• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

John McCain: GOP health care bill likely 'dead'

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/09/john-mccain-gop-health-care-bill-likely-dead.html

The GOP health-care plan is the most unpopular bill in 30 years, an Axios report shows
GOP health-care plan most unpopular bill in 30 years, per Axios

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare is "probably going to be dead."

"My view is that it's probably going to be dead," he said on CBS's Face the Nation.

Support for the bill has been eroding over the July 4th recess, and McCain said he believes Republicans should work with Democrats to craft health care legislation.
 

Kevinroc

Member
Not gonna believe it until it is truly and fully gone. Otherwise this feels like the part at the end of a movie where the monster seems dead before it gets up one last time.
 

kirblar

Member
Capito came out swinging hard against it (WV Senator) and actively brought up a R/D compromise bill after a PR tour alongside Manchin (D WV Senator). It's dead and they know it.

It's Bush's '05 SS plan all over again.

You don't have multiple Senators (Collins, Capito, McCain, others) talking about a compromise bill if you're still planning to ram it through.
 

Ambient80

Member
Not gonna believe it until it is truly and fully gone. Otherwise this feels like the part at the end of a movie where the monster seems dead before it gets up one last time.

Same. Maybe I’m just paranoid after the 2016 elections, but I feel like it’s being set up as being dead before then being passed and becoming a “huge success, against all odds!”
 

Kusagari

Member
I think it's dead until the midterms.

If the Democrats don't take power back in at least the house expect this all over again.
 

kirblar

Member
Yeah but McCain's kinda crazy now and I take what he says with grains of salt.
It's not just him. One of the benefits of the Senate is that in situations like this, individual Senators can tell their bosses to shove it, because they will outlast them.

McCain wasn't one of these, but there are enough other Senators who get screwed electorally if Medicaid is scaled back that the leadership isn't going to get to 50+1 votes AND get this through a second vote in the house.
 
The correct game theoretic conclusion on this matter, is to treat the bill as alive until it is actually dead.

Zero fuckups. Zero mistakes. Only correct decisions.
 

Hypron

Member
This thing is like a slasher movie villain. You gotta double tap it, you can't just leave it for dead, otherwise next thing you know it slashes your throat at the end of the movie.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
The Republicans will say their bill is not partisan because some on their side will be against it, and use that as proof that it's the Democrats' turn to compromise, and try to get a few of them to sign to make up for the votes lost on their own side.

The threshold that will define if the bill is an improvement or not over ACA is how much people believe ACA should be repealed, which is relative to how long from now the bill is ready. But that is based on the currently held belief that ACA can only get less popular over time as it "implodes". If it does implode, then the Dems will have the shorter end of the stick and will be pushed to vote for a "non-partisan bill" that is worst than ACA. If it doesn't implode then the Dems will have an advantage in pushing the GOP to either give up or pass something better.
 
They say the senators' phonelines aren't as full anymore, but I couldn't get through Toomey's phone/mailbox today. Maybe the pressure finally got to them.
 

Oni Jazar

Member
0OlvWz3.png


Good thread about the latest healthcare status: https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/884095671397167105

Remember when everyone thought the House bill was dead?
 

VariantX

Member
Sorry, not letting my guard down. Especially not when its coming from McCain, who at most will grimace at things he knows damn well he shouldn't let fly.
 

Oppo

Member
Turtleface Von Fuckstick knew it would be dead if they went to recess and lo and behold.

It's incredible that the bulwark against Republican evil is pure incompetence. The system works!
 

Shauni

Member
0OlvWz3.png


Good thread about the latest healthcare status: https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/884095671397167105

Remember when everyone thought the House bill was dead?

Was there ever actually a point though where anyone in the GOP actually came out and said, 'this bill is dead,' though? I agree, we shouldn't let our guard down, but this feels fairly significant. McConnell does have a lot of ways he can go, definitely, but it's such a delicate process that once you pull one way, you threaten another way, and so on and so forth. It really just comes down to whether or not a handful of Senators are willing to go full-on kamikaze like they were in the House. They may still yet, but they also probably remember, too, how universally unpopular it was to do so, and how Trump threw them under the bus shortly after.
 
The house bill was passed knowing that it wouldn't be unchanged after going through the Senate. It was passed for a photo-op.

The House passed the bill because Trump really wanted a win and because they reasoned the Senate would fix it. Well, the Senate can't fix it.

Yes, we should be vigilant, but you can't really compare this scenario to the House vote at all. The Senate can't pass the potato to someone else.
 

Shauni

Member
Operation Lull the Populace is in full effect I see.

If that's the operation they are running, they are doing a bad job. I don't think anything has caught the attention of the populace like the healthcare bull in a long, long time. They really just can't sneak this one out. I mean, yeah, they can try, and they may still, but they aren't going to do it without the backlash, that much is pretty clear at this point.
 

kirblar

Member
A lot of people just straight up aren't old enough to remember Bush's SS plan failing in '05 for the exact same sorts of reasons that this attempt to gut Medicare is failing now.
 
Passing the current bill would be suicide for the GOP, it will be a lot easier to campaign in 2018 and 2020 on "The GOP took away your medicaid".

Doing absolutely nothing and letting Obamacare roll along in whatever weird mutated thing its turning into is much simpler politically for the GOP, and harder on the dems - the messaging in 2018 / 2020 isn't a simple one, but a more convoluted "The GOP said they would fix Obamacare but they didn't do anything and now your stuff is kinda fucked up but because the GOP didn't revise Obamacare, they just let it sit untouched".

Its honestly a bit baffling how many GOP members are still trying to get the medicaid expansion rollbacks passed, its literally the biggest talking point that would be used against them in their biggest voting bloc. Rich people won't really give a shit about a few thousand less they have to pay in insurance fees, the ones who only care about economic govt policies are never gonna change parties anyways. I guess the only possible thing I can think of is some of the GOP pols think passing it will help them get private sector jobs down the line? Or maybe they are really ideologically driven by "don't give poor people any help", but
I just can't understand how that jives with "well, a lot of people on medicaid are poor white people who vote republican".
 
It's not that I think McCain is outright lying so much as he doesn't realize he now belongs to the GOP nursing home - the old guard senators that constantly confuse their senility with seniority. I'm skeptical he has any clue about the health of the healthcare bill, good or bad, since the Senate has long moved passed him needing to be in the loop on everything.
 
Top Bottom