Senate GOOPs Using Trump As "Shield" To Push Through Despicable Bills

Maybe an image for the future - but not yet - the rats (GOP reps) remain ensconced on ship Trump.

Wonder why so much media oxygen is being allowed by the Reeps to be consumed by the Trump kerfuffle and his unstable administration? It's a deliberate plan adopted by the GOP to take attention off what they are doing behind the scenes, including already passing a banking deregulation  bill and eliminating the ACA.   In the first, the House voted 233 to 186 on Thursday for a sweeping rewrite of the rules governing Wall Street in "the Financial Choice Act".  According to the WSJ (June 9, p. B1) it "would unwind major parts of Dodd-Frank by relieving healthy banks of regulatory requirements". If this thing is passed by the Senate one wonders what excuses the Goops will offer if there's another financial meltdown.


And that's just the beginning. After 4 months of being paralyzed by the Trump ongoing shit storm, the Goops have decided to use it to their advantage as a shield. So while millions of Americans had their eyes glued to the tube and Comey hearing, the Repukes in the Senate Financial Committee were honing a plan to ram through - with only 50 votes - the final demise of the ACA that would leave over 20 million with no health care.

Holding 52 seats in the Senate, the GOP can afford to lose only two members of their party on a vote to undo the health care law they have assailed for seven years. They will not receive any support from Democratic senators or the Senate’s two independents (Angus King and Bernie Sanders), but they can count on support from Vice President Mike Pence to break a tie, if needed.  Well, they expect it will be needed and are in a rush to get the deal done - with no hearings or discussion - before the heat dies down on the Trump v. Comey battle and the hyped up news cycle on the ongoing probes.

To fix ideas on this so it's less abstract, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) erupted Thursday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing over how Senate Republicans are conducting negotiations over the GOP-backed American Health Care Act.  Recall this AHCA will demolish Obamacare, and eliminate all kinds of basic provisions including maternity care, visits to ERs, and mental health care. Those with pre-existing conditions will also have to pay much more. The worst aspect is how state coffers will suffer from having over 20 million tossed off Medicaid by 2020. Here in Colo. the state budget deficit is expected to skyrocket to $893m once the federal matching funds for Medicaid are gone..

Given these repercussions you can imagine Sen. McCaskill's rage at what the Repuke vermin were attempting. Finally squeezing an answer out of chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) confirming that there would not be any hearings on the bill, McCaskill erupted on the lack of transparency and bipartisanship surrounding the discussions. But we've seen this act before, especially with the scumball Hatch, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2017/01/democrats-locate-their-gonads-and-hatch.html


Hatch tried his sleazy best to assuage McCaskill by saying that Republicans "have invited" Democrats to share their ideas, as egregious a claim as when he bloviated back in January:

"I don’t remember us treating their nominees this way...."

referring to Den senators rightful questioning of Trump's nominees to fill his swamp.


As it should, this elicited a scoff from McCaskill:

 "When you say that you're inviting us and I heard you, Mr. Secretary, just say that you'd love our support — for what? We don't even know. We have no idea what's being proposed. There's a group of guys in a back room somewhere that are making these decisions."

But this is the GOP M.O. now, grabbing all the cheese they can while the 'Momma Rat' (Trump) tries to fend off "the cats".  They don't have the honor or integrity to come out in the open and deal with bills the normal, established way. They have to try to do it under a cloak and in secret to ensure their hateful agenda is unleashed on the American public - especially while they're mostly preoccupied by Trump's ongoing circus and the Russia investigations.

Rather than act as honorable reps and patriots, including joining the Democrats to seriously investigate their monkey in the White House, they'd rather hitch their wagons to his sorry fortunes to pass their despicable bills that will leave millions without even a pot to piss in. Indeed, as the WSJ reported two days ago, 18 Ohio counties are already going to be without health exchanges and that means - in opioid country - many will not get narcone (naxalone) when they need it to counter an opioid overdose. Will these GOP sewer rats be prepared to take responsibility for the thousands - many Trump supporters- who will now perish? I doubt it, no more than they take any responsibility to put country over party in the Trump investigations.

McCaskill  to her credit acknowledged that Democrats had "made mistakes" when crafting the Affordable Care Act, but she noted that at least there were hearings then where Republican amendments were proposed and accepted.   Hence, it was expected the GOP would do likewise now with their AHCA. But again, they are not because they are sewer rats devoid of honor - using the Trump chaos as an expedient shield to cover their actions.

McCaskill's last words to Hatch ought to enrage every red-blooded American to pursue these GOP Senate rats into their neighborhoods and conduct aggressive protests:

"You couldn't have a more partisan exercise than what you're engaged in right now. We're not even going to have a hearing on a bill that impacts one-sixth of our economy."

See McCaskill in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRt7tqlD-og