I never thought I'd see the day when being a war time veteran would mean nothing to me.

Mccain is still butt hurt that Trump was elected president after he failed in his run and he also hates Trump for what he said about McCain during his run for president. And I feel that he has never been a true republican.

quote:

Originally posted by dwright1951:
Mccain is still butt hurt that Trump was elected president after he failed in his run and he also hates Trump for what he said about McCain during his run for president. And I feel that he has never been a true republican.

Yeah, an angry bitter old asshole on that. But, imo, the biggest reason he behaved the way he did is because Trump called him out on his non-war hero status, which I agree with completely.

recent events bring a new meaning to the pic

"A complete Failure" SEN McCain on obamacare

I wish the bitter old fool would go be miserable on his own time, and would no longer make everyone else miserable with him. His petty contrarianism is stupid on a scale the boggles the mind.

We will probably have to suffer w obamacare for another year.

If the REPs don't blow it, 2018 should be a good election year. The 2018 elections are only about a year away.

Something that must be worrying the DEMs:



Republican National Committee currently has a significant lead in fund raising

quote:

We will probably have to suffer w obamacare for another year.

Keep working on it!



But.... you are right.

It's really not hard to figure out:

McCain says Trump never apologized for 'war hero' dig

That's a good enough reason to fuck our country, isn't John?

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
It's really not hard to figure out:

McCain says Trump never apologized for 'war hero' dig

That's a good enough reason to fuck our country, isn't John?

Oh, what a shock. NOT! This despicable POS has always been about himself first, and nothing else. His color showed long ago, with the fucking "maverick" label that they bestowed on him.

Whores Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins: I can be bought!
You just haven't reached my price....


As the Republican Party's last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare hangs by a thread, a revised version of the Graham-Cassidy bill was circulated to Senate Republicans on Sunday with the aim of winning over key votes.

Even with the new changes, the task ahead is daunting. GOP Sens. Rand Paul and John McCain have already publicly opposed the bill, and leadership can't afford to lose one more. Plenty of others, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have made known their deep reservations -- Collins went as far as to say on CNN Sunday morning that it was "very difficult" for her to envision getting to a "yes."

it might be hard for a lot of people to envision Collins as a Senator much longer

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
it might be hard for a lot of people to envision Collins as a Senator much longer

Hope springs eternal!

http://www.breitbart.com/video...ion-to-maine-people/

Monday on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Maine Governor Paul LePage discussed Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) position that it would be “very difficult” to vote for the Senate Republican’s latest attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Graham-Cassidy Bill.

LePage called on Collins to “ start paying attention to Maine people .”

LePage said, “She needs to be voting for this because she shouldn’t be on a national level, she should be looking after Maine people.”

On Collins’ concerns for pre-existing conditions, he continued, “Pre-existing conditions are part of state law. They are part of the federal program. So I really don’t understand where the Senator is coming from. She should start paying attention to Maine people.”

On Maine’s high-risk pools he added, “We were leading the country back in 2011 on lowering premiums. We had a good program. This is what is so disheartening with Senator Susan Collins, we had the program that could help America, and she is just so concerned with family planning she can’t see beyond it .”

The Senate will not vote on Republicans' latest bill to repeal Obamacare this week, putting an end, for now, to the GOP's seven-year campaign promise to dismantle the health care law.

The decision was reached at a party lunch Tuesday after it became clear the plan would fail, GOP senators said. Three Senate Republicans had already said they would vote against the measure, and the GOP could only afford two defections.

http://www.politico.com/story/...blican-senate-243148

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
The Senate will not vote on Republicans' latest bill to repeal Obamacare this week, putting an end, for now, to the GOP's seven-year campaign promise to dismantle the health care law.

I'm starting to believe that it will NEVER be repealed, if repeal means less control by Washington over the lives of the people. They want power and control.

It's another topic, but after this I don't believe that there will be tax reform either. It would require significant spending cuts for tax reform to not further balloon the deficit. Relinquishing control to the people is simply not an option for our political masters.

This may be where we are heading, a two-tier system:

September 27, 2017

GOP is dead, Obamacare is alive
By Brian C. Joondeph

Remember back in 2012 when then-vice president Joe Biden told us, "Bin Laden is dead; General Motors is alive"? The good old days. That was also around the time Senators John McCain and Lisa Murkowski promised to repeal Obamacare – along with a bunch of other Republicans seeking re-election to Congress.

Fast forward to 2017. The new catchphrase is "GOP is dead; Obamacare is alive." At least their credibility is dead, buried in the rubble of broken campaign promises: not only Obamacare repeal, but also tax cuts, immigration enforcement, balanced budgets, reduced spending, and so on.

Repeal and replace, as a promise, was simple enough on the campaign trail. We heard this promise in 2010, when voters gave the House to Republicans. We heard it again in 2012, when voters gave them the Senate. Despite their controlling Congress, Obamacare remained alive and well. Candidate Donald Trump, along with most Republican members of Congress, promised repeal and replace last year.

Eight months into the Trump administration, Obamacare is still kicking. Congress had three bites of the apple this year and each time came up with a worm. This week was their third attempt to fix Obamacare. It was not the promised repeal, but instead only financial window dressing to keep Obamacare alive in some shape or form.

Graham-Cassidy didn't even earn a Senate vote this week after three promised GOP defections. Too bad they didn't vote. Senator Richard Shelby thought a vote was fruitless, saying, "Why have a vote if you know what the outcome is and it's not what you want?" Why? How about getting the senators on record with a yea or nay vote? Votes that they could be reminded of during their next campaigns?

Once again, the do-nothing Congress has squandered a once-in-a-generation, or lifetime, opportunity to advance a conservative agenda. Instead, after eight months, they have little to show for their control of the executive and legislative branches of government. Obamacare remains the law of the land.

Republican lassitude is not lost on voters, as Luther Strange learned this week. Senator Bob Corker noticed, too, choosing to do nothing as a private citizen rather than as a U.S. senator. Congress may not want to repeal Obamacare, but the voters do.

Many want a simple repeal, similar to what Congress passed multiple times, certain that their virtue-signaling repeal bills would be slapped down by an Obama veto. Now that the veto threat is gone, so are the votes for repeal. It won't happen. Neither will the IRS ever be abolished or the Departments of Education and Energy be closed. All conservative pipe dreams far from the reality of current Washington, D.C.

Obamacare remains in a death spiral – another year of double-digit premium increases, some families paying more for their Obamacare insurance premiums than for their mortgages, not to mention rising co-pays and deductibles and narrowing physician and hospital networks. All of this makes medical care unaffordable for many Americans, even though they have insurance.

What's next? Waiting in the wings is Bernie Sanders's "Medicare for All" bill, which has the support of 17 Democratic senators, more than a third of their caucus. On the House side, John Conyers has his own version of single-payer with 119 cosponsors, more than half of the Democrats' House caucus.

America is already drifting toward single-payer. Medicaid, Medicare, and the VA System are all single-payer health insurance plans – or, more accurately, government-run health care systems. Obamacare is following this path. A third of counties have only one Obamacare insurer. It's not far from what we have now to a true single-payer plan. And the Democrats are ready and waiting to take advantage of Republican chaos and an imploding Obamacare.

Perhaps this was the plan all along. It was then-senator Obama who once said single-payer is the goal, but "we can't get there immediately."

If President Trump cannot get anything done with his own party in Congress, maybe he calls his new buddies Chuck and Nancy – John McCain's extolled "reaching across the aisle."

Suppose Donald, Chuck, and Nancy cook up a two-tiered system, something for everyone? A public option and a parallel private option. Just as most developed countries have. The public option covers everyone. Think of Medicaid for all. A bare-bones catastrophic coverage plan available to all Americans. With minimal or no out-of-pocket costs to patients but with the tradeoff of long wait times for care and limited treatment options.

The private option allows individuals to purchase medical insurance or actual care directly, what they want and need, nothing more. Insurance without mandates and regulations. No subsidies, tax breaks, or government assistance. Pure free market.

Think of K-12 schools. Public schools are available without cost to all students – for most, a good education. And there is a private school option for those who desire and have the means. Pay the private cost, or default to the public option and pay nothing.

There are pros and cons to each system, but both are separate and distinct, each doing what it's designed to do – rather than an amalgam of both systems, which is what we have with Obamacare, Graham-Cassidy, skinny repeal, or whatever the witches and warlocks of Congress conjure up.

This is something for both the right and for the left. Free market for the right. Universal coverage for the left. Perhaps it's the only way to get past the current logjam in Congress. If Republicans continue to twiddle their thumbs and do nothing, they may soon find themselves in the minority, leaving Bernie in charge.

If the Democrats control Congress, make no mistake: they will pass single-payer. No defections. They will change procedural rules such as the filibuster if necessary. And they will accomplish what the Republicans are unable to.

In the meantime, Obamacare is alive, and it's the GOP on life support.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer.

http://www.americanthinker.com...macare_is_alive.html

Hold the phone a sec. Trump has said that the health care bill will have three votes - one from a Senator in the hospital and "two [that] are coming around". The bottom line is that the votes won't be in place by Friday, sure. But Trump figures on passing the bill in January or February.

http://www.yahoo.com/finance/v...-cant-170400455.html

Yes, that means that the bill can't pass under reconciliation, so the Dems can invoke the filibuster again. Trump is already calling for Pushing Turtle to get rid of the filibuster rule.

http://www.businessinsider.com...re-filibuster-2017-9

Meanwhile, Trump is looking at signing an executive order allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines.

http://www.politico.com/story/...e-state-lines-243213

So maybe it'll take another year and have to be done in the face of an upcoming election, but maybe not. Either way, OCare is still on the front burner over the next few months.

quote:

Either way, OCare is still on the front burner over the next few months.

It will be on the front burner for every person who receives a premium increase notice....

But... many people, particularly those in employer-based group plans don't really consider themselves affected by O'care because they don't buy their insurance through the 'exchange'.
Nevertheless, everyone comes in contact with the health care 'system' at one point or another and no one is happy with it.

Remember, the primary virtue of Democrats is that they're easily distracted. Remember, too, that people who are pissed off about OCare remain pissed off about it all year 'round. At some point the good guys may be able to gather their votes together when all the bad guys are off trying to figure out whether they're gay, straight, or simply appeal to a wide range of voter demographics.