By David Futrelle
Hey everyone, I’m still lost in headache-land (see my last post for details) but this is REALLY REALLY important for all WHTM readers in the US.
Senate Republicans have scheduled a vote after lunch TODAY on a “motion to proceed” that will pave the way for a final vote on their bill that will take away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans (including me, and probably a lot of you).
Tell them NO.
You can get the numbers of your Senators (and more info) at 5Calls.org Moveon.org, or on the Senate website or by calling the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Here’s what MoveOn suggests you tell them (roughly):
Tell Republicans: “Please oppose any bill that takes away health care from tens of millions of Americans.”
If you’re one of those Americans, definitely tell them that.
Tell Democrats: “Thank you for doing everything you can to fight Trumpcare. Please use every tactic at your disposal to slow and stop this bill, including the filibuster-by-amendment (which means: slowing down the bill with a high number of amendments when the bill does come to a vote). Please DO NOT vote for ANY amendments that will make it easier for Republicans pass Trumpcare.”
If any of the Republicans listed below are your Senators it’s ESPECIALLY important to call; Collins is a “no” vote; the others are (as I write this post) on the fence.
https://twitter.com/rsegbers/status/889595637469245440
@ Micharion
My big worry is with that “skinny repeal” thing I noticed on Daily Kos, which is basically just repealing the load-bearing columns of Obamacare and leaving the rest in place. The best-case scenario is monsters like Rand Paul or either Freedom Caucus paying enough attention to see it still leaves too much of Obamacare in place, but not enough attention to realize the ACA would fail if the individual mandate was gone, and so voting against it.
I’m not quite as worried about the Cruz amendment (though I can’t take it for granted, since the Republicans are perfectly willing to ignore CBO scores as needed), and the original BCRA is a non-issue due to needing to exceed filibuster votes, but barring further parliamentarian rulings there’s still a potential nightmare scenario.
@JS
And? How the fuck does that make it better?
I know it won’t happen, but do you know what I wish would happen if the bill passes? I wish that Canada would set up camps along the border for refugees from the US who’d lost their healthcare, offering them that which the US had taken away from them. I can just picture a YouTube video in which Trudeau made a speech wherein he urged freshly-uninsured Americans not to fear – because his own country would pick up the GOP’s slack and provide them with healthcare instead – before inviting them over.
Seriously, can you just imagine how that would make the Republicans look, both domestically and abroad? If the already internationally-despised leadership of the self-proclaimed “greatest country in the world” created a Third World-caliber humanitarian crisis all so it could give tax cuts to a few hundred billionaires? And if America’s supposedly second-tier neighbor thereafter had the humility and compassion to deal with said crisis on its own dime? It’d be fucking delicious.
“Washington, DC (AP via SFGATE) – The Senate has blocked a wide-ranging proposal by Republicans to repeal much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law and replace it with a more restrictive plan.
Senators voted 57-43 late Tuesday to reject the plan in the first vote on an amendment to the bill. Those voting “no” included nine defecting Republicans.”
Yay! Hopefully they keep voting against anything that starts with “repeal”.
Bernie and McCain have been colleagues for many years, so being happy that McCain came back safe(ish) from brain cancer surgery is more human than a lot of Congress. (My own reps, Ted Cruz most especially, I will be voting against at the earliest opportunity.) Also, Ted Cruz got his smarmy ass handed to him by the rejection of the language that would have let insurers sell cut-rate policies with skimpy coverage.
Not everything activists call a “dance” is a “dance”, nor is it necessarily a celebration of getting a debate and vote started.
Keep up the good work everyone who called and faxed or just worried about it. We can do this, we have to.
@JS
Anyone who values McCain (or any other elected Republican) as a colleague is an enemy of every oppressed group, not to mention the United States, and indeed humanity. Being happy that McCain made this vote makes someone an unmitigated scumbag. Full stop.
@Dalillama : that last post of you also make you a scumbag.
Maybe a scumbag without blood on their hand unlike a typical republican senators ; but compassion is an important human value regardless of the target. And calling names peoples because they have compassion isn’t gonna look good, regardless of the reason for which you do it.
Having listened to McCain’s speech after his vote…no, I agree with Dalil. The man has transformed into a living embodiment of hypocrisy. And the fact that he subsequently voted “Yes” on that full BCRA package just cements that.
The man is risking his frail life in an effort to make millions of lives either untenable or terminated, and that amount of brass bullshit loses him any sympathy. My compassion is reserved for his potential victims, not the politician himself, and I view compassion for him in spite of his vote as myopic at best.
@Ohlmann
He’s climbing out of his death bed to try to murder me and my loved ones. Why the fuck should I feel any compassion for him or anyone who supports him?
Sure, and it’s possible that if I wish really really hard, all my favourite fictional characters will come to life and we’ll start a Nazi-punching superhero team together. But it’s not likely.
Hello.
I am sorry for all what is falling upon Americans. And i hope your headache is getting less painfull, David.
From what i read, the votes are not secret in the Senate and in the Chamber ? I wonder if it would get more No if it was secret vote (less peer pressure, maybe ?).
Have a nice day.
I’d like to first see any evidence that this Bernie thing actually happened. Bernie is no saint, but the smear campaign against him is just next level ridiculous at this point. I can’t trust a word anyone says about him.
@IP
I hope this suffices.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/25/bernie-sanders-john-mccain-senate-republican-healthcare-cancer
@Tov01
Thanks. That’s gross as fuck.
I’ll say that if our standard is that anyone who has ever hugged or smiled together with a Republican is a monster, we’re gonna have to retire every fucking politician in the country. They all do that stuff. I don’t like it, but we can’t pretend as if this is specific to Bernie Sanders.
I’d hate to go all “BUT HILLARY” here, but you all know photos of her hugging and laughing with W are just one click away. I don’t think it makes her a monster.
http://i.imgur.com/QBwfVor.png
Right. I’m a troll for not buying into right wing propaganda.
EDIT: I realized this would be easy to misinterpret. I didn’t mean that this particular complaint was right wing propaganda. I’m talking about the entire smear campaign of anyone to the political left of centre. It’s silly. It’s time to move the fuck on from this.
Okay, I’m too angry to express my thoughts in a coherent way. Taking a break from this community for a while. Will continue reading and donating when possible. This is not a woe is me post. It’s an extended self-care/mental health break. Love y’all.
So…what happen? My twitter saying that obama care is still in force. Health-care reforms also recently rejected in UA as well. People wait 20 years more just for disappointed.
John Macain – if this would be hollywood, he would go on stage and give inspiration and then vote no. But real life is disappointing.
My father has bean mean and abusive most of his life, but I was still really happy to see him after he survived a cancer operation he almost didn’t get through.
My sister thinks I’m an enabler and abusive to her for talking to him these days after that, so I get these issues aren’t clear cut and people are going to think differently about these things. But while I fully respect her right to keep away from him and now me for talking to him, I think if you cut out anyone who shows compassion to someone ( even if they still disagree with everyone) you have a moral standard that actively makes the world worse. If Bernie Sanders spat in McCains face instead, do you think that really would have made him or other Republicans more likely to do the right thing?
The Senate has a culture of cordiality, and has since Reconstruction. Senators are supposed to be very polite and accommodating toward one another even when they vehemently disagree, both for reasons of decorum and because playing nice with the Senators across the aisle makes it easier to horse trade on bills. This culture makes it very likely that Senators with divergent viewpoints can become friends or some approximation of friends, and there used to be nothing wrong with that.
Republicans have taken advantage of that culture by insisting that decorum requires that everyone be super-nice to them while they cut apart the country and turn the US into a banana republic. Many Democrats still cling to the old culture that used to work for them, and are scandalized by those Dems who no longer pretend that politeness is working. Horse trading is also no longer as important as it used to be, since Republicans absolutely refuse to work with Democrats on literally anything anymore, so that motive is also gone, but not all Democrats have truly grokked that.
Sanders and McCain have been around for a while, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sanders is one of those people who thinks that being buddies with a Republican is still okay the way it used to be okay.
Oh my friends and relatives in America! I’m worried about you!
And David – I hope you are ever better.
@ POM
One thing I noticed listening to the news the other day was that Trump now talks about “The Presidency” rather than him being President.
Wonder if that’s his new press team trying to play the ‘respect for the office’ card because he personally is so toxic. Like the old military thing about ‘we salute the rank not the man’.
Didn’t notice much of that when they were booing Obama of course.
Good luck to all over there in the USA who are affected by this, which I guess is really everyone.
I have to admit to being a bit confused by exactly what’s going on, but then your politics is structured quite differently to ours.
CNN’s website has the following headline: “Senate rejects proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare”, but I don’t know how much that actually means in terms of whether this is an actual dead end for the Republicans, or just a hurdle.
But best of luck anyway.
Well, Drumpf just threw trans soldiers under the bus.
http://i63.tinypic.com/2a7ir1c.jpg
I hope his fucking prostate explodes.