Will The GOP HealthCare Bill Pass the Senate?

shakeysix said:

I cannot fault McCain for his showmanship. A Democrat myself, he has angered me over the years more than once, but he has always had my respect. Showmanship is a part of politics, you know. Like good drama, politics has to have showstoppers, heart grabbing moments, vivid stories, heroes, conflicted heroes, villains with a heart. Every great story needs a hook--a simmering backstory. Look around you--hundreds of young people are taking an interest in the mechanics of politics. Instead of dismissing all politicians as sleazy swamp dwellers, people are actually taking an interest in the way our country runs--not always a finely tuned machine but definitely a riveting medicine show. We don't always agree on what is concrete and what is Snake Oil, but we are talking. McCain's grandstanding was pure theater and I loved it. --s6

Click to expand...

John McCain just had one of the great moments in a memorable career, even if that career is one I didn't always accord with. He seized the moment of his medical crisis to do a thing I'm sure he really wanted to do. He trumped Trump, who, not that long ago, had disparaged McCain for "surrendering" during the Vietnam War. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump made a big deal (in a tweet, of course) of wishing McCain well because "we need your vote". No sense of real empathy or sympathy, of which we now know that The Donald is incapable.

McCain announced first that he would be back for "the vote", then voted FOR having the Health Care bill debated, then came into the chamber and cast the deciding vote against it. Take THAT you lying, draft-dodging SOB, and shove it where it belongs.

I'm pretty sure John McCain is entirely happy with his vote decision and the way he carried it out. People criticized him for voting to have that horrid bill debated, but he knew all along what he would do to deep-six it.

caw

rugcat said:

Ah, but that's what makes high drama. I only wish one of my books could have the same effect.

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm feeling some serious political drama burnout and am fighting an overwhelming urge to bury my face in computer games and novels for the next two years.

Not a productive emotion, but I'm so frustrated with all this and with not knowing what in the hell I can personally do (with my skill set and temperament) to make the world a better place besides donating money to causes and making phone calls. Not to mention not knowing which of the atrocities flashing across my eyes each week I should focus on.

It's also sapping the emotional energy I need to write. This is by no means the whole reason I'm having trouble getting any traction on a new novel attempt, but some of it is because it's hard to invest myself emotionally in the political crises, trials and tribulations facing the people in a made up world when our real one is such a hot mess, and no one seems to know how to improve things, let alone save it. How can any crisis and resolution I present in a fictional context feel anything but simplistic and trite (and hopelessly naive if there's anything approaching a happy ending)?

Roxxsmom said:

what in the hell I can personally do (with my skill set and temperament) to make the world a better place besides donating money to causes and making phone calls.

Click to expand...

We need that. Keep it up. Not everybody can or does do that.

blacbird said:

John McCain just had one of the great moments in a memorable career, even if that career is one I didn't always accord with. He seized the moment of his medical crisis to do a thing I'm sure he really wanted to do. He trumped Trump. Just a few days ago, Donald Trump made a big deal (in a tweet, of course) of wishing McCain well because "we need your vote". No sense of real empathy or sympathy, of which we now know that The Donald is incapable.

McCain announce first that he would be back for "the vote", then voted FOR having the Health Care bill debated, then came into the chamber and cast the deciding vote against it. Take THAT you lying, draft-dodging SOB, and shove it where it belongs.

caw

Click to expand...

I'm, to put it mildly, not a fan of McCain. Years ago, when I lived in Arizona, I learned a bit of inside information on him (I won't share it here, because it's not my story to tell, and the nature of the incident is such that the person involved would be immediately identifiable to him should word get out) and have been disgusted with him as a person ever since.

This ALMOST redeems him in my eyes. Not quite, but it's sort of a "shit makes the flowers grow" kind of feeling. Congratulations, McCain, in your own shitty way, you actually did something good.

It made me think of General Sherman's testimony at Andrew Johnson's impeachment hearing. Now there was some high drama. And who cast the deciding vote? A Kansan--Edmund G. Ross! Of course the actual scene probably looked nothing like the picture in my Kansas History textbook but it always gave me goosebumps.

I have two daughters with a pre-existing condition-- it runs in the family. Over the years we have learned to manage it through meds and therapy, but Obamacare is the only insurance my younger daughter can afford. At least she is working and living in a more populous place. Out here in the sticks, where we have one doctor to a county if we are lucky, and where most people feel that living just over the poverty level is living rich, we will lose what little gov. help we can get. People who supported Trump are going to get burned. So am I but I'll still be smiling because I didn't vote for that asshole and everyone in the county knows it!

"The Republican Party sold it's soul to the devil and the check just bounced." Heard this on 11th Hour with Brian Williams. Didn't see who said it but it really hits home after this week. --s6

regdog said:

If this tweet is correct McCain did more than just stick it to DJT, he made sure to kill any chance of this bill being reintroduced in any modified form through the end of this fiscal year.



By voting to bring the bill to the floor, McCain made sure if it was defeated it was dead. Since each attempt at the bill died before it officially came to the floor, the Republicans were able to keep reintroducing a new version of it. Now they can't.

Click to expand...

If true, commendable, though given McCain's overall track record I don't know how much of this to believe; he's still very much a party man, IMHO, though maybe it's a signal that the party's going to step back up to the plate of being a part of a working government rather than... whatever the heck they've been while letting their nominal leader run amok.

I'm cynical enough at this point to suspect they'll try another angle anyway - likely something sneaky and backdoor under cover of another fight, perhaps a poison-dart flurry of little things that slip right under the public and media radar until death occurs.

Brightdreamer said:

If true, commendable, though given McCain's overall track record I don't know how much of this to believe; he's still very much a party man, IMHO, though maybe it's a signal that the party's going to step back up to the plate of being a part of a working government rather than... whatever the heck they've been while letting their nominal leader run amok.

I'm cynical enough at this point to suspect they'll try another angle anyway - likely something sneaky and backdoor under cover of another fight, perhaps a poison-dart flurry of little things that slip right under the public and media radar until death occurs.

Click to expand...

After the count, McConnell asked that the bill be put on the calendar. It was difficult to hear which bill he meant. Now, I'm starting to think it was the House repeal bill, which the Senate had decided to not take up and instead try to push through their own. If that's what he meant, then the House and the Senate will have to work together on a bill . . . and that'll be a long drawn out process.

I've got a question. If McCain hadn't come in and voted to continue discussions on the bill, what would have happened? Would it have died as it did when the Senate voted on the bill? Or would it have been delayed and put back on the docket until after the Senate's August recess? Would it have come up again then?

Ambrosia said:

I've got a question. If McCain hadn't come in and voted to continue discussions on the bill, what would have happened? Would it have died as it did when the Senate voted on the bill? Or would it have been delayed and put back on the docket until after the Senate's August recess? Would it have come up again then?

Click to expand...

I wish I could tell you. I thought the issue was finally dead at least for now, but apparently Lindsey Graham is already planning to try again. As best as I can tell from the article, it could go forward if McConnell changes the Senate rules. But my head swims trying to keep track of all this.

I just saw a thread on Twitter that says that while this is true, it doesn't apply. The downvotes this past week were for amendments to the bill, and never actually the bill itself, so they can simply bring the issue back up again, unfortunately.

That is the way I understand it, but my head is also spinning. --s6

Yep, you're right; the vote was on the amendments.

And it's back on the calendar.

ETA: Also, here's an article at CNN Money: "What was in the failed Senate 'skinny repeal' health care bill?"

$hillary's emails!

Oh. Wait. That's on another thread, isn't it?

So, uh, I just saw this on my twitter timeline: https://twitter.com/JimmyJazz1968/status/891140489583370242

I suspect people like this are part of the reason the GOP does what it does. They can point to these sorts of voters and say "see? we are doing what the American people want".