Looks like the votes just weren’t there. News is breaking that President Donald Trump has asked House Speaker Paul Ryan to give up on a vote on the American Health Care Act.
While it’s a gigantic embarrassment that shows the limits of Trump’s bullying powers over GOP lawmakers, it’s probably less embarrassing than losing the vote altogether.
And it’s not like the legislation would have passed the Senate anyhow.
Where this fustercluck goes from here is anyone’s guess.
ETA: Both Trump and Ryan have said efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are on hold, with Ryan telling reporters: “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”
Trump, meanwhile, has blamed Democrats for failing to get behind the plan to repeal Barack Obama’s signature bill. He said today that he’d move on to other parts of his agenda.
U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ01) celebrated the collapse of the repeal effort:
The American people made their voices heard and helped defeat the AHCA. This health care bill would have devastated our rural and tribal communities, harmed seniors, and eliminated tax credits for veterans eligible for government health care. Now we must get serious about crafting a bipartisan bill that improves our health care system and brings down the costs of health care and insurance premiums.
We need an open, transparent process that includes input from industry leaders and experts. No legislation should be drafted in closed-door meetings, hidden from the public. Neither party has all the solutions to our greatest challenges, and partisan gridlock is only setting us back. I continue to urge my colleagues to stop playing political games with the health and wellbeing of the American people and work together.
Congressman Raul Grijalva trolled Trump in his statement:
Donald Trump just asked House Republicans to walk the plank on healthcare with him, and they let him take the plunge alone. While health coverage for millions of Americans is safe for now, it’s important to remember that Republican orthodoxy still views this outcome as a failure. We can’t lose sight of the fact that the GOP just tried to cut off healthcare for 24 million Americans to help cover $600 billion in tax cuts to the rich.
The fact of the matter is the Affordable Care Act is working, and Republicans will face the wrath of the voters if they ever succeed in undermining it. The ACA covers seniors better than the GOP plan by protecting them from price-gouging, just as it helps women – and particularly women of color – by funding vital resources like Planned Parenthood. The American people fought for generations to secure healthcare as a right, and they just sent a clear message to Republicans that they won’t stand by and watch it become a commodity again.
This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2017.
Congressman McSally played this brilliantly. We state a position on legislation that isn’t even getting a vote? If you believe the things that you wanted to see in it, are not there, you may cost yourself political capital on a future vote. As a resident of PC I feel we are currently in a better position than before the cancellation of the vote.
She COULD show real leadership and put real solutions together and get the votes, because quite honestly the ACA destroyed my health insurance. I would actually accept going back to where I was before Obama created this mess, and work out some real solutions.
Make it stop! Ever since the Republicans rolled out their version of health care — and they use the word “care” loosely — with all the political theater and changes and modifications and mansplaining and on and on, it feels like this is some inside the beltway Game of Thrones Red Wedding episode where the only thing left alive will be the angry old vindictive white guy laughing at the carnage and grabbing the crotch of his underage daughter-bride.
I feel that the best possible outcome for healthcare for Americans would be if the two parties got over themselves and tried to repair the system that is currently in place together, flawed as it is. We all know that this isn’t going to happen anytime soon. But the moderate Dems and moderate Republicans probably have more in common than the extremes on either side.
Now, keeping in mind that it does need some work, the ACA DID succeed in bringing the uninsured rate to its lowest point in history, and allowed rural community health centers to open their doors to people who had long been denied care. Even within our own community, you can see centers such as UCHC expanding care in some of its most rural reaches in Amado, Arivaca and Three Points.
What is the difference between repeal/replace and a repair? Well, it could be nothing at all. I don’t care what you call it, but whatever it is named it ought to keep provisions like the 10 essential benefits, protections for seniors and adult children, protections for people with pre-existing conditions and many of the other provisions outlined in the ACA. MOST importantly, it should NOT result in a decrease in the amount of people covered.
The AHCA bill would’ve dropped ~24 million people by 2026 (the CBO maintained this number throughout all the different iterations of the AHCA, btw). This is unacceptable, especially as these people are mostly those who gained care through the Medicaid expansion: working people, WORKING people, who made “too much” to be able to get Medicaid before, and not enough to be able to afford care.
As a person who once fell just outside of the Medicaid cutoff pre-ACA, I can tell you that even had the GOP ensured healthcare costs would drop down to $50 a month for my family of three, I never would’ve been able to afford it.
It remains to be seen if this whole debacle will help or harm McSally, but I am leaning towards harm. Whatever your views of our Representative are, we can’t exist in an echo chamber. This failure to reconcile the far Right and the moderate Right is the same shananigans that we ruthlessly mocked the Democrats and the Blue Dog Democrats with seven years ago. And although their legislation ultimately passed, it made them walk away from it hurting and losing the mid-term election.
You may have fallen off of Medicaid, but here is a startling headline:
Medicaid Babies: NM 72%, Nev 64%, NY 51%, Calif 50%..
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/24-states-50-babies-born-medicaid
So now the taxpayer is left with the choice of paying to deliver and support it, or paying to abort it. Is our citizenry being rewarded for exterminating children? Yeah you betcha’. And who will the government try to blame? Us.
To the credit of moderate Republicans in Congress, they rejected Trump’s “Health Care” proposal designed to enrich Insurance Companies at the expense of millions of low/moderate income Americans, the Elderly, and Veterans. Their message: they answer /are responsible to their constituents NOT Donald Trump!!
It can only be hoped that this will act as a catalyst for Democrats and Republicans to cooperate and essentially marginalize Donald Trump making his position Ceremonial at best!
I tend to look at it a little different Francis. Trump didn’t draft it. Maybe he should have, but we would not have gotten to this precipice without him. So that means he is the catalyst.
I am for whatever it takes, because what we are doing is not sustainable. Only a fool would deny that.
I am so glad the healthcare bill will be revamped. Now can we get back to jailing Hillary.
That’s not going to happen, just like a bunch of other things The Orange Ding-Dong promised.
A number of years ago I was called to jury duty in an Arizona county most of you know. It was a murder trial. The defendent was accused of killing an older widow woman. It appeared he had a history of wooing, and scamming older widow ladies, and in his final episode he killed one, or so he was accused. I was in the jury pool with about 100 others. The judge and attorneys began asking the jury questions. There was a conference at the dais. The judge then announced they defendent was going to exercise his constitutional right to be his own representative. A noticeable groan went thru the potential jurors. I believe they all knew this was now going to take twice as long. In my own mind I knew he was going to be found guilty right there. Why? Because he was such a narcissist, he had been scamming old ladies for years with his self assured narcissism, he felt he could do it one more time. Luckily for me, I was excused. It was a six day trial, I followed it in the press. The jury was out two hours and found him guilty. The point of all this, is that a narcissist thinks he can BS anybody into anything, regardless of facts, process, , alternative interest groups, or reality. And he is truly shocked when his reality crumbles.
But Obama completed his two terms and is gone.
Neither party has any idea what to do about healthcare. Our immigration policy, which favors extended family reunification and a high supply of low skill workers to keep wages low, virtually ensures we will never have money for healthcare.
Both parties are arguing about who pays for healthcare. They should be arguing about how to make healthcare more efficient and affordable. They should also re-orient our immigration system to favor high employment rates for American workers , who will then be able to afford healthcare, and fewer unskilled immigrants.