Tea-Publicans will not meet their artificial deadline of voting to repeal “Obamacare” on the anniversary of President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act into law. Ahhh, poor babies.
The Hill reports, GOP lawmakers leave Trump White House with no deal:
GOP lawmakers leaving the White House after a meeting with President Trump said they have not reached a deal that would allow them to support an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill set for a vote Thursday.
Republicans appear short of the 215 votes they’d need to win the tally. The Hill’s Whip List: 32 GOP no votes on ObamaCare repeal plan.
The members streaming out of the White House just after 1 p.m. characterized the meeting positively but showed no signs of a shift toward more favorable ground for the White House.
“Nothing new was agreed upon,” said Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)
He added the group will “go back and consider our options.”
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told reporters on Capitol Hill that “there are not enough votes” to pass the bill.
Republicans need 215 votes to win passage, meaning they can afford 22 defections. A whip list kept by The Hill shows that five dozen members are either planning to vote no, leaning against the bill or uncertain of how they vote. A full 32 members on that list are no votes.
South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan told The Hill that Trump, who joined them in the meeting, didn’t make an explicit ask.
“He was very gracious, he laid out his points but no firm decision has been made by those in the room,” Duncan said.
“And he didn’t ask us, he didn’t get on the table and ask us for that. He asked us to seriously consider the position we are in.”
* * *
While Arizona Rep. Trent Franks would not reveal his position, he said that nothing in the meeting changed his mind.
He instead praised House leadership and the White House for handling what he views as a difficult situation, lamenting the position the party faces as criticism mounts over the Republican plan for a repeal and a replacement.
“One tragedy of all of this is that ObamaCare was put into place by all Democrats and now Republicans, in trying our best to alleviate the tragedy and save the country are going to have to take a lot of the punishment,” he said.
While the Trump White House is negotiating with the radical right-wing lunatics of the House Freedom Caucus, GOP centrists in the House are fleeing from the GOP’s ObamaCare repeal-and-replace legislation, complicating White House efforts to win passage in a vote scheduled for Thursday. Centrists balk at GOP ObamaCare bill:
Centrist defections in the last 24 hours include Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), the co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, which has roughly 50 members.
Reps. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.), David Young (R-Iowa), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), all centrists, have also announced their opposition to the bill.
Reps. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) and John Katko (R-N.Y.), two other centrists, earlier announced their opposition.
That brings the number of centrist no votes to at least eight, though there could be more.
* * *
Centrists warn that their constituents would lose coverage under the repeal bill, and some have even said that ObamaCare is better than the Republican bill.
* * *
A group of centrists met with leadership in Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) office Wednesday night to discuss where they are on the legislation and their concerns.
“Everybody’s frustrated, but some moved, some stayed the same, and some got more equivocal,” said a GOP lawmaker who attended the meeting.
As a result of the GOP caucus dividing along ideological lines, and every concession that adds a vote leads to a subtraction of a vote, the vote has now been delayed. House GOP postpones ObamaCare repeal vote:
House GOP leaders are delaying Thursday’s expected vote on their ObamaCare replacement bill, a source told The Hill.
A House Republican Conference meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Trump and GOP leaders are scrambling to find the 215 votes they’d need for the bill to pass the House.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Thursday afternoon as he left a Freedom Caucus meeting that there is no deal yet but the group will “stay as long as it takes to get this done.”
Meadows said he is still a no but is “desperately trying to get to yes.”
He said he is in talks with the moderate Tuesday Group, as well. He cautioned that his group needs more time to read and understand sections of the bill, and said he did not know when a vote will be.
Maybe Tea-Publicans should scrap this bill. Poll: Just 17 percent of voters back ObamaCare repeal plan:
A majority of American voters oppose the Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, while very few voters support it, a new poll finds.
A poll published Thursday by Quinnipiac University found that 56 percent of voters disapprove of the GOP healthcare plan, while just 17 percent support it.
Even among Republicans, only 41 percent support the American Health Care Act, while 24 percent oppose it. And 58 percent of Democratic voters disapprove of the plan.
* * *
The poll found that 46 percent of voters say they will be less likely to vote for their Congressional representative if they vote to approve the GOP health insurance plan.
The New York Times asks Is the G.O.P. Better Off Politically if the Health Bill Doesn’t Pass?
I don’t know about that, but I do know that Americans are better off if this terrible bill does not pass. Fewer Americans Would Be Insured With G.O.P. Plan Than With Simple Repeal:
One piece of context has gone little noticed: The Republican bill would actually result in more people being uninsured than if Obamacare were simply repealed. Getting rid of the major coverage provisions and regulations of Obamacare would cost 23 million Americans their health insurance, according to another recent C.B.O. report. In other words, one million more Americans would have health insurance with a clean repeal than with the Republican replacement plan, according to C.B.O. estimates.
This is just how terrible this bill is. Kill this bill.
UPDATE: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has now scored Trumpcare 2.0, and it still sucks. New CBO estimate shows ‘smaller savings’ from revised GOP Obamacare replacement plan, similar coverage losses as prior bill:
A revised Republican bill to repeal and replace key parts of Obamacare would lead to less than half the savings to the federal budget over the next decade than had been estimated under the original version of that plan, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
The CBO also estimated that the revised bill would not lead to bigger losses in the number of insured Americans than had been projected for the prior version of the plan.
The newer version still is expected to lead to 14 million fewer people having health insurance in 2018, and 24 million fewer insured Americans by 2026 than would be covered if Obamacare remained as law in its current form.
The revised bill also is projected to have the same effect on insurance premiums as the original Republican proposal, according to the non-partisan CBO.
An earlier version of the GOP’s bill had been projected by the CBO to lead to about $337 billion in savings to the federal budget through 2026.
A more recent version of that plan would lead to savings of less than half that amount: $150 billion, according to the new CBO estimate.
That’s not going to move any votes into the “aye” column.
WARNING: Get a barf bag ready before reading this or read it in the bathroom if possible.
McSally posted this on Facebook last night:
“Today I successfully negotiated an amendment to the AHCA that is another important win for families. It secures an additional $15 billion to offer crucial care for mothers and their newborns, and for those who struggle with mental health disorders and substance abuse. The Affordable Care Act simply isn’t working, and this victory is another step in the right direction. By giving the states support to implement a smooth and stable transition, this amendment will prevent individuals who need healthcare the most from slipping through the cracks. We aren’t landing a helicopter, we are landing a 747, and we need a lot of runway to ensure a smooth transition to a system that lowers costs, expands choice, and increases quality of care. This amendment lengthens that runway.”
https://mcsally.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-mcsally-secures-15-billion-ahca-maternity-care-substance-abuse
If you just messed up your keyboard, do not blame me, you were warned.
Listening to Republican men whine about having to pay for insurance that includes pre-natal and maternity care has been informative.
I suggest they refer to chapter eight of their high school biology book and learn where babies come from.
They’re not paying for women’s health, they’re paying nine months back rent.
Idiots.
How much less is that $15 bln compared with the baseline under the ACA Status Quo?
That’s an excellent question, Edward.
This is McSally trying to have it both ways. She is such a hero, standing up for maternity care, etc… while intending to vote for the decimation of the ACA which, according to her, isn’t working.
Well, Martha seems to be between a rock and a hard place. She most definitely has her eye on McCain’s seat, but how can she get there if she is voted out in 2018? This is all about her, bet on it.
She knows that voting for Trumpcare could hurt her badly in 2018. But she’s doing it anyhow. I suspect the bet she’s making is that the Democrats will not be able to come up with a candidate strong enough to win. And just to make sure she’s got something for the TV ads, she’s “fixing” Trumpcare all by herself.
I remember when we couldn’t get 60 democrats for single payer in 2009 because insurance companies bought democrat senators. koch brothers offer a million dollars each to republicans who vote against trump care.
Odd, you’d think that after 7 years of whining and crying about the ACA the GOP would have had a replacement plan in their back-pocket.
It’s not like the GOP to be this incompetent.
Bwahahahahahahaha!
I have no doubt they’ll eventually get around to doing something, and most likely they’ll schedule the damage to occur after 2018.
But competency doesn’t win elections. Messaging does. And the GOP is crushing it when it comes to messaging.
I’m still, despite my political involvement, not sure what the Democratic Party stands for, or their message on a lot of important topics.
No argument here Edward.
Edward, I was watching Ken Burn’s documentary on the Roosevelts yesterday on PBS. The program that aired was about FDR’s first presidential election during the Great Depression. We know the outcome, of course, so we can look back on those times as some of our finest hours, not just for the Democratic party but for the nation. Yet, even then, so many were excluded.
I suppose that for those few “morally advanced” leaders, the ones who have gotten us this far, the goal has always been to create a fair and just society for all of us. It takes some imagination, but in this country, this is still a reasonable goal as long as we are moving in that direction.
The Democratic party has seemingly lost its way, to be sure. The 2016 election leaves no doubt when the only candidate who could speak to what we once believe to be Democratic values was an independent.
In all honesty, I can’t even guess where they go from here. They haven’t much time. I pray to God that they have a better strategy for 2018 than “vote the bums out”. People are rising up and they are not going to be interested in politicians who seek out safe middle ground.
As for the GOP, they may be crushing it on messaging, but right now they have the responsibility of governance which they do very badly. So, there’s the message and there’s the delivery of the goods. Trump rolled into coal country and told those folks at his Klan rallies that they would get back their good jobs and their benefits and they’d all be walking in tall cotton. He didn’t tell them he would decimate the social safety net which so many of them rely on. In fact, he told them he wouldn’t.
Keep in mind that while the GOP is crushing it on messaging, it’s not the majority of the country that approves of that message.
The majority of this country did not vote for Trump.
True. And time isn’t exactly on their side as demographics are changing.
That’s the reason for the big rush. They figure they’ve got two years to force feed their agenda.
I think the Dems are focusing too much on the median voter and not enough on the marginal voter. There is a race to the center in order to capture the upper-middle class, usually white, suburbanite cosmopolitan voter who is typically both highly educated and socially and politically engaged. But in the process, they are bleeding off even more support from the people who aren’t on the fence between Dem and GOP, but rather between Dem and either third-party or stay home and watch a movie.
4 million people fewer voted for HRC in 2016 than voted for Obama in 2008, and about 2 million more voted for Trump than for McCain.
The conclusions I draw from this are:
1) Dems win when they have an inspiring candidate. Obama and Sanders were this, HRC was not.
2) Rushing to the center doesn’t work. Even though Obama governed as a milquetoast centrist, he did campaign as a high-minded progressive. In contrast, Trump probably won in part because he stuck to his message (flawed and disagreeable though it may have been) and didn’t try to rush back to compromise.
3) People hate hypocrisy. I don’t think the people are averse to a candidate who changes positions when confronted with new evidence and a sincere change in belief, but they don’t like it when a candidate is changing positions on the surface for cheap political points. Trump is guilty of this, but he played the media way better and the media wanted the access and eyeballs too much.
I suspect there is a gap between what the Democratic leadership says publicly and what they say to each other. I have to believe there are those who are willing to admit why they lost in 2016 and are not blaming James Comey and the Russians. If not, then they’ll just keep losing elections.
Maybe so, but file that under point #3.
Also, the Democrats need to stop reflexively calling everyone who disagrees with them racists, misogynists, or baskets of deplorables. It’s not good optics, and it’s a losing strategy in the long run. It only solidifies ambivalence into active opposition, and proves that they don’t have good counterarguments. It’s just like Godwin’s Law, but on the political stage.
Well, Hillary had her turn, Trump got in through the back door, and the most vulnerable people will pay as they always do.
Gosar and Franks. Both absolutely worthless.