I regret that I have but one like to give
“Dems made up FAKE NEWS to make excellent healthcare bill look bad! No time to waste, much more important things coming VERY SOON!”
As did a large number of GOP supporters and Trump voters. Remember the deep red Districts and Trump block are also the places where people rely on the ACA the most. And those town halls were set up in these same places. Probably as bald PR exercises. But even where dems and protesters didnt show up you had worried GOP voters asking legit questions. And getting no answers, or an antagonistic response. And the longer that went on. And what little policy came out through other means, the angrier that set got
Those town halls were a massive own goal. And the crap bill they cobbled together last minute didnt help. I can’t tell you how many Trump voters I’ve run into personally the last few weeks who are suddenly not so enthusiastic. They’ve realized the ACA is the Obamcare they keep hearing about. And they’ve seen that the “repeal and replace” they voted for has been structured exclusively to Fuck them over.
Part of me wants the Dems to come forward with a single-payer plan that actually does lower costs and keeps more people insured. Even if the Reps moan about it out of the gate and refuse to pass it, it’d be nice to see!
The other part of me is in pure “They did and it’s called the ACA and if you’re not happy with it, you fix it.”
Ah, but Spicer has already dissed the AARP!
The Democrats have a responsibility to physically beat them with every part of that table.
Ohhhhhh snap! Pleaaase let this turn into (another) full scale pissing match.
You should be right, and yet . . .
BREAKING: President Trump says health care bill fell short in lead-up to House vote because of no support from Democrats.
(I’m on my phone and hoped I was pasting the actual tweet, but that’s from the AP on Twitter)
[Gazes into crystal ball]
I foresee… a long series of Beschizza Phops… of that Trump dark-doorway scene… with different dim shapes in the background.
BREAKING : The Republicans have a majority and shouldn’t need help from the minority party to pass their own legislation.
The really fucked up part is when ACA starts lowering costs and improving peoples lives the GOP administration will take credit for it, having not done anything.
This is what happens when you use Obamacare-bashing as the mindless beat of your war drum. Emphasis on the ‘mindless’.
Agreed.
Sadly - from what I understand - the bill was not extreme enough. One can pause on that thought for a moment - that if it penalized the elderly, the poor, and the underserved more - it would have passed with flying colors.
This minor setback just gives them some breathing room to actually come up with a worse plan, seeing that the whole ‘winning the election’ was a surprise to everyone, and that this bill likely had only 6 weeks of preparation by people less capable than their predecessors.
We’ll fight all the other shit coming down the pipeline tomorrow but tonight we dance.
I dunno. I’m getting the feeling we’ve been played–yet again.
Please, someone convince me that Trump is not potentially a genius here–or taking strategy calls from Putin. How does this hurt him in anything but the very short term?
Trump now can say he went to the mat to keep his promise to repeal Obamacare–but those disloyal Republicans and godless Democrats stopped him.
He is now out from under owning healthcare – a mess that was going to be an albatross around his neck no matter WHAT happened. There was no conceivable replacement plan he could put out that would satisfy his constituents–especially not in the short time demanded, or that wouldn’t be a disaster in the mid-terms.
Yet… if he didn’t put forth a plan, the GOP would have his head.
So–he puts forth a very flawed plan, pushes it hard, and when it fails he can wash his hands of it. He even gets his name off it and it’s back to Obamacare. When premiums go up, when the GOP weakens healthcare even more, when his constituents are looking for a scapegoat – he can now plausibly tell them he tried, and can say “I told you so”.
He just – intentionally or not – dodged a major bullet that’s been looming for months. Yeah, he’ll endure a few days of criticism about his deal making abilities–until he decides to knock it off the front page by doing or saying something outrageous. That’s nothing for this guy.
My fear is he just escaped from accountability for a good chunk of the lies and impossible promises that put him in office–and nobody even realizes it yet.
How do the voters feel?
I imagine there are dumb-ass Trump voters who are disappointed it didn’t pass, but considering approval for Obamacare is at an all-time high (people were still signing up for it online in the millions right up to the deadline), and this shitty replacement bill was getting hate from plenty of conservatives, the GOP probably dodged a bullet here.
In a year will dumb-ass voters even remember this Trump failure, or will they even consider it a failure on his part?
That’s why I said we still have work to do.