For the 5th time the Senate has now failed to pass the Republican healthcare bills. 4 Republican senators have been opposing the bills, and thus the Republicans do not have the votes.
Most recently Mitch McConnell has opted for the innovative strategy of not telling the senators what's in the bill they're voting on, essentially handing them a black box labelled "a mystery Republican healthcare bill" and asking them to vote on it. This approach comes after numerous previous failures.
The bill is historically unpopular with the US public, with 16% of people nationally thinking the bill is a good idea.
It's main features include:
- Retaining nearly all of Obamacare
- Giving a massive retroactive tax cut to the top 1% of earners, financed by making healthcare cost more for everyone else
- Raising healthcare costs for nearly everyone that will cause ~23 million people to no longer be able to afford health insurance
This has confused Trump because he thinks this 'healthcare' bill is actually about healthcare and repealing Obamacare. In truth it's about the Republicans delivering on their promises to their mega-donors to cut the tax rates for the ultra-rich.
This also seems to have confused many Republican voters who thought their party was against Obamacare.
Ex-House Majority Leader, Republican Eric Cantor, gave a fairly revealing interview today on the subject:
His admission that the Republican politicians were happy to get their base "angry" by promising things they knew "can't happen" and that they themselves "never believed", shows what a mess the current Republican party is.
Most recently Mitch McConnell has opted for the innovative strategy of not telling the senators what's in the bill they're voting on, essentially handing them a black box labelled "a mystery Republican healthcare bill" and asking them to vote on it. This approach comes after numerous previous failures.
The bill is historically unpopular with the US public, with 16% of people nationally thinking the bill is a good idea.
It's main features include:
- Retaining nearly all of Obamacare
- Giving a massive retroactive tax cut to the top 1% of earners, financed by making healthcare cost more for everyone else
- Raising healthcare costs for nearly everyone that will cause ~23 million people to no longer be able to afford health insurance
This has confused Trump because he thinks this 'healthcare' bill is actually about healthcare and repealing Obamacare. In truth it's about the Republicans delivering on their promises to their mega-donors to cut the tax rates for the ultra-rich.
This also seems to have confused many Republican voters who thought their party was against Obamacare.
Ex-House Majority Leader, Republican Eric Cantor, gave a fairly revealing interview today on the subject:
His admission that the Republican politicians were happy to get their base "angry" by promising things they knew "can't happen" and that they themselves "never believed", shows what a mess the current Republican party is.
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