The sad thing is that the obvious explanation (“He saw a commercial on the teevee for one of those ‘pay for your funeral’ life insurance outfits” and it got stuck in his empty head) is the most charitable one.
If you don’t have a bunch of spare cash lying around then it really does become a life-or-death or at least a life-or-bankruptcy situation if you have no insurance and end up with a health emergency of some kind. That’s why it’s so horrifying to me that the Senate is apparently going to vote next Tuesday on a repeal/replace bill without actually knowing what the bill is going to be or any of its specifics. Just wing it! I’m sure that will work out fine.
You’ve got to figure there’s a reasonable chance they’ll even pull it off. Never underestimate the ability for Senators to talk a good game and then vote in lockstep.
“I mean, it’s one [del]banana[/del] health insurance, Michael… What could it cost? Ten dollars?”
These Americans Hated the Health Law. Until the Idea of Repeal Sank In.
I cannot help but read this as ‘well, now that if affects* me*, I care deeply about my fellow man…’
Dead for good? Parliamentarian rules Senate needs 60 votes.
The only provisions in there that might prove really problematic are the two market stabilization portions: CSR funding and the lock-out.
I can’t see conservatives not voting on the bill based on the PP or abortion language. They want it if they can get it, but it’s more like gravy.
To be clear, because my post wasn’t: The lock-out being stripped is HUGE if these guys care the eensiest teensiest bit about the actual results of the bill. Because it will completely destroy the individual market. But I don’t know that they care at all.
They could invoke the Nuclear Option, couldn’t they?
They could. It’s so hard to predict whether they would really want to do that for this provision instead of dropping it and just torpedoing the market.
Well, Trump has been advocating the Nuclear Option for a while now (example). And so is my representative who is running for Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. (Though the same guy said just a couple weeks ago that he’d filibuster any spending bill that doesn’t include funding for the border wall.)
So Pence can overrule the senate parliamentarian?
I felt a glimmer of hope when I heard about this, but then I realized that there would probably be some way for these assholes to get around it.
The parliamentarian’s rulings are suggestions, basically. But the Senate has always abided by them before. They can be overridden by 60 votes (which obviously can’t happen) or yes, by Pence.
But they won’t be able to put that genie back in the bottle, and I don’t know that they are looking at 2018 midterms with a lot of confidence. So if they blow up reconciliation rules, they might be in a world of pain in the not too distant future.
Trump could just veto anything goes through reconciliation, couldn’t he? If the Dems had the votes to overturn a veto they could pass something without needing to go through reconciliation.
If you were a Republican, would you trust Trump?
And if you blow up the filibuster, that will outlive Trump.
He just wants “a win” and to shit on whatever Obama’s “legacy” is. He doesn’t give a fuck about the rest of it.
Maybe Trump will fire her 
She’s not an employee of the Executive Branch, so he wouldn’t have the authority.
He’s probably looking into it anyway! :smack:
I’m not sure how far ahead the Republicans are able to think or if they anticipate there being a Dem majority in the House or Senate ever again, so maybe they will just have Pence overrule. They seem to really want one of these tax cut for the rich “health care” bills.
Motion to proceed vote scheduled for tomorrow. I’m hearing 2:15.
It’s completely unclear what they are voting on. It’s completely unclear who is voting for it. I think it’s likely to pass the MTP and then a final, devastating bill. This could be because I’m a realist or it could be because I’m a pessimist. Don’t ask me, IOW.