Playing With Nukes
Y’all, seriously. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah has got himself a plan to finally, oh dear God finally, repeal Obamacare.
Conservative firebrand Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) announced on Friday that he plans to use a complicated procedural maneuver known as the nuclear option to repeal the Affordable Care Act with just 51 votes.
I think this makes about 2,614th time they have tried to repeal Obamacare.
If they succeed, 16.4 million people will immediately be without health insurance and probably really pissed off about it.
I suspect Lee will want anyone with Obamacare who is currently hospitalized to be pushed out into the parking lot with some aspirin and a bottle of cough syrup.
Republicans – admit it – just damn admit it. You do not like it because (1) it works, and (2) you were dumb enough to name it after him.
(Conspiratorial whispering)
OK. Here’s the plan. We get the House and Senate to kill Obamacare using the “nuclear” option. Then we get the president to sign it.
Oh, wait.
1Republicans hate the idea of government solving anything – unless it involves a bombing campaign or mass imprisonment.
Funny how they want to increase government spending while cutting tax revenue. Greece did this informally by simply not collecting the taxes owed… result: bankruptcy, and a threat of a far-right takeover.
Hmmmm… maybe the Republicans really do have a plan.
2To be clear – the government spending Republicans want to increase is on gold-plated weapons systems for the military, and hiring private companies (owned by their political pals) to run prisons.
3There is one major error in this report. Lee would NOT want anyone with Obamacare who is currently hospitalized to be pushed out into the parking lot with some aspirin and a bottle of cough syrup.
Aspirins and cough syrup cost money, dammit. And that parking lot is public property; the poor shouldn’t be allowed to loiter there whenever they please.
The staff should simply roll them to the curb and then get back to taking care of respectable people who are rich enough to pay.
4The public phone number for his DeeCee office is 202-224-5444. In case you wondered. Just in case you feel like calling this loser’s office to share your opinion of how deranged you think he is, Pardon the dangling parts of speech.
5LynnN gets it …
6LynnN it all fits in with what RepbAnon had to say about prisons. Patients in parking lots have no visible means of support so police can cart them off to fully stuff private prisons so taxpayers can pay wingnut friends for the privilege of detaining poor people. Then they can bill the gubmint for any medical services the patients need while in prison. When their sentence is served,they are released and immediately re-arrested for no visible means of support and go right back into the pokey-keeping the dollars flowing to the wealthy prison owner friends of wingnuts. Simply brilliant.
7Micr, and the public website we tax payers foot for every congress critter has a special page wherein on can voice their opinion. And they all still have fax machines, not that they even know how to operate them.
8We all know the definition of insanity, so let’s just let Mike Lee keep on with it ’til the cows come home. Meanwhile could we focus on raising the minimum wage, equal pay for women, infrastructure repair, saving the environment, veteran benefits improvement, voting rights and several hundred other issues which have been obstructed by the nutjobs.
9My border brother, Mike Lee is nearly as deluded as my other border brother, Orrin Hatch and the nuclear nuts in the Utah state legislature. As we face a catastrophic drought in the west these science deniers would drain the Green River to build & support a nuclear plant. What about nuclear waste? No problem; in the interest of being good neighbors and border brothers, they’d bury the waste at Yucca Mountain (NV).
Sorry bros, but we want our clean water, we don’t want your nuclear waste, and we sure as hell don’t want your and Israel’s war with Iran.
As for killing the ACA? Oh yeah, brilliant plan, as President Obama shoves his veto pen into your crazy paws.
By the way, if you are sincere about socialized medicine and socialism in general, then it is incumbent upon you to give up your government cheese first. Refuse your pension and medical plan, then maybe you can discuss the ACA and social security.
10I just finished a rather heartbreaking article on the DailyKos about Sandra Bland titled “The REAL Question Is Why Can’t I Believe Sandra Bland Killed Herself?”. I recommend it. The context to this post lies in a modifier of 2) in that we fail to ask the birther types the explicit question: “Why do you need the President to not be born in the US?”. Of course the answer likely won’t include “The origin of the President’s father.”, though I suspect that to be central to most of the Tea-haddist personae…
Blocking healthcare to millions of undeserving low lifes likely is considered a bonus.
11Senator Mike Lee is dumb. The Republicans need another senator to step up and add an amendment that will disenfranchise voters who would no longer have Obamacare.
Can’t have those uninsured people voting in the next election.
12Help your friends who aren’t yet registered, so they can vote. This may mean a small gift or loan of money, a ride to the DMV, and another ride to the polls on Election Day.
Every registered Democrat needs to vote in every primary and every general, every year. Voting is not an every-four-years thing. I’m passionate about this because as a teen I carried petitions door to door (remember those?) to get the vote for 18-year-olds. I turned 18 in June of 1972, and I’ve never missed voting in every primary and every general, every year since.
I once showed up at the polls when there were no races in my district, wished everyone well, and walked home. Of course, the polling place is less than five minutes from my tenement, on foot. I know that’s not the case in most of the country, but many places have voting by mail now.
I’m a progressive, but I don’t change my registration from D to Green because primaries matter. Health and peace.
13Zyxomma, You get a salute from here in way way south Austin. Thank you for what you’ve done aNd continue to do.
14LynnN,
15You are so right!
Mike Lee doesn’t exhibit a shred of human decency, but that seems to be a point of pride among Republicons these days.