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[balladofwindfishes]

Mitch "Master Strategist" McConnell made a lot of errors.

Why would he think it was a good idea to not even include the majority of your own party in the creation of the bill?

Why try and repeal it in a month with no hearings or anything, leading to the obvious talking point that they're huge hypocrites for doing exactly what they said ACA did?

Why didn't he start drafting his senate bill before the house even voted to ensure he had the votes and the house vote wasn't a waste of time putting vulnerable house members on the spot with a toxic vote?

The answer is because Mitch "Master Strategist" McConnell is kind of an idiot and bad at his job and is basically the biggest screw up in the entire GOP, a party that has Donald Trump as the leader of the party, so the bar is already pretty low.

 

[BotoxAgent]

I think Reagan (the Republican Lord and Savior), if he were alive today would be thoroughly disgusted with Donald Trump and outraged at the sick reality of what the Republican party has become.

Pretty sure all of the living Presidents do not approve of him either.

Jimmy Carter must feel so giddy knowing there is now a President viewed as being more incompetent than he was. Plus, Carter actually had good ideas.

I dunno, Reagan is still a shit stain and would probably salivate at a thought of all these lovely tax cuts at the very least.

 

[djplaeskool]

This tweet sums up the Republican plan now.

mobile.twitter.com/daveweigel/status/887148196971118593

lol

Also, one of the comments calling this whole kerfuffle an "Obamacare Maru" seems hilariously apt.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Yay!!

 

[Chichikov]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

 

[djplaeskool]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

GOP have been sabotaging the ACA through funding restrictions for a while now.

 

[Ac30]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

They've already been trying to, but if they're stupid enough to try and kill it for good the populace sure isn't going to blame Obama.

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

Nice to see that some Republicans actually have a spine.

Get the Democrats into the room and actually work something out. No more one party BS.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

"As I have always said..."

Except when campaigning: "On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare."

 

[Chichikov]

GOP have been sabotaging the ACA through funding restrictions for a while now.

True, I should have said try to sabotage it more.
I don't think it's a winning move politically by the way, they own healthcare by virtue of controlling the government, plus they put an actual bill out there, and people hated the shit out of it, they can't hand-wave it no more. And really, let's say they blow up the system, do they really want to campaign against democrats on healthcare solutions?
What remotely popular idea do they have?

 

[Palette Swap]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

I honestly can't think of a public figure anywhere in the world who lies so casually, so obviously and so often.

 

[obijkenobi]

True, I should have said try to sabotage it more.
I don't think it's a winning move politically by the way, they own healthcare by virtue of controlling the government, plus they put an actual bill out there, and people hated the shit out of it, they can't hand-wave it no more. And really, let's say they blow up the system, do they really want to campaign against democrats on healthcare solutions?
What remotely popular idea do they have?

I guess they could laser their focus to the base. Tax poor minorities to keep health care and low taxes for everyone else with a combo platter of gerrymandering and voter restriction laws

 

[Kuroi Gogeta]

I think its very interesting how they are struggling to push this through. They had at least 6 years to come up with a detailed plan. Yet instead they wasted their time ignoring their constituents, pissing and moaning over non-issues like Obama's trip to Cuba. The whole time they could have been devising a detailed, easily understandable rebuttal to the ACA. They could've been talking about responsible government spending and how to make the public more aware of what exactly their tax dollars are going into. They could have been spending more time promoting proven, evidence-based job-creation strategies, but no. They wasted time only opposing measures that were put forth without offering plausible alternatives.

This whole mess is a perfect metaphor for the general ignorance of these elected officials, and Trump is the Avatar of republican ignorance and avarice. He's the logical extension of what has been building up in that party for years. Corporate interests taking centre stage, opposition to diversity of any sort, and extremely limited insight into what people actually want out of government.

 

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

It's fascinating how even after these months of being president, he is still incapable of talking to the entire country. He can only ever address his base. Blaming Democrats makes him look weaker than any failure of the Republicans.

 

[Lemonz]

 

[Impeccable]

Most Republicans were "loyal".

 

[slit]

McConnell thinks he'll get a straight up repeal with nothing to replace? He would be putting his caucus in a really tough position. He's not going to shame the more moderates into going for that. It's going to end up hurting the party politically.

 

[Saint Gregory]

While it's hurting all of us Trump is like the ultimate revenge against this current shitty, cynical Republican party. They created Trump, he's a true believer in all of the right-wing Fox News/InfoWars propaganda. He honestly believed that the ACA was the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world and that replacing it with something better would be easy... because TV told him so.

You reap what you sow shitlords.

 

[Horns]

They're going to try to repeal and replace later or sabotage the ACA. Either way, people are going to get fucked in the process.

 

[ExInferus]

They've already been trying to, but if they're stupid enough to try and kill it for good the populace sure isn't going to blame Obama.

are you sure about the latter part?

 

[Chichikov]

I guess they could laser their focus to the base. Tax poor minorities to keep health care and low taxes for everyone else with a combo platter of gerrymandering and voter restriction laws

Tax increases on working people is an immensely unpopular position. And remember, even when regressive, it's a tax increase on everyone.
They maybe can pull a bait and switch with adding a federal sales tax and reducing personal rates, I don't know, this shit is tricky and there are so many "MUST LOWER TAXES ALWAYS NO MATTER WHAT" fanatics in the GOP that I don't think it's super likely to happen.

I also think there are too many true believers in deficit doom in the GOP these days, it used to be the most of them just viewed it as a tactic to create a crisis that would force you to "make hard decisions" and cut programs that you wanted to kill anyway but couldn't because they're popular and you remember the 1964 election. You know, starving the beast.
But these days? I think they'll have to balance the tax cuts with spending cuts, and that shit get unpopular super super fast, especially when contrasted with who will get most of those tax cuts dollars.

 

[Netherscourge]

I think there is something the GoP can't accept.

They weren't elected because Americans want Obamacare repealed.

They were elected because a lot of people simply got tired of Democrats.

I do not believe Americans want anything LESS than what already exists so far as social programs go. They want MORE.

That is why nobody wants Trump or the GoP to "keep their promise". They weren't elected for their promises.

 

[Saint Gregory]

are you sure about the latter part?

I didn't see many folks in those town halls blaming Obama. Strangely enough these folks suddenly realized that "Obamacare" wasn't bad when they saw it being taken away from them and blaming Obama and the Dems when you hold full control of the government isn't fooling anyone.

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

Just goes to show the gulf in leadership between two administrations. Obama, Reid and Pelosi vs Trump, McConnell, Ryan....

 

[Tobor]

Mitch "Master Strategist" McConnell made a lot of errors.

Why would he think it was a good idea to not even include the majority of your own party in the creation of the bill?

Why try and repeal it in a month with no hearings or anything, leading to the obvious talking point that they're huge hypocrites for doing exactly what they said ACA did?

Why didn't he start drafting his senate bill before the house even voted to ensure he had the votes and the house vote wasn't a waste of time putting vulnerable house members on the spot with a toxic vote?

The answer is because Mitch "Master Strategist" McConnell is kind of an idiot and bad at his job and is basically the biggest screw up in the entire GOP, a party that has Donald Trump as the leader of the party, so the bar is already pretty low.

The not so secret answer is that Mitch doesn't have a majority. He is trying to herd two different parties that just happen to share a name. Push the bill to the left and he loses votes. Push the billl to the right and he loses votes. Leave the bill alone and there is no majority. We have two GOPs and no way to reconcile them.

Calling Mitch the majority leader is a joke.

 

[kaskade]

I have no idea how they are going to accomplish a repeal then replace. Haven't more republican senators actually come out against that than this bill? I've already read that that would take 60 vote which we know for sure they would never get anyway.

 

[btrboyev]

I'm pretty sure at this point they are ready to move into tax reform. They aren't going to tackle healthcare and that at the same time

This was the first step in the tax reform process. This bill was a huge tax break for republican congress and their owners.

 

[Tobor]

I have no idea how they are going to accomplish a repeal then replace. Haven't more republican senators actually come out against that than this bill? I've already read that that would take 60 vote which we know for sure they would never get anyway.

They won't. The moderates who voted for it in 2015 knew it was all a show and that Obama would veto. Now that's it's for real they won't vote for it again and it's dead in the water.

 

[btrboyev]

They're going to try to repeal and replace later or sabotage the ACA. Either way, people are going to get fucked in the process.

They have been sabotaging it since day 1. A lot of the republican amendments on the original bill is exactly why we are her today. And Repiblicans have been underfunding it for years.

 

[Schucky Ducky]

Sure looks like the repeal is dead.
I wonder if they'll try to sabotage the ACA, we shall see.

Given the controversy around Trumps loyalty pledges, "loyal" is probably not a good word for him to be using haha.

 

[Arrogant Bastard]

It is easy to vote to repeal the ACA when you know it actually won't happen. Now that the vote is actually real they realize how exceptionally unpopular that idea is. Good.

 

[Chichikov]

The not so secret answer is that Mitch doesn't have a majority. He is trying to herd two different parties that just happen to share a name. Push the bill to the left and he loses votes. Push the billl to the right and he loses votes. Leave the bill alone and there is no majority. We have two GOPs and no way to reconcile them.

Calling Mitch the majority leader is a joke.

If the Senate bill had 70% public support they would have passed it with no problems.
Fuck, if it had 51% support it would have probably happen.

Yes, there are some differences without the GOP, but I don't think they're as huge as you're making them, and they mostly fall in line and vote with the party line.
The problem here is that this bill is terrible and is immensely unpopular, and even with that, they still had probably over 90% of the votes.

 

[Deuce Deuce]

WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNING
WINNINGWINNINGWINNINGWINNING
WINNINGWINNINGWINNINGWINNING
WINNINGWINNINGWINNINGWINNING

Besides republican incompetency, this is the best thing I've seen in a while.

 

[Smokey]

 

[Zackat]

 

[gcubed]

McConnell thinks he'll get a straight up repeal with nothing to replace? He would be putting his caucus in a really tough position. He's not going to shame the more moderates into going for that. It's going to end up hurting the party politically.

I don't think he expects to actually pass a repeal only. I expect this is to tell Trump to fuck off

 

[mf.luder]

How does he justify his claims of "you'll get tired of winning" and "we have the best negotiators"?

 

[HylianTom]

Looking more and more likely that the biggest prize of the 2016 election is going to be the tilting of the federal judiciary, since Congressional Republicans are a mess right now..

 

[Shadow Puppetry]

“If the Republicans have the House, Senate and the presidency and they can't pass this health care bill they are going to look weak,” Trump said, according to a source familiar with the meeting. “How can we not do this after promising it for years?”

How, indeed. 🤔

 

[Kyzer]

Suck it ya orange poop

Get fucked, you orange piece of shit.

lol this is great

 

[Laevateinn]

"As I have always said..."

Except when campaigning: "On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare."

I thought it was bad when a politician tweets "Go look at my website" to explain a policy.

 

[Tobor]

If the Senate bill had 70% public support they would have passed it with no problems.
Fuck, if it had 51% support it would have probably happen.

Yes, there are some differences without the GOP, but I don't think they're as huge as you're making them, and they mostly fall in line and vote with the party line.
The problem here is that this bill is terrible and is immensely unpopular, and even with that, they still had probably over 90% of the votes.

I don't think there is anything in the Republican platform that could ever get 70% public support.

Maybe I'm being hyperbolic, as it doesn't split evenly down the middle, but there are enough hardliners on either side to sink the agenda.

 

[gcubed]

I don't think there is anything in the Republican platform that could ever get 70% public support.

Maybe I'm being hyperbolic, as it doesn't split evenly down the middle, but there are enough hardliners on either side to sink the agenda.

I think if any plan they put forward wasn't epically and universally hated they would have passed it.

The problem is the best idea republicans can come up with is the one that is already in place.

I'll be curious to see if the market finally accepts that this guy is a useless piece of shit and no tax cuts are coming

 

[Horns]

They have been sabotaging it since day 1. A lot of the republican amendments on the original bill is exactly why we are her today. And Repiblicans have been underfunding it for years.

True, but I expect the sabotage to get even worse if they can't repeal it. I don't recall any Republican amendments on the original bill.

 

[Saganator]

I wish they'd stop jerking people's chains and admit the obvious. Obamacare is as good as it gets without being single payer. It's either go back to what it was before, which would be political suicide, keep it and make it better, or go single payer. GOP's real mistake was 5 years ago when they decided it was a good idea for them to lie to their base about the bill being evil and will ruin their lives. They should've touted all the GOP amendments to it and let it be a bipartisan health care bill. Instead they branded it as big bad disaster, called it Obamacare and convinced their base it was the worst thing ever. Now they're stuck in a corner because even their base realizes there are good parts of Obamacare they don't want to lose.

Mitch the "master strategist" McConnell didn't strategize for the long game. Too focused on the short term gains.

 

[PuppetSlave]

I thought it was bad when a politician tweets "Go look at my website" to explain a policy.

Lol, lets not get crazy. Explaining complex policies on twitter... No, that part I can buy, now if his homepage actually had any worthwhile content, that is whole other story.

 

[Shadybiz]

Now now, this may have been before he understood that it would have to pass a Senate vote as well. He's just new at this, guys.

....lol, suck it, Trump.

 

[Steel]

I wish they'd stop jerking people's chains and admit the obvious. Obamacare is as good as it gets without being single payer.

No, a public option would probably be better than single payer in America and would definitely be better than Obamacare. Hell, strict regulations of insurance companies like Switzerland or the Netherlands without any government option would probably work better than what we have currently. Agree with the overall point, though. There's nothing that the Republicans would be willing to do that would work.

 

[fabricated backlash]

Given the controversy around Trumps loyalty pledges, "loyal" is probably not a good word for him to be using haha.

You do realise who you're talking about. Mr I know the best words.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I don't know how anyone thinks the Republicans not passing this would not have been an instant win for single payer.

Not only Would the Republicans own a terrible legislation in passing it but the Democrats would have complete leverage over them.

Just wait until Obama care premiums go up again and you have the Republicans saying they tried to fix it but the Democrats kept obstructing which will buy the more seats.

It should've passed then they would have owned it - which the Democrats could then rally single payer as the alternative to fix it.