The Grand Casualty Act

That's what the Graham-Cassidy Act should be called.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and William Cassidy (LA) have this really dandy idea to replace the Affordable Care Act - give block grants to the states and let them decide how to allocate health care coverage to their residents.  Well, what could be so terrible about that?

The answer would take more paper than was used to write the Dead Sea Scrolls.  But here are the highlights - heavily Democratic states that signed up for Medicaid expansion would get stiffed, more money would be diverted to Republican states before it dried up completely by 2026 - a "sucker punch" as Democratic Senator Tim Kaine would call it - with each state seeing an average 17 percent cut in funding overall in the meantime, premiums would go up for everyone by 20 percent each year, there'd be no protection from higher  insurance costs due to previously existing conditions, and up to 32 million people would lose coverage.  

The Republican leadership in Washington - and Donald Trump - want this bill rammed through the Senate before September 30 so it can pass with only 50 votes plus Vice President Mike Pence's vote due to arcane rules requiring a three-fifths majority when the new fiscal year begins October 1.  (Don't ask me to explain it any further because I'm too angry to bother!)   Then the House would have to pass it as is, without amendments. Why?  Because Speaker Paul Ryan said so.

Right now, Rand Paul of Kentucky refuses to support this repeal of the Affordable Care Act - because it doesn't go far enough! -  and John McCain refuses to do so because it's being rushed without any meaningful debate.  If one more Republican votes no - count on Susan Collins of Maine to be that one more Republican - the bill won't go anywhere.  And then the effort to repeal and "replace" the Affordable Care Act - will be dead for good.

Ha ha!  You thought  I was serious just now, didn't you?  No, efforts to repeal this law are going to go on for as long as there is a Republican Party, and right now it's the Democrats who are in danger of disappearing due to their inability to reverse years of sucking and lameness and become a competently functioning political organization.  Health care repeal is the Hurricane Jose of legislation . . . it just . . . won't . . . go away!    

On the other hand, Hurricane Jose has probably adversely affected fewer people's lives than this bill would if it became law, and even that storm finally dissipated. :-O :-(  

Trumpcare Mark Two

They . . . did it!

House Republicans voted to overturn the Obama health care law wth one vote more than necessary.  This revised bill proposes does everything the failed bill did -  causing 24 million Americans to lose their coverage, using the savings from the bill for a tax cut for the one percent, cutting Medicaid and defunding Planned Parenthood, and increasing premiums on older Americans.

So what's the difference between this bill and the one that failed in March?  This one creates a pool of eight billion dollars to help people with pre-existing conditions, a tweak inserted by Republican Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey, which has no chance of actually working.

In other words, it doesn't help anyone with pre-existing conditions.  It only pretends to.

"Insurers will take the money and still charge sick people much higher premiums," says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in explaining MacArthur's tweak. "Or avoid sick people altogether."

I'm furious at a certain party right now.  I mean the Democrats.  They spent Obama's two terms losing one election after another, they refused to even comment on the health care law in their campaigns, they rigged the 2016 primaries and caucuses to nominate the most beatable Democratic candidate for President since Walter Mondale, and they couldn't even pick up a Senate seat in Louisiana or a House seat in Kansas in special elections that were held after Trump won.  They didn't even stop the first Trumpcare bill (public outcry did).

House Democrats started singing the chorus of the sixties classic rock song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" to Republicans, suggesting that the Republicans would be out the door in the next election, but it's the wussy Democrats who should be shown the door - preferably the door to an empty ten-story elevator shaft.  They are completely useless as a party of the people - they're too busy hanging out at Metropolitan Museum of Art galas or hobnobbing with celebrities who regularly attend them - and the party's national committee has even insisted, responding to a class-action lawsuit brought by Bernie Sanders supporters accusing the Democratic National Committee of fraud in the presidential nomination contest, that it has the right to tip the scales to get the presidential nominee it wants over the choice of the people.    

Time for the Democrats to go the way of the Whigs.

The bright side of the Trumpcare bill?  It's not likely to survive in the Senate. 

Not Again

I thought the Affordable Care Act repeal bill in the Republic House of Representatives was dead.  But after only a month of its failure, the House is bringing it up again, and this time it might go through. The Senate is a different chamber altogether, but the Republican majority will do its darnedest to get it to Trump for his signature.

I also thought that after the rainy April we had, we'd get a break from the wet weather for awhile.  But April downpours being May downpours; tomorrow my area is supposed to get one to two inches of rain - the equivalent of one to two feet of snow - and the ground is still saturated from all the rain from April.

Did I happen to mention there could be thunderstorms also? 

I also thought I'd taken care of my radiator fluid after it got to low and I had a local VW dealer take care of the problem just before New Year's Eve.  Almost four months to the day later, the fluid got too low again, and I had to add water as a stopgap solution.  I called the dealership that serviced my car in December, and the service guy told me that the water I added should fix the problem until my next regular service.  I've since learned from other Volkswagen owners online that if it doesn't, the water pump could be failing.

Oh yes, just when you thought he was gone for awhile . . . James Comey is back!