As someone who is in the cross hairs of this legislation, including the “skinny” repeal as a user of the individual exchanges, I appreciate your updates, jsgoddess. We self-employed sole proprietors can’t go “get a job,” as helpfully instructed to do by Kellyanne Conway.
This whole process has been awful for me to watch, but I can’t just ignore it.
Again, if it weren’t life and death, the fact that they’re desperately trying to pass a bill that they don’t want to become law would be hilarious.
yep.
7 years.
7 years of opposing.
7 years to come up with alternatives or fixes.
And this is the best they can do. “Please let us continue to vote against the ACA, but keep it in place. We don’t have a fucking clue what to do when we are in charge.”
In the attempt to give a somewhat actual answer - while I (and I’m going to assume many Democrats) may like the idea of “single payer,” there are details that should be discussed, debated, understood, and more fully refined before committing that idea into an actual law. And some Senators would prefer not to vote for a bill under the hopes that it never ever ever actually comes to fruition (though - based on today, that is not a universal sentiment).
So, among the reasons that any individual Democrat might not have voted for this are:
[ul]
[li] they don’t like single payer[/li][li] they don’t like this version of single payer and would prefer a different version (perhaps Sanders’s, perhaps their own personal version)[/li][li] they mostly like this version of single payer - but think that there are a few key items that need to be changed before the vote[/li][li] they don’t know much about this version of single payer and would like to find out more before voting[/li][li] they are concerned what might happen to the bill once it makes it to the House and are not willing to vote “yes” until there are more assurances there[/li][li] they are an obstructionist who just reflexively vote “no” to everything said by any Republican[/li][li] they think Daines is a weenie and voted to piss him off[/li][*] they’re a coward[/ul]Matching each Senator to the reason for their vote and determining whether that reason is acceptable is an exercise for the electorate.
Schoolhouse Rock never prepared me for any of this.
Comic Sans? That’s just a whole new kind of tyranny.
If the point of the skinny bill is just to get to conference to discuss an actual bill and no one cares what the actual bill says (as evidenced by the fact that Graham called it a “disaster”), but they are concerned that the House Republicans will actually pass it, then why does the skinny bill have to say anything at all? Why not just pass a bill to go to conference that says The House of Representatives are Doodoo heads so that they won’t just pass it?
If the Senate passes skinny repeal in the hopes that the conferees will come up with something better (which they’re miraculously going to find, even though everyone else has failed), all the leverage goes to the House. They can come up with anything, and say, “it’s either this or skinny repeal.”
So when does life become a glorious cycle of song? 
Because then they couldn’t call it an Obamacare repeal bill.
Nate Silver says the Senate bill “would need to do something that reduced the deficit by at least as much as the House’s bill to qualify under reconciliation rules.”
Two CNN headlines. Classic:
Graham, skinny bill a “fraud” and “political cop out.”
Graham to vote yes
:smack:
Nope. Wingdings. Would make as much sense as anything else these days…
…seven years.
Eight.
Fucking.
Pages.
Put together over lunch, presented at 2200, to be voted on at midnight.
2 and a half of those pages are about defunding planned parenthood.
Unfuckingbelievable. Republicans have come out and called this bill bad and a fraud. And they are still going to vote for the fucking thing. What the hell have you done America?
[QUOTE=Donald J Trump]
Go Republican Senators, Go! Get there after waiting for 7 years. Give America great healthcare!
[/QUOTE]
Fucking madness.
An instant children’s classic by Dr. Seuss
Go, Republican Senators, Go!
We have to buy the world a Coke.
So the Senate is going to trust the House not to pass the skinny repeal.
But Trump wants a bill on his desk. And Trump is taking credit for bringing a Foxconn plant with 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin. You really think Ryan’s getting off the hook here?
You know Trump’s going to be trying to cash in that chip bigly. And Trump doesn’t comprehend the Senate-House procedural nuances. Trump’s going to feel betrayed if the House doesn’t pass his bill. And he and Scary Moochie will put Ryan in their crosshairs.
Gives the Republicans in the House a blackmail advantage. The can go to this reconciliation crap and put up whatever they feel like, and say “Well, you can take *this *deal, or we’ll pass the piece of shit the Senate sent over. Sign here, or fuck you!”
What could the Senate do about it? Nada fucking thing, right? “We promised we’d take up your bill in conciliation,we did, then we bent you over a barrel and gave you a jolly good rogering! Over it yet? How about now?”…
Following the 538 feed. Wow, quite a cliffhanger.