[henkster]

MHO...this is the single biggest failure of the GOP and proof that they were never serious about actually governing. For how many years did they say “Repeal and Replace?” The failure to have the replacement ready to go on January 20 is inexcusable.

You might not like the idea of replacing 0bamacare. You might not like the specific replacement. That’s not really the point so much as the fact that there was NO REPLACEMENT ready for passage when the opportunity arose, which shows a party systemically dysfunctional and incapable of governing. Or maybe just not willing to govern.

[DoughtyOne]

Senate Inching Closer To ObamaCare-Repeal Compromise? ("Inching" being the operative word.)

("Millimetering" maybe!>

[LS]

I posited yesterday that Rush had explained three major interpretations for Congress not supporting/passing Trump’s agenda.

1) They are neverTrumper obstructionists (true to some degree)
2) They are just incompetent (who can argue?)
3) NEW ONE: They were willing to help Trump, but are still unsure if he’ll “make it” or survive.
4) I have a different take. I don’t think Congress is suicidal-—unlike the full ideologue Dems in 2009 who KNEW that by supporting Ocare they would lose. I do think 99% of Congress/Senate does want to get reelected. They are NOT incompetent. We’ve seen them move with blazing speed if they want something (Gorsuch) and move quietly (repeal of Dodd-Frank).

So I think they are strategically holding off until much later this year or early next year on both tax cuts and Ocare so that they can RUN on these things in 2018 when it is fresh in voters’ minds. Again, just my take, but I think THEY think that passing stuff too soon would cause Trump, and not them to get all the credit.

[jersey117]

If the republican bill doesn’t significantly lower premiums and deductibles by open enrollment in the Fall, it’s useless. From what I’ve read, males between the ages of 60 and 64 will be hit the hardest. That’s a big part of Trump’s base right there. They need something for early retirees who don’t abuse the healthcare system. The 62 to 64 year olds are all but forgotten in anyone’s bill.

[Amendment10]

If Trumpcare requires new federal powers beyond the scope of Congress’s limited Commerce Clause powers (1.8.3) as clarified by the Supreme Court in Gibbons v. Ogden below, then the Senate better be planning to work with the House to propose a Trumpcare amendment to the Constitution to the states.

• “Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

• "State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added]." —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.

• ”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

Note that the states are not obligated to ratify any proposed amendment to the Constitution.

[woodenickel]

All going as planned. Obamacare is a failure and will be replaced by GOPcare which also will be a failure. The public will have a fit and elect a RAT next go around. The rats will fix GOPcare with single payer. There fixed!!

[hal ogen]

The “operative” phrase is “quislings doing what quislings do”.