the unifying theme of media coverage of the House ACA repeal activity today was the mumurs of approval for how the House Rs pulled an all-nighter to "debate" their repeal bills.

Ooooh, 28 (or 35, or make up your own number) hours of debate, look at those R congresspeople work so hard....

These guys are morons. Ryan literally has no idea what he's talking about.

When people become desperate to afford their medicines and hospital bills...what's the cost of increased crime? And poverty?

I guess this is why having guns is so important.

Most prosperous populace in the galaxy. And we can't even agree that it's probably better for society as a whole if we help one another, especially with regards to healthcare.

I thought the Bible touched on stuff like this. Republicans?

GOP bible only covers rich WASPs

so apparently Mexico's foreign minister was in DC today, meeting with drumpf, his lizard son-in-law, and probably anyone who wandered by. But not our SoS Tillerson, because why would he be there. Must be a'restin' up for his big solo trip to Asia next week.


And all of this was news to the SoS press secretary, who was unaware Mexico's foreign minister was even in DC at all.

Planet's greatest nation.

Tillerson wouldn't run Exxon this way. Why is he letting State be run on him this way?

pacino wrote:Avik Roy (yuge conservative that basically rose in stature due to opposition to ACA) blasts Trumpcare

he had a very good interview (90 min long) on Ezra Klein's podcast regarding healthcare, the GOP, etc. i disagree with the dude but he's very smart.

This is part of what I was referring to yesterday what I said the people whom I've outsourced my thinking to on the issue were not thrilled. See also McArdle and Douthat among others.

But the best summary I think, and it's a bit of a long read, is Yuval Levin's write up on National Review this afternoon. Does a very nice job covering the process, politics and policy.

Gorsuch receives a well qualified rating from the ABA.

Hopefully the Dems are forced to filibuster by their base, so McConnell can unleash the nuclear option, allowing any other nominee from Mr. Trump who might actually change the balance of the court to be confirmed by majority vote. Easy to see Collins/Murkowski and maybe institutionalists like McCain unwilling to go nuclear in that situation when doing so for such a well qualified nominee filling a slot held by an arch conservative is significantly less difficult.

Nice to get an earnest conservative POV, but stuff like this in defense of the current replacement gambit:

by enabling insurers to sell catastrophic coverage plans (along with more comprehensive plans) and enabling everyone in the individual market to afford at least those catastrophic coverage plans. This would enable far greater competition

is just the health insurance version of Ryan's free market fairy dust. you don't even have to know anything about health insurance to spot it; by increasing plan design flexibility, insurers will engage not merely in greater competition, but far greater competition.


No; no they wouldn't. And I'm FOR more plan design flexibility, particularly where people don't qualify for credits.

I've dropped this guy Joe Flower's name here & posted links to some of his writing on the subject. He's not a big health policy name, or even a big health policy brain, but he does write pretty clearly on health policy issues, from a rakish angle.

Where he's particularly helpful is encouraging people to keep their eye on the ball. We don't "really" want to change how health insurance works; we want to change how skilled people and organizations who "do" health care are paid, which entails changing what they're paid for. We want to pay them for health, and not for "doing stuff".

And it is not mushy liberal sentiment that should make us want to finance that more rational health treatment rationally. It's pure good old fashioned selfish self interest.

I want to make sure the health care interstate system, the health care internet, functions smoothly, not for poor people, but because I want it working when my family and I need it to. It's functioning isn't discrete, it doesn't have a long shelf life; it's continuous, it has & needs to maintain a dial tone, so that when I need it, it's working.

So, because it is all about me, it needs to be financed in a way that it's all about everybody.
toc
Oh, and state regulation of health insurance makes as much sense in the 21st century as would state-by-state regulation of the stock market that required publicly traded firms to register and issue different securities for each state in the nation.

jerseyhoya wrote:Gorsuch receives a well qualified rating from the ABA.

Hopefully the Dems are forced to filibuster by their base, so McConnell can unleash the nuclear option, allowing any other nominee from Mr. Trump who might actually change the balance of the court to be confirmed by majority vote. Easy to see Collins/Murkowski and maybe institutionalists like McCain unwilling to go nuclear in that situation when doing so for such a well qualified nominee filling a slot held by an arch conservative is significantly less difficult.

Yeah, let's hope. This are the things to be hopeful about.

jerseyhoya wrote:Gorsuch receives a well qualified rating from the ABA.

Hopefully the Dems are forced to filibuster by their base, so McConnell can unleash the nuclear option, allowing any other nominee from Mr. Trump who might actually change the balance of the court to be confirmed by majority vote. Easy to see Collins/Murkowski and maybe institutionalists like McCain unwilling to go nuclear in that situation when doing so for such a well qualified nominee filling a slot held by an arch conservative is significantly less difficult.

Gorsuch should be looked at as a gift as Trump & Friends could have done so many other horrible things. He is not a bad candidate, but in light of the stupidity of the Merrick Garland affair, it is sad. No one except crazy liars can make a reasoned case against Garland. Hell, he might have been the most seasoned, qualified and proven justice nominee in my life time. So the GOP brought that shame forward, and shows it has no actual interest in the proper governance of the US, only partisanship.

Regarding the nuclear option, that would finish the decent into autocracy. If that route is taken, there is no real reason to believe in the system representing the will of the people. It is as simple as that. Honestly, as a frequent JH defended, and as at least on PM said apologist, the desire to use the nuclear option is truly the worse thing you have said in memory.

For those who have not lived under an actual nuclear threat, the term carries weight as it is assured unilateral destruction, which was omnipresent throughout my childhood. The fear, almost expectation, of total obviation was a source of constant threat whenever tensions were high, which was often. That is not the United States of America that the Founders established, in fact it is they type of tyrannical rule that they rebelled against.

WaPo headline: White House: Trump unaware of Flynn's foreign agent work . There are ways to find this stuff out if you are President. What is the vetting cycle @ the WH? I know, rhetorical question.

This Russian server interaction with Trump organization servers is mysterious. Sure, it might be nothing, and it is only coincident that the other US server this bank computer hit was a Dovos owned enterprise. The Russians don't know anything, or anyone. It could be nothing, it could be hacking attempts, it could be a front for Russian state sponsored activities, who knows. I do not, nor have I ever worked in the cyber end of the industry, but I am thinking it will be hard to know anything if information was not somehow maintained. But since the Trump organization is on record as routinely destroying records of all types, in defiance of little things like court orders, I cannot see that the logs exist (lets hope for best practices in backing up data). This is a strange twist.

Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle (PA) baited Republican Rep. John Shimkus (IL) on Shimkus’s objections to the Affordable Care Act’s requirements for health-insurance plans, specifically goading out of his his objection over why men should pay for prenatal coverage. OK, I am over selling, Doyle did little more the follow up Shimkus's line of inquiry.

Some of our elected "leaders" are so damn stupid. Bare in mind that yesterday's CBO controversy that career bureaucrats can't be trusted over Elected Officials.

another sex assault at FOX News settled

Feb had 235k jobs created. wages didn't go up much at all though, 0.2%.

interest rates gonna go up

thephan wrote:This Russian server interaction with Trump organization servers is mysterious. Sure, it might be nothing, and it is only coincident that the other US server this bank computer hit was a Dovos owned enterprise. The Russians don't know anything, or anyone. It could be nothing, it could be hacking attempts, it could be a front for Russian state sponsored activities, who knows. I do not, nor have I ever worked in the cyber end of the industry, but I am thinking it will be hard to know anything if information was not somehow maintained. But since the Trump organization is on record as routinely destroying records of all types, in defiance of little things like court orders, I cannot see that the logs exist (lets hope for best practices in backing up data). This is a strange twist.

read about that server before the election even finished, is the story resurfacing?

I've said it twice before and got no comments, to me the real suspicious thing is that the famous dossier with Trump peeing had a part where 19% of Rosneft would be sent to Trump and his buddies. Under a veil of secrecy and shell corporations and Cayman banks 19.5% of Rosneft was sold and financed to unknown parties. With all of the stuff from the dossier that has been verified, I'm starting to think that it's not fake anymore.

Sam Brownback may take an ambassadorship and leave Kansas. Bully for Kansas!

pacino wrote:Feb had 235k jobs created.

making America great again

you joke but that sentiment is already being repeated ad nauseum among conservative circles