Did Conway Con Herself
This is remarkable even for the Trump administration. Kellyanne Conway claimed that the Medicaid slashing BCRA proposed by the gang of 13 doesn’t include “cuts to Medicaid”.
The Trump administration position appears to be that Trump could sign it in to law and keep his promise to protect Medicaid from cuts. Wow.
I am not President of the USA, but this doesn’t seem to be good strategy to me. It makes it clearer than ever that Trump will throw representatives and senators who vote yes under the bus if the horrible bill becomes even more unpopular as a horrible law causing horrible suffering. It also makes it clear that they will have to deal with the debate about whether $ 800 billion is zero. They could choose to repeatedly say that Trump is a liar (which will hurt them as much as voting no) repeatedly tell blatant lies about the suffering they caused, or they can avoid that debate by voting the bill down. To me the third option looks very attractive.
Already Susan Collins has had to say that she “disagrees” with Conway. She should understand that a yes vote will only be the beginning of dignity wraithdom.
It’s a small thing compared to tens of thousands of deaths a year, but Senators don’t like to be humiliated at all. I hope this makes some difference.
Update: Also Price
We know he’s shameless, but how many seantors representatives are willing to stand up for such absurd lies.
Also I don’t think insulting the CBO is optimal strategy right now. For one thing they are working very hard over the weekend to get a report which the Senate needs in order to consier the BRCRA. If someone treated me as Price treats them, I would be very very lazy (trivially true as I am, have always been and will always be very lazy). Also they can calculate effects on coverage outside the 10 year window first (they are doing this) and work backwards.
Robert:
Pissing off the CBO is not the right tactic. I thought Elmendorf was right of center and the new guy is supposedly more right of center. So far they have called it to our liking.
In any case, delay would wok to Repubs advantage as they would vote and say screw – you. I have not read anywhere of grandfathering or protecting benefits already granted. If they cut funding, some one is going to lose.
They do not care at all what the CBO says or is going to say. They will of course call it wrong, and GOP voters will not care about the score.
These people voted for donald trump. They voted for Ted Cruz. They voted for Rand Paul. They voted for (fill in the blank). ANd they will vote GOP regardless of what the GOP does.