*Over 20* Republicans Decide To Not Be Sh*theads, On Multiple Topics!
Seventeen voted to pass ACA extension; five voted to limit Trump in Venezuela; and Thom Tillis is out of blank checks for DHS.
Out of nowhere yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a three-year extension of the Obamacare premium subsidies that expired on January 1 and sent premiums spiking. Seventeen Republicans joined all the Democrats in the House to pass the bill 230 to 196. Maybe some of the Rs voted for the bill for the sake of campaign ass-covering because they were certain the stand-alone bill has little chance of passing in the Senate or being signed by Donald Trump. That sure would be cynical of them.
Please take a moment to share in some giddiness from Rep. Lauren Underwood.
Hilariously, the New York Times initially headlined its story on the vote “House Passes Doomed Bill to Restore ACA Subsidies” before going with the marginally less dour “House Votes to Restore Health Subsidies, Raising Hopes of a Deal.” Both versions included a subhead explaining that the legislation “has no path forward” in the Senate. The story itself notes that the Senate already rejected a similar standalone bill, suggesting that at best, the vote “could fuel ongoing negotiations to reach a long-shot election-year compromise on a health care package.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) briefly reminded us that Mitch McConnell no longer has that job, and said there’s “no appetite” in the Senate for extending the subsidies, thanks, but added that maybe bipartisan negotiations between members of the House and Senate will “come up with something that has reforms.” Or not.
That bipartisan working group met Thursday to work on possible subsidy reforms, like changing the income cap for eligibility, allowing “flexible savings accounts” (a bullshit scam Trump looooves), and ways to combat “fraud.” That last resulted in some progress, likely because fraud in the Affordable Care Act is already low, but it’s something Goopers won’t shut up about, so fine, tweak it a little and declare victory.
“We're trying to see if we can get to some agreement that's going to help them, and the sooner we can do that, the better,” New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told reporters as she left the meeting. “So there was agreement on addressing fraud.”
Shaheen did not divulge details of an impending deal but said the next step will be crafting bill text in the coming days.
Some Republicans also want any subsidies bill to ban federal funds for abortion even more than the Hyde Amendment already does. No telling whether “moderate” Republicans can convince their more fire-breathing antiabortion brethren to just admit that Hyde protections are already in the ACA.
Trump, for his part, didn’t make a damn bit of sense in comments Tuesday, in which he continued to oppose extension of the subsidies. Instead, he insisted that Republicans should completely remake the healthcare system by cutting funds and … OK, your guess is as good as ours: “We’re going to reduce health care by a lot. One other thing on health care, it’s never been our issue. It should be our issue,” said Dear Leader.
No, we don’t know either.
In unrelated but coincidental news, the Senate yesterday advanced a war powers bill that would block Trump from any further military action “within or against Venezuela” unless Congress authorizes it. Five Republicans — Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young (who? He’s from Indiana) joined all 47 Democrats in the Senate to pass the bill, although on this one, there’s little chance that the House will take up the bill, and Trump is certain to veto it. The 52-47 vote moves the resolution to the Senate floor, where it’s expected to get a vote next week.
Trump called the vote an act of “stupidity” and said the five should “never be elected to office again” because Congress has no say in what he can do, because he’s commander in chief and he says the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, so there.
And in a third example of (some, few) Republicans deciding to stop with the blank checks already, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-retiring) has put a hold on any DHS nominees until Kristi Noem gets her ass to Congress.
Even though the two votes (and the Tillis hold) had nothing to do with each other, we’d like to think they might mean at least a few Republicans are noticing just how completely unpopular Trump is outside the MAGA crowd. Hell, maybe there’s a slim chance more will decide it’s better for their reelection prospects to very carefully not go along with every insane thing he does. Perhaps Susan Collins has learned her lesson. Or maybe yesterday was a fluke; we’re not going to be throwing any parades just yet. Pass something that will rein in the Secret Deportation Police and maybe we’ll talk.
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I now live in a world in which my eight year-old friend next door texts me to say she’s worried that ICE is nearby.
And they WERE two blocks away yesterday, but I didn’t tell her that. I was as anti-inflammatory as I know how to be, and reassured her that good people are mighty and that we will stop the hate. And then texted her parents to let them know she was worried.
This is not the world I want.
“We’re going to reduce health care by a lot" is the kind of statement that had a Democrat said it, it would have been paraded about nonstop for weeks. *To this day* I can still remember "You didn't build that" from Obama, or "basket of deplorables" out of Hillary Clinton. But for Trump, it flies under the radar because it's probably doesn't even make the top 10 list of dumbass comments he made this week.