Six million people risk losing their health care subsidies, yet @POTUS continues to deny that Obamacare is bad for the American people.
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) June 8, 2015
And when SCOTUS strikes down Obamacare aka the ACA later this month, don’t expect Republicans to do anything but try to advance Thune’s argument (such that it is) that Obama cost millions of people their health care. Because they don’t plan on doing anything else:
President Barack Obama had barely finished proposing an idea to deal with a far-reaching Supreme Court decision on Obamacare before Republicans fired back with a categorical response: Not gonna happen.
At the G7 conference in Germany on Monday, the president said if the justices strip subsidies from millions of Americans, “Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision” making clear that Healthcare.gov subsidies are available in all 50 states. Republicans quickly fired off a rebuttal.
“Let’s be clear: if the Supreme Court rules against the Administration, Congress will not pass a so called ‘one-sentence’ fake fix,” Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, who is leading Republican efforts to craft a contingency plan, said in a statement.
And I can hear a roundtable on CNN with the bobbleheads and “newsmen” woefully agreeing that had the Democrats been more careful writing the bill, none of this would have happened. I can see it so clearly I might pre-emptively throw my remote at the fucking wall.
And so can you…
Pogonip
Are Steve and the 4 dogs still alive?
Belafon
OT: A thought about the McKinney incident. If you think that racism is tied to poverty, the neighborhood it occurred in is middle class, and most of the kids involved live in that neighborhood.
Elizabelle
Give me a pitchfork, and point me towards John Thune.
I hope, sooner than we think, saying such awful stuff (as Thune does) will break bad on these asshats in real time.
Tree With Water
Way Off Topic: Cole, recall that Joe still had a few good years in him at this point, as he proved with the Chiefs..
“..“Everybody asks me if I am a 49ers fan or a Chiefs fan,” Montana said. “I watch both of them and like both of them, but I grew up a Steelers fan. Once you are a Steelers fan, it is hard to get that out of your blood…”..
..In 2012, Montana said he wanted the 49ers to trade him to the Steelers after the 1992 season, but Pittsburgh wasn’t interested because Neil O’Donnell was its starter.”
Elizabelle
@Pogonip: Hmmm.
Thurston.
Lily.
Rosie.
I think Ginger is with a new owner?
And Steve.
Did I miss a dog?
Can we have new Lovey photos from geg??
Ruckus
@Belafon:
Poverty is tied to racism, not the other way round. Racism is of course not the only reason for poverty, nor is poverty the only effect of racism.
Baud
I wonder if this will finally kill of the “both parties are the same” meme.
Actually, I don’t.
Elizabelle
@ John Cole:
I can’t. You cannot pay me to watch CNN. They trained me to stay away. Not watching much news on TV/cable at all these days. Not MSNBC either.
Sick of the clown show.
Belafon
@Ruckus: No, but I’ve seen it argued that if we took care of poverty, racism would be taken care of. I’m just offering this as evidence that they aren’t related that way.
Anne Laurie
Yeah, even his fellow Repubs are giving Thune the side-eye…
Keep in mind, Thune was widely promoted as a sterling VP pic for President-to-Be Romney in 2012, because he was so relatable! I guess the argument is that deliberately stupid people deserve representation, too…
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Wow.
Roger Moore
@Belafon:
I think that’s backward. It would be a lot easier to deal with poverty if racism were taken care of, because people would be more willing to help the poor if they weren’t so worried about Those People getting a disproportionate benefit.
piratedan
@Anne Laurie: so in this case, I guess he is JUST a pretty face. Nice to know that he’s got such a firm grasp of policy.
Remember Anerica, you wanted these guys as a firebreak against the tyranny of Obama….
Linnaeus
@Roger Moore:
I’m not sure that you can say that either one is anterior to the other.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Wish I could be up there! Would come by and hassle you, slightly. Have a great weekend.
Baud
@efgoldman:
Make sure you do something to piss off Chris Christie.
Belafon
@Roger Moore:
Totally agree.
Elizabelle
We might get a second chance at thunderstorms. Wonderful breezes and trees whipping. Hmmm.
DCrefugee
Thune couldn’t be a bigger tool if he was in aisle 10 at Home Depot…
MomSense
@efgoldman:
Have fun!!
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: A bit too long of a commute for me, thanks.
Heliopause
I have to admit, the logic of Thune’s tweet utterly escapes me. Obamacare is essential, yet it is bad and let’s get rid of it. Maybe basic internal consistency is more than I should expect from this individual.
BillinGlendaleCA
@JohnCole: I can’t throw my remote, it’s my phone.
Mike in NC
Barrasso the Asshole is a frequent face on cable news. Wants more wars in the Middle East and to undo everything Obama has accomplished.
Must have a lot of time on his hands.
DH
I think it is perfectly legitimate to hate Thune and his Republican ilk. Evil is evil.
dmsilev
@Anne Laurie: To be fair to Senator Thune, it’s entirely possible that he’s evil rather than stupid, and that he’s lying his ass off rather that being terminally confused.
We will also accept “stupid _and_ evil” as a possibility.
Anne Laurie
@Baud: Validation, from Wikipedia:
Anybody got a gif of that Dilbert cartoon where the Pointy-Headed Boss promotes an idiot because “he has very executive hair…”?
scav
@BillinGlendaleCA: Are they now permanently bio-soldered and chipped? Ear or hand? I am behind telephonically.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Good hair. It’s why neither Rubio nor Walker will ever be president.
dmsilev
@Heliopause:
The logic, such as it is, is pretty clear.
Axiom: Obamacare is Evil
Axiom: Nothing Good can arise from Evil
Therefore, anything Good cannot arise from Obamacare. Health-insurance subsidies are Good, therefore they cannot have come from Obamacare.
Let’s at least celebrate Thune’s statement that subsidizing insurance for people who can’t afford it is a positive good. That’s actually a real step forward for the GOP.
Elizabelle
Fritz Lang (and Nazis) doubleheader on TCM tonight.
Man Hunt up now.
And the British kid is Roddy McDowell. Did they have any others then?
SiubhanDuinne
@Anne Laurie:
I wonder if he’s still tanned, in that sun-chapped prairie sort of way? Maybe Bobo can bring us up to date.
dww44
@DCrefugee: I like this.. Plan on saving that for future use. Should I credit you?
Mustang Bobby
@SenJohnThune @POTUS Seriously? You fought against it tooth and nail and pushed the lawsuit and you’re blaming POTUS? What are you, 12?
Keith G
::Saving my anger for the time any of the above events come to pass.::
Lavocat
Billy Yeats said it best:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
Plus, sound and fury, signifying nothing, and all that jazz.
Fuckers.
Keith G
@Elizabelle:
Freddie Bartholomew
MomSense
@Keith G:
How’s the kitty??
BillinGlendaleCA
@scav: I have a Sammy Note 3, they have IR blasters.
jl
I checked Cole’s twitter feed, and all I saw was a bland pitch for this post.
Cole can do more than throw his remote. Why not throw some caustic Cole commentary (CCC)(TM) up in Thune’s face on the tweeter?
Thune is both stupid and evil, but here he is genuinely being of those two, or trying to be the other. I’m not sure which it is this time.
Probably just mindless and infinitely cynical FU attempt at double-think propaganda.
Valdivia
Not to nitpick but the King decision does not strike down ACA as a whole. It would be a total mess because the States without an exchange would lose their subsidies but the rest of the ACA remains intact including the mandate, pre-existing conditions protection, etc. Those who have signed up for individual insurance in a state with their own exchange will be ok too. To say this is a total strike down of the law is incorrect.
/I know, I am a lawsuit accuracy pedant
jl
Forgot to add to other commenters’ thoughts that posting some pet pix would take Cole’s mind off this BS for awhile.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
That’s 2/3 of a pun: P U
Just One More Canuck
@dmsilev: what about “stupid”, “evil” and “crazy”
Honus
@Tree With Water: the steelers also famously cut another hometown boy named johnny unitas
scav
@BillinGlendaleCA: I assume that means you have personalized wrist-mounted jet-packs. yolkes.
Bill Arnold
@Valdivia:
What exactly qualifies as an exchange? Is it more than a website that redirects to healthcare.gov, plus maybe a declaration that that is the exchange?
Valdivia
@Bill Arnold: Yes it can’t be through healthcare.gov. Though I read something today by one of the health economist/experts that said that some of these states (up to 14) could be said to actually have an exchange because they do so much of the work already at the local level in terms of regulation. The guy thinks it’s not an orthodox way of defining it but it would at least spare around 3 million people from losing their subsidies.
Here’s that link: http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/how-to-keep-the-subsidies-flowing-in-a-handful-of-states/
raven
@Valdivia: are you trying to ruin “freak out all the time”?
Valdivia
@raven: :)
I am doing my best. Mostly because I would be, generally.
Bobby Thomson
@dmsilev: Indeed.
raven
@Valdivia: Think of it this way. Maybe the best chance to get all these people to vote Dem is for 100 gazillion people to lose their insurance.
Baud
@raven:
All part of Obama’s master plan.
Valdivia
@raven: @Baud: I am probably going to be wrong but maybe it won’t come to that.
raven
@Valdivia: “most things I worry about, never happen anyway “. Tom Petty
Baud
@Valdivia:
It’s up to Roberts or Kennedy. Not reassuring, but possible.
Valdivia
@Baud: yes, or both. I am willing to totally freak out once we cross that bridge. Trying to wait until then.
Zinsky
“The hungry sheep look up and are not fed. But swollen by the wind and the rank mist they draw, rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.” — John Milton
If the right-wing vermin on the SCOTUS gut the ACA on the basis of a typographical error and 6 million people lose their health insurance, the hungry sheep may finally look up. If they do, woe unto these perfidious bastards…..
rikyrah
@Baud:
Comes down as to whom is Roberts’ true Master: big business or the right wing….because, in this case, they are not one and the same.
Baud
@rikyrah: yep. I’m hopeful it’s big business. Roberts didn’t strike down the ACA when he could have done it painlessly, so hopefully he won’t effectively do it now.
Keith G
@MomSense: Sonogram and Cystocentesis tomorrow. I am administering an opioid pain med orally to her and wondering if it mixes well with vodka for me.
Ruckus
@Belafon:
Well if we ever figured out how to take care of racism, we’d still have poverty.
With just one less reason for it.
Wasn’t trying to imply that you didn’t know this.
The reason that President Obama looks to be playing 11 dimensional chess is that’s what life really is. And don’t forget, at least one of those 11 dimensions is luck. Luck at having the right parents, being born at the right time, having events that no one has any control over happen at the right time, or at least not at the wrong time…….
Another_Bob
Someone, somewhere should celebrate the idea of John Thune getting cancer the way people in his fucked-up political movement would celebrate taking healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans.
Patrick
@Valdivia:
Right, but wouldn’t the states that have exchanges ultimately be impacted, too? For example, if BCBS have to dramatically raise rates in Texas, wouldn’t that ultimately also impact BCBS in Vermont and California with higher rates there as well? In other words, a death spiral for all of us.
kindness
The craven dishonesty of Republicans today is over Over The Top. If only it was a jumping the shark moment but it isn’t. Republicans keep doubling down and the Media heads buy the new line.
Patrick
@efgoldman:
I don’t know. Could be. But how about other companies such as United Health Care or Aetna for example?
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Also doesn’t each state that has it’s own exchange still have to abide by the ACA regs, which says that those states have control over any rate increases? IOW those states that screwed their citizens just screwed them a lot more when companies pull out and there isn’t anyone left to write policies. Which is sort of what’s happening now as the federal reimbursement for uninsured using hospitals is going away. FL got the news not long ago that if they want more money than zip they have to join the civilized world, which of course they refused to do.
Goblue72
@Patrick: Death by a 1,000 cuts is the plan of the Republican Death Cult. I’ve met Moloch and he takes the form of an elephant.
Valdivia
@Patrick: I haven’t seen anything that says that this will happen but I could see how that is a worry. Maybe Richard could answer that for us.
Anne Laurie
@Valdivia:
He’s on a family vacation, so we may have to wait a bit for his response.
Valdivia
@Anne Laurie: oh right! the long drive thread from yesterday. It will keep until he gets back.
AxelFoley
@Elizabelle:
Same here.
Matt McIrvin
@efgoldman: What? You’re that guy? My wife plays horn in the Middlesex Concert Band, and has played at the Festival many times.
Howlin Wolfe
@jl:
Two peas in a pod, John Thune and Ron Johnson;
One’s from Dakota, t’other Susconsin!
Combined the brains of those 2 little peas,
You get nuthin, not even a little head cheese!
Turgidson
@Anne Laurie:
Amash is probably a good candidate for Charlie Pierce’s Paul Family-inspired 5 minute rule. Totally batshit about most things, but occasionally lucid.