Susan Collins Just Lying And Playing Dumb On TV, Like She Does

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These are the final two years in the Senate career of Maine's Susan Collins, if the people have anything to say about it. The Trump enabler in moderate's clothing doesn't have a tax scam bill or an accused sexual predator to vote "yes" on after weeks of feigned deliberation, so she's trying to stay relevant by showing up on morning shows and, you know, lying and playing dumb. It's kind of her thing.

This was a tough weekend for Collins. A Texas district court judge struck down the entire Affordable Care Act for reasons I'm sure he believes are legal. Collins, who pretends to care about protecting people with pre-existing conditions, opened the door for these shenanigans when she and the rest of the Ghoulish Old Party voted to eliminate the individual mandate in the GOP tax bill.

On ABC's "This Week," George Stephanopoulos asked if Collins had any "regrets" about this. "Not at all," replied the soon-to-be-former senator. There were rich people paying taxes! Didn't we realize how awful things were? As for sick people who might be totally screwed, she insists there's nothing to worry about.

COLLINS: The judge's ruling was far too sweeping. He could have taken a much more surgical approach and just struck down the individual mandate and kept the rest of the law intact. I believe that it will be overturned.

Collins is neither a judge nor a lawyer. Who cares what she believes? The lady also "believes" whatever Mitch McConnell tells her. Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" pressed Collins further about the longterm health of the Affordable Care Act. He confronted her on her confidence that the judge's ruling would be overturned. Where would this happen? The Supreme Court? Who the hell knows? Not Collins, but it'll get overturnedsomewhere , she's certain and you can take that to the bank.

COLLINS: ...[T}here's no reason why the individual mandate provision can't be struck down and keep all of the good provisions of the Affordable Care Act, such as coverage for people with preexisting conditions, the mandated benefits for substance abuse and mental illness treatment, and also allowing young people to stay on their parents' policies until age 26.

I dunno. I'm sure conservative justices could come up with some reason to torch the entire Affordable Care Act. More to the point here, why does Collins think there was an unpopular mandate in the health care law in the first place? Do Democrats just enjoy making life difficult for themselves? The mandate is arguably how we can afford to protect people with pre-existing conditions and all that other swell stuff. You can't really have one without the other. You can't just wrap lettuce around a burger patty or your breast cancer and call it good. The whole reason we have taxes is so that when my house catches fire, I can call the fire department and not get the voice mail of a local Taco Bell. How does this lady not know how anything works?

This Republican "moderate" grift Collins has been running for the majority of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's life requires her to pretend there's some mythical scenario where senators hold hands across the aisle and do what's "right" for the American people. It's like she's only ever Senated in an Aaron Sorkin series. Democrats and Republicans, the party to which Collins willingly belongs, have conflicting ideas of what is "right" for the American people. For instance, Democrats believe Americans should have reliable access to health care, and Republicans think they should all die in the street Victorian-era style. Trump was cheering the demise of the Affordable Care Act and isn't about to defend it in court. It now falls to Democrats to protect the healthcare coverage of millions while Republicans lie and insist the only solution is a bipartisan effort that eliminates the estate tax.

Collins was even more comical when Tapper asked her about Trump's own legal troubles. She said, "We need to wait until we have the entire picture." Tapper responded that we do in fact have the entire picture. It's been framed and everything. Collins insisted we didn't "really" have the full picture. She's a very visual person, we guess.

Based on her defense of Brett Kavanaugh, we can assume that she believes Michael Cohen when he says Trump directed him to pay off women but she also believes it wasn't Trump who actually directed him to do so. Cohen's just hysterical and confused.

Please go here to help retire Susan Collins.

[ Washington Post ]

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