{"id":133809,"date":"2017-07-06T17:09:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T23:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/06\/winning-friends-and-influencing-legislation-ted-cruz-edition.html"},"modified":"2017-07-06T17:09:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T23:09:12","slug":"winning-friends-and-influencing-legislation-ted-cruz-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/06\/winning-friends-and-influencing-legislation-ted-cruz-edition.html","title":{"rendered":"Winning Friends and Influencing Legislation (Ted Cruz Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the surface, this looks like vintage Cruz — throwing a monkey wrench into the proceedings so he can score points amongst his followers (doubtless with an eye on a future run at the White House). There's a reason why Cruz is notoriously unpopular in the Senate, and these kind of shenanigans are it. Cruz considers it a win if he gets headlines, whether or not the party is damaged.<\/p>\n

On other hand, the conspiracy theorist in me says, "Is this simply to make the Senate AHCA bill look better,<\/i> by having those brave GOP Senators defend the public against Cruz' heartless efforts to segment the insurance pool and bankrupt people with pre-existing conditions.<\/p>\n

That ignores the Senate bill giving permission to states<\/i> to opt out essential health benefits in a way that will … well, segment the insurance pool and impact people with pre-existing conditions [1]. The difference is that the Senate bill lets the Senators' hands stay clean, rather than taking a direct hit for it as under the Cruz proposal.<\/p>\n

I could easily see the GOP eager in this case to let Cruz grandstand, if it makes them<\/i> look like heroes, and deflects opposition to the bill that they're putting through. Whether they can do that and get the bill passed is another question — but, at the very least, they would be able to blame Ted Cruz for Obamacare surviving.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nGOP tensions rise over Cruz proposal<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the surface, this looks like vintage Cruz — throwing a monkey wrench into the proceedings so he can score points amongst his followers (doubtless with an eye on a future run at the White House). There's a reason why Cruz is notoriously unpopular in the Senate, and these kind of shenanigans are it. Cruz … Continue reading “Winning Friends and Influencing Legislation (Ted Cruz Edition)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133856,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/15\/insurance-companies-hate-the-senate-health-insurance-bill-too.html","url_meta":{"origin":133809,"position":0},"title":"Insurance companies hate the Senate Health Insurance Bill, too","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 15-Jul-17 3:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Especially the Cruz Amendment. They even sent a letter to that effect to Senate GOP Leader, Mitch McConnell.\u275d \"It is simply unworkable in any form,\" the letter said. They said it would \"undermine protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions,\" increase premiums and lead many to lose coverage. [...] The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129066,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/04\/thank-heavens-the-congressional-gop-has-their-priorities-straight.html","url_meta":{"origin":133809,"position":1},"title":"Thank heavens the congressional GOP has their priorities straight!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 4-Dec-15 1:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because what is a better way to celebrate Christmas than the Senate passing a bill that would toss almost 20 million people out of having health coverage? 'It repeals the expansion of Medicaid adopted by 30 states as well as many of the law\u2019s tax increases, which the House bill\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133845,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/13\/same-song-second-verse-little-bit-more-complex-a-little-bit-worse.html","url_meta":{"origin":133809,"position":2},"title":"Same song, second verse, little bit more complex, a little bit worse","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Jul-17 4:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate GOP's \"New and Improved\" Health Insurance reform plan is out, desperately trying to claw back a few more votes so that they can pass it with a bare majority.But the changes made seem to consist of:1. Throwing pots of money at a few pet causes (pots that can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129758,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/08\/ted-cruz-demonstrates-again-how-washington-is-broken.html","url_meta":{"origin":133809,"position":3},"title":"Ted Cruz demonstrates again how Washington is broken","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Feb-16 10:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So Ted Cruz has once again blocked Senate approval of President Obama's nominated ambassadors to Norway and Sweden ...... because he doesn't like the Iran nuclear deal ...... and did it in absentia, because he's too busy campaigning in New Hamphire, so Mitch McConnell had to serve as his proxy.Yeah,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133818,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/08\/so-whats-going-on-with-the-senate-ahca.html","url_meta":{"origin":133809,"position":4},"title":"So, what's going on with the Senate AHCA?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 8-Jul-17 10:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Drawing overall conclusions as to the state of play for the Senate GOP's health insurance reform bill is difficult since so much of what's going on is behind closed doors, and so much in public is political posturing (to increase pressure on some folk, to score points, to set up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133731,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/26\/oh-boy-only-22-million-more-lose-their-insurance-with-this-plan.html","url_meta":{"origin":133809,"position":5},"title":"Oh, boy, ONLY 22 million more lose their insurance with THIS plan!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Jun-17 6:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And as Republicans pop champagne and congratulate themselves for being marginally less \"mean\" (as the Donald put it) on this iteration of the bill, bear in mind that ...... the CBO only scores out ten years. The Senate version of the AHCA cuts folks off the rolls a bit later,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}