US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7114

On March 14 2017 08:40 Aquanim wrote:

I read it as either complete sarcasm, or an observation that the Republicans are getting some of what they want by putting Trump at their head to make the promises that they can ignore or (perhaps partially) enact at their leisure. Neither of those implies an actual endorsement of Trump or the Republicans' policies.

The White House's own internal analysis of the GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare show even steeper coverage losses than the projections by the Congressional Budget Office, according to a document viewed by POLITICO on Monday.

The executive branch analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade, versus the 24 million CBO estimate — a finding that undermines White House efforts to discredit the forecasts from the nonpartisan CBO.

The analysis found that under the American Health Care Act the coverage losses would include 17 million for Medicaid, six million in the individual market and three million in employer-based plans.

A total of 54 million individuals would be uninsured in 2026 under the GOP plan, according to the White House analysis. That’s nearly double the number projected under current law.

White House spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment Monday evening.

The White House and congressional Republicans have aggressively sought to undercut the CBO projection by pointing to how far off its coverage estimates for the Affordable Care Act ultimately proved. The nonpartisan budget office predicted that 21 million individuals would gain coverage through the exchange markets in 2016, but only about half that many actually enrolled.

“We disagree strenuously with the report that was put out,” HHS Secretary Tom Price told reporters about the CBO after leaving a Cabinet meeting with Trump at the White House. “It’s just not believable is what we would suggest.” Price while serving as the House Budget Committee chairman had a role in appointing the current head of the CBO, a conservative economist.

But that effort to discredit CBO’s projections is undermined by the fact that the White House’s own analysis reached a similar — and slightly bleaker — conclusion about how the GOP plan would increase the number of uninsured Americans.

The document was not dated, but clearly referred to the bill currently being considered in the House. The bill was already under attack from both very conservative members who wanted it to go further, as well as moderates worried about coverage erosion particularly in Medicaid. The CBO number made the task of passing it even more challenging.

On March 14 2017 11:57 xDaunt wrote:
Strenuously backing Obamacare Lite is the first big strategic error that Trump has made. That plan is a turd. He would have been much better off sitting back and waiting for Congress to give him something ready to sign. He at least should have taken a non-committal position on the bill until had the chance to see what the public reaction would be. I suspect that Reince Priebus gave Trump some bad advice.

On March 14 2017 11:58 GreenHorizons wrote:


You think it was on accident?

On March 14 2017 12:02 xDaunt wrote:

I don't know. The answer to that probably depends upon whether you subscribe to the theory that Ryan and the House GOP purposefully drafted Obamacare Lite to be a poison pill.

On March 14 2017 12:06 GreenHorizons wrote:


I mean I'd have a hard time thinking of a better way to kill all of the momentum for repealing Obamacare than the strategy they are currently implementing (or the series of mistakes they are making).

I know Trump doesn't get how all this stuff works, but no way Ryan and Preibus didn't know this bill would get ripped apart and that not even Trump could save it.

On March 14 2017 11:57 xDaunt wrote:
Strenuously backing Obamacare Lite is the first big strategic error that Trump has made. That plan is a turd. He would have been much better off sitting back and waiting for Congress to give him something ready to sign. He at least should have taken a non-committal position on the bill until had the chance to see what the public reaction would be. I suspect that Reince Priebus gave Trump some bad advice.

On March 14 2017 12:10 xDaunt wrote:

I'm inclined to think that Ryan is this stupid. When it's all said and done, I think that he and the Congressional GOP are going to bear the brunt of the backlash -- particularly from elements on the Right. If Ryan and Priebus really wanted to hurt Trump, there are far more targeted ways that they could do it. You also have to remember that this is the same party that has repeatedly tried to ram amnesty down its supporters' throats.

On March 14 2017 12:13 Danglars wrote:

My gut tells me they would be better off defunding the whole damn thing with budget reconciliation rather than this boondoggle. It's my understanding the Senate would Byrd-rule away any useful regulation changes to what's driving up premiums. You have any other pie-in-the-sky ideas for what they could've used the filibuster-proof method instead of this?

On March 14 2017 12:19 xDaunt wrote:

They should have tried to work with Democrats to create something better rather than trying to ram something through with a simple majority. And, above all, they should have done anything other than try to ram through a plan that is so vehemently despised by the conservative base.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), used an alias email address while at the oil company to send and receive information related to climate change and other matters, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The attorney general's office said in a letter on Monday that it found Tillerson had used an alias email address under the pseudonym "Wayne Tracker" from at least 2008 through 2015.

Wayne is Tillerson's middle name.

The letter was sent to a New York state judge overseeing Schneiderman's investigation into whether Exxon misled shareholders and the public about climate change.

In a statement on Monday, Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said, "The email address, Wayne.Tracker@exxonmobil.com, is part of the company’s email system and was put in place for secure and expedited communications between select senior company officials and the former chairman for a broad range of business-related topics."

Jeffers said the company had provided 2.5 million pages of documents in response to a subpoena from Schneiderman's office and would respond to the claims in the letter in court filings.

A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.

The letter, seen by Reuters, said Exxon had not previously disclosed the alias account. It asked the judge to order Exxon to explain whether documents from the "Wayne Tracker" email and 34 additional accounts assigned to other Exxon executives and board members had been preserved.

The letter said that Exxon had produced some 60 documents bearing the "Wayne Tracker" email but never said it was used by Tillerson for relevant communications at Exxon.

It asked the court to order Exxon to identify whether any other email accounts were used by Tillerson.

"Exxon's top executives, and in particular, Mr. Tillerson, have made multiple representations that are at the center of OAG's (attorney general's office) investigation of potentially false or misleading statements to investors and the public," the letter said.

On March 14 2017 12:02 xDaunt wrote:

I don't know. The answer to that probably depends upon whether you subscribe to the theory that Ryan and the House GOP purposefully drafted Obamacare Lite to be a poison pill.

On March 14 2017 16:18 Biff The Understudy wrote:

Or the GOP has never had any idea how to replace Obamacare, opposed it for partisan reasons, and came out with a train wreck of a bill that makes absolutely 0 sense and will be detrimental to everyone.

Ryan and his goons have promised unicorns for 8 years. They never had a plan and their claim that therw were "free market" alternative that wouldn't make dozens millions people lose tgeir coverage was a fat lie, as anyone who paid attention knew already.

Over 20 million people are probably gonna lose coverage. It's a tragedy. And for what?

On March 14 2017 20:31 dankobanana wrote:


well thats because Donald is not (and has never been) a Republican. They tolerate him and use him as a tool