Almalieque wrote:
Gbaji wrote:
I think I'll go back to my original point on page one where I mentioned how if the GOP moves forward quickly it's all about them doing the same "pass it before we read it" thing the Dems did with Obamacare,
People keep attacking the DEMS for rushing to pass the bill as if any GOP was willing to work with them to pass or enhance it.
Well. With a definition of "willing to work with them to pass or enhance it" that was restricted to "vote yes for what we want with no discussion or debate", then yes. The GOP was more than willing to work to enhance the ACA, and provided a number of proposals. All of which were rejected in committee and never got even remotely put into any form of the bill, much less anywhere near being voted on.
There's a legitimate point at which you realize that the other guy isn't listening to anything you are saying and the only response is to just throw your hands up, walk away, and make the other guy eat his own stupid mistakes. Which is exactly what happened here.
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The GOP has done nothing but attack the ACA and vote to defund it. Looking back, they made the best strategic move.
Yup. And a huge part of this was the very simple fact that
it was a really really really terrible law. If the ACA was roundly popular, and had actually made health care more affordable, and actually allowed people to keep their doctors, and their coverage, and even maybe increased health care options instead of decreasing them, than the GOP could attack it all they wanted, and attempt to defund it all they wanted, and the broad public response would be to condemn them for doing so.
The fact that the opposite actually happened suggests that a heck of a lot more people are unhappy with the ACA than the other way around. That's not cheap politics, or some kind of trick. That's a "side" of our politics actually listening to what the people want rather than attempting to ram what they think it best for the people down their throats.
We're not even talking about the ACA being just a little bit unpopular. It's "probably a decent part of why we got Trump as president" unpopular. So yeah. Thanks Dems! Gah!
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Gbaji wrote:
but if they have disagreements and questions and push the bill back and forth to make changes, it's "OMG! The GOP is in disarray and can't even agree among themselves!!!".
If it were 6 or 7 years ago, you would have a point. However, it only shows that they never had a serious plan, because if they did, they would have worked out the kinks throughout those seven years.
You don realize that the members of congress, even within a party, change every couple years, right? I mean, you'd have a point if the entire GOP delegation to congress was static the whole time, and thus could all sit together and work on a plan the whole time. But that's not the case. I'm sure they could have come up with an alternative health care bill 7 years ago, that the GOP members at the time would pass. But then they'd have to make changes to it every two years to make it pass the new makeup of the house and senate.
I get that it's easy and cheap rhetoric to go with the whole "they had all this time to come up with something!" argument, but the reality is that it makes a lot more sense to wait until you do have the numbers to pass something before you start actually writing the legislation down. Because until you have those numbers, and have some sense of what those numbers will agree on, you can't accurately write something that will pass. And yeah, Ryan's plan is a good example of this. He proceeded based on what I honestly saw as an older/simpler attempt to end run around the ACA. One that maybe would have flown 4-5 years ago with the GOP makeup at the time, but isn't sufficient for the crop of GOP members in office today.
Times change. The makeup of the congress changes. The demands of those offices change. This is exactly why the correct solution should have involved starting from scratch, not based on what we could/should/would have done 7 years ago, but based on what we should be doing *now*. Even the fact that many aspects of the ACA have already been put in place, changes the equation in terms of how you go about "repealing and replacing" it. Before the ACA takes effect, it's easy. Just repeal it and no one's affected. As more parts of the ACA have an impact on our health care system, you can't just do that simple solution anymore.
Ryan miscalculated that, and it was the right call for the GOP to reject his overly simplistic attempt. Again, this is how the process should work. The GOP certainly could have just followed their leadership like the Dems did back in 2009/2010 and just pass whatever bill was put in front of them. That they didn't, speaks volumes IMO.