Patterico's Pontifications

7/27/2017

Yesterday’s Historic ObamaCare Betrayal: These Senators Must Pay the Price

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:00 am



I guess congratulations are in order. Congratulations, Barack Obama. Your signature big-government achievement: ObamaCare — the biggest step towards socialized medicine in this country in over forty years — is now beyond challenge. We now know that it will never be repealed. And we have Republicans to thank for it.

And it’s being treated like just another news story. Well, it’s not. It’s the worst political betrayal in modern political history.

I’d like you to imagine something. Imagine you’re sitting at the breakfast table with your spouse, to whom you have been married for seven years. Your spouse says: “Honey, I have a couple of things to tell you. First, they ran out of milk at the store. Second, I slept with my co-worker last week. Now, about this milk situation…”

I think you might say something like this: “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Forget the milk situation. What was that you said about breaking your most fundamental promise to me? The promise you have made to me for the last seven years? The one promise that was central to our life together?”

That’s not just another broken promise. For many people, that’s a dealbreaker.

If you open up your newspaper, or access your favorite blog or news site, you might not realize that we just experienced the worst political betrayal I can remember. Here’s a story about transgenders and the military. Oh, yeah, and also the Republicans voted not to repeal ObamaCare. Now, about those transgenders . . .

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted against repealing ObamaCare? They just broke their most fundamental promise to voters? A promise they made for seven years? The most central promise of the entire party?

And we’re supposed to just let this one go?

No way. We want a divorce.

There are seven Senators who voted against the relatively clean 2015 repeal bill yesterday. You might also choose to blame the party as a whole, or Mitch McConnell. That’s up to you. But these seven Senators should be the primary targets (see what I did there?) of your wrath.

I am going to be very plain. The following people must be drummed out of public life.

  • Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)
  • Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.)
  • Susan Collins (Maine)
  • Dean Heller (Nev.)
  • John McCain (Ariz.)
  • Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
  • Rob Portman (Ohio)

(John McCain, huh? So that’s what that speech was all about: justifying a vote against repeal. I told you the speech was disgraceful.)

It is useful to keep in mind that, with the sole exception of Collins, these senators voted for repeal in 2015, when it didn’t matter. Six senators of these seven — Alexander, Capito, Heller, McCain, Murkowski, and Portman — are not just leftists on this issue. They are also giant hypocrites. These six people are the real turncoats. They lied to their voters. They pretended to be for repeal, but they weren’t. They voted for “repeal” in 2015 only because they knew Barack Obama would veto it. And veto it he did.

The only thing that has changed since 2015 is that we now have a President who would sign that repeal bill. The nice side effect of Trump’s lack of interest in policy is that, although his heart really isn’t behind the 2015 repeal, he would sign it anyway, because a) he doesn’t care about policy details, and b) he just wants something he can call a win. We could have had that win, but for yesterday’s despicable votes by these Senators.

Now: here is when these people are up for re-election:

  • Lamar Alexander: 2020
  • Shelley Moore Capito: 2020
  • Susan Collins: 2020
  • Dean Heller: 2018
  • John McCain: 2022
  • Lisa Murkowski: 2022
  • Rob Portman: 2022

As you can see, the GOP chose mostly people who aren’t up for re-election until 2020 or beyond. (There are surely more than these seven who would have voted against the bill, if their no vote were necessary to defeat it.) But one of the traitors is coming up for re-election next year: Dean Heller.

He has to go. He must be primaried.

I will make it one of my major political missions in life to make sure this man is politically punished for this incredible betrayal.

I’ll keep you up to date with the progress of this effort as time goes on. It’s an important one.

Dean Heller, we want a divorce.

Consider yourself served.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

UPDATE: Corrected the year McCain is up for re-election.

196 Responses to “Yesterday’s Historic ObamaCare Betrayal: These Senators Must Pay the Price”

  1. Um . . . McCain’s good through 2022 – he just won, you know. And he won’t be running again, with or without your “assistance”, I reckon.

    Q! (267694)

  2. By the way, the GOPs former minority whip and my former congressional representative, Eric Cantor,
    is still, on information and belief, outraged that he was primaried and booted from his good thing going.

    He finally admits what the locals knew very well – https://twitter.com/DaveNyczepir/status/890392507032494082

    His replacement, Brat, a relatively principled man with an economics background,a has wobbled about as much as a person who ran on Obamacare repeal can wobble, which only proves the pressure from almost all directions, except his constituents, it not to repeal, and to protect what Republicans always wanted to protect, and to protect the clouds of obfuscating convoluted law hiding as much money making and influence peddling as can be squeezed out of human misery as possible.

    I’m disappointed in his replacement, and bitterly so.

    SarahW (3164f0)

  3. We will never be rid of the boot, now. Never.

    SarahW (3164f0)

  4. It should have occurred to you a number of years ago that the GOP was attempting a flim flam on Obamacare. Pretty much the whole of it, and not just these particular senators. They’ve been promising you for how many years? And now the elephant is having trouble just to bring a mouse into the world?

    When you come down to it, Collins is the one honest person in the bunch.

    kishnevi (2f2588)

  5. Why did Collins vote yes? Many predicted her Show poutrage.

    Ben burn (ed36d1)

  6. these people are disgraceful cowards, and very very unamerican (which is not to say there’s not a lot of even *more* cowardly senate trash what only voted for repeal cause they knew that lying filth like John McCain and Lisa Murkowski wanted so so bad to keep that nasty obamacare all up in it)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  7. Speaker Ryan said that this is what would happen in the Senate. Did you listen? No.

    Speaker Ryan said that he had a phase-out plan that aimed at portable personal health plans. Did anyone listen? No.

    Every “refinement” (read: poison pill) added by “conservatives” (read: right-of-center statists) has made the “repeal” (read: replacement) less palatable to an increasing number of GOP officeholders.

    The same 7 who voted NO here (and, mind you it needed 60 votes), voted yes to McConnell’s reconciliation proposal and another 7 on the “right” voted NO (on a bill that only needed 50 votes).

    The Art of the Possible, guys. Not the Art of I Get What I Want and All of It. Grow the eff up.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  8. Of course, I would have voted NO on both. Next up: the plan the House passed.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  9. i read today the dimbulb lifeydoodles are still obsessed with planned parenthood

    like that was the effing be all end all of obamacare repeal

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  10. Wrote a long post explaining why I disagree with Patrick here a week ago.

    Executive summary:

    The 2015 bill was a smart political gesture made without worrying about what would take Obamacare’s place because at the time, there was no need. Today, the GOP doesn’t have the luxury of not worrying about what will take its place. The 2015 bill by design finessed the differences between different elements of the GOP.

    Also, in 2015 Obamacare was extremely unpopular. There was no concrete alternative to compare it with at the time.

    Today, thanks largely to Donald Trump’s dishonest promises about giving everybody more and better healthcare at “a tiny fraction of the cost” and nobody having to give up or sacrifice anything, no realistic bill can possibly meet the false expectations Trump created, and Obamacare is now more popular than the alternatives on the table.

    Dave (445e97)

  11. Thank you, Republican dogs.

    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever. George Orwell

    I cannot believe the people of the United States are allowing the IRS to control their healthcare!

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  12. Face it, humans hate freedom. They hate being responsible for their own life. They hate the economic “inequality” created by freedom.

    Almost 50 million human pets are now on what used to be called “food stamps”. Almost 80% of black children are born out of wedlock. 90% of students in inner cities like Detroit are not proficient in reading and math. That’s our future. Tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people conditioned to be unable to care for themselves who will need a maternalistic government to sustain them by stealing from the productive. Sad.

    Whatever (31b7e8)

  13. What are the things that escalate premiums, or existing conditions and the arbitrary benefit package.

    narciso (d1f714)

  14. Except for Maine, and Collins always opposed repeal, all states that Trump won.

    If Trump hadn’t promised “everybody more and better healthcare at ‘a tiny fraction of the cost’ and nobody having to give up or sacrifice anything”, would he have won the primary on Mexicans, Muslims and China? I doubt it.

    nk (dbc370)

  15. Do we live in a democracy or not? Shouldn’t elections decide things? The people have voted and the majority wants Obamacare or something like it.

    nk (dbc370)

  16. Trump is also responsible for completely punting on any rationale for the reform. Other than desultory, substance-free ranting about “the Obamacare nightmare” he has utterly failed to give people persuasive reasons why they will be better off under any of the repeal and/or replace plans.

    Trump of course lacks any credibility on policy issues and is incapable of making a reasoned, fact-based case for anything. Trump’s inability to advocate effectively for one of his centerpiece campaign promises has resulted in completely yielding the public debate to the democrats, with predictable results. He has single-handedly done the impossible by making Obamacare popular.

    It’s too bad Obama wasn’t as lazy.

    Dave (445e97)

  17. Clinton won Nevada. Reid’s Clark County machine functioned well enough to save his other eye from Dem retribution.

    Rick Ballard (39e1b7)

  18. I’m sure there were more than just these 7 who would’ve voted against it if their vote was needed. Graham is an obvious example. But these 7 are a good start.

    Let’s start primarying.

    There’s a reason they hated Mike Lee and Ted Cruz for winning. Those were seats leftists expected to keep with an R after their name.

    NJRob (98f66c)

  19. Thanks, Rick. And I’m telling you, NJRob, those people know their voters better than we do. They won’t lose over Obamacare repeal.

    nk (dbc370)

  20. 17, keep in mind the Nev Dems are talking about putting a Boxer/Feinstein clone up against Heller. What else does Heller do well?

    Also, it might be to the benefit to the current administration have a big defeat, easiest path being the primarying of mods in the NE, Rust Belt and SW necklace, and losing to falsely blue dog Dems in the House and some Sens in ’18 with a resurgence coinciding with the re-election bid in 2020.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  21. That #20 above, is much more antisemitism than Hoagie has ever wrought. Guilty as charged.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  22. From Wikipedia’s page on Heller

    Heller voted against H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010,[41] citing the bill’s potential impact on taxes, health care costs and the national debt.[42]

    During the debate prior to the federal healthcare law’s passage, Heller led efforts to require two provisions be added to the federal health care law that would require:

    The use of citizenship verification tools to determine eligibility for taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits[43]
    Members of Congress to join any government-run healthcare plan proposed in early versions of the healthcare law.[44]
    Heller questioned the constitutionality of the law following its passage, and called on Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to join a multi-state lawsuit challenging it.[45]

    On January 19, 2011, Heller voted to repeal the federal healthcare law.[46][47]

    Heller is the only person to vote for Paul Ryan’s budget plan twice during one session of Congress. He voted for it when he served in the House and again in the Senate after he had been appointed.[48]

    Cortez Masto is the lady who took over Reid’s seat on behalf of the Democrats.

    He had a very slim majority against the Democratic candidate in 2012, but got 85% of the vote in the GOP primary, running as the appointed incumbent. (The anointed establishment candidate, that is.)

    kishnevi (2f2588)

  23. Since my comment with too many links resides in the black hole of moderation, let me summarize without links the excuses of 5 of the Magnificent 7 who will not repeal without replace. (Capito and Collins did not put their excuses on their Senate website.)

    Alexander says we can’t wait for relief, we must act now not wait two years (like we could in 2015), plus he doesn’t want to leave anyone uninsured.

    Heller loves the Medicaid expansion, says Obamacare just needs “fixing”.

    McCain did not address issue directly, unless he really said something in that speech he made yesterday, but seems concerned that Arizona’s Medicaid expansion not be deprived of funds.

    Murkowski likes significant portions of Obamacare, including Medicaid expansion and exclusion of pre-existing condition from individual policies.

    Portman says: “Because we now have 19 counties in Ohio without a single health insurer and 27 with just one, repealing this law without any replacement would leave tens of thousands of Ohioans stranded without health insurance and everyone with higher costs.”

    To summarize then, Heller and Murkowski love them some Medicare expansion. McCain wants to phase it out more gently than simple repeal would permit. Lamar! is all into the urgency of Doing Something! and Portman is concerned about folks who have already effectively lost coverage.

    Appalled (96665e)

  24. The Medicaid expansion was the clever move that tied the states to Obamacare.

    Too bad Arizona got taken in like that.

    My suggestion, which I have been making for a couple of years, is to make Obamacare optional. Just remove the mandates. Then, in the next step, block grant Medicaid to the states. Those that went for the expansion, with 90% fed payment, that program was already planned to decline.

    It’s like treating an addict. Taper them off.

    Mike K (b3dd19)

  25. Lamar!’s full excuse on his failure to repeal without replace.

    “I agree with President Trump that we should repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act at the same time. In 2015, we could have waited two years for relief, but we cannot now, when Tennessee insurance commissioner Julie McPeak says the state’s individual insurance market is ‘very near collapse.’ We have 350,000 Tennesseans who buy insurance in the individual market—songwriters, small businessmen and women, farmers—who are worried today that they may have zero options for insurance in just six months.

    “In addition, I don’t think Tennesseans would be comfortable canceling insurance for 22 million Americans, and trusting Congress to find a replacement in two years. Pilots like to know where they’re going to land when they take off, and we should too.”

    The man has a gift for specious arguments.

    Appalled (96665e)

  26. McConnell is the problem. He set the calendar. He chose what legislation would be brought to the floor. He left senators with no other way to negotiate in public than through their vote(s). Shooting the objectors may feel satisfying but it won’t solve the problem. The charade will continue until the leadership releases its grip on predetermined outcomes and allows the give and take of regular order. Getting angry about the objectors is a waste of good anger.

    crazy (11d38b)

  27. It was always REPEAL and REPLACE.

    Only a small minority of Republican Senators (or members of the House) or Republican candidates for Congress wanted just plain repeal.

    There was also put in a payment system that is patient centered, but they can’t do right now.

    The only way they will be breaking their promise I if they just give up.

    Now there were two things they did wrong before: One, they pretended that they had legislation ready, or that the bill(s) they kept passing were serious legislation.

    Two, they apparently seemed content to let people think that having a president who was a Republican, and control of both houses of Congress, was enough to pass legislation.

    The minimum that they need to do, though, is get rid of the individual mandate, a few other as[ects of the law, like the “Cadillac” health plan tax, which the Democrats definitely want to get rid of, and not just put off.

    There are weak points – changes in Obamacare that the Democrats, by and large, feel they need to pass into law, Senator Schumer, though, is not telegraphing their vulnerabilities. Not the one Republicans don’t want nor the ones the Republicans agree with but don’t feel so strongly about.

    nw

    Sammy Finkelman (339ffd)

  28. Abolish Medicaid. There should be no significnt differences etween people with just above and just below Medicaid eligibility income. All that should be gone.

    Replace it with refunable tax credits and state tax credits also for those with no tax brden which may be funneled through the federal government. All money t be placed in an HSA.

    No means testing other than through the income tax system, and no clawbacks. It’s means testing that is pernicious, causing people to avid thing that benefit themselves or members of their family, and it’s inaccurate, not timely and it sets up ethical pitfalls for people.

    Have some things maybe paid for off the top. Instead of paying nursing homes, give patient or their families signing power over special accounts.

    Sammy Finkelman (339ffd)

  29. obamacare’s basically just emblematic of what a nasty eff-ed up fascist country america is anymore

    if losers like John McCain and these sleazy hoochies wanna co-brand with that, then they’re implicitly saying they think they can count on the CNN Jake Tapper fake news propaganda slut media to handle the damage control for them

    a year ago I woulda said they were probably gonna win that wager

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  30. It should have occurred to you a number of years ago that the GOP was attempting a flim flam on Obamacare.
    kishnevi (2f2588) — 7/27/2017 @ 9:48 am

    It more than occurred, it was my firmly held belief. One of the few Trumpian silver linings I saw coming was that, bereft of excuses, some flammers an a scattering of flimmers would suddenly become visible, like some wacky deep-sea fish in a show narrated by David Attenborough.

    There they are, all toothy mawed and vibrating, exposed.
    Now what?

    SarahW (3164f0)

  31. The cost of medicine and medical care won’t come down until consumers help set prices through knowing what they are and who will give a better one.

    There are many feeders in the delivery care for human ailments but none more interested in cost and benefit calculations than the people and the families of people who want to plan for minor and major calamity and cover their own wellness issues.

    Think of the danger of all that locked up saved money, though, belonging to wrong people who make personal choices – all the lost sidestreams of moneymaking that find a niche in the murk.

    SarahW (3164f0)

  32. Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion, and to discuss public issues and public servants and political events, regardless of whether one self-identifies (or in states so requiring, registers) as a member of any particular political party.

    I agree, in fact, with the sentiments expressed by this post.

    But they would be relatively more effective criticisms if they didn’t come from someone who’s publicly disassociated himself with the GOP, just as my criticisms of, say, the DNC or Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi would be relatively more effective in persuading Democratic primary voters if I were a Democrat, instead of a life-long Republican.

    I believe in the two-party system. It is under extreme stress now in large part because party loyalty has been, to say the least, roiled by what I and some others view as a temporary hostile takeover of the party’s titular national leadership by Trump. I therefore encourage intra-party efforts to promote party unity and discipline. I likewise encourage others who wish to constructively critique and improve the GOP to do so from within the GOP, rather than as critical outsiders, whose arguments will automatically get less traction with self-identifying GOP voters.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  33. @35. “… We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program. . . ” Understandably. DJT’s choices and actions are the cause of considerable regret in a wide range of good folk. But never, apparently to Trump himself (unless, of course, that “regret” is overwhelmed – in the expression – by criticism of *others*; cf. his regret re: Jeff Sessions). Strange and sad days, indeed.

    Q! (267694)

  34. So Republicans only listen to people in their tribe?

    DRJ (15874d)

  35. 34

    Tea Party was the Genesis of the tail wagging the Republican dog that’s now the tyrannical minority. Btw, nevertrumpers, or those who dare critique Trump are discarded by the 36 percent like used tissue paper. Those folks arose from the Republican Party and the courage shown by conservatives in their disdain for Trumplandia, is the narrow thread that binds the vast majority of America.

    Ben burn (ed36d1)

  36. Leave us not forget the financial mini collapse was not enough to militarize the burgeoning, but ephemeral voice of conservative angst..

    It took a liberal black POTUS to gnash their teeth.

    Ben burn (ed36d1)

  37. A superduper majority of Americans agree this is not the correct path forward.

    Ben burn (ed36d1)

  38. There was a time when Republicans listened to people and ideas that made sense. Those were the good old days.

    DRJ (15874d)

  39. DRJ,

    No. They listen to leftists and the press.

    NJRob (ec9af2)

  40. Vintage conservative whine. Sour grapes; bitter dregs.

    What’s w/this “we’ stuff? Thought you left the GOP.

    Seven years to plan no plan says it all to the party and the citizenry as a whole. The Seinfeld Party; a show about nothing. They been corked; totally Trumped.

    Ideologues are out; pragmatism is in. Purging the party of the zealous reactionaries; the conservative ideologues is on the move. Thirty five years of the tail wagging the dog is ending. They’re discovering to their utter horror there’s not nearly as many of them as their echo chambers have led them to believe. That ‘temporary take over’ — three decades of hell– is evaporating before their eyes. What’s left will be packed back into Pandora’s box in Goldwater’s attic where it belongs– or forced to bolt. It is the Republican Party after all; not the Conservative Party. But then, they can always start a party of their own– if there’s enough of them.

    ______

    Today’s Beldar the Bitter ‘Watergate, Watergate, Watergate’ Words of Wonder:

    “Well, I think we ought to let him hang there… Let him twist slowly, twist slowly in the wind.” – John Ehrlichman advising President Nixon’s special councel John Dean about the fate of FBI director nominee L. Patrick Gray whose nomination was stalled due to unsatisfactory answers about Waetrgate to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  41. @41. “old days” indeed… good—- not so much.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  42. @28: The last stand: The Custer Plan– REPLACE and REPEAL.

    “You can take glory with you when it’s your time to go.” – George Armstrong Custer [Errol Flynn] ‘They Died With Their Boots On’ 1941

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  43. So Republicans only listen to people in their tribe
    Unfortunately yes.
    The same of course is true for Democrats.
    Has been that way for over a decade, if not more.
    And heaven help the poor soul who wanders off the reservation and disagrees with even one issue.

    kishnevi (c2a547)

  44. I likewise encourage others who wish to constructively critique and improve the GOP to do so from within the GOP, rather than as critical outsiders, whose arguments will automatically get less traction with self-identifying GOP voters.

    If this concerned a difference of opinion on policy, I would agree with you, but it doesn’t.

    I think remaining in an organization led by Donald Trump is tacit approval of his leadership.

    Dave (445e97)

  45. I remember when all the smart people were telling us clueless idiots that we had to fight against Trump because he wasn’t a republican. And I remember that we tried to tell the smart people that it was the republicans who were the enemy and Trump was there to expose and destroy them. I laugh, I really do laugh at how foolish the smart people really are. They know, quite literally, nothing about politics.

    Mr Black (3089be)

  46. I think remaining in an organization led by Donald Trump is tacit approval of his leadership.

    Yep.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  47. President Trump is our last best hope for freedom Mr. Mr Black

    the sleazy republicans lied to us

    but President Trump told the truth

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  48. 21.That #20 above, is much more antisemitism than Hoagie has ever wrought. Guilty as charged.
    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 7/27/2017 @ 11:16 am

    Another one on the band wagon. For those of you who are not aware my maternal grandfather was Jewish. I was raised in a heavily Jewish area and many of my friends and girlfriends were Jewish. I attended many of my friends bar-mitzvahs. Finally, my first wife was Jewish. The wife whose hand I held as she died of brain cancer at Jefferson Hospital at the ripe old age of 40. To this day my former in-laws come over for dinner and barbeques, sometimes bringing their kids, my God Children, with them. If I am an anti Semite then so is God. Just because Dustin says I am does not mean it’s true.

    Apparently Dustin likes to apply a standard to me that I’m sure he would not apply to himself. That is, he won’t accept a respectful heart-felt apology from me but I’m sure unless he’s Jesus Christ himself he has said or done things in his life he asked forgiveness for. That would make him a hypocrite.

    Thank you for allowing me to comment here but the time has come for me to leave. I will not spend one more minute apologizing or another comment explaining. Thanks again and good luck.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  49. every time a pitiful pathetic arizona medicaid loser dies in one of John McCain’s filthy government hospitals

    we should ring a bell

    we can call it the cowardly liar bell of death

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  50. Mr. Hoagie i know you’re not anti semitism at all – we’ve known you for years!

    some people just like to tear other people down for so they can feel better about themselves

    all we can do is offer them our love and understanding while they work through this difficult time

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  51. In the end Patterico, the Senators have to answer to their constituents. But if they are listening to them and they don’t want this, can you blame them for rejecting it? Their constituents put them in office, not some grandiose idea of always walking in lock-step with the party line.

    Tillman (a95660)

  52. some of these people what are doing criticize on you literally voted for a diseased criminal stinkypig who was committed to continuing barack obama’s collusion with Iran with an eye towards facilitating a near-term nuclear genocide of Israel

    so i think there’s some hypocrisy here as well as general poopery

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  53. Their constituents put them in office, not some grandiose idea of always walking in lock-step with the party line.

    Yep.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  54. In the end Patterico, the Senators have to answer to their constituents.

    hmmm

    then why you suppose these cowardly useless trash-slut senators LIED to their constituents and promised they’d repeal obamacare root and branch?

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  55. 43 Democrats just voted “present” on their own party’s single-payer plan, so the GOP has no monopoly on inconsistency…

    Dave (445e97)

  56. Trumpfeet, constituents reserve the right to change their mind at any time without notice. They’re not all just stubborn robots, ya know.

    Tillman (a95660)

  57. @57.

    When a guy;
    Gets away with a lie;
    And a skirt;
    Says repeal: it won’t work,
    So they vote,
    Then vacation to gloat;
    That’sss Entertainment!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  58. i wonder if taxpayers have to pick up the tab to defend the sleazy corrupt fbi leaker guy (James A. Baker)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  59. Hoagie,

    Just ignore him. You’ll feel better for it.

    NJRob (ec9af2)

  60. Nk,

    I disagree with you. They depend on their constituents to vote for a familiar name, not someone that represents their interests. I know as much because I spent a good deal of time trying to defeat the leftist with an R after his name, Leonard Lance

    NJRob (ec9af2)

  61. Scaramucci is completely losing it:

    “They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a f*cking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the f*cking thing and see if I can c*ck-block these people the way I c*ck-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ” (Priebus did not respond to a request for comment.)…

    Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c*ck,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f*cking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)

    Got that? Reince Preibus is the “paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac” and Scaramucci “has no interest in media attention”.

    Riiiiight.

    Dave (445e97)

  62. i’m liking this Mr. Scaramucci more and more

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  63. i’m liking this Mr. Scaramucci more and more

    Me too. He will definitely accelerate Trump’s exit from office.

    Dave (445e97)

  64. Apart from the fact that this is war, what seems to escape notice is that if Trump fails, and however he fails, it will not bring a return to something good. It would be the return of those who gave America the initial under-reaction to terrorism, the housing bubble and world financial crisis, the elevation of Iran to preeminent influence in Iraq and much of the Middle East, then the North Korean crisis, the migrant humanitarian disaster, a flat-lined American economy hobbled with a back-breaking and under-funded welfare system, and the enthronement of political correctness to the point of official inability to utter the words “Islamist extremism.”

    yes yes yes

    we don’t wanna go back to sleazy anti-semitic food stamp and valerie or the filthy soldier-murdering george w. bush do we

    no

    we have to keep moving forward

    and the way you do that is by putting down your knitting and putting on your pants one leg at a time

    then you move in a forward direction

    i’m sure there’s a youtube or something what can explain it better

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  65. Apparently Scaramucci’s heritage is Vulgarian, not Italian.

    “IIIII love New York! What-a-great-vacation-place!”– NY TV commercial, 1980’s

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  66. Washington always wins.

    But I agree that these six must face an end to their careers. They lied for years. They did not spend one minute of their time designing a replacement that would satisfy the GOP. They simply lied and hoped for a president who would veto any repeal. They treated us with absolute disdain.

    So we have to patiently work at our goals and never give up. We can’t let the nation forget the principles that once made us great.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  67. scaramucci came to party

    i love him at first i wasn’t know what to think

    but he’s a pip for sure!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  68. Oh, waiter! Mr. Shine and Mr. Hannity are dining with Mr. Trump and Mr. Scaramucci this evening.

    Strawberries and ice cream all ’round for dessert– and two scoops of ice cream for the Captain and a potato for Mr. Hannity.

    “They were all disloyal! They fought me at every turn…” – Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  69. i like it when we all eat together

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  70. That’s not a bad way to set a precedent. When Mueller gets fired, it will be because of leaks.

    nk (dbc370)

  71. the cowardly president of them weird-ass antiquated “boy scouts of failmerica” literally apologized today for President Trump

    so so sickening

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  72. they were actually bordering on being relevant for almost 24 hours

    that must’ve given their squirrelly dipstick president quite the startle

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  73. I apologize for President Trump, too. I’m sorry, America.

    nk (dbc370)

  74. he’s the best one for the challenge Mr. NK!

    poor pitiful America is so blessed to have Donald Trump willing to fight for her skeezy ass

    I want to do something nice for him

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  75. oopers i think i hit my caps key too many

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  76. So we have to patiently work at our goals and never give up. We can’t let the nation forget the principles that once made us great.
    Patricia (5fc097) — 7/27/2017 @ 3:03 pm

    I think too many forgot already.
    “History is Dead” said a CEO of a major public history foundation charged with preserving the past so the future can learn from it.
    He fired architects and historians and scholar-musician entertainers, an put a mall ice-rink in the historic area that plays “Love machine” over loudspeaker.
    One of the new programs is a meet and greet with a dog that wears a chinese mass-produced tricorn.

    They closed the library to the public because what people really want is a spa treatment.
    Belly rubs Around the Corner!

    SarahW (3164f0)

  77. I just don’t have a very hopeful outlook. Although, the supreme court surprised me recently by not letting the government tell people what to name themselves. I think a generation or two later that would have gone another way.

    SarahW (3164f0)

  78. Omg that sounds terrible. I think we are all on flight 93 too but we must do the right thing anyway

    Patricia (d66900)

  79. there’s so many good maneuver left

    don’t lose your enthusiasm for the morrow!

    President Trump’s gotten the ball rolling that’s for sure

    i awoke this morning per my custom

    and I looked at the internet web page from Mr. Drudge

    and i did a learning and here is what i learned

    Bannon Calls for 44% Tax on Incomes Above $5 Million

    oh my goodness!

    yes this doesn’t affect me personally for i am but a humble pikachu, well-acquainted with many tasty varieties of hearty peasant fare

    but do you know what kind of incentivate this does on a rich person living in California?

    puhlenty incentivate that’s what kind

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  80. jesus come a chameleon if steve bannon wanted to look a lil bit more like he had a rip-roaring alcohol problem I think he’d be hard-pressed

    let’s not be knocking them spa treatments

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  81. Another great post.

    Thank you!

    ThOR (e7c9d8)

  82. “Two fish that don’t stink from the head down: me and the President.”– Anthony Scaramucci

    So it’s the a$$ up, as expected.

    _______

    What’s the skinny on The Skinny?

    “… Only her hairdresser knows for sure.” – Clairol ad tag, 1956

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  83. Senate Rpublicans were meeting and they want to pass “skinny repeal” The main reason is to allow McConnell to take some kind of bill into conference.

    Some senators do not like the bill the way it is, and want assurances from the House that it will not simply pass it and send it to the president.

    Senator Lindsey Graham: (he’s together with John McCain, Ron Johnson and Bill Cassidy.

    The skinny bill as policy is a disaster. The skinny bill as a replacement for Obamacare is a fraud. The skinny bill is a vehicle to getting conference to find a replacement. It is not a replacement in and of itself.

    The policy is terrible because you eliminate the individual and employer mandate, which we all want eliminated, but we have [to have?] a overall solution to the problem of Obamacare. So you’re going to have increased premiums and most of Obamacare stays in place if the skinny bill becomes law.

    Not only do we not replace Obamacare, we politically own the collapse of healthcare. I’d rather get out of the way and let it collapse than have a half-ass approach where it is now our problem.

    They could actually have something that is workable, if they provided for reinsurance with everoyne being charged the same premium, with the maximum charge beibng the advance tax credit which would be identical for every U.S. citizen or permanent resident, maybe varying in the deductible, the reinsurance cases being auctioned off with the federal government paying the cost to the lowest bidder with, and insurance companies losing their premium plus 5% to 10%, or reinsurung everything above average costs, and a hospitals and doctors beinbg paid EMLATA costs

    They’re trying to wrote something in less time than it took to write the constitution. They’ve got to gove it at least all summer and send things maybe several times to committee to work out the langiage and maybe details.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  84. Three Republican U.S. senators warned Thursday they would not vote for a slimmed-down Obamacare repeal bill without guarantees that the House of Representatives will go into negotiations with the Senate on the measure.

    The senators – Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Ron Johnson – said they fear the House will simply take up the Senate-passed bill and approve it, instead of negotiating with the Senate to produce a more comprehensive measure. They think the slimmed-down healthcare bill, which Senate Republicans are still developing, will be an insufficient replacement for Obamacare.

    The three senators are enough to block a bill from passing the Senate, assuming no Democrats will vote for an Obamacare repeal bill.

    these filthy senate trashpigs voted to exempt their own piggy asses from the obamacare

    how’s that workin for you guys?

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  85. New York Times Op-ed against skinny repeal, which isn’t very clear

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/opinion/obamacare-repeal-terrible-idea.html

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  86. Can anyone follow this:

    Those remaining in the exchanges will be receiving much higher subsidies because of the higher premiums, making them very similar to existing Medicaid beneficiaries. This is why the likely outcome is a much bigger tab for the government.

    In effect, a “skinny repeal” will result in an unintended expansion of ever larger government subsidies to the working poor. The difference is that those people will have higher incomes than allowed under normal Medicaid or the expanded Medicaid coverage that has been so controversial in red states.

    He seems to be arguing that many people will drop out of the exchanges – but there are not too many now who are ubsubsidized.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  87. 77.I apologize for President Trump, too. I’m sorry, America.

    His badge of honor lacks merit.

    “I was working on my 20th when the government abolished scouting and sent me into the Hitler Youth instead.” – Werner ‘The Ferret’ [Robert Graf] ‘The Great Escape’ 1963

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  88. UPDATE: Corrected the year McCain is up for re-election.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  89. i’m not voting for him he’s too sleazy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  90. Russia sanctions bill passed the Senate 98-2.

    The no votes? Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders.

    Dave (445e97)

  91. Who are the bigger suckers- trump loyalists or us?

    Whycoh (fd3452)

  92. @95- What’s the line in Vegas that our Captain will sign it?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  93. Bernie Sanders is a Commie. What’s Paul Rand’s rationale? In honor of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?

    nk (dbc370)

  94. The article I saw said Sanders thought the sanctions on Iran would be used to break the nuke deal.

    Paul said it was “just tweaking their nose” and that he wasn’t in favor of new sanctions on Russia or Iran. He also made two moral equivalence arguments that 1) everything Russia does (in regard to human rights violations), China also does, and 2) everything China and Russia do (in regard to spying), we also do.

    Dave (445e97)

  95. interesting how our cowardly and sanctimonious friend John McCain had no problem voting for this sanctions bill that did not go through “regular order”

    maybe he’s just a low-class trashy liar?

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  96. But one of the traitors is coming up for re-election next year: Dean Heller. He has to go. He must be primaried.

    That’s really up to the voters of Nevada– not California. Unless you’re planning a move.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  97. @100 maybe he’s just a low-class trashy liar

    Or maybe he just doesn’t care anymore.

    “My brain hurts.” – T.J. Gumby [Michael Palin] ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ BBC TV, 1969

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  98. Mr. DCSCA we should for sure at least support people what will vote to ram a significantly large nuclear waste site all up in Nevada so they can at least have some jobs to support all those dirty heller medicaid junkies running around spreading their antibiotic-resistant germs everywheres

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  99. Trump should repeal the special health care trannyrepublicans receive

    mg (31009b)

  100. hah i like how the one on the right kinda ducks

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  101. That’s really up to the voters of Nevada– not California. Unless you’re planning a move.

    He could hire the GRU and FSB, like Trump did.

    Dave (445e97)

  102. Scaramucci called up the reporter from the New Yorker to try to intimidate him into revealing who leaked the sooper-seekret fact that he and Donald Trump were having dinner with Sean Hannity and a former Fox executive.

    And now he claims he was betrayed by the reporter he was trying to intimidate!

    You can’t make this stuff up…

    Dave (445e97)

  103. “Thank you, my friend,” McCain bellowed. “I just had my interrogation on Russert” — Tim Russert, the moderator of “Meet the Press.”

    “It’s a good thing I had all that preparation in North Vietnam!”

    Ryan Lizza reporting

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  104. The White House badly needed someone who was a worse buffoon than Trump. Poor Kellyanne wasn’t cutting it. Ergo … Scaramucci, Scaramucci, can you do the Mandingo?

    Yes, I meant “Mandingo”.

    nk (dbc370)

  105. this is why hiring creepy addams-family-looking careerist weirdos out of the military is a really bad idea

    people what steep in that pentagon sewer too long get weird

    Promotions to top positions in the NSC include Kris Bauman, who created President Obama’s West Bank security plan that endangers Israel’s sovereignty. McMaster has placed Bauman in charge of Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the NSC. In his Ph.D. dissertation, Bauman blamed sitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “inciting” Palestinian terror and demanded that Israel engage with the Hamas terrorist group. In June, Bauman’s proposal to implement his Obama-era plan into the Trump administration was leaked to anti-Israel Haaretz.

    and maybe a tad anti-semitic Mr. Dustin

    (you seem concerned about this issue)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  106. They’re actually too evenly yoked. I foresee billing problems with the act coming to light fairly quickly. Scaramucci, like Moe, projects greater gravitas and will demand acknowledgement of his importance. He’s going to want to throw the first pie and get in the last Dutch rub. I’m also not sure whether Bannon and Priebus will be content with the Curly and Shemp parts.

    Rick Ballard (39e1b7)

  107. I pointed how fusion has to Venezuela And russia re Lee smith.

    narciso (82af23)

  108. @107. Faux Faux outrage!

    Krauthammer needs to get to Manhattan, get a hold of Hannity and grab a beer or two across the street from 1211 6t at Hurley’s and listen to the Nixon tapes on their Chinese made IPhones.

    “The Jews have certain traits…The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish.” – President Nixon, secret White Hose Oval Office tapes, Feb./Mar., 1973

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  109. These GOP Senate clowns want Ryan to ‘guarantee’ to them that a bill they vote for tonight doesn’t become law in conference so they can go home and crow they voted to repeal but it actually won’t.

    So they’re for it before they’re against it.

    And so, children, The Turtle tosses the hot potato back to the Big Mickey and they all go on vacation and live happily ever after. You- not so much. A win is more important than the life and death issue of healthcare.

    “What the hell kind of traffic control is this?” – Major Landon [Norman Alden] ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ 1970

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  110. Why the Russian sanctions bill is also theater that will not become law, that’s why it got so many votes:

    Pocket veto. Congress is going into recess tomorrow until after Labor Day. That’s more than ten days. All Trump has to do is sit on it.

    Pocket vetoes cannot be overridden. The bills have to be reintroduced from the beginning.
    https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/090a8d2a-c3f8-4c8a-9e48-e47dc35a11d9.pdf

    THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!

    nk (dbc370)

  111. For a variety of reasons, I don’t think the Democrats will allow an adjournment resolution to pass. It can be filibustered in the Senate. The GOP may not want to give Trump the opportunity for a recess appointment to replace Sessions, either.

    The bill originated in House though, so it would depend on the House being in session.

    Dave (445e97)

  112. @115- Congress is going into recess tomorrow until after Labor Day…

    Will they? Will The Turtle give The Donald a window to toss Sessios out of and do a recess appointment?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  113. @115- ‘pro forma’ maybe…

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  114. It may also be that the bill doesn’t get sent to President Snowflake until congress returns.

    Dave (445e97)

  115. 109, he finally found his cafone. That’s probably who beat him up beforedecamping to military school. And the Mandingo taking was done by the previous President.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  116. The problem is that the political landscape is different now.

    Obamacare is actually popular. As terrible as it is, the system before it was terrible.

    JeremyR (508f71)

  117. Between the Hawaii judiciary’s hijinks and this, Make America 48 Again?

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  118. Between the Hawaii judiciary’s hijinks and this, Make America 48 Again?

    I’m sure Donald Trump, the greatest negotiator who ever lived, could work out a beautiful, beautiful deal (believe me) to sell Alaska to the Russians and Hawaii to the Chinese (with a few grossly overpriced condos he owns thrown in on the side for his trouble).

    Dave (445e97)

  119. @121. Rest easy; the beachhead’s secure.

    This is hedgerow country. Paris, Marketgarden, the Bulge lay ahead but the victory parade in Berlin is inevitable.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  120. As is often the case, I completely agree with Beldar (@34).

    The Republican Party could use a strong and thoughtful dissenting voice like yours, Patrick.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  121. In other news:

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/27/house-votes-to-fund-border-wall/?utm_source=site-share

    narciso (d1f714)

  122. @ ThOR, #125:

    They had it, once.

    Demosthenes (09f714)

  123. That was a great recommendation for hacksaw ridge btw.

    The problem is dippy turtle cornyn who ever us head is appropriations is decidedly top men

    narciso (d1f714)

  124. Vote stalled; when you lose lift, you bailout– or auger in, crash and burn.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  125. Collins, McCain and Murkowski vote against “skinny repeal”…

    Dave (445e97)

  126. @ DRJ, who asked (#37), perhaps of me (in response to my observations at #34):

    So Republicans only listen to people in their tribe?

    No, that’s not at all what I said. I went to considerable effort not to say that, by specifically saying that everyone’s entitled to an opinion, and that I’m only commenting about relative credibility.

    If I’m listening to people arguing to Republican voters about whom they should oppose in a Republican party primary due to their failure to follow Republican party discipline and thereby undermining a Republican Party promise to its politicians in Congress would do certain things, I think people who self-identify as Republicans are more credible, in general, than those who’ve publicly renounced the GOP in disgust.

    I wish our host would reconsider that position and return to working from inside the party, rather than telling those who do consider themselves Republicans what they, as Republicans, should do.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  127. McConnell on the Senate floor right now basically saying it’s up to the Democrats to fix healthcare now.

    Dave (445e97)

  128. The Turtle speaks: conservative whine; bitter dregs.

    Beachhead secure. Press on through the hedgerows. Breakfast in Paris awaits.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  129. @132- Maybe next time– like say in 2024, do the citizenry the courtesy of at least presenting a plan. We’ll give you another 7 years to craft one.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  130. Now Trump’s gonna have to fire Tom Price.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  131. So if Trump keeps his word (heh), Mike Price is fired as Secretary of HHS…

    Dave (445e97)

  132. @135 lol

    Dave (445e97)

  133. Who’s the “loser” now, Donald– the captured Vietnam POW– or the POTUS, putz.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  134. Meanwhile, producers at Faux News are frantically searching for a ‘blonde-falls-off-a-cruise-ship’ package to run all day Friday as they blame John McCain.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  135. As crowds shout “THANK YOU, JOHN McCAIN!” Ted Cruz drones before the cameras and just doesn’t know when to shut up. Railing about ‘betrayal’–of all things…

    Gather round while I sing you of Canadian Cruz,
    A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience;
    Call him unprincipled for changing his views,
    “Principles, schminzables” coos Canadian Cruz

    Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
    Say rather that he’s quite political;
    “Once we tally the vote, by next week it’s old news!
    Memories are short,” coos Canadian Cruz

    Some have harsh words for his bait-and-switch ruse,
    But some say their attitude should be one of gratitude;
    Like the wife and the father; their honor abused,
    So easily betrayed by Canadian Cruz

    “You become a conservative hero;
    Showing Texans you’ll stand up for zero;
    In Calgary ‘oder’ Houston, I have proved I can lose,
    And I’ll prove it again,” coos Canadian Cruz.

    With apologies to Tom Lehrer

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  136. I am sorry to see the repeal effort fail, although the “skinny repeal” was a transparent desperation move that would have just delayed the (probably) inevitable.

    A conference committee would have had no better chance at putting together an Obamacare replacement that could get 50 votes.

    Dave (445e97)

  137. In response to the Senate vote on healthcare Thursday evening, Secretaries of the Interior and Homeland Security have announced that all fencing, walls, personnel and stations on Arizona’s southern border will be relocated to its borders with California, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. (The statements made no mention of Colorado, possibly because it was not recognized that Arizona and Colorado are adjacent States.) A top official at the White House (who claimed most definitely to be authorized to speak, but only “on background”) described the decision in the following terms: “I may be new here, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s you don’t f*ck with the big dog so long as it can still piss up your leg. I love the big dog, and he doesn’t take kindly to captured losers like McCain and his gang. Well (he continued) we can just lose ourselves that whole damn state if he thinks he’s so smart (when really, he’s got brain cancer!, BRAIN CANCER LOSER! Sad!), and then see how he likes them apples.”

    Q! (267694)

  138. There is no right to healthcare! Just as their is no right life. If you can’t afford health insurance tough! this country was founded on economic darwinism. charity should help poor sick children not the taxpayers or government.

    survival of the fitist (66947d)

  139. @123 Dave

    I’m surprised you didn’t mention Abraham Lincoln’s secret collusion with Tsar Alexander II to influence The Civil War.

    Pinandpuller (bf1c8c)

  140. 115.

    Pocket vetoes cannot be overridden

    How come nobody noticed this? The media is bad, but is it that bad at getting things right? There is probably a way to avoid a pocket veto.

    Anyway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated last Sunday (r the previous Sunday) that Trump was OK with the bill.

    Originally, the bill was only to toughen and lock in sanctions on Russia – it got amended to due the same thing for North Korea ad Iran.

    Sammy Finkelman (748106)

  141. 114. DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/27/2017 @ 7:45 pm

    These GOP Senate clowns want Ryan to ‘guarantee’ to them that a bill they vote for tonight doesn’t become law in conference so they can go home and crow they voted to repeal but it actually won’t.

    So they’re for it before they’re against it.

    Well, people do the same thing in contract bridge.

    But anyway, there is still a problem in agreeing on an actual bill, no matter what they do.

    Sammy Finkelman (748106)

  142. I think maybe with a conference committee, they could avoid the limitations of the reconciliation process.

    If not, the idea was based on getting someone to change their position.

    Sammy Finkelman (748106)

  143. Well Narciso says why did they even bother with regard to California and the rest of the spoils of 1848/53 and outside of Idaho, Oregon Territory is less and less worth it. Hell, Maine could rejoin its other half back to Canada. Texas back to truly being Poland.

    urbanleftbehind (e51515)

  144. Veruca salt whose pop was in the board of Exxon, is one who thinks that a state income tax is a great thing, on tip of the oil franchise fee.

    narciso (d1f714)

  145. McCain cast the deciding vote against the skinny repeal. It seems he wants to end his career as a Democrat.

    DRJ (15874d)

  146. Czar Alexander gave up Alaska as part of the cost of settling the crimean war, since they are part of the Siberia landbridge you can see the continuity. Hawaii was one rung on the way to the
    Ucrative china market. That’s why we tarried with the phillipines fir a doWn years

    narciso (d1f714)

  147. But he says he’s still a Republican, so some in the GOP would listen to him and not Patterico.

    DRJ (15874d)

  148. Well, people do the same thing in contract bridge.

    you really are one of a kind

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  149. Benldat,

    I don’t think Trump is at fault for the GOP’s problems. He’s the result of years of betrayal by the GOP establishment. If you want people to come back to the GOP, I think you would be better off arguing for a party that embraces good ideas instead of a party that doesn’t respond well to criticism.

    DRJ (15874d)

  150. Beldar, not that crazy word AutoCorrect came up with.

    DRJ (15874d)

  151. Next step – more money, more rules, less choice. Obama’s takeover of healthcare became too big to fail. The Senate merely confirmed it. McConnell’s strategy shifts the blame to McCain, Collins and Murkowski who are proud to wear it.

    crazy (11d38b)

  152. Trump: Fake POTUS..

    USA TODAY

    Since Election Day, President Trump’s businesses have sold at least 30 luxury condos and oceanfront lots for about $33 million. That includes millions of dollars in properties to secretive shell companies, which can hide the identities of buyers or partners involved in the deals, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

    Now, details of some of those deals and other transactions by Trump’s family business could be unmasked as special counsel Robert Mueller expands his inquiry into election-meddling by Russia and whether Trump’s campaign colluded.

    Federal investigators are expected to delve into records revealing some of the President’s most closely guarded secrets, including how much money he makes, who he does business with and how reliant he is on wealthy, politically-connected foreigners.
    A half-dozen experts contacted by USA TODAY said they expect Mueller and his team to pursue everything from Trump’s income tax returns to the bank records underlying his companies’ real estate transactions in a quest to identify people who have financial relationships with the President and his business and political associates.

    Ben burn (70d425)

  153. As they say, why so we hate John Mccain, it saves time

    narciso (d1f714)

  154. That’s right crazy. Obama’s tepid march, the one I kept kicking for glacial speed increase, was just right like Goldielocks porridge.

    Ben burn (70d425)

  155. 2016: John McCain’s Leading the Fight to Stop Obamacare

    2017: “Sen McCain – Sen McCain, NO.”

    crazy (11d38b)

  156. @157- No- next step: fire Tom Price.

    The Donald wouldn’t lie to the world– and “40,000 Boy Scouts”– would he??!!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  157. 163

    Resisting Scadenfreude but it leaks out.

    Ben burn (70d425)

  158. You could tell that he wasn’t serious bout firing Tom Price anyway.

    Trump’s got other problems in PR.

    I wonder if Scaramucci is deliberately trying to muck thing up. Priebus really should be paranoid. Can anyone really be that stupid or ignorant?

    Still, a reporter did refuse to tell Scaramucci where he got his financial disclosure from. It’s probably not so simple a Politico is now saying. Somebody maybe expedited it.

    By the way, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo does not attack Trump by name.

    Sammy Finkelman (748106)

  159. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are Republicans who are fighting for what we believe from inside the GOP. I’m with them. You should be too.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  160. 154. I never liked that in contract bridge.

    But, like contract bridge, and unlike maybe the previous repeal bills, nobody was lying about wanting this bill. It’s just ridiculous procedures.

    Like with contract bridge, there I always a possibility of getting stuck with a contract you don’t at all want. McCain couldn’t get 100% reliable assurance from the House that they wouldn’t pass it – and the House was even planning to stay in session longer, so he voted against the bill.

    The big problem is that the math doesn’t add up.

    Sammy Finkelman (748106)

  161. 158. USA Today strained like a mountain and birthed a mouse. Presidents already file disclosures of all their assets and income.

    Here’s Trump’s: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3867112-Trump-Financial-Disclosure-2017.html
    And here’s a semi-digested version for those who prefer pablum: http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/16/news/trump-financial-disclosure-form/index.html

    nk (dbc370)

  162. They don’t have enough imagination in Congress.

    And they could have passed a bill that required floor votes on any new bill and any amendments with sufficient co-sponsers, and only 51 votes. Just on this issue.

    Sammy Finkelman (748106)

  163. The worst thing about nipping at Trump’s ankles is the slobber from those others who are nipping along with you.

    nk (dbc370)

  164. The irony is this whole megilla actually comes.from an outfit drenched in Venezuelan and Russia blood, fusion gps

    narciso (d1f714)

  165. I’ll do my best not to upstage your outrage, nk.

    Ben burn (70d425)

  166. Trumps Follies should not be celebrated by Leftists.

    Ben burn (70d425)

  167. The problem with scaramucci is first rule of flight club, 2) don’t tick off dark lord bannon, 3) English does not convey the full level of invective involved in this situation. There is a Spanish and Russian cignate

    narciso (d1f714)

  168. “The five years I have served in the Senate, there is no issue I have fought harder on and devoted more time to then stopping the disaster that is Obamacare.”

    “Mark my words, I am committed to this fight.”

    “As long as there is breath in my body, I will be fighting for the working men and women of this country that have been hurt by Obamacare, and I believe it will be repealed.”

    Ted Cruz

    We should all be fighting with him – as fellow Republicans

    ThOR (c9324e)

  169. Yes we can only have ayatollah fanslike elibiary, by blames the Costa for their own murder.

    narciso (d1f714)

  170. @144- this country was founded on economic darwinism.

    That’s a neat trick; Darwin wasn’t born until 1809.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  171. 172. No, no, no, don’t get me wrong. I don’t visit leftist sites at all, not even JustOneMinute or Instapundit. So I appreciate the Left-online glimpses you guys provide here. Just trying to keep it honest, that’s all.

    nk (dbc370)

  172. I know its you squint.

    narciso (d1f714)

  173. 163, if he did, would it be instant archery practice?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  174. If only this clip wasnt in Texas nerd twang (as I duck bullets from many here)…

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  175. “don’t visit leftist sites at all, not even JustOneMinute or Instapundit”

    They’re left of your position?

    Ben burn (70d425)

  176. For the past 80 years, this country has been moving toward economic parasitism.

    The coerced appropriation of income to fund the better politically connected – and, often, more prosperous – isn’t charity, it’s theft.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  177. Maguire just deletes any non fascist comments regardless, n arco. Ain’t you proud?

    Ben burn (70d425)

  178. I read left/right/moderate/ radical/anarchist/catholic…I don’t care
    NOT afraid of words..

    Ben burn (70d425)

  179. I’m figuring the leftists on here are just Soros bots. Not sure why they decided to attack this site, but whatever.

    NJRob (7f4bec)

  180. Its like the scorpion sting, on their nature.

    narciso (d1f714)

  181. Simplistic nutjob..

    Ben burn (70d425)

  182. urban left behind 183,

    There was no Texas twang when Cruz said this about politicians who promised to repeal ObamaCare and then voted for it: “They lied.”

    Everyone understood that.

    DRJ (15874d)

  183. Burnie the Soros bot. Has a nice ring to it.

    Cruz will never be forgiven for pulling back the blinds and showing the truth behind the kabuki game played in DC.

    NJRob (7f4bec)

  184. @115. WH announced tonight Trump will sign the Russia sanctions bill.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  185. I don’t mind being wrong. In fact, I like it when the ’73 Pinto doesn’t explode before the end of the block. That’s the good thing about low expectations.

    nk (dbc370)

  186. He might also have been told that Congress has not recessed-recessed since 2008 when Harry Reid invented the “pro forma” session to keep George W. Bush from making recess appointments, later found Constitutional in Noel Canning v. NLRB, and these are good for preventing pocket vetoes too.

    nk (dbc370)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1517 secs.