Fat hurts wrote:
eric a blair wrote:In the end, the Repubs were sick of being mocked for not being able to do anyything about o'care...all they cared about was being able to say they voted down o'care. They had a fun day, it was team building, it was a big party rally. None of them thinks the bill they passed is any good, none of them thinks the senate will pass it as is.
It was meant to be a big rally for the GOP - that's it.
I hate to say this, but it actually has huge consequences. It didn't really matter what was in the bill. They needed a vehicle that they could send to the senate for 51-vote passage under reconciliation. That's what they were really voting for.
The senate will gut the bill. It will be up to them to pass the thing that will go to conference and become law.
But without yesterday's bill, none of it happens. They needed to slash medicare in order to pay for their upcoming tax cuts for the rich. Some of the tax cuts are included in yesterday's bill, but most of it will come in the "tax reform" legislation to follow. Without yesterday's bill, Trump's entire legislative agenda dies.
Yesterday had huge consequences.
Good post. They had to jam this trash through to get it to the Senate. I don't even know where to begin. The Dems will not participate in this because any perception of blessing it might help it get passed. Sadly, the best strategy is to talk as much trash about the bill as possible, let the Republicans kill each other over the details, and hope that either it fails miserably or it goes through in its worst form so that people personally understand how much worse this option is than ACA.
The Dems don't have any power to turn this bill into something decent so the hope is that enough Republicans just won't be able to get on board. In its current form it probably has a 10% of passing. If watered down and shredded apart enough it has maybe a 40% chance.
It's going to be great watching Republicans fight for their survival. This will make or break the party for the next midterm.
Also, is bipartisanship truly dead or what? There is zero chance they ever work together with this administration and in this kind of hostile climate. At some point in the distant future when there is a real existential threat to politicians they might actually be useful.