That's so funny, "vote *for* this bill or you'll lose your job", when every indication is that voting in favor will get you drummed out of office by constituents who've made their feelings crystal clear. If I were them I'd listen to my real bosses.
So as a representative of a district; the only people that should matter are the ones that match with the letter after your name? That seems like a GREAT way to govern.
I think they do have a plan. The bill is full of language like The first step is to pass the bill. Next, Secretary Price starts drawing lines through all sorts of stuff that should be cut out. Then, finally it's set up so people can shop other states for plans. Maybe.
To be fair, most of the seven years was spent whipping the base into enough of a frenzy that they'd forgive the Republicans taking away their healthcare because it got rid of something with Obama's name on it.
Right now the Republicans are basically that kid that rode the bench all season talking shit to the opposing team about how if he gets in the game he's going to kill them and that his game is better than everybody on the court. Now he's in the game and can barely dribble the ball.
They voted to repeal Obamacare something like 50 times, and then the second a vote comes up where they know the vote will actually be implemented because it won't be vetoed, they chicken out. They know their policies are shit, they know they're just grandstanding. How do people keep supporting this absolute joke of a political party. edit: fucking seven hours apart:
Word on the street is that this was the final all or nothing push, and there will be no other. I did love Ryan doing his damnedest to pin the entirety of ACA on the democrats, as if they passed the exact law they wanted unilaterally. Heck it's been 6 years, people forget. So here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamasdeal/
Perhaps they never should have been drafted. Kept safe in the minors for the entirety of their nothing-career with all the other lightweights who weren't cut out for this sort of thing. That's your current ruling government.
I don't totally disagree, but is the rampant corruption, piling onto the debt, bombing several countries simultaneously with little to show for it, nearly all the wealth generation going to the upper class, expanding spying on citizens etc etc really better? I mean, it's one thing to shit on the republicans and I can certainly sympathize with it. I still voted dem on everything except the presidency, but it's kind of absurd to me to act like they were doing such a wonderful job when they controlled shit and *only now* are things screwed up. I'm just not seeing it. The most odd thing to me about the reflection of Obama's presidency was how he was in so many ways a continuation of the most egregious failures of the Bush era and both the mainstream left and right fail to point that out. Take for example that he actually spent $200 billion MORE than Bush did on the military during his administration and withdrew from Iraq/Afghanistan not on his campaign time table but the Bush time table. He said he would stop the spying on citizens like Bush did; he instead expanded it. He was all about the middle class, but like Bush his policies most greatly benefited the upper class. Obama campaigned on fixing the debt crisis, he piled on more than Bush. And so on. All that being said, the AHCA is a shit bill, but I'm not sure a failure to pass something 2 months into the new make up is really such a catastrophe. Not that I have high hopes for prospective health care reform over the next 4 years.
The Democrats are unequivocally better than the Republicans right now. The difference is staggering. That doesn't mean the Democrats are perfect, or even good by any objective measure, but holy shit the Republicans are just not an acceptable choice in any way shape or form.
It's not such a catastrophe except for the fact that it was built up that on day one it would be repealed and all the other guarantees. If you're going to come out that strong about something and then have it blow up in your face the way this did. That's where it becomes a "catastrophe"
Because the only alternative are the Democrats, and vice versa. But I don't understand this line of thinking. Shouldn't you happy that some members defected and they didn't repeal and replace it? This is the way the system should be working, is it not? Granted some of the defectors were from the Freedom Caucus, but the blind group-think and party allegiance is really toxic on both sides.
I forget where I read it, but it basically said if you dialed back the clock 25 years, Obama would be a staunchly right-wing conservative. I think ultimately both parties are stuck because they are beholden to voters for their jobs (ultimately), but donors and the corporations for nearly every Goddamn thing else. That's why we're still centered around arguments like abortion, which has literally been raging my entire life. I also think it's why Bernie got the "Most Popular Politician in America" label: he's arguing against the corporate and business interests. The Democrats are bad, but functional. The Republicans are simply too far gone. I think the main issue is the economy, followed by healthcare and education. We have no social safety net and stand alone in the developed world in that regard. The powers that be have turned selling us a fantasy that both titillates and enrages us into an art form. Americans work best when there's a villain that we're up against. We, as a country, lost our way with the collapse of the USSR, because then we only had ourselves to fight against. That's what we've been doing most of my adult life.