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[CitizenVectron]

He is calling for the nuclear option to be used on legislation, which means that you'd only ever need a majority to pass any law.

This would make the legislatures (House and Senate) similar to Canada or the UK, but without the tradition of restraint.

It would also be very bad for the GOP, as it would mean that the next time the Democrats have a simple majority they could pass something like universal healthcare. Sure the GOP could undo it with a vote when they retake the houses, but it's much harder to take something away than to give it (as seen with the current AHCA debate).

 

[abundant]

They should do that shit. And the Republicans better pray they have the Presidency forever.

They know that by doing this, there would be no way to put the genie back in the bottle, so I highly doubt they'd ever use that option. If they did and the Democrats regain the majority (which will eventually happen), the GOP couldn't obstruct anymore, which seems to be the only thing they are good at.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

This thread has looked scary too many times.

 

[theWB27]

Challenging ol Mcconellll now I see

 

[LostMyNarbles]

Lol at grouping GOP and ISIS together. The thing is, even if the AHCA might "kill" thousands of people, GOP politicians still aren't "evil". People who prefer smaller goverment and less social welfare aren't evil. Wealthier people who advocate for policies that might relatively hurt poorer people more aren't evil. It's unfortunate that they have the beliefs that they have, but they have every right to have their own opinions of things and you know what? Around half of the Americans support most of their policies.

"Everybody is on their own, no goverment handouts" policies what GOP tends to have are pretty reasonable policies in my opinion. I certainly don't approve them and I realize that I'm very fortunate to live in a country that has great social security, but I also understand that not everyone agrees with what is the responsibility of the goverment.

Semi OT:
I think what is most worrying is the polarization of the American politics. The political system is a mess, both sides accuse each other about everything and the politicians do everything to rile up their base against the other. The amount of fake news, half-truths and false narratives, mostly from the right but a lot from the left as well is ridiculous. Even in GAF the quality of political discussion went way down during the election cycle and it has stayed down ever since. The two party system in USA just doesn't work and that just sucks since there doesn't really seem to be a place for a new party.

/endrant

Gimme a break Republicans don't support smaller government, they only just like to drum that line whenever the Democrats have power. When Republicans are in control they show no interest in that "Small government" mindset as they push an agenda to worsen the lives of everybody who isn't a rich, straight, white guy.

 

[Zareth]

He is calling for the nuclear option to be used on legislation, which means that you'd only ever need a majority to pass any law.

This would make the legislatures (House and Senate) similar to Canada or the UK, but without the tradition of restraint.

This only works in UK and Canada because we have more than two political parties. This seems like a terrible idea in a two party system.

 

[MisterR]

He is calling for the nuclear option to be used on legislation, which means that you'd only ever need a majority to pass any law.

This would make the legislatures (House and Senate) similar to Canada or the UK, but without the tradition of restraint.

It would also be very bad for the GOP, as it would mean that the next time the Democrats have a simple majority they could pass something like universal healthcare. Sure the GOP could undo it with a vote when they retake the houses, but it's much harder to take something away than to give it (as seen with the current AHCA debate).

Yep, Republicans love obstructing, much more than they like governing. They will never give away the legislative filibuster.

 

[FyreWulff]

President is demanding that Senate moves into 51 votes system and rams through this and tax cuts plan as soon as possible.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869553853750013953

let's assume the Republicans are dumb enough to do this, the votes still wouldn't work this way as vote #51 would now know their vote is a loaded gun, and it'd be just as hard to pass legislation and when you do the Dems can wash their hands of it completely so you own it 100%

but then again, Trump isn't a politician and doesn't know how crumple zones help bills get passed

 

[Zolo]

let's assume the Republicans are dumb enough to do this, the votes still wouldn't work this way as vote #51 would now know their vote is a loaded gun, and it'd be just as hard to pass legislation and when you do the Dems can wash their hands of it completely so you own it 100%

but then again, Trump isn't a politician and doesn't know how crumple zones help bills get passed

That's why you get to vote 50 and then try to offset all the damage on Pence and Trump.

 

[I H8 Memes]

I really don't think he cares. He has no clue what's in the house bill at all. He just wants a win and to be able to say he repealed Obamacare.

I doubt he had any idea how many seats there are in the senate or how it worked even 5 months ago. He is the average American.

 

[theWB27]

let's assume the Republicans are dumb enough to do this, the votes still wouldn't work this way as vote #51 would now know their vote is a loaded gun, and it'd be just as hard to pass legislation and when you do the Dems can wash their hands of it completely so you own it 100%

but then again, Trump isn't a politician and doesn't know how crumple zones help bills get passed

I thought Mconnelllll already stated they don't want to change the rules. It's out of the question.

 

[SolarPowered]

President is demanding that Senate moves into 51 votes system and rams through this and tax cuts plan as soon as possible.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869553853750013953

Destroy healthcare for the old/feeble, nuke the filibuster and give the world to millenials and generation X from 2020 onwards?

Sounds like the perfect recipe for Republican success.

 

[wutwutwut]

Trump is a moron, but the legislative filibuster should go away. At the moment the only purpose it serves is diffusion of responsibility. Republican senators need to own what the rest of their party does.

 

[Zeus Molecules]

President is demanding that Senate moves into 51 votes system and rams through this and tax cuts plan as soon as possible.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869553853750013953

Got to get the storyline off of Russia.....

 

[KingV]

They know that by doing this, there would be no way to put the genie back in the bottle, so I highly doubt they'd ever use that option. If they did and the Democrats regain the majority (which will eventually happen), the GOP couldn't obstruct anymore, which seems to be the only thing they are good at.

Yes, I agree. Trump is too dumb to realize that the filibuster benefits the Republicans far more than the democrats over the long term.

Of course, so do blue slips, but it looks like they plan to dump those too.

 

[jrcbandit]

Such a great health Care plan, my mom is on Medicare plus supplemental insurance but if not her health insurance premiums would cost about $40-50,000 a year due to pre existing conditions.

 

[oti]

President is demanding that Senate moves into 51 votes system and rams through this and tax cuts plan as soon as possible.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869553853750013953

Wasn't the Senate supposed to come up with their own bill since the house's one is garbage?

 

[Zolo]

Got to get the storyline off of Russia.....

We have an investigation that'll likely take at least a year. It's not going anywhere.

Yes, I agree. Trump is too dumb to realize that the filibuster benefits the Republicans far more than the democrats over the long term.

He thought the same about the EC too.

 

[Maxim726X]

He is calling for the nuclear option to be used on legislation, which means that you'd only ever need a majority to pass any law.

This would make the legislatures (House and Senate) similar to Canada or the UK, but without the tradition of restraint.

It would also be very bad for the GOP, as it would mean that the next time the Democrats have a simple majority they could pass something like universal healthcare. Sure the GOP could undo it with a vote when they retake the houses, but it's much harder to take something away than to give it (as seen with the current AHCA debate).

Man, I fucking wish they would nuke the filibuster.

Let each party advance their agenda and let the voters decide if they're doing a good job or not. The GOP agenda is garbage and I would like to see how people fare under their control. I would imagine it wouldn't be beneficial to the party to actually see that happen so they'll keep the filibuster.

 

[hydragonwarrior]

Man, I fucking wish they would nuke the filibuster.

Let each party advance their agenda and let the voters decide if they're doing a good job or not. The GOP agenda is garbage and I would like to see how people fare under their control. I would imagine it wouldn't be beneficial to the party to actually see that happen so they'll keep the filibuster.

For that perfect scenario of universal healthcare, Dems also need the House too.

 

[Oni Jazar]

Got to get the storyline off of Russia.....

Yes lets get off of Russia and into 20+ millions more Americans losing health care because of the shit bill that is ACHA. People love losing health care and paying tons more of premiums depending on age and gutting medicaid....

 

[Zolo]

Yes lets get off of Russia and into 20+ millions more Americans losing health care because of the shit bill that is ACHA. People love losing health care and paying tons more of premiums depending on age and gutting medicaid....

Not to mention it's been shown more of the population care about healthcare making it an issue he risks to get much more unpopular.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Yes lets get off of Russia and into 20+ millions more Americans losing health care because of the shit bill that is ACHA. People love losing health care and paying tons more of premiums depending on age and gutting medicaid....

Lol, yeah, if his goal is to get off the Russia story and on to this, he's basically leaping from a dumpster fire to an dumpster inferno.

 

[Boylamite]

Gimme a break Republicans don't support smaller government, they only just like to drum that line whenever the Democrats have power. When Republicans are in control they show no interest in that "Small government" mindset as they push an agenda to worsen the lives of everybody who isn't a rich, straight, white guy.

If somehow "larger government" translated into more money for their owners, GOP would be all for it. It's all about money. Always has been, always will. Considering what they are willing to do to get at that sweet sweet tax revenue, including taking away healthcare for 23 million+ people, evil perfectly describes them.

 

[Bruce Springsteen]

Wasn't the Senate supposed to come up with their own bill since the house's one is garbage?

What will pass won't be much different than this bill

 

[Tovarisc]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869902591005741056

Again at it. Really desperate to get something other than Russia probe and Paris Accord into news.

 

[epmode]

Good people all!

 

[Maledict]

This only works in UK and Canada because we have more than two political parties. This seems like a terrible idea in a two party system.

Not sure about Canada, but that isn't the case at all in the Uk. Barring the coalition governments, the UK has been governed by one of two parties since the war. Third party votes and MPs have absolutely no impact on the fact the winning party can do whatever it wants.

I think people have the cause and symptom the wrong way round here. It's not that a system where a new government can completely destroy what the last government does only works in the Uk because of restraint. The restraint has come about *because* governments can do whatever they want.

Allowing governments the ability to do what they were elected to do pushes them to the centre over time, as they are held accountable for their failures. That's why it works in the Uk. We're not some mystical, moderate country by default.

 

[TestOfTide]

There is no way that McConnell goes Nuclear on the legislative fillibuster. If he does that, then he runs the risk of people like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul forming a Senate equivalent to the house freedom caucus, which would completely destroy McConnell's ability to control the Senate.

 

[I H8 Memes]

Trump is back in country? So this is what he is doing the rest of this week. Whats next week? Does he swing back to not passing tax reform or another failed muslim ban?

 

[Tovarisc]

Leaked regulation: Trump plans to roll back Obamacare birth control mandate

The Trump administration is apparently preparing to overhaul Obamacare's birth control mandate, purportedly allowing any employer to seek a moral or religious exemption from the requirement, according to a draft regulation obtained by Vox.

The Affordable Care Act requires nearly all employers to offer health insurance that covers access to a wide array of contraceptive methods. The draft proposal, if finalized, would significantly broaden the type of companies and organizations that can request an exemption. This could lead to many American women who currently receive no-cost contraception having to pay out of pocket for their medication.

”It's just a very, very, very broad exception for everybody," Tim Jost, a health law professor at Washington and Lee University, told Vox. ”If you don't want to provide it, you don't have to provide it."

Obamacare requires nearly all insurance plans to cover birth control — a provision protested by religious employers

The birth control mandate is one of eight women's preventive health benefits that the Affordable Care Act requires health plans to provide without any cost to the patient. Other required benefits include breastfeeding equipment, HPV testing, and domestic violence screenings.

Obamacare directed the Institute of Medicine, an independent, congressionally chartered body, to define what medical services should be included as women's preventive health benefits. The health care law did not include a specific list of services.

Religious houses of worship were the only employers exempted from the mandate entirely. The Obama White House gave some relief to religiously affiliated hospitals and universities. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that it would allow ”closely held" privately businesses to also exclude birth control from their insurance plans if coverage would violate their religious beliefs.

These employers were asked to file paperwork with the Obama administration, and then their health insurer would step in to pay for their employees' contraception.

But some religious groups objected to even that process, arguing that by taking an affirmative action like filing paperwork, they were tacitly endorsing the contraception that their employees would still receive. After various legal challenges over that issue, the Supreme Court asked the federal government and the mandate's opponents to find a compromise that would suit both sides. But they failed to do so before the end of the Obama administration.

The Trump administration's new rule, explained

The Trump administration's draft regulation would allow any employer to request an exemption based on moral or religious objections. This would widen the exemption to apply to any company from a small, religiously affiliated business to a large, publicly traded company.

Universities that provide students health coverage are considered employers for health insurance purposes and could also seek the same exemption. Employers could cite any religious or moral reason for their exemption.

The Trump administration cites protecting religious liberty as well as the situation left unresolved by the Obama administration as reasons for issuing this new regulation with a wider exemption.

”Expanding the exemption removes religious and moral obstacles that entities and certain individuals may face who otherwise wish to participate in the healthcare market," the administration states in the rule, explaining its decision.

Jost, an expert on health policy, says this represents a very significant widening of the exemptions the Obama administration allowed.

”Basically, what they're saying is that contraception isn't all that big a deal," he said. ”They do come up with an incredibly broad exemption."

The rule, as drafted, would also allow health insurers to refuse to cover contraception for religious or moral reasons, though the administration noted it was not aware of any health insurers that have those objections. It would also allow individuals to object to participating in a health plan that covers birth control.

As the Trump administration itself notes, workers whose employers request an exemption from the mandate are no longer entitled to free birth control. They would potentially have to cover the cost themselves.

More than 20 percent of US woman of childbearing age had to pay money out of pocket for oral contraceptives prior to the Obamacare mandate, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That shrunk to less than 4 percent a few years after the mandate took effect.

The new rule would take effect immediately, once it is published by the Trump administration.

Source: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/31/15716778/trump-birth-control-regulation

Trump is back in country? So this is what he is doing the rest of this week. Whats next week? Does he swing back to not passing tax reform or another failed muslim ban?

He is calling health and tax reforms to be rammed through with 51 votes. Muslim Ban is moving to SCOTUS. US is leaving Paris Accord.

 

[Tripon]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869902591005741056

Again at it. Really desperate to get something other than Russia probe and Paris Accord into news.

He just tweeted that more money needs to be spent on healthcare.

 

[HStallion]

He just tweeted that more money needs to be spent on healthcare.

He has no real platform or beliefs besides Trump is number one

 

[Zolo]

He has no real platform or beliefs besides Trump is number one

Yeah. I remember an article about how technically nobody knows what morals Trump has, so we don't know what issues he stands by. The answer is he has none. Just look at whatever he thinks will make him more liked, more money, or get revenge against Obama (or others).

 

[Buckle]

President is demanding that Senate moves into 51 votes system and rams through this and tax cuts plan as soon as possible.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869553853750013953

I'm happy he is so eager to own this.

So much easier to point to it as his big fat failure for future purposes. Very convenient when he won't shut up about it.

 

[Tovarisc]

Burr: ‘I don’t see a comprehensive health care plan this year’

Sen. Richard Burr doesn’t think Republicans will get a full health care overhaul bill through the Senate this year, he told a North Carolina news station Thursday.

“It's unlikely that we will get a health care deal, which means that most of my time has been spent trying to figure out solutions to Iowa losing all of its insurers,” he told WXII 12 News, describing the bill passed in the House last month as “not a good plan” and “dead on arrival” in the Senate.

“I don’t see a comprehensive health care plan this year,” Burr said.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/02/richard-burr-senate-health-care-bill-239066

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Thank God the GOP continues to be so stupid, at least it somewhat softens the damage they're doing.

 

[Laevateinn]

This bill being delayed to an election year guarantees that it isn't happening.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Thank God the GOP continues to be so stupid, at least it somewhat softens the damage they're doing.

I don't really think this is stupidity exactly. This is just them in a lose-lose for them since there's no way they can do what they want to do.

 

[Beartruck]

I don't really think this is stupidity exactly. This is just them in a lose-lose for them since there's no way they can do what they want to do.

Pretty much. I honestly think the celebration of the house passing it was a play to their base. Going further would lose independants.

 

[Tovarisc]

Pretty much. I honestly think the celebration of the house passing it was a play to their base. Going further would lose independants.

Doesn't base at some point start to ask where that bill at?

 

[Joe]

Lindsey Graham also says bill passage in 2017 doubtful

 

[ShironRedshift]

Hmm... Wonder if at this point the Senate's plan is just to wait for midterms, actually hope the Democrats retake the House, and only then send their bill back to the House so they can just blame the Democrats for killing it and keep Obamacare around as a boogeyman they can use for re-election campaigns going into 2020. Would be a much smarter plan than actually trying to pass that garbage, shooting themselves in the foot by doing so, and also losing the Obamacare boogeyman in the process and having to switch back to something else.

 

[Vena]

Hmm... Wonder if at this point the Senate's plan is just to wait for midterms, actually hope the Democrats retake the House, and only then send their bill back to the House so they can just blame the Democrats for killing it and keep Obamacare around as a boogeyman they can use for re-election campaigns going into 2020. Would be a much smarter plan than actually trying to pass that garbage, shooting themselves in the foot by doing so, and also losing the Obamacare boogeyman in the process and having to switch back to something else.

Nah. The bird's out of the coop at this point.

 

[CazTGG]

Hmm... Wonder if at this point the Senate's plan is just to wait for midterms, actually hope the Democrats retake the House, and only then send their bill back to the House so they can just blame the Democrats for killing it and keep Obamacare around as a boogeyman they can use for re-election campaigns going into 2020. Would be a much smarter plan than actually trying to pass that garbage, shooting themselves in the foot by doing so, and also losing the Obamacare boogeyman in the process and having to switch back to something else.

...They do realize they won't get the House back for a couple decades given the 2020 census and they're barely holding onto a Senate majority, right? There might not be a lot of seats for the Dems to pick up but a "we'll impeach Trump, vote for us" could go a long way to making that more likely in 2018.

 

[Cesare Borgia]

It's basically over. They barely got through the House with a far right bill that throws millions of people off Medicaid before 2018. Now the senate doesn't know what to do with Medicaid, but the one thing they sure as hell won't do is cosign the House's Medicaid gutting.

I don't see why McConnell would even hold a vote. Why put vulnerable senators at risk over this shit.

 

[Poor GRIMES]

Lindsey Graham also says bill passage in 2017 doubtful

so was that lil party when it passed the House just to make Trump feel good?

 

[Etrian Oddity]

Doesn't base at some point start to ask where that bill at?

That gives far too much credit to the base.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

so was that lil party when it passed the House just to make Trump feel good?

Yes.

 

[innervision961]

If trumpcare passed, and 24 million people lost coverage, and lets say %1 of those people died from their lack of long term care because they couldn't afford it, thats 240,000 Americans dead because of republican bullshit.

To put that in contrast, there has been less than 3,500 American deaths due to terrorism since 1975 to present day.

240,000 because of republican greed
~ 3,500 because of terrorism


I mean, I know this is a lot of hypotheticals, but sweet Jesus...