Greg Sargent, who blogs for the Post and who, by the way, is a really good reporter, talks to Chuck Schumer about Obamacare repeal:
The emerging GOP plan to repeal Obamacare on a delayed schedule — and then maybe kinda sorta replace it later — has raised a big question: Will Democrats help Republicans pass a replacement that is far less generous and comprehensive than the health law is, allowing Republicans an escape from the political fallout from repeal?
In an interview with me, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer answered this question with a resounding No. Under no circumstances, he vowed, would Democrats throw Republicans such a political lifeline.
“We’re not going to do a replacement,” Schumer said of the Senate Democratic caucus. “If they repeal without a replacement, they will own it. Democrats will not then step up to the plate and come up with a half-baked solution that we will partially own. It’s all theirs.”
[…] Asked directly if Democrats would refuse to support anything that falls significantly short of the ACA in terms of expanding social welfare, Schumer said: “The odds, after they repeal without any replacement, of us sitting at the table to do something that will chop one arm off instead of two is very small.”
Good. Dems are going to the mattresses. Let’s see if they stick to their guns this time. Because this will be a real disaster, no matter what.
If the likes of Chuck Schumer hadn’t blown it by passing the American Enterprise Institute’s conservative Mitt Romney-style ACA, instead of a simple single-payer bill like Medicare-for-all, the Republicans wouldn’t have had a campaign issue or the number of stuffed shirts in Congress necessary to repeal ACA.
It may make you feel better to think that, but we barely got what we got. The votes weren’t there — remember the Tea Party town halls? Senators were terrified. The idea was always to build on it, just as we did with Social Security and Medicare.
As you know, it is a little more complicated than that. Of course the Tea Party and Republicans were opposed, no doubt. But it was the also significantly the actions of a few Dems that caused the ACA to be the watered down failure that it is, specifically Nelson, Lieberman, Stupak and others. The desperation of Obama to get one lousy Republican to vote for it (delegations of courtiers were sent to the castle of Princess Snowe, who had been deeply involved in the development of the bill as a member of the Senate Finance Committee) was the other half that caused the weakness of the program. After making many concessions that weakened the act, he got not a single Republican vote. More than a few Dems (37?)voted against in the House. Chump.
As usual, the Dems had previously set up the conditions for their own defeat. Remember when all the institutional Dems lined up in support of Lieberman’s independent bid for Senate after he had been defeated in the CT primary? Remember when he said hospitals could refuse to treat emergency contraception to rape victims? Remember when he almost single-handedly killed the public option? Remember when he endorsed McCain for President against Obama? Chumps.
Similarly, Dems have set up the overturning of Roe v Wade by not crushing the Stupak (Stupid?) Amendment to the ACA. And by participating in the “Gang of 14” whose compromise avoided filibuster and greased the skids for Roberts and Alito (Lieberman voted for cloture) and other Bush appointees. Gee, how did that hold up for Obama’s appointees to the Fed Bench? Chumps.
The “build on it like SS and Medicare” idea always depended on Democrats having continued legislative power. But they pissed that away with DLC pandering to corporate interests, fantasies about bi-partisanship, and halfway measures that always move the window to the right and empower “morans” who like our pres-elect.
Now we hear from Dems who are willing to work with Republicans and refuse to “obstruct” Trump’s agenda as they did to Obama’s. And to implement the big shift and correct the errors of the last campaign. let’s bring back Joe Biden. Meanwhile, the White House is scrambling to undermine Keith Ellison for DNC chair. Rahm’s rules rule the Dem party, the rest of us are still “fucking retards.” Or maybe chumps.
WORD!!!