Trumpcare Megathread: It's dead (for now)

[Gustaf]

So it's in 4 hours?

[SoLongAtlas]

So it's in 4 hours?

Yes, 1010 EST right now so it would put it 4 hours from now

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Sounds like the MTP will pass.

[7,052,770]

Sounds like the MTP will pass.

I've already had to bury a parent. It was stage 4 lunch cancer - there was nothing anyone could do for him.

Looks like my wife may get to go through that same awful experience herself, this time not because it was unpreventable, but because Republicans pridefully wanted to score a fleeting political victory over Obama. Millions of Americans are coming to that same realization today. What a tragedy.

[The Other Castro]

This is apparently McConnell's plan:




And it got Paul on board for the MTP, because he just tweeted:

Senator Rand Paul‏ @RandPaul
This morning, @SenateMajLdr informed me that the plan for today is to take up the 2015 clean repeal bill as I've urged.

If that is the plan, I will vote to proceed to have this vote. I also now believe we will be able to defeat the new spending and bailouts

I've been told by leadership their bill would now need 60 votes to pass, votes they do not have. Therefore I believe it will fail.

If we cannot pass full, clean 2015 repeal, I've also been told we will vote on whatever version of CLEAN repeal we can pass.

Repealing mandates & taxes, without new spending and bailouts. This is the path I've been urging, and what I discussed with @realDonaldTrump

If this is indeed the plan, I will vote to proceed and I will vote for any all measures that are clean repeal.

https://twitter.com/LACaldwellDC/status/889849720104943616

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It's gonna pass if they can get Rand on board

[BudgieForce]

Repealing the individual mandate is incredibly short sighted. While im glad it looks like Medicaid is safe (for now), with no individual mandate, Obamacare will collapse.

[The Other Castro]

People to watch: Murkowski, Heller, Capito, Portman, Lee, Moran, Flake.

If Murkowski is indeed a NO as was rumored, this probably once again comes down to Heller.

[Gustaf]

Isn't a fairly reasonable possibility that none of the Republican senators want to go into recess having done *nothing* to uphold their repeal promise and doing this allows them all to tout a vote they can defend without anything really passing?

Rand Paul seems to basically be saying that he'd like to cast a clean repeal vote so he can say that he did, even though he knows full well that won't pass. Maybe that's what they're all doing.

[7,052,770]

It's gonna pass if they can get Rand on board

Super classy to stick out your tongue at my MIL and the millions of other Americans Trump and the Republicans are sentencing to death today.

[7,052,770]

Repealing the individual mandate is incredibly short sighted. While im glad it looks like Medicaid is safe (for now), with no individual mandate, Obamacare will collapse.

Yes, analyses consistently show that no individual mandate = 20-30% home in health insurance premiums. Many insurers have already gotten permission to revise their premiums if the mandate is eliminated.

[KingSweden]

It's gonna pass if they can get Rand on board

Super classy to stick out your tongue at my MIL and the millions of other Americans Trump and the Republicans are sentencing to death today.

That's not a "neener" tongue. More of a "blerg" tongue

[Yank2133]

The GOP is incredibly stupid.

They won't agree to a bill and all they will have done is cause premiums to spike by repealing the mandate.

They will own this and they won't be able to talk their way out of it.

[The Other Castro]

Graham says he would be a No on a skinny repeal plan (I assume Collins would be as well). Also, it doesn't really seem clear whether such a bill like that would even be allowed under the rules of reconciliation, because it would need to reduce the deficit.

[coloradocowboi]

Could we stop being hyperbolic? And I really dislike that we're trying to somehow attack John McCain for the imagined sin of killing 30 million or whatever people. J-Mac has been a conservative Republican all his life and has foundational beliefs about healthcare, about government, and the role of the state. He's also the guy who voted against the methane rule expiring in May and has a long history of working with Democrats, especially on campaign finance reform.

Imagined sin? It's a fact, corroborated by academic research, the CBO, and private research that people will lose their insurance and therefore their lives as a result of this bill.

If John McCain doesn't want to be criticized maybe he should have ran for Senate in Zimbabwe, but as Americans it our right and our duty to hold people in power accountable, regardless of their current situations, regardless of their past works, regardless of their status as a military hero. The fact that this guy has literally left his deathbed so he can vote on a piece of legislation that will prevent other from getting the care that he has benefitted from disgusts me, and I don't care if you dislike my expressing my disgust about it. I dislike providing inferior medical services to people because they are poorer than me.

[SoLongAtlas]

I have the utmost respect for McCain and helped out at his HQ in 08 but if he comes back and votes for a MTP after just being diagnosed with brain cancer, it will be the ultimate of ironies. Not Dr. Evil level but pushing it. Maybe he thinks that it will reduce premiums (a lot of senators on the GOP side think this) but everything I have read says that without the mandate, prices will increase due to the basic risk pool math of it.

[The Other Castro]

Collins and an unidentified male Senator were caught on a hot mic talking about Rep. Farenthold, the guy that made those comments about challenging female Republicans to a duel if they were men:

Male Senator: "You could beat the sh**t out of him."
Collins: "He's so unattractive, it's unbelievable."

Edit: The male Senator appears to have been Jack Reed.

[Confused Democrat]

What time is the Senate set to vote on the motion to proceed?

[Yank2133]

Regardless of whatever happens today, I really hope this entire debacle puts to rest McConnell being some sort of strategic genius.

The skinny repeal is the dumbest idea that they have come up with, and that includes the Medicaid cuts.

[The Other Castro]

It doesn't look like they intend to actually sign a skinny repeal into law though. They just really need to pass something that they can bring to a conference with the House so that they have some kind of starting point to work out a joint bill.

[Yank2133]

It doesn't look like they intend to actually sign a skinny repeal into law though. They just really need to pass something that they can bring to a conference with the House so that they have some kind of starting point to work out a joint bill.

The thing is they aren't going to agree to a bill and insurance companies are going to revise their premiums outlooks for 2018 because of the uncertainty.

Whether this becomes law or not, it is going to blow up the individual markets.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It's gonna pass if they can get Rand on board

Super classy to stick out your tongue at my MIL and the millions of other Americans Trump and the Republicans are sentencing to death today.

Oh please we're just trimming the fat. Wait until it's time for our Republican chili cook-off. That's when we're actually going to start rounding up teh poors.

[The Mikado]

It doesn't look like they intend to actually sign a skinny repeal into law though. They just really need to pass something that they can bring to a conference with the House so that they have some kind of starting point to work out a joint bill.

That would be even worse from their point of view because they'd need to pass it through the House and Senate again.

[7,052,770]

It's gonna pass if they can get Rand on board

Super classy to stick out your tongue at my MIL and the millions of other Americans Trump and the Republicans are sentencing to death today.

Oh please we're just trimming the fat. Wait until it's time for our Republican chili cook-off. That's when we're actually going to start rounding up teh poors.

I know you're just trolling because you think I'm being hyperbolic, but you need to cut it out. To an uninsured person  even a treatable cancer diagnosis is a death sentence.

[Yank2133]

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This what Mitch McConnell has reduced the senate to.