{"id":134825,"date":"2017-09-22T08:30:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T14:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134825"},"modified":"2017-09-22T08:38:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T14:38:38","slug":"reform-willful-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/22\/reform-willful-ignorance.html","title":{"rendered":"Reform through Willful Ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senators Graham and Cassidy …. and the GOP leadership in the Senate (and the House) … and pretty much everyone else … have no definitive, accepted standard as to what the Graham-Cassidy bill to gack the ACA and kneecap Medicaid will actually do.<\/p>\n

This is legislation with a profound impact on the US — 1\/6 of our economy flows through the health care system, and health insurance reform impacts every single citizen of the United States, especially the poor, the disabled, the ill, and the elderly.<\/p>\n

And the GOP don’t really know what their legislation will do. Well, they’ve been told by numerous outside sources that it will be a disaster, about the tens of millions who will lose insurance coverage, about how senior citizen premiums will go up $16K\/year on average, on the long-term impacts to the poor, the sick, children, the disabled. But the gold standard, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, will not have its full analysis of the bill<\/a> — its cost, the number of people who will lose insurance, etc — for several weeks.<\/p>\n

They can’t wait that long. They won’t<\/i> wait that long. They only have a few days before the end of the month<\/a>, when suddenly they can’t pass this thing with just 50 votes. And they don’t really care anyway. Because this isn’t about health care, or insurance, or the economy, or helping people not die. It’s about one thing only<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“You know, I could maybe give you 10 reasons why this bill shouldn’t be considered,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. “But Republicans campaigned on this so often that you have a responsibility to carry out what you said in the campaign. That’s pretty much as much of a reason as the substance of the bill.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They said they would do it. They promised. They had no idea what they were promising, and when they finally tackled it they resembled the dog that finally got hold of the car, but, by God, they promised they would do something<\/i> so this is the one something<\/i> they are going to try to do.<\/p>\n

No matter the cost. No matter the lives impacted. No matter the pain, and suffering, and debt, and death.<\/p>\n

Because they’re afraid of what will happen to them in 2018 if they don’t.<\/p>\n

And that’s how these people are governing the United States.<\/p>\n

I am beyond disgusted.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

Side note: Grassley also basically admitted<\/a> that this effort isn’t even about fixing the problems they say they are going to fix.<\/p>\n

But Grassley also acknowledged that Graham-Cassidy would not affect the most pressing Obamacare shortcoming facing Iowa: rising premiums and limited choices on the state\u2019s individual health insurance market. Instead, he said, that\u2019ll have to be addressed first with a \u201cstop-gap\u201d plan now under consideration and ultimately with a separate legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you want to do long-term is going to be done in the Alexander bill,\u201d Grassley said, referring to a bipartisan bill to stabilize individual premiums nationwide that reportedly fell apart this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fell apart because the GOP leadership said they would never allow it to come to the floor, because it was more important to pass this bill to gut Medicaid for the long haul, but call it “Obamacare Repeal” because that’s what they need to say, politically.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nRepublicans Have a Bill to Repeal Obamacare. They Don’t Know Exactly What It Will Do<\/a><\/span>
\nCongress’ own scorekeeper won’t weigh in before a vote is held<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Senators Graham and Cassidy …. and the GOP leadership in the Senate (and the House) … and pretty much everyone else … have no definitive, accepted standard as to what the Graham-Cassidy bill to gack the ACA and kneecap Medicaid will actually do. This is legislation with a profound impact on the US — 1\/6 … Continue reading “Reform through Willful Ignorance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_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":[106,1140,134,358,376],"tags":[1171,125,1045],"class_list":["post-134825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-elections-2018","category-health-care","category-poor-citizenship","category-taxing-spending","tag-aca","tag-gop","tag-repealandreplace"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-29.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134812,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/21\/aarp-rips-graham-cassidy-repeal-bill.html","url_meta":{"origin":134825,"position":0},"title":"The AARP rips the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Sep-17 5:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But, hey, I'm sure those old people who on average would be spending $16K a year more on medical insurance probably have tons of money buried under the oak tree in the back yard, right? Or, they could just die and not drain the federal and state coffers. That would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-28.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134792,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/20\/gobsmacking-senatorial-defenses-graham-cassidy-aca-repeal.html","url_meta":{"origin":134825,"position":1},"title":"The gobsmacking Senatorial defenses of the Graham-Cassidy ACA Repeal","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Sep-17 3:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which boil down to: 1. It will magically work! Puppies and unicorns for all! Don't ask for details! 2. It's not Obamacare! Obamacare bad! Not-Obamacare good! 3. It will hurt other states, but not mine, so I'm cool with it! 4. We have to do it or else people won't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-26.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134766,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/19\/remember-used-jack-insurance-rates-got-sick.html","url_meta":{"origin":134825,"position":2},"title":"Remember when they used to jack up your insurance rates when you got sick?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Sep-17 4:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the Graham-Cassidy bill, the last ditch (for 2017) effort by the GOP in the Senate to Repeal-and-Replace the ACA with something that isn't so ... well ... likely to help people stay solvent and\/or alive. A provision of the new Trumpcare bill gaining steam among Senate Republicans \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134832,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/22\/aint-til-fat-lady-doesnt-worry-medicaid-cut-off.html","url_meta":{"origin":134825,"position":3},"title":"It ain’t over ’til the Fat Lady doesn’t worry about her Medicaid being cut off","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Sep-17 2:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it's great that John McCain seems to have thrown a wrench into the Graham-Cassidy Repeal-and-not-really-Replace mess. But three things to consider: There's still a week-plus before the end of the reconciliation period. Plenty of time for someone to cut some deals to get McCain, or Paul, or any other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/mccain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134702,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/15\/yes-gop-still-trying-take-aca-medicaid.html","url_meta":{"origin":134825,"position":4},"title":"Yes, the GOP are STILL trying to take down the ACA … and Medicaid","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Sep-17 12:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Rising from the grave to eat the health care of the living ... While some of the details are different from the varied attempts in the summer to get rid of the ACA, the end results remain much the same: Getting rid of the ACA individual mandate (thus instantly shrinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/US-Capitol-congress.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133003,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/09\/the-inherent-conflict-in-the-gop-health-insurance-plan.html","url_meta":{"origin":134825,"position":5},"title":"The inherent conflict in the GOP Health Insurance Plan","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Mar-17 10:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"As the article notes (a bit floridly), there is a fundamental conflict between GOP ideology (the rich should not have their income taken away to support the poor; the poor should not be given money that might discourage them from trying to be not-poor) and GOP promises about health insurance\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\/134825","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134831,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134825\/revisions\/134831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}