• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Yes, Mitch McConnell’s secretive lawmaking is really unusual — in these 4 ways

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
DP Veteran
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
94,171
Reaction score
82,445
Location
Barsoom
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
Yes, Mitch McConnell’s secretive lawmaking is really unusual — in these 4 ways

First, most closed-door bargaining in the Senate is bipartisan. True, Republicans are trying to repeal the ACA under special budget rules that eliminate the need for Democratic votes. Even so, it is highly unusual for the majority party’s senators to be kept in the dark on a top party priority. Even if House leaders often limit information on pending measures, McConnell’s tactics are far out of the norm for the upper chamber.

Second, when leaders close the doors, it’s often because the legislative process has ground to a halt. For example, negotiations over federal discretionary spending often take place in secret — but only after the annual appropriations process falters. But on health care, Senate Republicans went straight to closed-door negotiations among their own factions, without even trying to move the House bill — or their own alternative — through the usual public drafting and amending sessions in committee.

Third, McConnell’s tactics are particularly unusual because Republicans are trying to legislate on one of the nation’s most complicated policy issues. Health care affects one-sixth of the economy and may have life-or-death consequences for many Americans on Obamacare. Usually, issues that demand secret negotiations are must-pass measures about to hit a nonnegotiable deadline, such as failing to raise the debt ceiling or to fund the government on time. When the stakes are high and the consequences of failure broadly considered unacceptable, hiding negotiations from the public is usually easier to justify.

Fourth, it’s true that senators have in the past often resorted to small, bipartisan groups (such as the Gang of Six that struggled over health care in 2009 and the Gang of Eight that struck an immigration deal in 2013) working in secret on controversial policy matters. Even so, bipartisan deals that emerge from these “gangs” are usually then defended in public in committee and on the floor — and McConnell has said he won’t do that in this case.
Click to expand...

When the Trump administration and GOP Congress ram through the secret AHCA healthcare plan, it will be 100% on them. They have accepted no input on this whatsoever from Democrats and Independents.

It's going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and they'll be judged in the midterm elections less than two years away.

Under the GOP House version, 23 million Americans lost all healthcare coverage and $630 billion of Medicaid funding was redistributed to the ultra-wealthy 1% of Americans via narrow-band tax cuts.


Additional: Senate leaders plan to rush a health-care bill to a vote, and there’s nothing Democrats can do about it
 
Rogue Valley said:
Yes, Mitch McConnell’s secretive lawmaking is really unusual — in these 4 ways



When the Trump administration and GOP Congress ram through the secret AHCA healthcare plan, it will be 100% on them. They have accepted no input on this whatsoever from Democrats and Independents.

It's going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and they'll be judged in the midterm elections less than two years away.

Under the GOP House version, 23 million Americans lost all healthcare coverage and $630 billion of Medicaid funding was redistributed to the ultra-wealthy 1% of Americans via narrow-band tax cuts.


Additional: Senate leaders plan to rush a health-care bill to a vote, and there’s nothing Democrats can do about it
Click to expand...

The first thing to do would be to ristrict government spending on healthcare paid by government to the per beneficiary level of say Canada or Germany? From there on it's a question of how to organize services.

PS: this is one of the policy discussions getting less coverage than it would, well the msm not falling for the Trump diversions.
 
Last edited:
Rogue Valley said:
Yes, Mitch McConnell’s secretive lawmaking is really unusual — in these 4 ways



When the Trump administration and GOP Congress ram through the secret AHCA healthcare plan, it will be 100% on them. They have accepted no input on this whatsoever from Democrats and Independents.

It's going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and they'll be judged in the midterm elections less than two years away.

Under the GOP House version, 23 million Americans lost all healthcare coverage and $630 billion of Medicaid funding was redistributed to the ultra-wealthy 1% of Americans via narrow-band tax cuts.


Additional: Senate leaders plan to rush a health-care bill to a vote, and there’s nothing Democrats can do about it
Click to expand...

Remember when the wingnuts here on DP were complaining about how the Democrats wouldn't release the bill (yet they did) and how no one got to debate it because it was all done behind closed doors (it was on CSpan and the GOP added a hundred amendments) and how they didn't know what was in it until they passed it (the general outline was clear- the regs weren't formulated yet)?

That's all being done now for real....by the same guys who vilified the process.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Yes, Mitch McConnell’s secretive lawmaking is really unusual — in these 4 ways



When the Trump administration and GOP Congress ram through the secret AHCA healthcare plan, it will be 100% on them. They have accepted no input on this whatsoever from Democrats and Independents.

It's going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and they'll be judged in the midterm elections less than two years away.

Under the GOP House version, 23 million Americans lost all healthcare coverage and $630 billion of Medicaid funding was redistributed to the ultra-wealthy 1% of Americans via narrow-band tax cuts.


Additional: Senate leaders plan to rush a health-care bill to a vote, and there’s nothing Democrats can do about it
Click to expand...
Your links says nothing about 653 billion tax cut coming out of medicare. Where are you getting that from?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
trouble13 said:
Your links says nothing about 653 billion tax cut coming out of medicare. Where are you getting that from?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

He said Medicaid funding not Medicare. The bill eliminates the taxes on the wealthy that paid for the Medicaid expansion and the premium subsidies. The Medicare cost reductions are also sacked so the bill will also hasten Medicare insolvency. All to pay homage to the 1%.
 
Just a reference for how the Senate process behind the ACA looked:

May 6, 2008: Senate Finance holds the first of dozens of hearings, roundtables, bipartisan meetings, and summits around the issues that later formed the core of the ACA.

July 15, 2009: Senate HELP committee approves the text of health reform bill after televised markup (and accepting 160 GOP amendments).

October 13, 2009: Senate Finance committee approves the text of health reform bill after nearly three weeks of televised markups.

November 20, 2009: Senate begins five weeks of televised floor debate of the ACA.

December 24, 2009: Senate passes ACA with 60 votes.


The GOP intends to vote on final passage of their reform bill next week. And virtually no one has seen the text. No hearings have been held. The committees of jurisdiction haven't marked it up. Floor debate will be virtually nonexistent. This process has been a joke.
 
You have to remember that this bill ill totally affect one sixth of our total economy. The only winners will be the rich.
 
iguanaman said:
He said Medicaid funding not Medicare. The bill eliminates the taxes on the wealthy that paid for the Medicaid expansion and the premium subsidies. The Medicare cost reductions are also sacked so the bill will also hasten Medicare insolvency. All to pay homage to the 1%.
Click to expand...
Link?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
I disagree. I don't think the Senate republicans are trying to fix Obamacare. It is unfixable. I think they are delaying it in the hopes that the problem will go away. Ostriches don't put their heads in the sand but politicians do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom