Some BMG members have been arguing for some time that there is no fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. This action provides powerful evidence in support of that depressingly cynical assertion.
The “Medicare For All” debate has dominated whatever airtime the Democratic primary race has received (the apparently pointless impeachment exercise has pushed everything else off the radar). Our candidates — all of them — are lying when they talk about the ACA or anything to replace it.
The legacy of the Barack Obama administration is that failed to accomplish ANY constructive long-term changes. Even our own elected members of the House have caved, even as they perform in the off-Broadway impeachment show.
I think I’ve finally had enough. I’ve given up trying to watch the news, my wife and I entertain ourselves with “Miss Marple” episodes instead.
It’s over, folks. The American experiment in democracy has ended after a 250-odd year run.
Bah humbug to you too!:(
The repeal of the three taxes represents an expensive windfall victory for the health care industry, which lobbied intensely against all three taxes since they were first mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
Yup, Democrats selling out the working class as they pay tribute to their wealthy masters who they still tell us are “the job creators”.
The taxes were not enforceable from the very beginning anyway to my understanding. The requirements of ACA, such as covering pre-existing conditions and allowing kids to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, are still in place, right?
They most certainly WERE enforceable. That was, in fact, the key to the Supreme Court decision rejecting the GOP claim that the penalty for not enrolling was unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the penalty was a tax and as such fell well within Congressional prerogative. They were, however, very unpopular with the health insurance industry. Even Elizabeth Warren opposed the medical devices tax.
When the GOP majority struck down that penalty, it rendered the entire ACA unconstitutional — perhaps that’s what you mean. That was late in the game, however. All of those taxes were enforceable from the beginning, that’s one excuse offered by the GOP for rejecting the entire plan.
The Democratic vote to repeal these three taxes is still a sell-out.
It is typical that the “negotiations” provide political cover to “progressive” Democrats so that they are not required to go on the record in favor of or opposed to these tax cuts.
This deal is a shameful display of a dysfunctional government that can’t figure out how to remove a Russian puppet from office but can of course find ways to ensure that health insurance industry profits remain safe and secure.
I try hard to resist the cynicism that John so often expresses here. In this case, he is exactly correct.
We are seeing the very best government that money can buy.
I definitely heard differently about the taxes, or maybe we are talking about different taxes. I can’t find a clip of it right now, but I know Lawrence O’Donnell once explained that the law was written with no enforcement provision for the shared responsibility tax.
Here’s what Intuit said about the “shared responsibility “tax” (emphasis mine):
Whether or not the law as written provided specific penalties for non-payment of the tax, the ACA most certainly did mandate this tax. That mandate was reversed by the GOP majority in the House and Senate, hence the last line of the quote.
The Supreme Court ruled that this tax was the reason why the rest of the ACA was constitutional. By repealing this tax, Congress effectively repealed the ACA.
The Democrats should not have agreed to these provisions.
These taxes accounted for $427B.
The awful and bloated defense bill approved last week was $738B.
That’s $1.165T in total.
Guess how much of that was “paid for” with other cuts or accompanying tax increases?
$0.
Yet when it comes to providing adequate health care to all Americans or ending the crushing student debt burden keeping down a generation or saving our planet from imminent destruction – “How are we going to pay for it?”
Not to mention they passed Trump’s trade deal, funded Trump’s wall, and even authorized Trump’s Space Force. I remember budget time every year between 2010-2014 was a time for the GOP House to hold Barack Obama hostage and force him to prioritize their draconian spending and make their fiscally irresponsible tax cuts permanent. Now the Democrats roll over knowing the base is hyped up on impeachment and get nothing in return.
Anytime progressives complain they say ‘McConnell and Trump are stopping everything’. McConnell has a 4 vote majority and Trump is consistently polling at 40% approval ratings. You really can’t take these guys on with a sustained fight? If the moderates are worried about impeachment (which is consistently polling higher than Trump’s approval rating) taking up oxygen from health care, then use the budget to fight for health care! They did not.
Exactly. They hold all the power on the purse strings and they decided to just move on.
Some people claim that they will be respected and rewarded for showing that they are reasonable and “can govern.” They absolutely will not be.
@ Border wall funding:
Well, the WP reports that border wall funding was kept at $1.375 B (its current level), rejecting the $8.6 B request from the White House.
The Democrats definitely got good concessions out of Trump on trade and border funding, I still think that’s an example of letting him set the agenda. How about counter his stupid wall with the comprehensive immigration and border security agreement that 69 Senators backed back in 2015? Many of them still in office. How about counter his trade deal with a more generous counter proposal instead of doing all the concessions behind closed doors? There is not the appetite to fight Trump on his issues or even to take credit for the concessions they did get.
We Democrats have no stomach or backbone for a fight over anything.
I think the wall and space force were part of a package to keep the government open and were the bare minimum they could get away with. I thought many Dems favored a renegotiated trade deal on the merits anyway.
The space force, in particular, is another example that the Democrats should have held their ground on.
The threat of a government shutdown is a small price to pay in exchange for making space become a battleground.
Boehner played politics with the budget for priorities his corporate bundles and narrow aging base wanted. The priorities I’m talking about are supported by a solid majority of Americans. Most Americans oppose the wall, the space force, and bad trade deals. I think the Democrats lost an opportunity to fight in the very kitchen table issues the moderates claim they were sent there to do.