Patterico's Pontifications

3/30/2017

Trump Vows to Fight Freedom Caucus in 2018

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:26 am



They told me if I didn’t vote for Donald Trump, we’d get a President determined to fight conservatives — and they were right!

The Freedom Caucus contains people who want to actually repeal ObamaCare rather than replace it with another big government program that retains central planning of the health care sector.

Trump has no interest in policy details. He just wants something he can call a “win” even if the price of people’s premiums continues to rocket upwards.

Increasingly, that is what Republicans want too: “winning” that results in big government, federal control of the economy, and pork pork porkity pork (that’s coming next).

Winning!

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

179 Responses to “Trump Vows to Fight Freedom Caucus in 2018”

  1. #Winning

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. the freedom filth played a weak hand very very stupidly

    but it made them feel really good about themselves

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  3. This is like the Iran-Iraq War.

    A.S. (23bc66)

  4. I got something the orange-skinned pansy can primary right here.

    The only ones the buffoon is scaring are his kids who see him signing away their inheritance in his prenup with Kellyanne.

    nk (dbc370)

  5. “It didn’t take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment,” – Justin Amash, R-Mich

    Nice

    Harkin (e70e36)

  6. “.@realDonaldTrump it’s a swamp not a hot tub. We both came here to drain it. #SwampCare polls 17%. Sad!” – Thomas Massie, R-KY

    Also nice

    Harkin (e70e36)

  7. The other way to look at this is Ryan wants the WH to neuter his most dangerous internal opposition. You would think that a real estate developer would understand you can’t drain a swamp once the politicians declare it a wetland.

    crazy (d3b449)

  8. Tell me again how awesome winning is under Trump.

    Looks like Patterico was spot on with his vintage-Rush “I hope he fails” redux.

    Sean (41ed1e)

  9. “…..you can’t drain a swamp once the politicians declare it a wetland.”

    Great line – hope you don’t mind if I borrow it (w attribution natch).

    harkin (fcaff0)

  10. A broken clock is right twice a day.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  11. The Freedom Caucus contains people…

    So did Soylent Green.

    “We’ve gotta stop them somehow!” – Detective Thorn [Charlton Heston] ‘Soylent Green’ 1973

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  12. the name freedom caucus is wrong. Call it what it is- the koch brothers caucus. And the entitled members should have to wear the koch brothers label.

    mg (31009b)

  13. @12. A ‘kochus,’ eh.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  14. the freedom filth played a weak hand very very stupidly

    So weak they one and prevented the expansion of Obamacare

    but it made them feel really good about themselves

    And it made us feel good about stopping the expansion of Obamacare

    Patrick Henry, the 2nd (2ab6f6)

  15. the name freedom caucus is wrong. Call it what it is- the koch brothers caucus. And the entitled members should have to wear the koch brothers label.

    Okay Hillary.

    Patrick Henry, the 2nd (2ab6f6)

  16. There were those of us who said if Trump wins, it will be the death of Conservatism even though Trump is not and never has been Conservative.

    There were those of you who said if Trump wins, Conservatism wins.

    We were right. You were wrong. And America suffers for it.

    John Hitchcock (48f0cb)

  17. Sooner or later conservatives in general and the Freedom Kochus in particular must learn this is no longer a land of Daniel Boones but a nation of Neil Armstrongs.

    ” But in a very real sense it will not be one man going to the moon… it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.” – JFK, May 25, 1961

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  18. Sooner or later conservatives in general and the Freedom Kochus in particular must learn this is no longer a land of Daniel Boones but a nation of Neil Armstrongs.

    Or you know DCSCA, aka Harry Reid, they could keep fighting for freedom instead of kowtowing to the tyranny of the majority.

    Patrick Henry, the 2nd (2ab6f6)

  19. chuck and davey know malleable manipulable caucus hacks will help them pass their selfish agenda. The republican party is a train wreck.

    mg (31009b)

  20. Love\Love – Evelyn Farkas anybody?

    mg (31009b)

  21. seems to me freedomfilthcare looks exactly like obamacare

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  22. “Trump has no interest in policy details. He just wants something he can call a “win” even if the price of people’s premiums continues to rocket upwards.”

    Absolutely true. No argument from me. Trump’s problem with the Freedom Caucus has nothing to do with principle. Likewise, his embrace of Ryancare has nothing to do with principle. Trump is a ‘winnerist. He’s not choosing big government over small because he prefers big government. He is choosing it because he wants to win and this is the vehicle that was at hand. That’s his objective – winning – so don’t misinterpret Trump’s puffery – this is how he negotiates. Maybe I should repeat that thought because few seem to get it: the tweets, the fury, the flounce – the John McEnroe impersonation – are how he negotiates. So don’t kid yourself that his position reflects some kind of moral statement or that his performance has deeper meaning. He sees Ryancare as a potentially winning vehicle and nothing more. So don’t be surprised if the resolution to this impasse comes soon and with accommodations for the Freedom Caucus, because compromising with the Freedom Caucus is the shortest path to winning.

    The following statement, on the other hand, is completely wrong:

    “Increasingly, that is what Republicans want too: “winning” that results in big government, federal control of the economy, and pork pork porkity pork (that’s coming next).”

    This is the GOPe, as it has been and always will be. There’s no “increasingly” about it. We can be thankful that for the past 10 weeks, our new CinC has maintained a course far to the right of the GOPe. Unfortunately, the issues now on President Trump’s plate require the assistance of the Republican caucus, which will attempt to co-opt his presidency for their corporatist interests. We’ll see how that goes, though I am reassured by the Freedom Caucus’ unwillingness to roll over. For the Freedom Caucus, this is just the first battle under this new administration, though it is hardly their first fight with the GOPe. So far, so good.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  23. Well said, Thor.

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  24. by sabotaging pervy mitt romney’s slicked-up sex poodle’s healthcare bill all the freedom filth accomplished was to throw a wrench into tax reform

    there’s no reason the freedom filth couldn’t have insisted on some concessions, passed sleazy paul ryan’s stupid bill, and then moved on to repealing replacing and reforming that

    instead they’ve neutered themselves and established that they’re low class filth with no integrity who don’t negotiate in good faith

    which, that’s a bad strategy there

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  25. I think ThOR is the most insightful person at Patterico, including Patterico.

    Leon (168f33)

  26. (N)eutered themselves“? Really? The freedom filth just prevented the passage of poodle boy’s Obamacare Lite. That doesn’t seem very neutered to me. We wouldn’t be witnessing such histrionics from the Great Orange One if they were neutered.

    The Freedom Filth (the term deserves capitalization, doesn’t it?) will demand greater reforms than Romney’s slicked up poodle will be comfortable with in the tax reform bill, pushing the final bill in a conservative direction. That’s good news.

    You’re reading it wrong, happy, but I still love your diction.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  27. Thank you, Leon.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  28. thank you

    i’m feeling very poxy about everybody’s houses

    they all promised to repeal the obamacares and looks to me like every last one of them lied

    i question all of them as well as their commitment to sparkle motion

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  29. I said this would happen.

    Dees it distress me greatly? No. I favor the possible over the pure. And right now the “possible” includes President Trump. So, I look for whatever half-loaves I can get while even that is available.

    The HFC would rather be right than be effective. Their chance of getting their platform through this Congress and this President is nil, and their attitude seems to be “If we can’t have it, no one can.”

    Hopefully they’ll have some saner challengers.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  30. republicans-they lied, they lie and they always will lie for their personal gain. all the critics have stated Trump is no republican.

    mg (31009b)

  31. There were those of us who said if Trump wins, it will be the death of Conservatism even though Trump is not and never has been Conservative.

    The Republican Party is not conservative and has never been conservative. It is, however, willing to listen to conservatives and incorporate some of their ideas. At least until they insist on having it ALL their way.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  32. i question all of them as well as their commitment to sparkle motion

    All of them except for your Cheeto-God, Mr. The Donald. Right, happy? Somehow I don’t see you ever questioning him.

    JJ (32dd4e)

  33. ThOR (c9324e) — 3/30/2017 @ 10:38 am

    …compromising with the Freedom Caucus is the shortest path to winning.

    The whole point of that tweet is that it isn’t, at least not with any of the ideas that have been tried so far, because getting the votes of the Freedom Caucus means losing others and not passing the bill(s).

    There is probably no escaping the need to get some Democratic votes. Theresimmply isn’t enough agreement among the Republicans, nor should there be. The Democrats are now mostly tightly bound. That needs to be broken up somehow.

    Maybe Trump’s associates feel that the opposition of the Freedom Caucus is not sincere – maybe they feel almost everybody in Congress is not sincere – and the Freedom Caucus is only posturing, and they can be threatened into stopping the posturing, or at least that’s worth trying.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  34. I still believe they did what they could given the political realities, and should have passed the thing up to the Senate. Much as we all like that one sentence repeal, it just never would have made it to the presidents desk. If the House bill would have been signed by Trump, then it would have been Trumpcare, and if he didn’t follow up with the other phases he promised, we would have all thrown rotten fruit at him. As is, the incompetence of Ryan left us with Obamacare.

    Conservatives are going to have to accept government is never going to get out of healthcare, and a pure free market solution is never going to become a reality in an age where Obama was elected twice. Incrementalism is what has got us here, and it will only be incrementalism that rolls it back. Just chanting free market is pie in the sky wishcasting that discards reality.

    Leon (168f33)

  35. Not giving Doctors and nurses the ability to perform at high levels is very selfish on the part of everyone in governing. wake tf up you clowns.

    mg (31009b)

  36. Mr. JJ i don’t think President Trump’s all too particular about the repeal bill he’d sign as long as it facilitates the furtherance of his agenda

    so it’s up to pervy Mitt Romney’s slicked-up sex poodle Paul Ryan to deliver the very bestest bill he can utilizing his extremely limited skillset

    he only had like seven years to figure this out

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  37. there’s no reason the freedom filth couldn’t have insisted on some concessions, passed sleazy paul ryan’s stupid bill, and then moved on to repealing replacing and reforming that

    That seems like the worst of both worlds. You still get Obamacare, only when it collapses or when it sucks, it’s the GOP’s fault rather than Obama and Pelosi’s fault. It eases the political pressure to do anything because now the individual mandate and other mistakes are a bipartisan issue. Trumpcare becomes a third rail of politics.

    So Trump refuses to do anything because of its rightness or wrongness, or because he promised he would. It’s easier to claim a win on healthcare by reaching across the aisle and making a compromise with democrats. The GOP probably should have realized this in the primary, when Trump’s fans were flipping out about Rubio and Jeb in order to support the real RINO.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  38. #36. Thumbs up (but not your backside Happy since I know you would like that very much)

    Blah (44eaa0)

  39. 34. Leon (168f33) — 3/30/2017 @ 11:50 am

    I still believe they did what they could given the political realities, and should have passed the thing up to the Senate.

    If taht was the idea, there wa sno point in passing this exact bill, and tey could just anything, or maybe something with multiple choices. I think the idea was that the Senate should pass this unchanged.

    Phase II was modification of some regulations and Phase III would have required Democratic votes.

    The rather flimsy basis for expecting that was that the Phase I bill would create such a bad situation that Democratc would feel impelled to vote for some bill. Now Trump is saying well, after all leaving Obamacare alone is also not acceptable to the Democrats because it will collapse and.or go into a death spiral. His Secretary of HHS, and the Congress, will help it collapse, or refuse to save it, although before it does, Tom Price will try to change a few things so premiums are lower. <

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  40. #22 As I said repeatedly, so long as the Freedom Caucus is dragging us Right and Trump goes along. #winning

    But your observation is correct, giving into the Freedom Caucus is the shortest path to #winning and ergo why a deal will be done IMHO.

    Then the #nevertrumpers can regale us with how bad the bill is and Trump is kaka poo poo and the Freedom Caucus should have done this or that or the other (like poor Ted Cruz doing the phones for Trump after the abuse he took).

    Politics makes strange bedfellows.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  41. Can’t lower premiums with out terminating mandates like Preggers and Druggies or putting in penalties for using ER’s for no reason.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  42. Much as we all like that one sentence repeal, it just never would have made it to the presidents desk.

    Also, I think Trump pretty much indicated he would veto thast., and (unless it was co-ordinated woth other legislation and he’d probably wiat to sign it till the other bill passed)

    It would violate the campaign promises of most Republicans, who said “Repeal AND replace.”.

    Guaranteed issue (no exclusion for pre-existing conditions) is here to stay, unless they are covered some other way as they probably should be. (after all, pre-existing conditions = inevitable high costs – does not deserve the appelation of insurance) But not with hand waving. It probably requires taxes.

    Or we can let hospitals go bankrupt and maybe close. People are being taken care of now, but actually the math does not add up. That’s the whole thing. Obamacare does not add up, and if you want to keep the promises of Obamacare, extra money is going to have to come from somewhere.

    Right now, the extra money is going to come from more Medicaid costs, paid for in part at least by the states, higher premiums, and payments to insurance companies that Democrats want but Republicans oppose, or insurance companies losing money.

    Most of this does not get scored by the Congressional Budget Office, but changing who pays does, plus the CBO assumed that the individual mandate would work in getting people to buy insurance, but the Ryan tax credits would not.

    Meanwhile the Democrats are complaining that Trump stopped the advertising for enrollment in Obamacare!

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  43. Incrementalism is what has got us here, and it will only be incrementalism that rolls it back.

    One incremetal thing that could be done, that does not actually affect most of the problem, is equalizing tax treatment for people getting medical care and insurance paid for by an employer and people paying their own.

    Just eliminate limits on the size of contributions to an HSA, and allow no taxation for anything passed through an HSA and even allow HSA to reimburse people for what they already spent. (the HSA would be a fine accounting device)

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  44. happy,
    That’s easy to admit, now. How about just a tiny concession on your part that people who called Trump a con artist who was making promises to conservatives that he had no intention of keeping were maybe a little bit correct.

    JJ (32dd4e)

  45. it’s the GOP’s fault rather than Obama and Pelosi’s fault

    number one how is this my problem number two people aren’t stupid

    they know obama ass-jacked health care

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  46. President Trump is no con artist he’s doing what he said he’d do

    it’s pervy Paul Ryan and the freedom filth what are failing to honor their promises to repeal obamacare (which was invented by odious low-class perverted con artist Mitt Romney)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  47. happyfeet @ 25: there’s no reason the freedom filth couldn’t have insisted on some concessions, passed sleazy paul ryan’s stupid bill, and then moved on to repealing replacing and reforming that

    Of course the whole premise there was that after getting Ryan’s bill signed into law, you’d get Democratic votes, but this was really based on a hope and a prayer. The Ryan bill would never have passed the Senate, although Trump would have signed it, because, unlike a simple repeal of Obamacare, it maintained guaranteed issue at the same price for pre-existing conditions (and also staying on a parent’s policy till age 26, but competitive pressures would keep insurance companies offering that.)

    37. Dustin (ba94b2) — 3/30/2017 @ 12:09 pm

    That seems like the worst of both worlds. You still get Obamacare, only when it collapses or when it sucks, it’s the GOP’s fault rather than Obama and Pelosi’s fault.

    The key changes from Obamacare were:

    1) The elimination of the Obamacare taxes, which the Democats asserted wa sthe whole purpose of the bill (particularly the extra tax on investment income)

    2) Elimination of the individual mandate to purchase insurance.

    3) Elimination of subsidies to buy insurance and their replacement by tax credits, which would be much lower for people in the lower income tax backets than the subsidies were. And unnecessary for people in higher tax brackets. (if insurance was paid for, or available from an employer, there’s be no tax credit. For 2018 and 2019, the tax credits would be more liberal, and go up with the price of the insurance.

    4) Abolishing the expansion of Medicaid after the year 2020, and allowing states to choose a block to receive a grant, which some states want. This provision would chop the legs from under states with a lot of waste, fraud and abuse.

    5) If someone went without insurance for a period, they could be charged 30% more for two years than other people. This wouldn’t work any better than the mandate in getting people to buy insurance.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  48. Meanwhile the IC proves it can unmask leakers if it wants to. NYT: Nunes’ Sources Are In The WH – Here Are Their Names. Now if only they could find the ones who blab to the press.

    crazy (d3b449)

  49. the senate’s job is to guaranty and vouchsafe mitch mcconnell’s sleazy pension piggy wife’s right to a plum government job

    i don’t see any evidence that they’ve failed to follow through on this commitment

    whereas pervy paul ryan can’t even pass a bill he’s already passed 60 times

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  50. mittens was a pathetic govna, as well. The dingaling did nothing for conservatives in Ma. NOTHING.

    mg (31009b)

  51. Duatin: [the Ryan bill] eases the political pressure to do anything because now the individual mandate and other mistakes are a bipartisan issue.

    No, it got rid of the individual mandate (which pretends to get healthy people to buy insurance at what is really an inflated price. Actually all it does is get more people to enroll in Medicaid before they get need medical attention, and gets people to buy insurance, if, and only if, they are heavily subsidized.)

    Instead of the individual mandate, the Ryan bill allowed a 30% surcharge on insurance premiums for two years. And instead of subsidies, which are technically tax credits by the way, or some of them are, it provided for tax credits not well matched to expenses or income after the year 2020.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  52. happyfeet (28a91b) — 3/30/2017 @ 12:42 pm

    paul ryan can’t even pass a bill he’s already passed 60 times

    This time the bill wasn’t a bluff. Actually that exact bill would have been vetoed by President Trump, too. This new bill was as far as he would go in not immediately REPLACing Obamacare.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  53. i’m not so sure Mr. Trump would veto that bill

    i think he’s sign it and say ok now we have to work on a replacement which will be so good and beautiful

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  54. ugh *he’d* sign it i mean

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  55. One of the founders of the Freedom Caucus, now a Trump HHS appointee:
    https://i.imgur.com/uv6p2s8.jpg

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  56. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/devin-nunes-intelligence-reports.html

    Officials said the reports consisted primarily of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle in advance of his inauguration.

    So, (mostly at least) people talking about Trump and his aides, not with them, although reports of conversations by some people with them may have been mentioned. The some people here might be Americans, or non-Americans not being “tapped.”

    An exception might be the conversation between Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and Michael Flynn, in which Flynn himself was actually recorded. This is said to have been reported to the Obama White house because they were surrpised by Putin not doing the expected retailiation against the sanctions combined with the tweet by Trump saying Putin had made a smart decision.

    They were first told that Flynn had had this conversation around the same time, and then got the text of that conversation.

    At some later point, the fact of the conversatioon was illegally leaked to David Iganttius of teh wasshington Post, and Flynn was asked about it, and lied about sanctions never being mentioned. He not only lied to the public, he lied to Mike Pence because he wanted Mike Pence to repeat the denial. and he also possibly lied to the FBI about that conversation, what he said, and how and why it took place. The FBI investigation was probably ourely a counter-intelligence investigation at that point.

    Then a formal criminal referral or something was made, passed on to teh White house by sally Yates the day before she was fired for ordering everrybody in the Justiece department not to defend trump’s frst executive order on immigration. It claimed that now Flynn could be blackmailed by the Russians (Really? Blackmailed by the U.S. intelligence community maybe)

    The White House counsel looked into it and concluded Flynn did not step out of bounds in what he said to Kislyak – he made no promises.

    Then more leaking, and Flynn had his lies publicly exposed and got fired. Trump was perhaps already dissatisfied with Flynn.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  57. Poor Private Nunes missed basic training. He threw the pin and dropped the grenade.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  58. DCSCA – evelyn farkas

    mg (31009b)

  59. you can tell Mr. Nunes is a good guy by how sleazy ex-military weirdo cum princess lindsey graham wants to get into a slap fight with him

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  60. 53. happyfeet (28a91b) — 3/30/2017 @ 12:52 pm

    i’m not so sure Mr. Trump would veto that bill

    i think he’d sign it and say ok now we have to work on a replacement which will be so good and beautiful

    That very idea was brought to him during the transition, and he insisted REPEAL and REPLACE had to be passed at the same time. Then he said “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter” but there was the implicit threat of a veto if he got the same bill Obama got.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/repeal-affordable-care-act-donald-trump.html

    President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass.

    “We have to get to business,” Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. “Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.”

    Mr. Trump appeared to be unclear both about the timing of already scheduled votes in Congress and about the difficulty of his demand — a repeal vote “probably some time next week” and a replacement “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.”

    But he was clear on one point: Plans by congressional Republicans to repeal the health law now, then take years to create and implement a replacement law are unacceptable to the incoming president…

    …Until now, Republicans could vote to repeal Mr. Obama’s health law with no fear that they would have to live with the political consequences of scuttling a law that provides health care for 20 million Americans and protects millions more from discrimination for pre-existing medical conditions, ends lifetime caps on insurance coverage and allows children to remain on their parents’ insurance policies until age 26…

    …Not only did he try to steel Republican spines, but he threatened Democrats who might stand in his way, saying he would campaign against them, especially in states that he won in November.

    “It may not get approved the first time, and it may not get approved the second time, but the Democrats who will try not to approve it” will be at risk, he said, warning that “they have 10 people coming up” for re-election in 2018. That alluded to Democratic senators in states he won.

    “I won some of those states by numbers that nobody has seen. I will be out there campaigning,” he said.

    He described the health law as a catastrophe. “I feel that repeal and replace have to be together, for, very simply, I think that the Democrats should want to fix Obamacare,” he said. “They cannot live with it, and they have to go together.”

    I think Trump’s now back to that strategy.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  61. House Speaker Paul Ryan wanted to pass smething fast, because the CBO would score it as reducing the deficit (because Medicaid expenses would be less after the year 2020) making it possible to include more tax cuts in the tax reform bill without raising the previously projected deficits in the 2020s or maybe it is so he could achieve really really low marginal tax rates.

    Now he’ll keep the Obamacare tax cuts he wanted to repeal out of the tax bill.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  62. According to Congressman Emmer who is on the Deputy Whips team for Congressional Republicans, it was the Tuesday Group, the most liberal Republican group in Congress which brought the health bill down.

    “Congressman Tom Emmer told listeners Tuesday night that moderates — not conservatives — brought down the AHCA. He should know. Emmer serves as a member of the deputy whip team for congressional Republicans. As such, he personally spoke to members and had access to the actual whip count, something which no reporter or commentator has seen…”

    Tom Emmer:
    “…… actually, it was the moderates ultimately that brought the bill down. There were probably ten to fifteen members of the Freedom Caucus that were still a no. Keep in mind that [the Freedom Caucus] reported their [total] numbers as close to forty. So you had the vast majority of the Freedom Caucus that was already a yes. And then you had probably the same number, ten to fifteen, of the Tuesday group — which are called the moderates. They were also a no. So, really, I think we were within a handful of votes. But it was pretty evenly split between the most conservative side of our caucus and the most liberal side of our caucus. And it just wasn’t being reported that way.”

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/03/29/congressman-no-conservatives-didnt-bring-down-ahca/

    Davod (f3a711)

  63. buh bye katie pie
    hope prince rebus is next

    mg (31009b)

  64. everyone knows it was the freedom filth’s fault

    they were crowing like loons about how they saved obamacare from repeal

    weirdos

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  65. john podesta not disclosing his holdings in a kremlin company is illegal.
    just thought someone might like knowing.

    mg (31009b)

  66. “Phones don’t have wires on them any more.” — Rand Paul, U.S. Senator
    “I worry we’ll push the President into working with Democrats.”– Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House

    A party poisoned by ideological idiots.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  67. Don Surber has it right I think.

    http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2017/03/we-will-still-trump-obamacare.html

    Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
    Negotiations 101: The best deals you can make are the ones you walk away from…and then get them with better terms.

    President Trump walked away strategically.

    But the same people who wrote him off after Iowa, after Wisconsin, after the convention, after the Billy Bush tape, and after noon wrote him off again.

    Folks, this is fun. I am having the time of my life.


    Bloomberg just reported something I knew would happen next

    Leon (168f33)

  68. mg– Simon & Gar Farkle.

    ‘Laugh-In’ NBC TV, 1968-1973

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  69. 62. Davod (f3a711) — 3/30/2017 @ 1:24 pm

    According to Congressman Emmer who is on the Deputy Whips team for Congressional Republicans, it was the Tuesday Group, the most liberal Republican group in Congress which brought the health bill down.

    That only means that concessions made to the Freedom Caucus cost other votes.

    I think this was reported, although not emphasized, and it could be missed.

    What he’s saying here is that at the end, about half the holdouts were from the Freedom Caucus and half from the Tuesday Group, and if they had gotten every single last holdout remaining in the Freedom Caucus, it wouldn’t have been enough, even if they didn’t lose any more of the other Republicans. I think they needed something more than half of the remaining holdouts. and conversely if they had tried for the last remaining Tuesday Griup holdouts, they’sd have lost some of the 25 members of the Freedom Caucus they had. There were very few moderate holdouts, because they accepted the argument that this would never become law – except that that was the whole point of the bill in the first place.

    Here is a New York Times story about that situation. Before the vote was called off on Friday, Mike Pence had a whip recount made.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/us/politics/vice-president-mike-pence.html

    When some of President Trump’s aides were reassuring him over the past few weeks that he had enough votes to pass a health care bill, Vice President Mike Pence was skeptical…and he urged Mr. Trump to take a hard line against his ideological allies who were pushing for a far more radical rewrite of the Affordable Care Act.

    …Over the past two weeks, Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney — another conservative former congressman — have taken on greater responsibility as the action has shifted to Capitol Hill.

    Both men have tried to nudge the president to the right, and pressed Mr. Trump to make serious concessions to the Freedom Caucus over health care, advocating an accelerated timetable for phasing out Medicaid at the behest of Republican governors.

    Mr. Pence was a steady advocate, if ultimately not a successful one, during Mr. Trump’s last-minute push, telling hard-liners as part of his pitch that “I would have been a member of the Freedom Caucus if I was still in Congress.”

    When that didn’t work, he joined Mr. Bannon in pushing for a vote — to identify and shame dissenters — even as the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, urged the president to think less about revenge than about stockpiling political capital for coming fights on the budget, tax reform and an infrastructure bill.

    But Mr. Pence refused to concede defeat.

    When Mr. Ryan called the White House at 3 p.m. on Friday, announcing that he didn’t have the votes to pass the health care bill, the vice president asked Mr. Trump for “another 10 minutes” to double-check Mr. Ryan’s vote count.

    After making a couple of calls, he conceded, “It’s over.”

    Pence and Mulvaney, both former members of Congress, pushed the bill to the right till it couldn’t go any more without losing other votes.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  70. DCSCA- evelyn farkas

    mg (31009b)

  71. Leon @67. So apparently the members of the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group are continuing to negotiate with each other. If they get somethinbg that could pass, they’ll bring it to the House Republican leadership.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  72. the freedom filth are becoming increasingly isolated and toxic

    they need to check themselves before they wreck themselves i think

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  73. Chris Collins??

    Chris Collins was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump

    he also got special treaten for localities in New York State outsided of Ne York City into the Ryan bill.

    As it is now most states do nto require locazlities to help pay for Medicaid. The biggest one that still does in New York. This requirement is said to be respoonsible for high local property taxes,especially in areas that do not have a local sales tax or income tax.

    What Collins got into the bill was a provision that cities or counties with a poipulation of over 5 million would not have to do that. The cost would be transferred to the state as a whole, except for New York City’s portion. Collins maintains the state has enough money for that.

    The chances that anything like that would remain in a bill passed by the Senate are actually very small.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  74. And the boss of the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker, just threatened to ‘break up’ the United States as retaliation against Trump for supporting Brexit (someone will have to inform him that his targets, Ohio and Texas, went Trump).

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/785813/European-Union-EU-boss-threatens-break-up-US-retaliation-Trump-Brexit-support

    You really have to wonder if he understands that it’s no-contest between Russia, the world caliphate and the United States if he’s looking for help in anything other than slitting Europe’s throat…..but then this is the EU we’re talking about.

    And there are still people thinking Hillary was a preferred alternative?…lol.

    harkin (9803a7)

  75. Geez, Republicans are useless, and have been since the ’90’s. The only thing they got going for them is they aren’t democrats, and that’s become a moot point at this juncture. We get left with democrat messes by default anyway.

    Hard to imagine a pack of bigger losers.

    Leon (168f33)

  76. Oh, well maybe harkin has helped with that last.

    Leon (168f33)

  77. There is no “one sentence repeal” since you cannot repeal the changes on the ground in the last 5 years. It’s like repealing the Iraq War AUMF and expecting this fixes Iraq. You still have a LOT of stuff to unbreak, and just wishing someone else will take care of it doesn’t make it happen.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  78. “A party poisoned by ideological idiots.”

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 3/30/2017 @ 1:41 pm

    As opposed to the good faith, bipartisan Democrats? Go sell crazy someplace else…

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  79. Donald doesn’t seem to be up to the job of leading the republican party.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  80. There is no “one sentence repeal” since you cannot repeal the changes on the ground in the last 5 years.

    Excuses.

    Pass the one sentence repeal. They have this massive bureaucracy to figure out how to implement big government increases… put them to work figuring out what regs get crossed out.

    We’re paying Donald millions of bucks to stay at his resorts and play golf. We deserve some results.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  81. Here’s what the Ryan and the GOPe know that apparently no one else does:

    Current law requires insurance companies to accept near-zero co-pays and much lower deductibles from people who PREDICT incomes in certain ranges. It also says that government will reimburse the insurance companies.

    The law, however, failed to AUTHORIZE the government’s outlays for this purpose and only Obama’s will allowed it in past years. Trump has said that he will not authorize these payments without an appropriation from Congress, which no one expects.

    Given this, the insurance companies will ALL leave the exchanges in 2018 and Obamacare will fail.

    Reason to cheer? Not if you are someone buying private insurance it isn’t. You’ll be really pretty upset when you find that NO company is selling private policies in your state.

    Who will they blame? Obama? Or the people who failed to fix it last?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  82. the reason obamacare failed is cause obama sucks donkey balls and everything he does turns to poop

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  83. So, Dustin, Magic Beans will fix it?

    And here I thought that we didn’t want government in the system. Yo seem to be arguing that, rather than a law telling bureaucrats how to back down, you throw it wide open for the bureaucrats and say “fix it.” The only sure thing there is that it won’t be the bureaucrats who get hurt. They’ll probably get bonuses.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  84. the reason obamacare failed is cause obama sucks donkey balls and everything he does turns to poop

    Trump’s next Press Secretary.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  85. I agree, Leon.

    I think happy summed it up well:

    “they all promised to repeal the obamacares and looks to me like every last one of them lied”

    NeverTrumpers please remind me, with a congress chock full of reprobate Republicans, what, exactly, is there about Trump that is so awful? There’s no bait and switch with Trump. He follows through on his promises.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  86. 76 – “76.Oh, well maybe harkin has helped with that last.”

    If you’re calling me either a republican or a Trump voter you’re wrong on both counts.

    79 – “Donald doesn’t seem to be up to the job of leading the republican party.”

    I’d settle for leading America first, party be damned if required but so far not impressed with much besides Gorsuch.

    harkin (517285)

  87. “If you’re calling me either a republican or a Trump voter you’re wrong on both counts”

    No, I said it was hard to imagine a bigger pack of losers, and then I saw your comment about the EU weenies.

    Hard to know which loses that race.

    Leon (168f33)

  88. A good sign:
    dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/03/30/irving-mayor-leaving-for-job-in-trump-administration

    narciso (d1f714)

  89. The only sure thing there is that it won’t be the bureaucrats who get hurt. They’ll probably get bonuses.
    so sad, but true.

    mg (31009b)

  90. One sweep of the pen and the entire suite of global warming hoax regulations are gone.

    Poof. As if it were all some psychotic’s extra legal power grab that needed a bucket of cold water to bring it back to reality.

    Which it was.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  91. 88:…not for Melania or Kellyanne. Smokin!!!

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  92. Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn has told the Senate Intelligence Committee he is willing to be interviewed about the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in return for immunity from prosecution, a Congressional official told NBC News.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mike-flynn-willing-testify-return-immunity-n740836

    lol

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  93. President Trump’s energy department is directed not to use the phrases “climate change” , “emissions reduction”, or “Paris Accords” in written memos, briefings or other communications, according to Politico.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/03/30/energy-department-climate-office-bans-use-of-phrase-climate-change/

    Might be over egged carp, coming from where it does, but it’s also to delicious to check.

    And I got a movie quote.

    “I will erase even the memory of Sparta from the histories. Every piece of Greek parchment shall be burned. Every Greek historian and every scribe shall have their eyes put out and their tongues cut from their mouths. Uttering the name of Sparta or Leonidas will be punishable by death. The world will never know you existed at all.” – Xerxes I from the movie 300 [YouTube]

    papertiger (c8116c)

  94. looks like Mike Flynn’s basically admitting that he lied to some sleazy corrupt comey fbi bimbo

    another sleazy ex-military weirdo

    them ones is a dime a dozen

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  95. there’s no reason the freedom filth couldn’t have insisted on some concessions, passed sleazy paul ryan’s stupid bill, and then moved on to repealing replacing and reforming that.

    Happyfeet, that has to be the most incoherent thing you have written. And that’s a tall bar.

    If this bill had passed through both Houses and been enacted, there would never be another legislative followup. It takes some true delusion to believe that Trump or the GOP would support a more serious repeal/reform later if they would not today.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  96. there would never be another legislative followup

    this idea that creating a crisis by letting obamacare implode is going to result in a free market approach

    that’s completely out of touch with reality

    the freedom filth are fetus fetishists what can’t govern is the takeaway here

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  97. @78. Crazy’s on sale this week: WSJ- Flynn will testify in exchange for immunity.

    “Oh myyy!” – George Takei

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  98. Actually no, pikachu, have an aregula cupcake

    https://mobile.twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/847590500056137728/photo/1

    narciso (d1f714)

  99. It is kind of like abolishing stop signs and traffic lights as a protest for your DUI.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  100. DCSCA – Katie Walsh

    mg (31009b)

  101. we’ll see Mr. narciso

    but to me it sounds like a lawyer wrote that

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  102. Yes but faulmedia, like Kieffums gal katy tur wrote that piece if fake news

    narciso (d1f714)

  103. Ivanka would have never let Trump sign any Obamacare repeal that did not include free Zincofax.

    nk (dbc370)

  104. she’s a progressive young lady with unique eyebrows and a flair for social justice who sometimes experiences situations where the lights come up and her clothes fall down

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  105. Looks like the Russian Circus.
    Smells like boiling borscht.
    Tastes like… strawberries.

    “I will not be made a fool of! Do you hear me?!… I kid you not!” – Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  106. SPQR (a3a747) — 3/30/2017 @ 4:35 pm

    It takes some true delusion to believe that Trump or the GOP would support a more serious repeal/reform later if they would not today.

    The idea was, I think, that this was the best they could pass using reconciliation. Once that passed, the idea was then they could get Democratic votes because Obamacare was dead. (the idea now is that it;s dead anyway – they woon’t reimburse the insurance companies for their losses)

    If not, if they didn’t get some Democratic votes for their replace bill, Trump would campaign against them in the 2018 November election. Of course, he’d at least have to have a good, and popular, bill, and he may not know how to recognize it.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  107. Re: Mike Flynn and immunity.

    He needs it because he lied to the FBI. It’ll be interesting to hear about his contacts with Russia, and, after all, nobody is going to put him in jail anyway.

    He also had contacts with Turkey, or rather, a Turkish businessman who supported Erdogan, and he was more interested in that than Turkey was. He wanted to show what he could do for Turkey/Erdogan, at least till he got the NSC apointment.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  108. @104. Don’t be surprised if Ivanka’s Secret Service code name is ‘Prozac.’

    “My heart belongs to Daddy” – Cole Porter, 1938

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  109. Fees and that was known in September, and contacts with Russia aren’t illegal either, in fact they were indispensable a recent as to years ago.

    narciso (d1f714)

  110. show me just one teensy iddle biddle splatch of swamp the feckless impotent freedom filth have drained

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  111. they tip toed around the muck and called it good.

    Didn’t get any on their boots.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  112. “The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand… follow the money.” – ‘Deep Throat’ [Hal Holbrook] “All The President’s Men” 1976

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  113. Yes the guy who took his vendetta against Nixon, deepsixed his own bureau, nearly end up in jail, got a few terrorists sptungno mark felt wasnt very smart.

    narciso (d1f714)

  114. @70/@100 – =yawn=

    “… now don’t tell me you think this was all the work of little Don Segretti.” – ‘Deep Throat’ [Hal Holbrook] ‘All The President’s Men’ 1976

    @114. Except he was– and was a well-kept secret around a town that’s a sieve for secrets for three decades.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  115. Max Holland pealed away the veneer of sincere public servant, Nile don’t take me wrong I haven’t objection with surreptitious entry against terrorist, but first rule of fight club.

    narciso (d1f714)

  116. “When you are given immunity, that means you have probably committed a crime.” – Gen Flynn

    Davethulhu (c75fb7)

  117. Where is the hall monitor to complain these comments are not on the topic of the post?

    Squirrels!!

    Leon (0e0056)


  118. And the Hog of the Forsaken got no reason to cry,
    He got to chew the angels fallin’ from on hiiigh,
    He ain’t waitin’ for no answers, bakin’ woeful pie,
    Pie of eyesight, pie boot-black, oh that pie,
    The pie of by-and-by.

    And the Hog of the Forsaken he ain’t like you and I,
    With bones always breakin’ and no place to go an’ lie,
    He’s in the box so dark and wet, he got so much time,
    He ain’t even worried yet, the Hog of the Forsaken,
    He is the Pork of Crime.

    And the Hog of the Forsaken, he’ll leave you one more chance,
    Which, if you won’t be takin’ he’ll leave it for the ants,

    papertiger (c8116c)

  119. very bold DCSCA

    mg (31009b)

  120. Trump is building a wall; his own ‘Berlin Wall’ blonde brick by blonde brick.

    Once the palace guard is in the watch towers, Ivanka Ehrlichman and Jared Halderman will run interference– and much more- for the President. Expect a recommendation that Bannon be jettisoned to protect the President within 90 days of the cement declared dry.

    “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s business.” – Michael Corleone [Al Pacino] ‘The Godfather’ 1972

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  121. “There is no “one sentence repeal” since you cannot repeal the changes on the ground in the last 5 years. It’s like repealing the Iraq War AUMF and expecting this fixes Iraq. You still have a LOT of stuff to unbreak, and just wishing someone else will take care of it doesn’t make it happen.”

    Once one-sentence repeal is passed, there will be a clean slate, legally, to start passing more bills to lay a new groundwork and to fix the problems.

    The problems can’t be fixed while Obamcare exists.

    The problems can’t be fixed under Ryancare.

    They can only be fixed under absolute repeal.

    Daryl Herbert (7be116)

  122. 77. Kevin M (25bbee) — 3/30/2017 @ 2:59 pm

    There is no “one sentence repeal” since you cannot repeal the changes on the ground in the last 5 years.

    It’s not a good idea, and things wouldn’t go back to the way they were before, and they wouldn’t even go back to where they would have been had the law never been passed. But there’s no technical obstacle to it. The problem is what kind of a situation that would create.

    I think there are great big political obstacles to that one sentence repeal.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  123. narcso @ 114: “…mark felt wasn’t very smart.”

    DCSCA @115. “Except he was– and was a well-kept secret around a town that’s a sieve for secrets for three decades.”

    Well, Bob Woodward lied, however you slice it.

    In a footnote on page 112 of All the Presidents Men, Woodward and Bernstein indicate that Deep
    Throat did not work at the FBI or at the Committee to Re-Elect the President because they, or at least Woodward, says:

    . . . .No dissatisfied FBI employee had ever come to Bernstein or Woodward offering information.

    This is as of September 28, 1972.

    Since Deep Throat had already appeared by then, and he obviously would have to be categorized as disastisfied, this means that Deep Throat did not work at the FBI.

    An out for woodward is that his story as how Mark Felt came to be a source he indicates he went to Mark Fellt and not the otehr way around. And he also basically blackmailed Mark Felt into co-operating.

    A lot of the story that Woodward told is probably not true. Mark Felt may not have the source for much of the information that came from “Deep Throat”

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  124. Incrementalism is what has got us here, and it will only be incrementalism that rolls it back.

    Until I had Leon here to Trumpsplain it to me I didn’t realize how gradual and incremental ObamaCare was.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  125. That is much of what max Holland discovered when he examined the papers related to the film all the presidents man, how they had embellished much appreciable facts came from dubious sourcing.

    narciso (589bd2)

  126. Everyone knows that movies are inaccurate and facts are changed – the uestion is the book and other serious claims to be the truth.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  127. Trump signed the pull the global warming nipple out of Elon Musk act, or at least presidentially ordered the sugar tit removed.

    No incrementalism required.
    Now it’s up to congress to punish Elon for the 4.9 billion he swindled the country out of.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  128. being a arab with a syrian father has clouded amash and his mind, kneeling in front of the judges on immigration he agrees with them.

    mg (31009b)

  129. You know Musk is a Trump adviser, right? Trump’s executive order doesn’t have any impact on Musk’s subsidies.

    Davethulhu (c75fb7)

  130. I didn’t realize how gradual and incremental ObamaCare was.

    Obama was an aberration. W was hit be a confluence of forces, not all of his own making, and the Democrats rolled the dice with a radical, and won. It would have been hard for a Republican to win in 2008 — third terms are hard — but the market crash, and McCain’s beclowning response made it impossible. And there was Obama and the Dems with a golden opportunity. WHich they took.

    And yet, it WAS incremental. They wanted single-payer. And it still cost them the Congress. Imagine what Obama would have done with Speaker Pelosi for 2,4 or 6 more eyars.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  131. Trump signed the pull the global warming nipple out of Elon Musk act.

    I keep forgetting. Which internet company does Musk own again?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  132. Elon Musk is a [edit] strumpet. He’ll pretend to love whomever has the money.

    Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times. The figure underscores a common theme running through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups.

    “He definitely goes where there is government money,” said Dan Dolev, an analyst at Jefferies Equity Research. “That’s a great strategy, but the government will cut you off one day.”

    Just calling Elon a [edit] strumpet doesn’t do him justice. He’s got to be one of the most successful welfare queens on the planet. In the top ten if you don’t count the Castros and Chavezs in the third world.

    At least for Tesla Motors Inc. and Solar City, that day came yesterday.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  133. ‘Deep Throat’

    And, in truth, “Deep Throat” was a passed-over bureaucrat putting the knife in his boss’s back. Mark Felt expected to become the new FBI head if he could just shiv L Patrick Gray out of the way. Didn’t happen, and he retired in 1973 (before Nixon!) after Ruckelshaus got the job. Turns out that Nixon knew he’d been leaking.

    So, “Deep Throat” is no one to quote, a rat bastard back-stabbing bureaucrat.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  134. At least for Tesla Motors Inc. and Solar City, that day came yesterday.

    Elon Musk will be the world’s first trillionaire. The day SpaceX goes public he’ll be worth half that.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  135. Musk had been a supporter of the U.S. political action committee FWD.us, which was started by fellow high-profile entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg and advocates for immigration reform. However, in May 2013, Musk publicly withdrew his support in protest of advertisements the PAC was running that supported causes like the Keystone Pipeline. Musk and other members, including David O. Sacks, pulled out, criticizing the strategy as “cynical”.[143]

    What he meant was it would ruin his solar panel company.

    Keystone Pipeline and open borders. I predict his advisory duties will be brief and involve a lot of shutting up.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  136. Elon’s true position will come via secret donations to Green Peace, and EDF.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  137. Does Elon Musk produce any squirrel-powered Teslas?

    nk (dbc370)

  138. So the Putin-loving Erdogan butt-snuffler promoted-to-general-for-a-lifetime-of-ass-kissing-above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty wants immunity for lying so he’ll tell the truth now? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

    Is that something he set up with the Trumps? Because you know that it’s not Congress which grants immunity, right? Or the courts? It’s the Justice Department. You know that, right?

    nk (dbc370)

  139. justice prevails, nk.

    mg (31009b)

  140. Adam Schiff. Wasn’t that the alternate reality Morgenthau (Manhattan DA) in Law and Order?

    nk (dbc370)

  141. What ‘feets does not understand, with regards to actually repealing Obamacare – the Freedom Caucus has the upper hand – they all got elected, and most other Rs, promising to repeal Ocare.

    Trump showed once again, that outside of liberal urban enclaves, the Blue model government is not adored (at the minimum). The Ds only rebound at the rural/suburban level if they moderate.

    If the GOPe fails, Trump may prosper as President, but that has nothing to do with repeal of Ocare – that was never his core fight, MAGA is Trump’s only important promise, even a failed wall will be forgiven if he delivers real jobs.

    If Ocare persists, Ryan will fall before Trump. If Ocare persists, the Senate may switch – but that is still vastly in favor of retaining R majority in 2018.

    2018 is the next most important election. Trump has delivered on his promise of a Constitution-loving SC nominee, a great SecDef, his SecState and UN ambassador are the best in a generation (perhaps not a high bar), and cutting anti-business regulation. But Trump has not thought deeply about the underlying philosophy of central governance that is harming the nation – he plays right into the GOPe idea of “we can do government better, so big government is ok when we are at the controls.” This GOPe delusion is another issue. Big government is the opposite of the rule of law, until the GOP understands this basic truth, we will continue to spiral towards being a banana republic. If we still have Ocare by that election, I pray that establishment Rs are defeated and replaced by outsiders who truly want to get government out or our daily lives.

    Trump is a petulant man child with ADHD – if he actually makes the Freedom Caucus his allies, he could really make a lasting difference, unfortunately, I don’t think he understands the opportunity to return the rule of law to the nation.

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  142. the freedom filth don’t make good allies cause they have no integrity and don’t bargain in good faith

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  143. Then why couldn’t Trump make a deal with them? If the Freedom Caucus members aren’t true to their words and don’t bargain in good faith, it sounds like a perfect match.

    Your description fits Trump.

    DRJ (15874d)

  144. I was going to write what you did, DRJ, but I was laughing too hard.

    nk (dbc370)

  145. It’s really a fundamental Trumpkin trait, isn’t it? Accusing Trump’s opponents of what Trump is most guilty of?

    nk (dbc370)

  146. Yes.

    DRJ (15874d)

  147. So, Dustin, Magic Beans will fix it?

    And here I thought that we didn’t want government in the system. Yo seem to be arguing that, rather than a law telling bureaucrats how to back down, you throw it wide open for the bureaucrats and say “fix it.” The only sure thing there is that it won’t be the bureaucrats who get hurt. They’ll probably get bonuses.

    Kevin M

    No, I didn’t seem to be arguing that. How absurd.

    Our government seemed to manage just fine implementing Obamacare from Obamacare. A simple “reverse all of that” is more than enough.

    No excuses for the RINOs. It’s certainly not impossible to repeal Obamacare, it’s not magic, and it’s not hypocritical of me to expect government to do something just because I tend to prefer a limited government.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  148. What’s most pitiful about Trumpkins is their “Winning!” mantra. When the only things they “won” are Trump’s name in the list of Presidents; a promotion from third wife to First Lady for Melania; and Trump family and cronies’ fingers in the government pie. What has America won?

    nk (dbc370)

  149. mexican billionaire owns the ny times
    mexican govt. spends tens of millions lobbying congress
    mexican govt. has set aside 50 million in legal fees to keep illegal mexicans in the USA.
    russia was involved in our elections.

    mg (31009b)

  150. Let the grinding, mewling, whining and mincing continue…

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  151. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Abbot is gettin’ ‘er done… http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/texas-governor-pushing-legislation-could-jail-sheriffs-sanctuary-cities

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  152. What has America won?

    Hillary lost. Get over it.

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  153. “No matter how far wrong you’ve gone, you can always turn around.”

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  154. Americans have hopefully won a momentary reprieve from the death march off the socialist cliff.

    I call that winning.

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  155. You’re being rational again, Colonel. These guys believe even if you weren’t for Trump in the primaries and supported Cruz like I did, if you support President Trump now against the treasonous attempt by anti-American leftists to over throw the administration you are to be forever labeled a “Trumpkin”. Cause they still support Hillary and that’s all they got. So you’re “pitiful” and I assume still “deplorable”.

    After all this time the cacophony of leftists who for one reason or another want to see Trump and by extension the Republican establishment fail have become indistinguishable be they Dems, leftists, commies or plain old Hillary supporters. They are all the same.

    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7Hi2HyAYmZQ/WNx52q5zZEI/AAAAAAABH7U/j7KrBkrEhDsGyCz3LH-StCoaS0R_cVjTgCLcB/s1600/1ninetymileseuDFW1rn4t8co1_500-1300Democrats%2BCan%2BBe%2BSooo%2BColorful….jpg

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  156. Let’s get a little perspective here, Hoagie. You don’t like being lumped in with the Trumpkins. For Trump(kins) to lump the Freedom Caucus in with the Democrats is like lumping the Minutemen in with the Hessians.

    (And I have no special brief for the Freedom Caucus.)

    nk (dbc370)

  157. With you on all of that, Hoagie. I sincerely hope the #NeverTrumpelstiltskins will eventually find their porridge to be their desired temperature.

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  158. They are actually not going to stop the Obamacare subsidies this year and maybe not next year , in spite of the alwsuit by the House of Representatives and one committee chairman is trying to get an appropriation. Meanwhile the Knoxville, Tennessee area will not have any exchange policies available.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  159. 154-Rev –
    Love it.

    mg (31009b)

  160. They are not going to precipitate the implosion of Obamacare this year.

    From here:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/health-insurance-republicans.html

    Senior House Republicans said Thursday that they expected the federal government to continue paying billions of dollars in subsidies to health insurance companies to keep low-income people covered under the Affordable Care Act for the rest of this year — and perhaps for 2018 as well….The Republican-led House won a lawsuit accusing the Obama administration of unconstitutionally paying the insurance-company subsidies, since no law formally provided the money.

    Although that decision is on appeal, President Trump could accept the ruling and stop the subsidy payments, which reduce deductibles and co-payments for seven million low-income people. If the payments stopped, insurers — deprived of billions of dollars — would flee the marketplaces, they say. The implosion that Mr. Trump has repeatedly predicted could be hastened. …

    …. Representative Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon, who is the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Thursday, “I will do everything I can to make sure that the cost-sharing reduction payments get made.”

    “That’s an obligation we have not only to the insurers,” but also to consumers who enrolled in plans under the health care law, Mr. Walden said. “We cannot leave them high and dry.”

    Mr. Walden said his preference was for Congress to appropriate the money, about $7 billion a year. That is “the best legal way to do it,” he said….

    …Insurers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on business under the Affordable Care Act and are pulling back from the public marketplaces in many states, creating a possibility that some consumers will have no options on the insurance exchanges next year.

    Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, Republicans of Tennessee, introduced a bill this week to protect such consumers.

    “Urgent action is needed,” Mr. Alexander said. “In the Knoxville area where I live, the one remaining insurance company on the Affordable Care Act exchange has pulled out for the year 2018. So it is a near certainty that there will be zero insurance options for Tennesseans who live there and buy their insurance on the exchange.”

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  161. Schiff flows downhill.

    mg (31009b)

  162. Mr. Walden said his preference was for Congress to appropriate the money, about $7 billion a year. That is “the best legal way to do it,” he said….

    what a sleazy welfare-loving p.o.s.

    and look at rabid anti-semite Bob Corker slopping them welfare piggies

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  163. … where it’s baked into delightfully delicious-to-Democrats little cookies.

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  164. Mr. Walden said his preference was for Congress to appropriate the money, about $7 billion a year. That is “the best legal way to do it,” he said….

    When Obamacare was passed, the Coongressional Budget Office did;t project they would need to do things like that, and it probably still doesn’t, but replacing them with something else probably is scored as adding to the deficit.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  165. Patterico, you don’t think Obamecare is incrementalism? You dont know single payer is the goal and Obamacare is one of many incremental steps to get there?

    Here’s a quick premier on the way incrementalism in healthcare works:

    http://www.forhealthfreedom.org/Publications/Choice/ThenAndNow.html

    Leon (168f33)

  166. Oops, primer, not premier.

    Leon (168f33)

  167. @133. Yep.

    The only Mars Musk will every send people to is Mars, Pennsylvania.

    SpaceX has failed to even attempt to launch and return a crew safely from LEO whereas governments have been doing that now for 56 years as of April 12. And SpaceX won’t dare to try and risk financial ruin w/o the government cover of NASA to ‘blame’ as it is inevitable SpaceX will have a “bad day” and kill a crew.

    Spaceflight is hard. Yet Musk boasts of sending people to Mars in a few years and flying sightseers around Luna sealed in a Dragon– a space capsule which has yet to be tested/approved as ‘man-rated’ for safe human LEO ops let alone crew survival of a 25,000 mph reentry from lunar orbit like Apollo. NASA’s Orion spacecraft has already passed both tests.

    Musk’s SpaceX survives suckling on the government nipple and it is a sad development that NASA, starved for budgets, must lean on such a charlatan to keep flying. True, developing a reusable Falcon rocket that lands back at the launch site is a credit to the SpaceX engineering team, the inevitable advance in technology and to the experience of NASA — which the young Musketeer-cheering press corps seems to forget–has the 30-plus years experience of flying reusable rockets as elements of the space shuttle– and of course, the orbiter itself, which was reusable– and crewed.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  168. Elon has an Alaska sized hunk of free government cheese.

    Maybe he can work it off clerking at the Good Will store.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  169. I don’t know why, of all things =, the claim is made that climate change is a hoax. What is a hoax is the idea that anything they propose doing would amount to anything.

    Carbon dioxide cannot be the only cause because temperatures rose abruptly in the laete1980s and 1990s. The amount added easch year is trivial – it’s the accumulated total since 1860 or so. And they only propose reducing the mount added. There is also more dihydrogen monoxide in the atmmosphere – around 5%. Furthermore, not all effects are bad, and it is not at all clear it’s not a net plus. It probably is.

    What is published in scientific journals is controlled through peer review and there even was a scandal about it. And finally, temperatures and rainfall haven’t risen very much but the standard deviation has (that would explain why more plants bloom ans then are being killed by early frosts)

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  170. There’s so much climate alarmism that nobody seems to realize hat this tells you – and one thing it does should already be wel known.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/science/deadnettle-spring-global-warming-flowers.html

    A naturalist named Richard Fitter walked the fields of Oxfordshire, England, for more than half a century, faithfully recording the first flowering dates of 385 plant species.

    Years later, when his son Alastair analyzed the data, he found that the 1990s marked a significant change on our warming planet — that hundreds of plants were, on average, flowering five days earlier than they had been during the four decades that had gone before.

    And it was the unassuming little deadnettle that stood out the most: its first flowering had been pushed back by a whopping 55 days. Since the 1990s, Lamium album has marked winter’s end, on average, by Jan. 23 — the day the plant looks up and declares its flower shop open for business.

    Back in the 1950s, it did not bloom before March. [This reference to the 1950s os probably misleading. The key point is taht the 1990s marked a change – but there was no sudden rise in CO2 levels – and the models that relate temperature to CO2 levels have never worked.]]

    ….More recently, after the biologist Carol Augspurger examined more than a century of weather and forestry records from Illinois, she concluded that the yearly probability of frost damage had increased by a factor of seven since 1980, compared to the odds of frost damage during the 90 years of weather that came before. [

    his means the standard deviation has risen more than the temperature ]

    What varies so much is the level of water vapor in the atmosphere.

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  171. the freedom filth don’t make good allies cause they have no integrity and don’t bargain in good faith

    Their problem is closer to them having too much integrity for a politician and refusing the budge even when it would serve them better. Even Reagan knew the sound of concrete breaking.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  172. Our government seemed to manage just fine implementing Obamacare from Obamacare. A simple “reverse all of that” is more than enough.

    And here, by slight-of-hand, you finish your non-answer to my original power.

    someone said: the market will fix it after a simple repeal.

    I said: (#77) How do they fix the broken things?

    You said: (#80) The bureaucrats will figure it out.

    I said: (#83) Oh, great, rather than Congress telling them how to figure it out, we’ll let the bureacracy save itself.

    And now, here you are at #149 saying that a simple repeal is all you need and you never said the bureaucracy will figure it because … all you have to say is “run everything backwards” and Humpty will be fine again becasue … the bureaucracy will figure it out.

    Or something.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  173. power = post. ???

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  174. You keep fighting the good fight, Patterico. It never gets old. In fact, it reminds me of that old dude who kept telling us to get off of his lawn. Everyone gets it, you’re bitter. At some point, Trump ran over your dog, sat there laughing about it, lit a big fat cigar with a hundred dollar bill and then hit reverse.

    Plenty of stuff to talk about going on in America today. Some of it very troubling. Now I’m glad that bill died an ignomious death, but he’s putting in some solid work nonetheless. I am thankful that you have guest authors who focus on on the other aspects of national events.

    Sorry you hate half your readership. I can almost see the tic in your eye that you’ve developed. Trump lives rent free in your head, but you pay the cost. We’re less than a 100 days in, man. Living in a permanent state of apoplexy for four years is not the healthiest of life choices. Now, wipe the foam off your mouth and cowboy up. I wasn’t happy with Obama, but the guy won, fair and square. So did Trump, unless you inhabit the fever swamp where the Russians talk to you via the fillings in your teeth.

    Estarcarus (9e0cf7)

  175. I predict this Patterico post will age well. LOL

    School Marm (5999c1)

  176. 173 – Kevin M.
    Concrete research and development are working on flexible concrete that heals itself of cracking. No sound!!!

    mg (31009b)

  177. Well, I don’t know. To be fair, I do discount the value of the content based on the author. There is a good point to be made that perhaps our President is overplaying his hand on this one, but the assertions made are at times gratuitous and over the top.

    Reading Dana’s article after reading this one was an instructive reminder that reasoned debate is informed by logic, not invective. And when it comes to that, adding a video of Charlie Sheen to one’s post is rather too cute by half. It certainly does not lead one to believe the author has put any real thought into the subject at hand. It’s trolling, not thoughtful analysis.

    Estarcarus (6cb88e)


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