.  Again, we don’t want to be portrayed as one side of a partisan tug-of-war with Paul Ryan, or else Mitch McConnell looks like the serious adult in the room.  So I say we always emphasize why we’re fighting.  Colorado has Medicaid expansion, and Cory Gardner has said he doesn’t want a law that cuts Medicaid.  I plan to remind him of that.  We don’t want Medicaid cuts, we don’t want people turned away for pre-existing conditions, and we don’t want any of the tons of other problems that the ACA fixed.  We need to keep saying that now.  We need to let them know that, while we’re not against any and all changes to health care, there are certain principles that cannot be compromised.  Our ideas are popular.  Let’s make sure we keep talking about them.