MJ Lee on Twitter: "Republican senators are openly warning that the House better not pass the Senate's skinny repeal bill."


If only there were some way for Senators to be able to prevent the House from passing the skinny repeal into law...

This is quite an interview. If the White House needs to create distractions, this guy is going to play the jester.

Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon | The New Yorker

I call BS. Bannon doesn't look like he can touch his own toes.

Oxford comma.

The Senate looks like they'll pass a bill they wrote at lunch, but one they don't want to become law.

The House is gearing for fast track authority so that they could pass "something" in a day.

The President is excited to sign whatever comes to him.

This should all work out well.

They had seven years to come up with their version of healthcare, and they are going with one they wrote at lunch?

Am I the only one who vacillates between unending dread for our world and shit-tastical horrorscope my daughter will be stuck with, and the "holy shit this is fucking amazing, the President's spokesperson said his chief advisor sucks his own dick!"

Like I want to enjoy how fucking incompetent these shitbags are, but the I remember I can't do anything about it because I live in a backwoods state in a dumb country and I get depressed. I mean, I've gained 10 pounds since the election, and it's not muscle.

There are benefits to it. Much easier to make money in a room full of morons than if everyone was intelligent. Just enjoy the theater.

The absolute best ending to Scaramucci is a Bannon filed HR complaint for a hostile work environment.

To paraphrase the great American philosopher Mike Tyson, everyone has a version of healthcare til they get punched in the mouth.

I'm stealing this, but OMG, yes, in the Trump movie Ron Jeremy has to play Bannon.

Sounds like they may have the votes. Republicans will now own healthcare after this. Good luck.

The lunch paper napkin is back in style now.

Pass. https://t.co/U4rliFIyv4

— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) July 27, 2017

McCain voted no, killing the "skinny" repeal.

Classy brain cancer tweet coming in 3,2,1....

DOLA - has there ever been two branches of the same party desperately trying to screw each other over and blame each other for legislation they both wanted to pas but didn't want to get the blame for before?

Shut up Mitch. You and your cronies had seven years to put a plan together.

Flake and Heller had to put their vote on record too. That sort of fucks them for the next election. Maybe Capito too.

Yeah, Heller's been getting a lot of heat here. If his opposition in primary and/or general play it right, he's toast.

So great that John McCain is coming back to vote. Brave - American hero! Thank you John.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

As I have said before, there are some things I don't like about Obamacare. But getting rid of it and replacing it with a worse system is not the way to go about getting rid of it.

I'm personally not sure half of Trump voters understand why they are against Obamacare, other than Trump telling them so.

The rest know they're against it because it's named after a black guy who is probably a muslim. When facts are irrelevant, so are details.

So, wait. When you are running for president, you shouldn't make fun of a Senator in your own party for his war service? I'm so confused.

Didn't stop my pow dad from voting for him. Couldn't believe that. He had some rationalization for why it didn't apply to him. Either way, Trump voters will look past anything to keep supporting him.

What's sad is that could actually be the reason he voted against something that was a horrible idea to begin with. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons I guess, but still a sad state of affairs.

I know. It seems counterintuitive, doesn't it.

well who would have guessed it'd be McCain who would be the deciding vote on this-guess in the end he was a maverick. Guess words/tweets matter after all Trump. Wonder what he said in that last minute phone call with him?

Hope the Republicans and Democrats listen to McCain's speech about why he voted no and learn from it. Probably not though. Hope too that this signals the end of McConnell's time in leadership.

Amen.

Right, 7 years and the best idea they had was something cobbled together over lunch. Of all the Senators I have seen speak, he was the only one that stood up their pointing fingers like a petulant child.

Imma be cynical for a moment here, but I think McCain's speech was more after-the-fact justification.

I suspect what went down was more like this:

McCain returned to the Senate not for health care, but for the National Defense Authorization Act.

The quid pro quo McConnell was offering McCain in exchange for his vote on repeal was an agreement to take up the NDAA immediately after the health vote so he could shepherd that through passage before he had to leave again for treatment.

Rand Paul had some issues with the NDAA, was assured by McCain's office that those would be addressed via regular order, but that wasn't enough - he objected to the fast-tracking of the NDAA, which prevents the Senate from taking it up in time for McCain to do anything about it.

So McCain voted against repeal as a middle finger to Rand Paul.

I might be more inclined to take the Senator's words at face value if he hadn't said "I'm against this bill," then voted both to open discussion and then also voted for passage of the bill to which he objected (remember, the Senate tried three separate repeal tacks - straight repeal, repeal-and-replace-later, and "skinny" repeal).

Given that, I'm much more inclined to view McCain's skinny repeal vote as a revenge vote.

I actually think his yes vote on the first bill (BCRA) was with the knowledge it was going to fail and then he could go back and said he DID vote against Obamacare, but the other bills to take it away and not have a replacement would have caused chaos and he didn't think that was ok. I don't actually believe it was revenge vote at all.

He's 80 years old and has a brain tumor. He won't face re-election until 2024.

I don't think he's looking far enough ahead to worry about positioning on whether he voted to repeal or not.

Do you think McCain doesn't think he won't make it to 2024? His ego isn't going to conceive otherwise.

McCain probably wont make it to 2018, you think he gives a shit about reelection?

I'm betting that he thinks he's going to 'beat this'. If he didn't think he was going to last he'd probably resign his seat.

I'm not much of a math guy, but with six year terms*, I sense a problem here.





* - Unless there was a tweet throwing out that part of the Constitution, too

You're right. I really shouldn't attempt math before noon.

2022. I stand by my larger point, however.

Mitch has got to be one of the greatest opposition leaders in the history of the Senate, but he's been terrible in the majority. Not only did he lose, but his process didn't put any pressure on Joe Manchin. Given Manchin's personal politics, his states, demos, and his imminent reelection campaign, it's amazing that he never felt the slightest need to waver from his consistent opposition.

McCain could also have been giving a middle finger to Trump. If Pence is President does he vote the same way?

3 Chief of Staffs in less than 3 years of being President: Part of the reason why @BarackObama can't manage to pass his agenda.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2012

Twitter is better than snopes sometimes :)

Yep :lol:

He got Kiffined? https://t.co/8FA9OQjUWf

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) July 28, 2017

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump









I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him! I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....

It's the White House edition of the Monty Python Upper Class Twit of the Year.

So how many top officials have been fired/quit now Donald? Yep everything working smoothly.

Ryan-Priebus ally to me: next phase of Trump presidency will be warfare against GOP Congress

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 28, 2017

Ryan-Priebus ally tells me Trump is moving toward "an independent WH" untethered from the Republican Party

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 28, 2017

If I am being honest, I thought this was going to be the plan all along.

What's he going to do when he figures out there aren't enough Dems to pass anything either?

He's a "businessman". It's going to all be executive orders and a war with North Korea.