 too poisoned now.
Hope Hicks, is that you?
And you believe this based on what? The plan that Trump is pushing moves us forward on health care by slashing nearly a trillion dollars out of Medicaid to give a 600 billion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest people and corporations in America.

 They’ve used to most pernicious weapon known to mankind… they’ve criticized. And the Republicans simply can’t stand up to that kind of terrible pressure. They’ve got to be adored at all times. If someone disapproves of them, then they’ll just take their ball and go home and forget all about transferring the bulk of the nation’s wealth to the top one percent.
@mannning: What’s always interesting to me about guys like you is that you don’t want the left to do anything until the time for blame comes. At that point, you either want the left to shoulder it or share it. In this case, it’s all on you, the Donald, and the GOP contingent in Congress. You have the votes, you have the majority, you have both houses, and a Scalia replacement. If you guys can’t run it because you’ve no ideas or desire to come up with any, that’s on you, not the left. Sorry, no sale.
manning likes to talk in platitudes without understanding the real policy being debated, much like his favourite politician Mr. Trump.
Could it be that Republican senators are slowing Trump’s policies because they are genuinely bad? It’s called being accountable to the people they represent. If they pass the austerity budget and the health care bill as written, real people will suffer.
Occam’s Razor would tell us that Mannning is a dolt.
Not much reason to belabor the point.
In this thread you can observe the utter hatred and unwillingness of Dems/Libs/Progs to do anything, anything that would smack of supporting the Repub agenda and Trump. The legislature grinds to a halt, and virtually nothing will get done to support the people. This is obstructionism at its worst. The razor thin majority in the senate, and the recalcitrant Repubs in the house are not serving the people very well, either.
When you let hatred take over your sense of fair play and duty to the people you have crossed the line, and should not be trusted with the powers of elected office and positions in the “deep state”. When you flaunt the Constitution and try to work around it as Obama did, you do not work in the best interests of the nation. When you insult the average guy as is quite often the case here, you are showing your elitist nature, and the whole mess seems to be scripted by Alinsky and Cloward-Piven, if not also Gramsci and distain for our Constitution. When you bias the education of K12 and college students with liberal pap in the direction of indiscrimination and relative morality, you are hurting their future and limiting their possibly favorable impact on the nation. When you support atheistic or agnostic thought and apply it to the conduct of the government and religious affairs you are most often impacting the majority negatively. When you use the power of the office to meddle illegally in the personal affairs of the people and out them, you are violating the Constitution.
Is this the America you really want? I do not!
Yes, I do very well remember that Republicans declined to get anything done to support the people for about 6 years.
No one is stopping you from worshiping His Royal Assness, the Lord Trump.
Yes, they are following the example the Banana Republicans set during the Obama Administration, with you cheering them on every @%$*^ step of the way. So spare us your crocodile tears.
If I hadn’t seen you comment here semi regularly for at least 5 years I would ask if you had just woken up from a coma. Look back over your own comments from 1-8 years ago. If you can’t see the mind boggling hypocrisy in your current stance, then you need to find some professional help fast.
It’s worth going over this in more detail.
Health care: Obamacare has cost less than expected, reduced the deficit, covered over 20 million people and improved Medicare’s financial outlook. The largest danger to health care is from the GOP & Trump.
Moral degradation: Crime is near historic lows, young people are doing better than ever. The opioid epidemic is a challenge, but the biggest risk there is the GOP & Trump killing Medicaid and treatment options.
All in all, seems like you might want to expand on why you think these things are problems, maybe after you take a timeout to read through Trump’s lies.  I wonder why someone who also was a birther would care about one of those, but not the other?
@mannning: This isn’t a site where we wail about the evils of Liberals and Alinsky and atheists, and everyone nods piously. We deal in reality here. You come across as a closed-minded loon.
Where’s your fondness for Dems/Libs/Progs, manning?
 But as for me and mine, we don’t share your world view and even though I might want similar goals, I disagree passionately enough about how to achieve them that I can’t see a path to reconciliation. So, you are actually quite fortunate to be able to accomplish your aims without our help. My suggestion is that you quit whining about how unfair I am and get to work going around me. I’m not stopping you; I don’t have the votes in Congress to.
@Grewgills: Having just woken up from a coma is still a possible explanation in Mannning’s case, I think.
FTLOC? For the love of Covfefe?
Complete legislation, not reconciliation votes, require 60 filibuster-proof votes to pass, which means such major legislation would require at least 7 Dems plus the VP to pass. Since the Dems seem to vote in a block, the needed votes will most likely not be forthcoming. This hurts both the healthcare and tax reform efforts now before congress, and the House reconciliation route slices things up into phases in an almost incomprehensible manner. Few seem to believe that phase 2 would ever pass. The Senate is bumping along with no sense of urgency.
So we are stuck with the rapidly fading Obamacare, and no replacement to pick up the difference will be available. Fundamentally, the Dems are blocking reform of healthcare and tax reform with no 7 or more crossover votes in sight.
The Titanic is sinking, and no help is near.
Yeah, the parties vote in a block. That’s normal and expected and not at all controversial.
Which is the point of Demo opposition efforts. They don’t want to help Republicans kick 23 million people off their health insurance and they’re really not that concerned with giving rich people a tax cut.
Again, this is normal and expected and not at all controversial.
Here’s a tactic I think you’d probably support: Compromise.
There is room to improve healthcare, but the meeting will be in the middle, not waaaay over there on the right (or left).
There is also room to reform taxes, but again, the meeting will be in the middle, not waaaaay over there on the right (or left).
Would you support a compromised health/tax reform effort even if it means you won’t achieve all of your aims?
Good thing the GOP would NEVER do something like this. Imagine if the republicans voted in a block and prevented any of the president’s priorities from being passed for 6 years. That would make them even worse than the horrible democrats that have been voting in a block (except when they didn’t) for a few months now. Your keen insight into why this is the fault of the democrats voting together based on their priorities, rather than the fault of republicans that refuse any compromise other than with their freedom caucus is enlightening. Please do continue and don’t forget to forward your newsletter.
You do realize that ACA (Obamacare) is being forced to fade, Republicans do not want to maintain cost-payment subsidies and as such are forcing insurance companies to increase premium costs.
This being played out elsewhere in the country. Republicans are unwilling (among themselves, let alone Democrats) to improve ACA and continue to support premium costs.
Again, this situation is entirely a construct and result of Republican Party preferences to destroy as much of ACA as possible, for the general purpose of redistributing tax resources from those millions of citizens most in need of health insurance and health care to the wealthiest citizens who have access to all health care resources.
My answer is a resounding YES, if both parties make sound compromises and benefit the people.
The labels placed on the healthcare efforts, Obamacare and Trump care should probably be ditched in favor of another catchy name to remove the stigmas attached to those names. At the moment, I can’t come up with a name that doesn’t sound trite, but someone will, I hope.
The serious problems with almost any approach seems to require some form of government subsidy or tax deduction for those who cannot afford the premiums. Either mechanism puts the cost burden on the taxpayer for a substantial amount, since the disadvantaged probably have little or no income or insufficient income for a deduction to matter, thus requiring a further subsidy. Plus, the needed coverage for catastrophic illnesses, mostly for the elderly, argues for Medicaid. In this event I do not see what mechanism will lower health costs at all.
Thus it seems that