Haven't heard anything since the D and K started doing the Bump dance. Did congress just slither out?
Congressional Republicans are split; many are ready to move on, but there are some who think it necessary to try again. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has taken after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in response to the Kentucky Republican's criticism that the president has "excessive expectations" regarding the legislative process. Even as a candidate, Trump made clear he didn't intend to do much real work. In May 2016, his then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, said there were parts of the presidency Trump "doesn't want to do." He added that Trump "sees himself more as the chairman of the board, than even the CEO, let alone the COO." As we discussed at the time, it seemed obvious that Trump wasn't especially interested in rolling up his sleeves and doing actual, mundane, unglamorous work. He's the kind of guy who hires others to do heavy lifting. And nearly seven months into his term, the president still thinks this way. As Trump put it this afternoon, he wants to sign legislation on health care, taxes, and infrastructure, but he doesn't expect to play any meaningful role in the policymaking process. Trump much prefers to simply place an order, and wait for underlings to bring him what he requested. Note, for example, that in today's tweet, the president didn't tell Mitch McConnell, "We can do it"; he said, "You can do it." This reflects a familiar and unmistakable dynamic: a boss telling a subordinate what to do, while the boss wraps up the back nine at the country club he owns. (Benen↱) Meanwhile, a Congressional plan might be emerging, a cobbling of familiar ideas from both sides of the aisle in an effort to somehow avoid centrism: The policy ideas here aren't the big deal. The coalition is. Wilensky began organizing the bipartisan group back in January in partnership with Pollack, chair emeritus of Families USA, a health advocacy group that has ardently advocated for the Affordable Care Act. They are joined by Chen, who has defended the House's Obamacare repeal bill; Stuart Butler, a former vice president at conservative Heritage Foundation, which supports Obamacare repeal; and Grace-Marie Turner, who was part of John McCain's 2008 policy advisory team. This is a group of health experts who have been deeply critical of the Affordable Care Act. They are working with some key supporters of the health law, including Pollack and John McDonough, a Harvard professor who advised Sen. Ted Kennedy during the health reform debate in 2009, and Vikki Wachino, who ran the Children's Health Insurance Program under President Barack Obama. When I read this list, I see a who's who of health policy experts—a group that, because of its political differences, has not teamed up before. It includes the conservative advisers that I'd expect Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who chairs the HELP committee, to reach out to—and the liberal Obamacare advocate that Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the committee's ranking member, would call for advice on fixing the health law. The experts that both Murray and Alexander would call are now backing the same plan to fix Obamacare—a promising step toward possible success in the bipartisan effort to fix Obamacare. (Kliff↱)____________________ Notes: Benen, Steve. "Trump barks orders, expects McConnell to do the real work". msnbc. 10 August 2017. msnbc.com. 10 February 2017. http://on.msnbc.com/2uLtcy8 Kliff, Sarah. "Top Democratic, Republican health experts agree on this plan to fix Obamacare". Vox. 9 August 2017. Vox.com. 10 August 2017. http://bit.ly/2wyFps3
They went home, because they were not sure what their constituents wanted them to do in D.C., and the people who wrote the congressional calendar told them to go home. What else could they do. No healthcare - no problem. No tax reform - no problem. Etc., etc., etc. Yes, they work the same long hours as most other American decision makers. Now if they would just make some 'intelligent' decisions in a timely manner. Oh, forgot, they are not there. Someone tell them the ancient protocols are obsolete. If our companies worked in the same manner they would fail as well. Get an update congress. Please. Increase your productivity, or leave. P.S. Oh, ah they're already (temporarily) gone. I suggest to move the House (the whole Capitol really) to a mall in Boulder, Co., and not tell them where it went. Then tweet a fond goodbye. You've been D-elected. Seriously though, they need someone - anyone to do some Interior Design on their workplaces, something of a more clinical nature to reinforce the fact that they are not simply glorified ticket takers. They need re-engineered communications systems, intelligence systems, social laboratories, and academic advisers to make their work achievable, should they decide to actually do it. Like Musk said, It takes really smart people doing really smart work to make complex things happen right. Seems like someone not only dropped, but lost the ball, and that does not serve us well in our efforts to solve national problems. Action speaks louder than words. Get a clue congress.
Uncertainty about what the public wanted re: the status and provisions of the ACA is not something members of Congress were. There was and is no doubt in their minds about what the public think about O-care. http://www.kff.org/interactive/kais...esponse=Favorable--Unfavorable&aRange=twoYear http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/politics/pew-survey-obamacare-support-record-high/index.html What they were unsure about is whether they could "trash" O-care and not suffer any political/electoral losses for doing so. Congress finally decided to just stick with their and the Executive branch's coordinated ACA-sabotage plan. On the Congressional side, that basically amounts to the details pertaining to what are called "the three Rs," among which withholding risk corridor payments the ACA promises to insurers is one way to drive premiums higher than they were slated to be when O-care was conceived. Withholding those payments is something that has a pretty good chance of scuttling O-care because: (1) there is no "tweetable" way to explain "the 3 Rs," (2) the quantity of people in the whole U.S. who fully understand reinsurance and actuarially determined risk, let alone understand their specific application in the ACA, quite likely would not fill a football stadium, (3) no mainstream news program has (or will make) the time to explain them because the topic is about as dry as the Sahara, thus making it a sure bet that viewers will either ignore the content or, worse in the news organization's mind, change the channel, and (4) any effort to explain them can by ACA opponents easily be "spun" as advocacy for insurance companies, which, with their great wealth and negative regard after having been bailed-out in 2008, is politically untenable. Corridor payments explained: General explanation CMS Overview of the "The Three Rs" Explanation of the risk model for the corridor payments The state of the ACA's risk corridors So, for Congress, the easiest thing to do, is do nothing. They've engineered and contrived the ACA's "implosion;" thus they decided to let that plan play out. The gambit is that the implosion happens at a time that doesn't detrimentally affect mid-term election outcomes for the GOP.
Boy, ain't that the truth. The other point is if the effort fails, he can say you failed and if it is successful he can say look what I did. He is such a slimball....
