03-26-2017, 01:02 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-26-2017, 01:05 AM by Eric the Green.)
(03-25-2017, 08:49 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(03-25-2017, 05:38 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:The Republicans were placed on ignore during the process associated with Obamacare. Arrogant Democrats don't have to listen to or include Republicans when they have a super majority and a rubber stamp in the White House. Trump doesn't care if Obamacare fails and a bunch of older/younger OBAMA voters who didn't vote (seem to hate him) eventually lose their free healthcare. As he said, the proper thing to do as far as political interest go would be allow it to fail as it will and move on the passing other things leaving the Democrats to deal with their own mess. Well, he tried and the Democrats didn't seem to want anything to do with it or seem to care that's it's failing. So fuck them, it's their baby. The spent seven years presenting stuff that they knew wasn't going to get passed because that's what politicians do to keep their jobs. I'm sure Trumps election surprised them as much as it surprised the Democrats. Myself, I wouldn't bailout the Democrats. I'd let them deal with their own failure.(03-25-2017, 05:25 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(03-25-2017, 10:08 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: I guess we might ask what's next. A week or three of finger pointing seems inevitable. The White House has given up. During the campaign, the question was whether to repeal and replace, or whether to tune up and stabilize. Repeal and replace seems to be gone, but few think it Obamacare can be left as it is.Well, I'd say the opportunity for the Democrats to tune up and stabilize has already come and gone at this point. So, we are pretty much stuck with a failing healthcare bill that will only get worse as time goes on. Woo hoo! The Democrats did a great job fucking everyone (especially those they claim to care about so much) who has healthcare by opting out of the process all together.
I think the Democrats want something that will work for most everybody. Some Republicans want to make life easier for the wealthy and healthy, and object philosophically to certain aspects. Is there room to dicker? I'd like to see the Democrats put together a fix it proposal, then really listen to what it would take to get enough Republicans to vote for something that works.
Then see if Trump throws around veto threats.
The blame game is creative. One way of looking at it is that the Democrats did as they promised and to a great extent make their base happy. The Republicans did neither. One can wave one's hands and pretend that in a fey world loss is victory, but who delivered on their promises?
Or maybe it was the Republicans who fucked up, by never working with the Democrats on real reform, and instead doing nothing but voting to repeal it for 7 years without any replacement? Maybe it was the voters, who failed to put leaders in office who could have made Obamacare work and made it less dependent on the insurance industry, which is the cause of most of the problems in health care?
Republicans in 2009 (and most of the time for the last several decades) are only interested in one thing: blocking anything to be done. Their project is to reduce the government they don't like so it fits inside a bathtub, and building up the government they do like into an autocracy to protect the oligarchy. The Republicans never did anything but resist a compromise health care reform bill that was patterned after their own earlier plans and those of Gov. Romney. No Democratic leader can work with today's Republicans, because their only goal is to destroy and to oppose Democrats. They do not compromise or work with Democrats.
Ryan and Trump didn't "try;" they only want to protect free enterprise, not peoples' health. Their failure is their baby now. They have the majority in the government, and could have passed it by the reconciliation process just like the Democrats passed Obamacare, but their bill was so poor and unpopular that they couldn't even get their own Republicans behind them. The Republicans spent 7 years repealing Obamacare and offering no alternative. They still don't have an alternative to offer, and that's because they never wanted reform at all.
The only hope for Trump is to dump his Republicans after many failures in the coming months, and govern from the center instead by working with Democrats. But he probably can't do that, because he has surrounded himself with extreme right wingers, and has proposed an extreme right wing budget that he has to stand behind at least for a year or two. Because he can't admit that he is ever wrong or makes mistakes, making such an adjustment is personally hard for him. And since he does not understand the issues in any depth, he lacks much of the deal making ability he promised to bring to the job. He would have to portray his adjustment as a victory, somehow; an expression of his ongoing leadership in making America great again. And then work at being a real leader, not just a showman. I'm not optimistic. Can the impulsive and brash Mars in Leo the Lion rising change his spots? Or will his priority remain having his lion-colored mane combed and groomed?