Tag Archives: Senate GOP

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GOP senators lose patience with RINO in chief

Donald John (RINO in chief) Trump’s lack of any association with the Republican political machine may be starting to take its toll on the man’s presidency.

Actual Republican senators are standing up to the man who bills himself as a member of the GOP, but who in reality is a Republican In Name Only.

GOP U.S. senators are now tweeting, writing essays and saying things out loud that suggest that the president’s “agenda,” whatever the hell it is, appears to be teetering on the brink of oblivion.

The president keeps attacking his “fellow Republicans.” He called Sen. Jeff Flake, author of a new book that tears into Trump, a “toxic” lawmaker; moreover, Trump has hailed the GOP primary challenger who has emerged to take on Flake.

The president’s attack on the Arizonan has prompted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to stand squarely behind Flake.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said publicly at a Rotary meeting in Chattanooga that he wonders if Trump is “competent” to continue as president.

Senate GOP gangs up on Trump

Then we have the usual cast of Trump critics within the GOP — Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — continuing to oppose him on policy matters as well as chastising him for his hideous conduct in the wake of the Charlottesville riot.

This is what happens when you get a president with no political history, no public service record on which to draw, no demonstrable commitment to understanding how government works.

It’s as if — as some have suggested — that we have formed a third major political party: We have Democrats, Republicans and the Trump Party, which feeds off the cult of personality developed by the “party” leader, Donald John Trump Sr.

If the president is going to insist that he’s a real, actual Republican, then I am among those who will wait with bated breath for the Goldwater Moment to arrive. As the late Sen. Barry Goldwater was able in 1974 to deliver the sobering news to President Nixon that the president had no support in the Senate and that impeachment would surely result in his removal from office, is there someone to deliver the same kind of news to the current president?

Donald Trump needs to shape up, get rid of the white supremacists/alt-right clowns remaining in his administration and start acting like the Leader of the Free World.

If he doesn’t, his presidency is going nowhere but straight into the trash heap … which wouldn’t be a bad outcome. I fear the collateral damage this RINO in chief is going to inflict along the way.

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Take the hint, Mitch: Nation hates Trumpcare

Memo to Mitch McConnell: Give it up on trying to resurrect the Senate Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The word now from the U.S. Senate majority leader is that he is going to reopen negotiations on the failed GOP plan. He is trying to woo Republicans who (a) oppose the legislation or (b) are straddling the fence.

McConnell could not muster up the 50 votes he needed to approve the Senate plan. GOP conservatives hate it because it too much of the ACA; GOP moderates hate it because it casts too many Americans off the rolls of the insured.

The nation’s Republican in chief, Donald Trump, is refusing to “own” the GOP caucus failure.

One final point: Public opinion polls show a 17 percent approval rating for the Republican plan.

Hey, who needs those stinkin’ polls, right, Mr. Majority Leader?

McConnell is fueled by this desire, or so it seems, to rid the law of anything with Barack H. Obama’s name on it. Recall that he said right after Obama’s election that his “No. 1 priority” was to make Obama a one-term president.

He’s now gunning for a consolation prize, which is to toss the ACA into the crapper.

Pay attention, Mr. Leader: Your plan is no better in the eyes of Americans who now have health insurance for the first time in their lives. You and your fellow Republican senators work for them — for us, sir! You need to do our bidding.

medical news, national news

Yep, Trump isn’t your ‘normal’ president

Donald J. Trump more or less vowed to be an unconventional president while he campaigned for the office. Man, he’s made good on that one, eh?

Consider what he said after the failure of the Republican caucus in the Senate to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

“I won’t own” the failure, he said. He wants to let the ACA fail and then he’ll swoop in to clean up the mess — assuming, of course, that it even happens.

How disgraceful.

President Truman famously had that sign on his Oval Office desk: “The Buck Stops Here.” President Kennedy told us after the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961 that “victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan”; he took the hickey for the invasion’s failure. President Reagan admitted to making a mistake during the Iran-Contra controversy, that he didn’t believe “in my heart” that he was trading arms to a hostile nation; he “owned” it eventually.

The current president? He’s not standing by the stumble-bum effort in Congress to enact this legislation. Republicans had seven years to come up with an alternative to the ACA, which they despise largely — or so it seems — because it has Barack H. Obama’s name on it. They call it “Obamacare” as a term of derision.

They blew it. As head of the Republican Party, so did the president. He owns this mistake, whether he cares to admit it or not.

Presidents Truman, Kennedy and Reagan all knew how to stand behind their failures. They all understood that the terms of the office they required them to do so.

Aw, but what the hell. They were just your normal run-of-the-mill politicians who played by the rules. The current president doesn’t operate under the same precept of full accountability.

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You’re up, congressional Democrats

Congressional Democrats — in both chambers of Capitol Hill’s legislative body — now have a chance to make good on where congressional Republicans have face-planted.

The GOP wanted to replace the Affordable Care Act. They wanted first to repeal the law, then substitute something else in its place. They just couldn’t cobble together a law that pleased everyone within their caucus, let alone the rest of this vast country.

They have cratered. Their repeal and replace effort is done. Gone. Kaput. Toast.

What’s left? Oh, wait! They can work with congressional Democrats. They can figure out a way to make changes to the ACA, if only congressional Republicans can stomach the idea of maintaining something with Barack H. Obama’s name on it.

In order, though, for Republicans to reach across the aisle, their legislative colleagues — Democrats, I must add — need to offer a starting point.

Suppose it comes to a repair and revamp effort on the ACA, what might the Democrats offer as their chief sticking point?

Are premiums too high? Do Americans have enough choices of doctors? Are there ways to actually make the ACA more, um, affordable for every American who applies for insurance under the government plan?

Democrats have said they are willing to work with Republicans to improve the ACA. To get the discussion started, though, we need to hear from Democratic political leadership on where they intend to start.

We’ve hearing a lot of yapping and yammering from Republicans — for too long, if you were to ask my opinion. Now it’s time for Democrats to take the stage.

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‘Let Obamacare fail,’ says POTUS; yeah, that shows ‘heart’

Donald J. Trump wanted the U.S. Senate Republican caucus to approve a health care plan with “heart.”

He didn’t get it. The Senate GOP plan cratered this week under the weight of the divisions within the caucus. The House of Representatives’ GOP plan was too “mean,” the president said.

So what does the president propose to do now? He wants to let the Affordable Care Act — Barack H. Obama’s signature domestic initiative — to “fail.”

There you go. Let the ACA fail — actually hoping it does — and then act. Meanwhile, millions of Americans who have obtained health insurance under the ACA’s auspices are left without health insurance.

That is such a heartfelt response, Mr. President.

The ACA isn’t doomed to fail, though, according to studies released by health insurance and medical agencies. It’s actually stabilizing, reports indicate.

Trump’s response to his own legislative failure — and make no mistake, the president owns this one bigly — is yet another example of this guy’s inability or unwillingness to take responsibility for any failure.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has talked openly about possibly working with Democrats to repair the ACA. If he can get the president focused long enough on the details of what is at stake, perhaps he can bring Donald Trump along, too.

Stranger things have happened, although this whole circus is beginning to rank among the strangest events in a good while.

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Stop telling the lie about ACA ‘failure,’ Mr. Leader

I am not going to label U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar, even though he’s just told another whopper about the Affordable Care Act.

He has called it a “failure.” He now plans to ask his Senate colleagues to repeal it and then seek to pass a replacement for it separately to smooth the “transition” from one health insurance plan to another.

“Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” McConnell said.

Good bleeping luck with that, Mr. Leader.

The ACA is not failing. It is stabilizing, according to medical and insurance studies. Millions more American have health insurance coverage now than they did before the ACA was enacted in 2010.

Still, Republicans in Congress want to wipe out Barack Obama’s signature domestic legislation. It doesn’t matter now whether they can have a replacement bill in place. They want the ACA gone.

McConnell’s new strategy came to light after two more Senate Republicans, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, signaled their opposition to the GOP monstrosity that came forward just before the Fourth of July recess. Senators went home and got a bellyful from their constituents about how much they hate the GOP plan. Moreover, an increasing number of Americans are on board with the ACA; they don’t want it trifled with.

Not one to listen to reason, Leader McConnell is going to try to get the Senate to toss the ACA into the crapper and then hope the Senate and the House of Representatives can cobble together a replacement.

Forgive me for repeating myself: Why not summon Democrats to the table, too, to work out a bipartisan repair of what you think is so terrible about the Affordable Care Act?

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Two more senators to vote ‘no’ on Trumpcare … what’s next?

U.S. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas are now “no” votes on Trumpcare.

Do you know what that means? It means the Senate Republican concoction meant to replace the Affordable Care Act lacks the votes it needs for approval. Now that Lee and Moran have climbed aboard the No Vote Bandwagon, there might be other fence-straddlers who will climb aboard, too.

What, oh what does the Senate GOP do?

Here’s a thought: How about getting on the horn with Senate Democratic leaders and start to hammer out a bipartisan compromise? Perhaps something that includes repairing and mending the ACA is in order. Hmmm? How about that?

Former President Barack Obama — who’s off doing whatever it is former president do — has made it clear: He doesn’t claim any particular pride of ownership of the ACA. He said while he was still president that he’d be willing to work with Republicans who wanted to improve the health care law.

The Senate caucus now appears irreparably split on the ACA repeal/replacement plan.

So … why not actually legislate right alongside Senate Democrats to make improvements to an existing law?

Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?

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Get well, Sen. McCain, and vote to nix GOP health plan

It is with heartfelt concern for a great American that I must point out a fascinating irony relating to his current medical condition.

U.S. Sen. John McCain is recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot in his skull. I honor this great man’s service to the country and the extreme sacrifice he paid when he was held captive for five years during the Vietnam War.

I wish him a complete recovery.

The irony? It exists in the debate that the Senate Republican caucus us having over a health care plan it has cobbled together ostensibly to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The Senate GOP has put together a plan that the Congressional Budget Office says will cut millions of Americans out of their health insurance in the next decade. It will slash Medicaid spending that helps poor Americans pay for health insurance. It lacks the “heart” that the president of the United States said he wanted.

Meanwhile, Sen. McCain is getting some of the best health insurance possible because of his government service.

What is wrong with this juxtaposition? Nothing in and of itself, of course. It’s just that McCain is one of those Senate Republicans reportedly straddling the fence: does he support the bill or oppose it?

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell debated any further open consideration of the bill until McCain returns to the Senate. He needs McCain’s “yes” vote. I should add that McConnell and many of his Senate Republican colleagues are part of a distinct American minority: only 17 percent of Americans favor the GOP monstrosity.

I wish nothing but the best for Sen. McCain. I want him to return to the Senate full of his usual ration of p** and vinegar. I also would prefer that he oppose the Senate health plan.

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What part of ‘representative democracy’ doesn’t GOP get?

Seventeen percent!

That, dear reader, is the apparent standing of the Senate Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The 17 percent figure represents the latest public opinion polling of the GOP plan. Fewer than one in five Americans favor the GOP plan. Health insurers don’t like it; the medical profession opposes it; GOP conservatives opposes, right along with Republican moderates; and, oh yeah, Democrats — who also comprise a big part of the voting block — hate it.

Senate Republican leaders, though, keep insisting that the replacement plan is moving forward.

I keep coming back to the fundamental question: Why can’t the congressional GOP leadership try to mend what they believe is wrong with the ACA instead of tossing it out altogether?

I’ve heard about the flaws contained within the ACA. Premiums are too great; health insurers are bailing out of some states.

But the ACA isn’t “failing” or “collapsing,” according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. It is stabilizing in many states.

I know that the ACA is far from perfect. It needs work to improve it. Why not start there?

A 17-percent approval rating on a plan that guts Medicare and Medicaid protection and tosses Americans off the rolls of the insured would suggest a different approach than the train wreck that awaits this GOP abomination.

That’s the view of a significant majority of Americans. Do these folks in Congress represent their views … or don’t they?

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What do those health care experts know?

Darn those silly ol’ health care experts who keep coming up with evidence that contradicts Republican politicians’ dire predictions about the Affordable Care Act.

The latest report comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation — hardly a group known for its radical left-wing ideology. It says the ACA is “stabilizing” in markets across the country. That it’s not “collapsing” as GOP politicians keep insisting.

Oh, yeah. These are the same GOP pols who want to toss out the ACA and replace it with an abomination that would toss 22 million Americans off the ranks of the insured over the next 10 years.

The foundation reports: “Early results from 2017 suggest the individual market is stabilizing and insurers in this market are regaining profitability,” the study finds. “Insurer financial results show no sign of a market collapse.”

So, which is it? Is the ACA in a death spiral or is it beginning to do the job that it was intended to do, which is provide health insurance to Americans who previously couldn’t afford to have it?

Stable or not?

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling an apparent willingness to work with Senate Democrats to repair what’s wrong with the ACA if the GOP cannot push its repeal legislation over the finish line. It doesn’t look too good for Republicans at the moment.

President Obama declared repeatedly his willingness to mend the ACA if Republicans could find ways to improve it. Current congressional Democratic leaders are saying much the same thing. So far, GOP leaders are having none of it.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has given ACA supporters a glimmer of hope that sanity might be restored to this debate. We’ll have to wait, though, for the GOP politicians’ response that will find ways to punch holes in the report from the folks who examine these issues for a living.

I’m going to stick with the medical experts on this one.