AZ Congressional Delegation

In a pyrrhic victory for the House GOP leadership, the Zombie “Trumpcare” bill passed on a party-line vote with 20 GOP defections, on a bare-minimum vote of 217-213.

Arizona Congressional delegation: Voting yes: Franks, Gosar, McSally, Schweikert; Voting No: Biggs, Gallego, Grijalva, O’Halleran, Sinema. Don’t give Biggs any credit, he wanted a straight up repeal of “Obamacare.”

“This legislation is illogical, immoral and wrong for the country,” said Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.). “The American Health Care Act is a reckless, ideologically-motivated bill that will increase pain and suffering across the country so that political actors can claim a ‘win. ’ ” Dems tear into ‘shameful’ ObamaCare repeal vote.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned Tea-Publicans before  the vote Thursday afternoon that “You have every provision of this bill tattooed on your forehead.” “You will glow in the dark on this one. You will glow in the dark.” Nancy Pelosi tells Republicans that Trumpcare is ‘tattooed on your forehead’.

After the vote, Republican lawmakers loaded into Capitol Police buses to drive to the White House for a celebration with President Trump. As they got on board, a group of protestors gathered nearby, chanting “shame!” at them. House passes ObamaCare repeal.

This vote was a cynical act of craven political cowardice. Tea-Publicans are terrified of their GOP crazy base and the conservative media entertainment complex that feeds their insanity. They voted for political cover against a primary challenger who is crazier than they are (if that is possible) funded by these right-wing organizations. Protecting their incumbency in a GOP primary was their only motivation. They made the cynical calculation that this was more important to them than Americans losing their health insurance and potentially losing their life as a result. Dante has a new ring in the Inferno just for them.

Read more

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin and Ayn Rand fanboy, had House members vote for ‘martial law’ waiver on one-day wait rule in hopes of speedy ACA repeal on Tuesday. “We don’t need to read no stinkin’ bill!”

There is also no Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score for the Zombie “Trumpcare” bill with the MacArthur Amendment and the eleventh-hour Upton Amendment. Congress does not know how this bill will affect health care coverage and cost for Americans, but most stakeholder medical organizations have warned that this bill is worse than “Trumpcare 2.0.”

UPDATE: In lieu of a CBO score, an overview of the expected effects of the GOP health-care bill.

To paraphrase the GOP attack line on Nancy Pelosi, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” only this time this criticism is actually true.

House GOP leaders just announced the House to vote Thursday on ObamaCare repeal:

The announcement sets up a high-stakes vote that is expected to come down to the wire.

The move comes after the bill gained new momentum on Wednesday, after GOP Reps. Fred Upton (Mich.) and Billy Long (Mo.) said they would support the bill after a new amendment from Upton.

Still, no lawmakers other than those two have publicly given their support since the announcement of the new amendment.

“We will be voting on the healthcare bill tomorrow. We have enough votes. It will pass. It’s a good bill,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said after leaving a leadership meeting Wednesday night.

Asked by a reporter about whether the bill would have to be pulled from the floor again for lack of support, McCarthy replied: “Would you have confidence? We’re going to pass it. We’re going to pass it. Let’s be optimistic about life.”

Read more