Eesh: Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray Reach "Tentative" Deal to Start Subsidizing Obamacare Insurance Companies with Taxpayer Money Again; Trump Signals He May Support It

Another "bipartisan victory" on the horizon. Huzzah!

Well, supposedly, the GOP is getting a few small t hings out of the bargain to give Democrats everything.

Alexander said he’ll present details of the package to Republicans this week. Along with the insurance subsidies, the package would give states new flexibility on how their Affordable Care Act markets are run. It will also encourage states to meld their markets together, and let more people buy low-cost, limited-coverage plans.

Obstacles to the proposal are already developing in the House. Representative Mark Walker, who heads the conservative Republican Study Committee, said that GOP lawmakers should be focused on repealing Obamacare, not propping it up.

"This bailout is unacceptable," the North Carolina lawmaker said in a tweet from the committee account.

Hear, hear.

Are they going to have the CBO score the bailout? Or do only people seeking to repeal Obamacare have to submit to the CBO for scoring?

So we keep afloat this monstrosity with more taxpayer money (which, of course, we were told we'd never have to do -- Obama promised), and in return we get... some small leeway of state tinkering. Allowing people to buy limited-coverage plans.

Here's the thing: People are already buying limited-coverage plans. They're just paying full coverage prices for them -- because they're forced to subsidize so many others with their own premium payments.

So, the GOP has thrown in the towel and is keeping Obamacare.

I think the GOP has made it pretty clear, especially on the Senate side, that they were lying when they said they wanted to end Obamacare.

I guess they just want to keep it and pour more taxpayer money into it.

Trump's complicit in this, too -- but then, with John "The Hero" McCain tanking the last shot at repeal, I'm not sure what is left to do here.

And given that he only recently became a Republican, he doesn't know what us long-timers know-- that the GOP lies. Always. And it doesn't believe in any of the things it claims to believe.

Night! Imma lift some weights for the first time in two weeks. (I mildly sharted myself doing squats last time and it rather put me off them. TBH, I feel pretty sharty right now not even doing them but I'm gonna take some loperamide and just hope for the best.)

posted by Ace at 07:39 PM

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