Working Hard At Hardly Working (Except To Take Healthcare Away)

 

The Great Fatsby (h/t Andy Marlette) has his toadies working hard at making it look like he's working hard on opening government, while he has dinners for his rich friends at Mar-a-Lardo, plays golf in West Palm Beach, and floats a scheme to kill the Affordable Care Act:

"... After his golf outing, Trump returned to his gilded private club, Mar-a-Lago, and doubled down on his demand that Republicans stop seeking compromise and try instead to repeal and replace Obamacare with a version of the plan that failed to garner enough support in 2017.  [snip]

"One bizarre element of the Republican effort to signal that their party is working overtime to end the shutdown, even as Trump golfs in Florida, was a social media post on Saturday from Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma senator. Mullin posted four photographs of himself and two other Republican senators meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, with the caption: “Working through the weekend with President Donald J Trump. It’s always an honor to be in the Oval Office– I never take this opportunity to serve Oklahoma for granted.”

"What Mullin failed to make clear is that the photographs were taken on Friday, before Trump left for a weekend golf trip at his Florida resort. Mullin himself had previously posted one of the photographs in a social media video Friday night..." (our emphasis)

Here's the post from dimwit liar Mullin, as linked to above --

As the article also notes, the latest reverse- Robin Hood scheme coming from the soggy brain of the Great Fatsby/ Malignant Fascist is yet another run at killing the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare").  So, in fact, they are working hard ... at taking affordable healthcare away from millions of Americans (including many of their own voters):

In a Truth Social post, Trump suggested that instead of meeting the demand from Democrats to extend subsidies for health insurance plans purchased through the ACA marketplace, to pay for sharply increased premiums, Republicans should return to the project of replacing the Obama-era law, which failed during his first administration.

“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE,” Trump wrote.  [snip]

None of the Republican senators seemed to grapple with the fact that consumers would still need to buy plans from the same insurance companies, or that Republican lawmakers need the support of eight Democrats to reopen the government, and the idea of repealing and replacing Obamacare with savings accounts is unlikely to earn a single Democratic vote.

Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, shared an alarmed response to Trump’s proposal from Larry Levitt, the executive vice-president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who wrote on social media: “You have to read between the lines here to imagine what President Trump is proposing. But, it sounds like it could be a plan for health accounts that could be used for insurance that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, which could create a death spiral in ACA plans that do.”... (our emphasis)

The rotted-out Republican Party/ cult has by now fully taken on the sociopathic character of its ignorant, buffoonish Emperor- with- no- clothes cult leader, so it's uncertain how many of them would have made a deal with Democrats by now were it not for the MF's making it a personal power struggle, the good of the American people be damned.  For now, we need Democrats in the Senate to remain unified and strong so people know who's fighting for them, and who's working hard to do them harm.

Biting The Hand That Heals You

A key pathology of the far right, as embodied by the Republican / New Confederate/ Stupid Party, is the intentional disconnection from facts and data, unless they happen to support their world view.  A prime example is the role that human activity plays in climate change, which is accepted by 97% of the scientific community.  Yet another is the cause of the current situation in Iraq, which hardcore Rethugs want to blame on President Obama, who has been cleaning up Dubya's magnificent mess for 8 years.  Yet another example is the Rethuglican voter's view of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The Affordable Care Act suffered from a botched roll-out in 2011, but in the intervening years, has succeeded despite Rethug attempts to block or undermine aspects of the law, including an ill-fated shutdown of the Federal Government.   The Kaiser Family Foundation has found that 74% of all new enrollees in the ACA marketplace rated their health insurance coverage as either "excellent," or "good," a slight uptick from last year's numbers.  Yet, when they surveyed on the basis of party identification, only 25% of Republicans gave an "excellent," or "good" rating to the ACA.  As Kevin Drum says:

"You can buy an ACA plan on the marketplace, get a subsidy, and be happy with your plan—but if you're a Republican you still overwhelmingly hate Obamacare by 74-25 percent."

Hating something that's helped you, just because it's Obama's program. That's pathological, with no connection to what they've actually experienced.

Surprise! Republicans' First Order Of Business: Go Far Right

E.J. Dionne, Jr., has several examples of why the Republican Congress, while talking "bipartisanship" and "governing" is the same old same old (and, once again, thank you to all the Democrats who couldn't be bothered to get off their asses last November):

One example: The new rules would provide for “dynamic scoring” of tax cuts, which sounds very cool and forward-looking but for the fact that they aim to assert tax cuts won’t cost what they’ll actually cost. This, in turn, will make it easier for the Republicans to shower money on their favored constituencies while pretending to be fiscally responsible. [snip] 

[T]he House leadership included another rule flatly designed to force cuts to Social Security’s disability program. If Republicans want to debate such cuts, fine, but don’t sneak them in through the fine print.  

Then there is the move by both House and Senate Republicans to change the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Currently, employers with 50 or more full-time workers have to provide health insurance to employees who work 30 hours or more, or pay a fine. Republicans want to limit the mandate to Americans who work 40 hours or more. In USA Today this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wrote that the purpose of the change is “so more people can work full time.” 

But the change would have exactly the opposite effect.

Dionne doesn't even mention this culture war stinker:

On Tuesday, the very first day of the 114th Congress, two lawmakers introduced a measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks, in direct violation of the protections afforded under Roe v. Wade. Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the same legislation that successfully passed the House last year. 

Or this one:

Speaker John Boehner and the House Republicans are planning to try to choke off President Barack Obama’s immigration executive action next week, according to multiple GOP leadership aides involved in the talks.

You may have noticed this emerging Republican-wired media narrative (or some variation):  the establishment Republicans are in charge now and are ready to govern, if only Obama will compromise!  To which we say, with exhibits A through E above as evidence, please extract your heads from your asses and report things as they are, not as you wish them to be.

"Health Care Chickenhawks"

Opposite rulings today from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on health insurance exchanges and subsidies under Obamacare.  The D.C. court ruled 2-to-1 (two Republican skunks judges pretzeling their opinion to suit their politics) that Congress had not authorized the Federal Government to set up health insurance exchanges in those States that had not set up one of their own, relying on a drafting error in the Affordable Care Act on which to hitch their reactionary wagon.  The 4th Circuit ruled unanimously in the opposite, i.e., that it was the clear intent of the Congress that those non-State-run exchanges (and subsidies that flow from them) were authorized by the plain intent of the law.  It's expected that the full D.C. court, ruling en banc, will overturn the decision of the two Republican skunks judges.

We always have to wonder what motivates people on the right to fight the implementation of this law - which benefits so many - so doggedly.  (For that matter, they're still fighting rear guard actions on Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid 80 years and 50 years later, respectively.)  Why they seem to delight in causing harm to the most vulnerable among us.  Here's Charles P. Pierce talking about the rulings and the "health care chickenhawks:"

Simply put, there is almost an entire half of our political system that believes that a great number of Americans simply do not matter enough to make it economically feasible to help them stay healthy. They do not count. It does not matter how many of them die preventable deaths. It is better for the country, this half of the political system believes, that they grow sick and bankrupt themselves. In his famous outburst on the House floor, Alan Grayson was low-balling it. This half of the system includes prospective presidents, members of Congress, think-tank geniuses, pundits, and a lot of other people who generally have one thing in common -- most of them have wonderful health care coverage either because they have really good jobs, or they're wealthy enough to afford it, or both. These are the health care chickenhawks. And we held them to a split decision today, and maybe that's enough for the moment.

It's also worth contemplating how we as a nation came to this level of selfishness and lack of concern for the humanity of others (think also of the virulent hostility to the immigrant children who've crossed the southern border).  We have to remind ourselves, when we're repelled by the casual brutality of others in the world, that we have our own shame right here on our shores.

Tweet of the Day

Obamacare pays for itself and doesn't invade a Middle Eastern country. No wonder Republicans hate it.
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) July 14, 2014