July 19, 2017 - Update -- It appears that Senator John McCain has a malignant brain tumor and may not return to the Senate.
Original Post ...
It appears that the aisle-hopping RINO (Republican In Name Only) can prove to be of use to the GOP … if only to a delay a vote on legislation that lacks sufficient votes for passage …
Once again, we find the Republicans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with their ill-conceived health care plan that apparently is so odious as to require billion-dollar bribes to be offered to key hold-out legislators to ensure that it squeaks through the Senate.
Forget the fact that the GOP has been railing against the Affordable Care Act and using it to garner votes and political funding. Along with former President Obama’s “You can keep your doctor.” lie, we found the GOP asking the voters for a House majority to repeal and replace Obamacare in 2010. They got the House. Then the GOP sent out the cry, we promised to repeal Obamacare, but we need the Senate. They got the Senate. When Congress passed repeal legislation and sent it to the President, he promptly vetoed it and sent it back. The GOP came back and said we need the House, the Senate and the Presidency – and continued to advertise and fundraise off of Obamacare.
Now that the GOP has the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, we find out that the GOP loved to fundraise and run against Obamacare, but when given the actual power to change the law – they had nothing. A decade to get ready and they whiffed.
Now the GOP is back with their greedy, grubby hands out and asking for bigger majorities in the House and the Senate in 2018. A continuous shell game, where the pea is nowhere to be found.
Bottom line …
Now we can plainly see that the reconciliation trick that was deftly wielded by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not enough to do the job. The replacement legislation keeps many of the Obamacare provisions and only redefines minor portions of the program. The big ideas about competition across state lines, allowing policies to be tailored and price to the insurance needs of the consumer, and the separation of Medicaid (a welfare provision) from the central legislation is not going to happen.
In fact, we don’t even know what is in the final bill – giving rise to Pelosi’s “You have to pass it to see what’s in it” squawk.
No matter what the GOP does, we are screwed. Clueless Congressional leadership and a President looking for a rally.
-- steve
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius
