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Saturday, March 25, 2017

Trump and the Republicans, Business as Usual



So far, Trump and the republicans are following perfect form:

House Republicans abandoned their efforts to repeal and partially replace Obamacare after President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan couldn’t wrangle enough votes….

It strikes me that Obama is more capable than Trump and Pelosi is more capable than Ryan; at least when Obama and Pelosi had a majority in both houses of congress, they could ramrod an unpopular bill through.

Why did it fail?  I will answer the question with a question: who in the electorate voted for “replace”?  The voters for Trump wanted “repeal.”  Republicans, when not in power, proposed a repeal bill at least half-a-dozen times.  Why not now?

Many republicans in congress wanted either repeal or a different version of replace.

If Trump and Ryan truly wanted a win, they should have called for a straight-up “repeal” vote.  The base would have been thrilled; republicans who voted against this would have been kicked out of office in two years; Trump would have delivered what his voters expected.

Instead we get one of the only two allowable outcomes in US politics: business as usual or business worse than usual.

“We’ll end up with a truly great health-care bill after the Obamacare mess explodes,” [Trump] said.

It will implode, but you won’t get “a truly great health-care bill” out of it.

Why do you think you will be in office when it implodes?  Why do you think republicans will hold a majority in congress when it implodes?  Why do you think republicans in congress will allow it to implode?  Why do you think other republicans in congress will want to replace it?

Why do you think those who voted for you want “a truly great health-care bill” at all?

12 comments:

  1. Because legislating is the only means a politician has to measure self-importance.

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  2. Nice piece as usual.

    Its all a Amish whore house ??

    These guys are The Gambino's vs Genovese

    Joey Dias at least has him figured out:

    https://youtu.be/daeeI2gNaAE


    Owyhee Cowboy

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  3. They could try legislating a return of FREEDOM to the medical industry....but republicans don't know the first thing about freedom (or free markets).

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  4. "Instead we get one of the only two allowable outcomes in US politics: business as usual or business worse than usual." Line of the week.

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  5. Trump is an authoritarian, liberal, New Yawk Democrat. Waddya expect?

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  6. Tried to access this article thru Lew Rockwell. Norton blocked you as a questionable phishing site. Just thought you should know.

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  7. "It strikes me that Obama is more capable than Trump and Pelosi is more capable than Ryan; at least when Obama and Pelosi had a majority in both houses of congress, they could ramrod an unpopular bill through."

    Far be it from me to succumb to conspiracy theorizing (har!), but it may be that Obama and Pelosi have more information on "our" Congresscritters than do Trump and Ryan, thereby rendering the lawfakers (sic) more amenable to blackmail.

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  8. Just spitballing here; could it be that Trump knew it was a crap sandwich, but because Ryan did his Pelosi imitation and froze out the conservatives of his own party, he was willing to play along and let it fail to finally expose Ryan for the liberal progressive he is? I don't doubt, nor do I disagree with the comment above about Trump being a New York statist and (possibly still) democrat, but I think he cares more about the people outside the beltway swamp more than whatever party he decides to affiliate himself with. I trust him about 39% of the time...compared to congress and past presidents, whom I trusted about 0.009% of the time. I'm sure it's too much and I will ratchet that number down as time goes on.

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    1. I don't eliminate any possibility, however my view wouldn't be this. Doing it this way, Trump ends up with as much egg on his face as anyone. If Trump wanted to expose Ryan and others as liberals, Trump could have just pushed for a "repeal" vote and forced the issue.

      Or if this was too radical, just push for a vote to eliminate the mandate and the excess payroll tax - both would have solid support with conservatives.

      This would also have exposed Ryan without Trump taking as big a hit...I think...

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  9. The Healthcare problem is severe. Part of the problem is that health insurance isn't really insurance at all, it is a sort of subscription health plan, more like a gym membership. There should only be catastrophic health insurance, and the current health insurance companies shouldn't be involved in subscription health at all.

    The most important thing to do is to restore price signals to this industry.

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    Replies
    1. Price signals are exactly what people don't want. People understand that this mess is going to collapse they just want as much out of it as they can grab. It is classic Tragedy of the Commons.

      As for Trump (A consistent supporter of socialized health care), he will not destroy Obummer Care as even this is beyond the power of his office.

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