Fox News:
Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a draft version of their healthcare reform bill that cuts Medicaid, ends penalties for people not buying insurance and reshapes subsidies to low-income users.In other words, they rushed some trash out so it looks like they did something.
The bill, revealed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, could go to a vote as early as next week. Senate Republicans made the proposal public in a bid to stem criticism that they have been slow to respond to a House version of an ObamaCare overhaul.
Even their own senators aren't buying this garbage:
NBC News:
Four Republican senators say they will not vote for the GOP health care bill unless changes are made, putting passage of the bill at risk just hours after it was unveiled.This seems all very reasonable on the surface.
With Republicans holding 52 seats in the Senate and no Democrats expected to support the legislation, GOP leaders can only afford to lose two votes among their own ranks.
The four conservative GOP senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Ted Cruz of Texas — released a joint statement Thursday afternoon outlining their concerns:
"Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current healthcare system but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their healthcare costs."
"It looks like a reiteration or a keeping of Obamacare," Sen. Paul told reporters Thursday afternoon. "I'm a 'no' on the bill currently."
Paul said the group came out together because they'd have more negotiating power to move the bill in a more conservative direction.
Their displeasure includes the amount of subsidies given to people to purchase insurance, the Medicaid expansion continues for another three years and the $15 billion per year to prop up the insurance companies providing insurance in the individual Obamacare market for the next three years.
And then there is the Left's objection:
Salon:
The headline alone tells you what to expect, but here is the first paragraph in case you enjoy Soviet-style propaganda:
In the hellish months since Donald Trump’s inauguration, a dark parlor game of sorts has cropped up in liberal circles that I like to call “Would an Impeachment Even Be Worth It?” With the full acknowledgment that it’s unlikely to happen as long as Republicans are in charge, participants still sip cocktails and ponder out loud the question of whether booting out Trump on his butt would be enough to save our democracy, considering the fact that the Republican slimeball taking his place would invariably sign a bunch of retrograde legislation setting back this country decades.In fact, the Republican health care bill isn't mentioned until the third paragraph.
Amanda Marcotte, the author of this Salon editorial, is delighted to point out the evils of the Republicans, even as she spews venom at them. When this much venom is used, one has to question which side is truly evil. Or as Shakespeare wrote, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks".
The TRUTH is the Left's objection comes down to they are still having their temper tantrum. We may as well let them hold their collective breath until they pass out.
In other political news...
Politico:
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he did not make and does not have any “tapes” or recordings of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, ending a nearly six-week saga he kicked off by suggesting in a tweet that such tapes existed.Unless somebody has evidence to the contrary, end of discussion.
“With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings,” Trump stated in a pair of tweets on Thursday afternoon.
Finally...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
ST. LOUIS • An off-duty officer was wounded by "friendly fire" as police looked for suspects after a stolen vehicle fled police and crashed late Wednesday.I was originally going to give the St. Louis police the face-palming bear for this, but I decided another reaction was more appropriate:
The injured off-duty officer was treated at a hospital released on Thursday. The suspect was also treated, and released into police custody.
At Barnes-Jewish Hospital early Thursday, Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole told reporters the off-duty officer had come out of his home to help after the stolen car crashed nearby, and was hit in the crossfire between officers and suspects who had been in the car.
But police now say the off-duty officer was shot by a fellow cop who did not recognize him as an officer, in a separate encounter away from the initial crash.
According to a department summary of the incident released later Thursday, two officers who encountered the armed off-duty officer ordered him to the ground. He complied. When they recognized the off-duty officer, they told him he could stand up and walk toward them.
Another officer just arriving at the scene saw the off-duty officer get up and, not knowing he was an officer, fired his weapon once at the man. He hit the off-duty officer in the arm, the department said.
If you ever needed a reminder that the police are more about "enforcement" than "justice", look no further than this story. Even cops aren't safe around other cops.
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