dagblog - Comments for "A Republican Cares about Helping People"

Jeez, they don't even know

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 13:40:00 +0000

In reply to This is the argument I got

Jeez, they don't even know their pool analogies.

You use a buckshot to break up the table when you have a bad lie (ball position, not falsehood), often a Hail Mary type of move.

Breaking the rack is a very controlled, planned and aimed event, like starting from scratch (not a pool scratch, but from the unformed, untarnished beginning - something that never happens in politics or other real life events).

But the stalemate wasn't in the White House - it's all the shrink-government-till-you-can-drown-it-in-a-bathroom and let's-ram-this-government-into-a-wall GOP party members. Why replacing a Democratic give-it-his-best president with a supposedly anarchist know-nothing conservative-GOP-sympathizing egotist and liar would break up the system in any way but chaotic and/or crooked is beyond me.

BTW, Etta James always believed she was the daughter of Minnesota Fats. Irrelevant, but a nice bit of trivia (I got it out of Cadillac Records with Beyonce playing Etta)

I appreciate just hearing

artappraiser — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 13:12:36 +0000

In reply to This is the argument I got

I appreciate just hearing about confirmation.

This is the argument I got

moat — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 13:05:44 +0000

In reply to Trump failed at the get go

This is the argument I got from Trump supporters who I talked to before the election, that he was a cue ball breaking up the rack. I haven't had the energy to ask them if they are feeling buyer's remorse.

Costa worked with two other

artappraiser — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 01:04:25 +0000

In reply to TPM sez: Trump also called

Costa worked with two other reporters to put together this wider report on Trump's efforts, posted @ WaPo tonight

‘The closer’? The inside story of how Trump tried — and failed — to make a deal on health care

By Robert Costa, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker March 24 at 7:15 PM

Edit to add: the best part of this article is this where it is unfortunately made very clear he is not capable of the attention span to read and understand policy, that he trusts the underlings to weigh in with their opinion:

Shortly after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled the Republican health-care plan on March 6, President Trump sat in the Oval Office and queried his advisers: “Is this really a good bill?”

And over the next 18 days, until the bill collapsed in the House on Friday afternoon in a humiliating defeat — the sharpest rebuke yet of Trump’s young presidency and his negotiating skills — the question continued to nag at the president.

Even as he thrust himself and the trappings of his office into selling the health-care bill, Trump peppered his aides again and again with the same concern, usually after watching cable news reports chronicling the setbacks, according to two of his advisers: “Is this really a good bill?”

In the end, the answer was no — in part because the president himself seemed to doubt it.

he was similarly calm in the

artappraiser — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 00:40:55 +0000

In reply to TPM sez: Trump also called

he was similarly calm in the call to Haberman:

[...] Mr. Trump described his first major legislative experience as not terribly different than what his previous negotiations as a real-estate developer had been like.

“The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened — watch,” he said. He also said he was pleased to have this behind him.

“It’s enough already,” he said of the back and forth between factions of the Republican Party.

thanks, I think better

artappraiser — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 00:01:04 +0000

In reply to Trump failed at the get go

thanks, I think way better analysis than most I see!

Edit to add: I like this especially: waddled into the threshing blades by choosing a strategy where he would be completely dependent on a Republican Party that he had discredited and ought to have been working around rather than with. After all, he won in large part by targeting voters that don't often vote at all because they dislike politicians. The type that if they voted once in a while, might vote Republican, but holding their nose.

Trump failed at the get go

NCD — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:55:40 +0000

In reply to P.S. I think that one thing

Trump failed at the get go with his Bannon bunch of nazis, incompetent loyal shills, and crackpots like Sessions, Perry, Mulvaney, and the EPA fruitcake.

Booman:

Trump wasn’t elected to be the most far right Republican in the country. He was elected, in large part, because he wasn’t a Republican. He wasn’t anything like George or Jeb Bush. He wasn’t like John Boehner and Eric Cantor. That was a huge part of his appeal. And it wasn’t just that he was more pugnacious. It was that he was different when it came to trade and infrastructure and entitlements and health care. He picked off a lot of traditional Democrats

And:

Trump could have been true to his word of shaking things up in Washington if he had gone in there and had no regard for party and just put together coalitions to do stuff he wanted done. He could have told Schumer to come up with an infrastructure plan and then whipped just enough Republicans to get it passed. He could have gone after Dems to support his vision for trade and tax reform.

Instead, he and his team waddled into the threshing blades by choosing a strategy where he would be completely dependent on a Republican Party that he had discredited and ought to have been working around rather than with.

There really is no solution for Trump. He has, as they say, screwed the pooch. He still needs Democrats to achieve his agenda, but they won’t be there for him. The Republican congress can’t pass much by themselves, and what they can pass isn’t what Trump’s voters want or expect.

P.S. I think that one thing

artappraiser — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:34:57 +0000

In reply to oh I suspect Trump blames the

P.S. I think that one thing we can be sure of with Trump is that he is not with the Koch wing that wants an Ayn Rand approach to health insurance, i.e., repeal and no replacement. He's just had a wack understanding of what would be required when he promised health insurance for everyone, and not being that sincerely caring, and he will backtrack the more he "gets it," especially if it affects tax cuts for the rich, as trickle down economics will always be priority with him. He thinks like this: the trickle down along with tough immigration will get his working class fans good jobs again. And while he'd rather not see them saddled with high health insurance costs, at least they could afford it then. Wacky, I know but I think it's like that.

Also related: I suspect he doesn't like that health insurance is tied to employment in this country, that he probably would like to see that it was taken off employer's backs. I suspect the right person could actually convince him to be interested in a plan that was sort of a Medicare for all on a catastrophic coverage basis, if the numbers showed it to save on the budget in the end. He thought it would be simple to fix, and he'd still be open to "simple." As long as it doesn't cost as much as Obamacare and lightens the load on business.

oh I suspect Trump blames the

artappraiser — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:13:58 +0000

In reply to It's hard as the Republicans

oh I suspect Trump blames the Koch boys, too, he just won't publicly say it. He knows they hate him. And they came up with that bribe to keep the conservatives voting against. Which basically was in response to Trump's attempted threats of conservatives, made his threats impotent and that was a hit to his narcissistic "deal maker" creds.

It's hard as the Republicans

NCD — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 21:07:51 +0000

In reply to But even Republicans that don

It's hard as the Republicans and the "Americans for The Prosperity of Billionaires" Koch brothers one and only goal is to eliminate the ACA 3.8% investment profits tax an the 0.9% Medicare supplemental on 250K + incomes. That was to be a Trumpian Dream of a trillion dollar tax cut for the rich....!!

Then balance the GOP 'wealthcare tax cut' hit to the federl budget by cutting health care for 24 million poor and working poor families, kids and elderly, so it can pass under 'reconciliation' with no Dem votes.

And as Trump blames the Democrats, it is shown again as so true:

The buck doesn't even slow down on Trump's desk.