Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Trumpcare Dies as Ryan - Trump Give Up

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One of Trump's campaign promises was to "Repeal and Replace" Obamacare, and this week he pushed and pushed for Speaker Paul Ryan and the House of Representatives to get a bill together that the GOP members could get behind. But all they came up with after years of bashing Obamacare was a terrifying mish-mash known as the "American Health Care Act" or "AHCA" or "Trumpcare," a bill that led to grassroots uprisings even among those who voted for Trump.

But there was still a chance that it could pass, since the GOP has a majority in the House.

Instead, as the day went on, it became clear the votes weren't there. Even while spokesman Sean Spicer was announcing that there would be a vote at 3:30 ET, GOP members were announcing that they would vote no. Paul Ryan went to the White House and told the President the votes weren't there, but he ordered them to vote anyway. GOP members did not want to go on the record for such an ill-fashioned draconian bill. Paul Ryan went to the White House again, and this time Trump told him to pull the bill from the floor.

It was a huge failure of the GOP to govern, and especially for Trump, author of "Art of the Deal." It was Bad Day at Black Rock for Paul Ryan, whose career is now in the dumpster, loathed even more by Democrats and the Tea Partiers alike.

It was a sweet victory for Democrats and The Resistance because Obamacare will stay in place for now and President Obama's legacy remains intact.

There's no other way to characterize it. This is a stunning and humiliating defeat for Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. And by the time the dust settles, that may be too kind.
~ Dan Rather on Facebook



From UPI
Several Republicans have said the president is finished negotiating on the matter and will now just leave the ACA on the books as the healthcare law of the land.
"The best thing we can do, politically speaking, is let Obamacare explode," the president continued. "Bad things are going to happen to Obamacare. There's not much you can do to help it.
"It's not a question of, 'gee, I hope it does well.' I would love it to do well. I want great healthcare for the people of this nation. But it can't do well. It's imploding and will soon explode. And it's not going to be pretty."
Trump also chastised the conservative Republicans who would not get on board with the replacement plan.
"We learned a lot about loyalty," he said.

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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Tea Party Tantrums Over Second Obamacare Ruling

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Previous Related Posts:

Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare 6-3
From Earlier 2012 Decision on Obamacare:
SCOTUS Upholds Obamacare, Tea Party Heads Explode
Haters Gotta Hate: Ad Hom Attacks on Chief Justice Roberts

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Now that the Supremes have upheld Obamacare twice - today and in 2012 - the same people on the far right still want to blame Chief Justice Roberts for being a traitor to their cause. Never mind how frivolous these lawsuits are, or how many people would suffer if Obamacare was taken away.

The GOP just doesn't want to admit defeat, so they scream, kick, and snarl about Justice Roberts and how "unfair" it is that he upheld a legally passed law giving health care for millions.

Between this ruling on Obamacare and the fact that Confederate Flags are coming down all over the South, this hasn't been a happy week for the Tea Party and their minions. They are all about the butthurt and tears of impotent rage. After they get these Supreme Court Tantrums out of their systems, they can either take a nap or go to the happy chair in the corner.






















































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Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare in King vs. Burwell 6-3 Decision

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The Supreme Court upheld the law about Obamacare subsidies in the states!!! This is a huge victory for the Obama Administration and for the country as a whole.



In a strong 6-3 decision, Chief Justice Roberts (surprisingly) wrote the the majority opinion in favor of Obamacare, and was joined by Justices Kennedy, Breyer, Sotomayor, Ginsberg, and Kagan. Justice Scalia wrote the conservative dissent, joined (not surprisingly) by Alito and Thomas.



From Huffington Post
The stakes of the case, King v. Burwell, were enormous. Had the plaintiffs prevailed, millions of people who depend upon the Affordable Care Act for insurance would have lost financial assistance from the federal government. Without that money, most of them would have had to give up coverage altogether. And the loss of so many customers would have forced insurers to raise premiums, seriously disrupting state insurance markets.
But two of the court’s conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined the court’s four liberals in rejecting the lawsuit in a 6-3 decision. Roberts delivered the opinion for the majority. And the decision was a concise, stinging rebuke of the plaintiffs, who contended that Congress intended to write a law that would leave so many people without coverage, and cause such disarray.
"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not destroy them," Roberts wrote.














Scalia was scathing in his dissent. He clearly wanted to give the GOP a victory, so slammed his colleagues for giving the President a huge victory instead.

From Huffington Post
"Words no longer have meaning," Scalia wrote in the dissent he read from the bench.
. . . "Today's interpretation is not merely unnatural; it is unheard of," he wrote. That is, strictly speaking, true, since this was a new case.
"We should start calling this law SCOTUScare."
"This case requires us to decide whether someone who buys insurance on an Exchange established by the Secretary gets tax credits. You would think the answer would be obvious -- so obvious there would hardly be a need for the Supreme Court to hear a case about it," Scalia wrote, again accurately, though not in the way he meant.
"The Court's next bit of interpretive jiggery-pokery..."
"Pure applesauce," he insisted.











Call a Waaahmbulance for Scalia!

Meanwhile, President Obama called for the GOP to move forward and stop trying to repeal Obamacare for the 60th time.
















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Sunday, June 14, 2015

Senator John Thune Beclowns Himself with Obamacare Tweet

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Republican Senator John Thune, R-South Dakota, beclowned himself this week when he composed a tweet meant to slam Obamacare which ended up sounding like a contradictory circular argument, as if the President will be to blame if the Supreme Court guts the law when they decide the case of King v. Burwell.



From Mother Jones
To an outside observer who may not be terribly familiar with Obamacare (née the Affordable Care Act), this seems alarming. Whoa, Obamacare may cost people their health-care subsidies? such observers may think. And the answer is, haha, well, sort of.
The subsidies that might be lost if the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration in the case of King v. Burwell are subsidies ... that exist within the framework of Obamacare. Obamacare isn't threatening those subsidies, Obamacare is providing them. The threat to the subsidies lies with the Supreme Court case, which could interpret language within the law to exclude people who signed up through HealthCare.gov from access to those subsidies.

From Bloomberg
How Not to Make the SCOTUS Case Against Obamacare, in One Tweet
. . . On its own terms, this was difficult or impossible to parse. The aforementioned six million people living in states that count on the federal exchange to sell plans were not at risk until lawsuits were filed to end the subsidies. If the loss of subsidies was bad for the American people, then how was that the fault of the administration, who argued against the plaintiffs and called the legal challenge dilatory? Thune's Twitter timeline became a torrent of people wondering what he was talking about. Even conservatives started to ask if Thune realized how tightly he'd been wrapped around the axle.

Twitter had a field day with this one! As it should be!


















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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Haslam Medicaid Plan Halted in Tennessee by Koch Brothers

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Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam stalled and waffled for two years while trying to come up with a way to expand Medicaid in Tennessee without starting a Tea Party frenzy. Last year it was obvious that the ill-fated TennCare wasn't working, but he waited until after the November elections to bring up his new plan "Insure Tenn." There was even a hint of optimism in the air last week, as hospital officials, doctors, nurses, the the disabled came to Nashville to testify before the Legislature that insuring the poorest of the poor would be good for everyone.

Coalition for a Healthy Tennessee has a great webpage on Who Falls Into the Tennessee Medicaid Gap

But they were outnumbered by loonies, including a crazy lay-preacher from Dayton, Tennessee - of Scopes Monkey Trial fame - to pray against Medicaid because it's just big government trying to oppress sick people. Just embarrassing and sad.










And another group showed up - Americans For Prosperity - goons backed by the Koch Brothers, sent to remind the Tennessee GOP where it's money comes from. Thus the Insure TN plan was doomed, and never got out of committee for a vote.

From NBC News
NASHVILLE-In December, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, got the deal he wanted from the Obama administration: Tennessee would accept more than $1 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid, as allowed for in the Affordable Care Act, but Obama aides would allow Haslam to essentially write staunchly conservative ideas into the program's rules for the state. He dubbed the reformed Medicaid program "Insure Tennessee."

But the state's chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the national conservative group whose foundation is chaired by controversial billionaire David Koch, argued Haslam was just trying to trick conservatives into implementing Obamacare in their state by giving it a new name. AFP campaigned aggressively Haslam's plans for the next six weeks, even running radio ads blasting GOP state legislators who said they might vote for it.

. . . When the legislators walked into a hearing Tuesday morning to debate the measure, they looked out from the dais to a room packed with more than 100 people wearing red "Americans for Prosperity" t-shirts. Some of the activists had traveled on an AFP-chartered bus from Knoxville, more than two hours away, to pack the hearing well in advance of its 9:00 AM start time. . . . The sea of red crowded out representatives of the Tennessee Hospital Association, one of the big advocates of the Medicaid expansion, who were left to stand in the back or unable to get into the room at all.



From MSNBC
And what did the AFP activists have to say for themselves?
“I’m skeptical of government-run programs,” said Louis Stans, a retired engineer who was part of the AFP group. Medicare, Stans said, was “better” and he had “paid into it my whole life.”
Those two sentences tell us a great deal about the state of the debate. Here’s a retiree who doesn’t like government-run programs, instead preferring a government-run program. In other words, an AFP activist traveled to the state capitol to condemn a conservative version of Medicaid expansion, because what he really wants is a socialized system like Medicare.
Levi Russell, a national spokesperson for Americans for Prosperity, told NBC News, “I would hope other governors look at Tennessee as an example.”

And just like the government-paid goons in our national Congress who keep trying to "Repeal Obamacare," the Republicans in Tennessee have no other plan for the poor except to bill the hospitals. They got nothing.

However, Gov. Haslam, to his credit, isn't dropping the subject. He mentioned coverage for the poorest citizens in his State of the State Address. This may seem like lip service, but I actually think he means it. Whether he can persuade the Tea Party to actually vote for something that will help the state is debatable. They'd rather talk about Guns and the Bible.

From the Nashville Banner
“Last week, the decision was made not to move forward with Insure Tennessee. However, that does not mean the issues around health care go away. Too many Tennesseans are still not getting health coverage they need in the right way, in the right place, at the right time,” Haslam said in his address to top lawmakers.
“Last week, I talked about coming here not just to make a point but to make a difference. It’s about looking for answers, not just having an agenda. With great power comes great responsibility. So, though the special session has ended, I hope we can find a way to work together to address those problems,” he said.
















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Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Boehner Lawsuit is about . . . Obamacare! Surprise!

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On Monday, July 7, 2014, House Speaker John Boehner made his case against President Obama in an Op-Ed for CNN:
. . . later this month, we will bring legislation to the House floor that would authorize the House of Representatives to file suit in an effort to compel President Obama to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country.
The President's response: "So sue me."
What's disappointing is the President's flippant dismissal of the Constitution we are both sworn to defend. It is utterly beneath the dignity of the office. I know the President is frustrated. I'm frustrated. The American people are frustrated, too.
. . . Over the last five years, starting -- not coincidentally -- when his political party lost the majority in the House of Representatives, the President has consistently overstepped his authority under the Constitution, and in so doing eroded the power of the legislative branch.
The legislative branch has an obligation to defend the rights and responsibilities of the American people, and America's constitutional balance of powers -- before it is too late.

But it wasn't until Thursday that he actually explained the basis of the lawsuit: John Boehner and the Republicans in Congress are suing President Obama over the "employer mandate" part of ACA/Obamacare which was postponed for small business owners - because they asked for it! Now the GOP is saying that Obama shouldn't have delayed it, and he overstepped the bounds of his office. But let's not forget - the GOP hates both ACA and the mandate, so this is all a farce of epic proportions. Let's just hope a Judge sees it that way and isn't in cahoots, as the Supreme Court apparently is.

From the New York Times
On Thursday, Mr. Boehner said the lawsuit would specifically challenge the president’s decision to delay imposing penalties on employers who do not offer health insurance to employees in compliance with the Affordable Care Act.

“The current president believes he has the power to make his own laws — at times even boasting about it,” Mr. Boehner said in his statement. “He has said that if Congress won’t make the laws he wants, he’ll go ahead and make them himself, and in the case of the employer mandate in his health care law, that’s exactly what he did.”

“If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to as well,” the speaker added. “The House has an obligation to stand up for the legislative branch, and the Constitution, and that is exactly what we will do.”

When questioned about the lawsuit, Boehner blew up about Obama's lack of "responsibility." This is from a man famous for holding up votes in the House - such as Immigration - just because the Tea Party doesn't like Obama. But he's let them vote to repeal ACA/Obamacare FIFTY times! And this lawsuit is just more nonsense.

You're drunk, Boehner. Go home.

He's been President for five-and-a-half years! When is he going to take responsibility for something?



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The President had quite a bit to say about the lawsuit in Texas this week, and he couched it in terms of Congress doing nothing while he is at least trying to get things done.

Transcript via WhiteHouse.gov
There are a number of Republicans, including a number in the Texas delegation, who are mad at me for taking these actions. They actually plan to sue me. (Laughter.) Now, I don’t know which things they find most offensive -- me helping to create jobs, or me raising wages, or me easing the student loan burdens, or me making sure women can find out whether they’re getting paid the same as men for doing the same job. I don’t know which of these actions really bug them. (Laughter.)

The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years. So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did. (Applause.) Maybe it’s just me they don’t like. I don’t know. Maybe there’s some principle out there that I haven’t discerned, that I haven’t figure out. (Laughter.) You hear some of them -- “sue him,” “impeach him.” Really? (Laughter.) Really? For what? (Applause.) You’re going to sue me for doing my job? Okay. (Applause.)

I mean, think about that. You’re going to use taxpayer money to sue me for doing my job -- (laughter) -- while you don’t do your job. (Applause.)

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There’s a great movie called “The Departed” -- a little violent for kids. But there’s a scene in the movie where Mark Wahlberg -- they’re on a stakeout and somehow the guy loses the guy that they’re tracking. And Wahlberg is all upset and yelling at the guy. And the guy looks up and he says, “Well, who are you?” And Wahlberg says, “I’m the guy doing my job. You must be the other guy.” (Laughter and applause.) Sometimes, I feel like saying to these guys, I’m the guy doing my job, you must be the other guy. (Applause.)

So rather than wage another political stunt that wastes time, wastes taxpayers’ money, I’ve got a better idea: Do something. (Applause.) If you’re mad at me for helping people on my own, let’s team up. Let’s pass some bills. Let’s help America together. (Applause.)

It is lonely, me just doing stuff. I’d love if the Republicans did stuff, too. (Laughter.) On immigration issues, we’ve got -- and to their credit, there are some Republicans in the Senate who actually worked with Democrats, passed a bill, would strengthen the borders, would help make the system more fair and more just. But the House Republicans, they haven’t even called the bill. They won’t even take a vote on the bill. They don’t have enough energy or organization or I don’t know what to just even vote no on the bill. (Laughter.) And then they’re mad at me for trying to do some things to make the immigration system work better. So it doesn’t make sense.

In the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart quotes Lawrence Tribe, a professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard:
Tribe told me yesterday that he is “now convinced that there’s no ‘THERE there.” And that was BEFORE the speaker released language of a bill seeking authorization to sue the president “over the way President Obama unilaterally changed the employer mandate” in the Affordable Care Act. Boehner’s announced action solidified Tribe’s view.

"The very fact that Boehner is willing to say the House of Representatives is injured by the President’s decision to delay the implementation of the employer mandate is bizarre in itself, given how often the House has voted not just to delay it but to scuttle it,” Tribe told me via e-mail last night. “And it’s hard to imagine what conceivable remedy a federal court could possibly issue: an order directing the President to reverse course and implement the employer mandate sooner? Hardly!”

. . . the House of Representatives doesn’t have standing because none of Boehner’s accusations shows any harm to the House as an institution.



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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Supreme Injustice - Ruling Against Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones

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Previous Related Posts:
Revolting Justice Scalia Urges Tax Revolt
Supreme Court McCutcheon Ruling on Elections
SCOTUS Brings Back Jim Crow
Republicans Attack Chief Justice Roberts Over Obamacare
Take Two Aspirin and SCOTUS in the Morning
Eatin' Broccoli with the Supremes

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The Supreme Court ruled last Thursday that "buffer zones" around abortion clinics in Massachusetts shouldn't include public sidewalks. The ruling was in favor of "free speech" by the so-called "Abortion Counselors" who stand outside clinics with pictures of dead babies while screaming Bible verses at women seeking medical procedures.

From the Boston Globe
The US Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law that banned protesters within 35 feet of abortion clinics, ruling that the law infringed upon the First Amendment rights of antiabortion activists.
The decision effectively overturns about 10 fixed-buffer-zone laws across the country, from San Francisco to Portland, Maine, but offers a framework for more limited restrictions around clinic demonstrations, legal experts said.
“They’ve approved the idea of this kind of law, just not the mechanism,” said Jessica Silbey, a Suffolk University Law School professor. “It was too broad.”

Attorney General Martha Coakley, whose office defended the law in arguments before the court, said the decision left intact part of the law banning deliberate obstruction of clinic entrances.
“We will utilize all of the tools we have available to protect everyone from harassment, threats, and physical obstruction,” said Coakley, adding that her office’s Civil Rights Division was prepared to issue injunctions against “those who would threaten or harass.”







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Jessica Valenti in The Guardian
The supreme court's decision is not as unanimous as it may seem, and it is not the end: pro-choice activists are expressing outrage, sharing stories and organizing on the Twitter hashtag #protectthezone, and Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards says that the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts is "already working with legislature on a new bill to protect women from harassment".
But for the women seeking abortions in the days and weeks to come - and for the providers, workers and volunteers who put their lives on the line every day to ensure women have access to safe medical care - this ruling will impact them immediately. It will make women less safe, doctors and clinic workers more fearful, and violent harassers emboldened. This is not the "free speech" we're fighting for.



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