well said...

tommyjo

New Member
Who’s to blame for the failure of the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare? Who cares? What matters now is that Democrats stop gloating, Republicans stop sulking, and each party come to the table to improve a health-care system that both parties agree needs work.

After the bill collapsed on Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of obstruction, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer accused the president of incompetence, Speaker Paul Ryan said health care was done, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi bragged that it was a great day. No one had the courage to pick up the pieces and point the way forward.

Stop Blaming. Start Governing.

Gee...where have we heard this sentiment recently???

Here's the rest:
The Affordable Care Act has provided health-care coverage to millions more Americans, but there are still some 30 million with no insurance. Premiums are too high. The individual mandate isn't encouraging enough people to buy into the system. Some of its regulations and taxes make little sense. Insurance markets are too thin, providing consumers too little choice. Health-care savings accounts do too little to encourage savings.

Republicans have viable ideas to address these issues, including high-risk insurance pools and capping the tax exclusion that companies get for providing employees with health insurance. It's regrettable that none of these ideas were seriously considered in the rush to repeal Obamacare.

Equally regrettable is that Republicans appear to be giving up and moving on to other issues. If they can’t get everything they want, they seem to have concluded, they’ll take nothing. It’s a bad strategy. As Senator John McCain said Saturday, Republicans need Democrats to reform health care. The art of governing is compromise – and not just within the majority party. The sooner Ryan accepts the fact that Democrats can be a cudgel to use against the Freedom Caucus, the more successful he and Congress will be.

Ronald Reagan was known to say that he would happily take 70 or 80 percent of what he wanted and come back for the rest later. Yet instead of living by Reagan’s rule, Republicans are hung up on the Hastert Rule, named for Dennis Hastert, the former (and now disgraced) House speaker: Generally speaking, only bills that can get through without Democratic votes are brought to the floor. This led the party to produce a deeply flawed health-care bill that, ultimately, did not win strong support from the Republicans' moderate or Tea Party wings.

At the same time, Democrats steadfastly refused to reach across the aisle to produce a bipartisan alternative. Gloating only makes that more difficult.

On Friday, Schumer said that Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act on one condition: that Republicans take repeal off the table. This is not an auspicious step. Democrats ought to allow Republicans to call a new bill whatever they want. The details are what matters, not the label.

My only disagreement with this article is that it is the job/responsibility of the President to lead. For all his ego and bluster, Trump has not shown he has that ability or even desire (does it really need to be stated again that he is not qualified for the job?). Republicans have both houses of Congress and the WH...they have all the incentive in the world to be bipartisan...but they aren't doing it. For Christ sake, if the Rs had ANY sense at all they would propose a bipartisan bill...get some Dem support at the expense of losing the stupid Freedom Caucus with the result being a solidification of their grip on power...instead they (with Trump at the helm) charging headlong down the same path of polarization that the Dems did. Dumbasses.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
In your zeal to attack trump maybe take a pause and consider: ryan, presumably, can do basic math. He knew and has known this was not going to pass. So, why try? What if ryan knew he had to try for appearance sake and to do it with a bill that would not pass but at least passed a sniff test that, aw shucks, was close? Keep in mind, the gop, as a party, has never wanted to repeal the aca: just win elections promising to. Now, it's off their plate for awhile and they can tell the folks they tried. The safe R's could care less. They can play all or nothing.

Trump is getting two critiques: it's his loss and yet he didn't try hard enough. Life got easy for Obama when the D's lost the house in '10. Now, he could blame the R's and go play golf. Do you think Trump really cares how the R's do in the midterms? A party that opposed him?

Some reject the notion he doesn't care but, there it is. He can deal just as easy, maybe easier with D's in 2 years. Some say trump needs to fear a d house investigating him relentlessly. That presumes he's done something wrong and, so far, if anything, it's starting to look like the lukewarm potato may end up in Obama's hands.

None of that addresses your point of leadership unless you accept that Trump could not care less if ryan loses his job or the R's lose the house. Now, they gotta come to him hat in hand. They're up in less that 2 years. Not him ,and he wants to spend money, lots of it.
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
In your zeal to attack trump maybe take a pause and consider: ryan, presumably, can do basic math. He knew and has known this was not going to pass. So, why try? What if ryan knew he had to try for appearance sake and to do it with a bill that would not pass but at least passed a sniff test that, aw shucks, was close? Keep in mind, the gop, as a party, has never wanted to repeal the aca: just win elections promising to. Now, it's off their plate for awhile and they can tell the folks they tried. The safe R's could care less. They can play all or nothing.

Trump is getting two critiques: it's his loss and yet he didn't try hard enough. Life got easy for Obama when the D's lost the house in '10. Now, he could blame the R's and go play golf. Do you think Trump really cares how the R's do in the midterms? A party that opposed him?

Some reject the notion he doesn't care but, there it is. He can deal just as easy, maybe easier with D's in 2 years. Some say trump needs to fear a d house investigating him relentlessly. That presumes he's done something wrong and, so far, if anything, it's starting to look like the lukewarm potato may end up in Obama's hands.

None of that addresses your point of leadership unless you accept that Trump could not care less if ryan loses his job or the R's lose the house. Now, they gotta come to him hat in hand. They're up in less that 2 years. Not him ,and he wants to spend money, lots of it.

They are all one party anyway. Politicians against Americans.
Only one way to save it and that is to get rid of the whole buch come election time and that won't happen.
Vote for no incumbents.
 
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