More Things the Worst People in the World are Trying to Take from Us

ACA repeal affects many who aren't aware.

Here are the people impacted on in one place.

RT if you think helpful. pic.twitter.com/1TmP1J1KGD

— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) January 13, 2017

Overreaching

My watch just buzzed to inform me through Facebook that there's a healthcare rally going on in an hour in front of Trump Tower. I was about to jump out of my seat and go over, but I took a minute to see what the event was actually about.

We are in a life or death fight for our health care. Republican proposals for health care reform will cause millions of people to lose insurance coverage. Those who have coverage will see the return of illegal tactics private insurance corporations to deny and restrict care. Remember, the only way they make money is when they don't have to pay for the health care you need.

Join health care justice advocates at Trump Tower on Jan 13th just hours before the annual Single Payer Strategy Conference begins to point to the only solution that is truly universal, and guaranteed to provide high quality, affordable health care: Medicare for All!

This is absurd. By all means, go march to defend the ACA. But Medicare for All, as desirable as it is, is not on the table.

What part of "we're on defense" do you not understand?

What They're Taking Away

The Republican voted last night to:

1. End coverage for preexisting conditions, veterans benefits, and aid to rural hospitals.
2. Remove discrimination protection for women in healthcare.
3. End the provision allowing children to remain on their parent's insurance till the age of 26.
4. To cut off funding for the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
5. End ACA contraceptive coverage and maternity care provision.
6. Direct committees to send budget legislation to defund and repeal the Affordable Care Act.


It's not over yet, but it's getting there. If you have a Republican Senator or Representative, call him or her and make your voice heard!

Senators

Representatives

I'm going to shortly add these to the sidebar. We need to spend a lot of time on the phones the next few years.

Dems Stand Up

Tonight, in the midst of a whirlwind of votes on the ACA repeal, every Democrat stood up and made a personal statement as they made their vote, over the objections of the parliamentarian. Heidi Heitkamp was crying as she cast her vote.

More of this, please.

I Can't Get Optimistic Yet

I've been reading a lot of articles the last few days, like this one from Ben Cohen of the Daily Banter, showing some optimism regarding the fate of the Affordable Care Act, because it could be politically disastrous for the Republicans. I've even heard some Republicans say so.

And I know "dog catches car" and all, but do you think Paul Ryan gives a crap about 20-30 million people losing health insurance? If I had to bet on whether he would side with his donors or 30 million people, I'm going with the donors. He's been programmed to gut the safety net. Republican backers hand-picked their House and Senate candidates because of their willingness to do that.

Then again, I was wrong on the OCE, so I suppose I should just make my phone calls and hope for  the best!

Calling New York Reps About the ACA

Relevant info:

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Here's a link to all the contact info for the relevant elected officials.

The Next Fight -- Call Your Electeds to Protect the ACA

Congress is about to vote to gut Obamacare. In order to stop them, we need three Republicans to join the good guys.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Michael Enzi (R-WY) introduced a budget resolution Tuesday that includes "reconciliation instructions" that enable Congress to repeal Obamacare with a simple Senate majority. Passing a budget resolution that includes those instructions will mean that the legislation can pass through the budget reconciliation process, in which bills cannot be filibustered.

Here's a link to all the contact info for the relevant elected officials.

To make it personal, here is a compilation of the deleterious effects a repeal would have on each state. "Getting rid of Obamacare is going to close a hospital your district relies on to employ your constituents!")

Get calling! You can throw stories, if you have them, in the comments!

UPDATE (1/3/2017, 5:37 PM): Danielle Gembala on Facebook shared with me an app, called Countable, that can help you contact your electeds. I found it a bit buggy and it only gave me my Senators, not my rep. But it might help you. Also, this directory tool from the League of Women Voters appears helpful, as well.

Why Is Paul Ryan Rushing to Repeal Obamacare?

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPo thinks it's because there's too much good news coming in about Obamacare and that it will start to push his caucus's constituents to start to make noise:

House Speaker Paul Ryan has vowed a quick repeal of Obamacare in order to “stop the damage” and because “things are only getting worse.”

Meanwhile, here is a selection of news reports from the past two weeks:

The Obama administration announced that the number of people signing up for insurance through HealthCare.gov, the federal website that 39 states use to administer Obamacare plans, is even higher than last year. State-run sites such as Covered California are reporting similar surges.

An independent think tank, The Commonwealth Fund, published a study showing that fewer people are skipping medical care because of cost ― most likely because, thanks to the health care law, so many more people have health insurance.

Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings reported that insurers selling Obamacare plans are seeing better financial results this year, suggesting that premiums are finally coming into line with the actual medical expenses of their customers ― and that this year’s big rate hikes may be a “one-time pricing correction.”

It’s possible that Ryan thinks these and similarly positive news items are irrelevant ― that the Wisconsin Republican has deluded himself into thinking Obamacare really is an unmitigated policy disaster, rather than a fairly typical government program full of pluses and minuses and the inevitable implementation complications that large reform efforts usually overcome.

It’s also possible that Ryan’s crusade to pass repeal in January has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with politics ― that he wants Congress to vote before the rest of the country, and maybe even the president-elect, wakes up to the real-life changes such a vote would unleash.

It could be, but aside from the fact that many House Republicans are pretty safe thanks to gerrymandering, getting this and many other things that will result in lower taxes for his backers is the highest priority, and he may only have two years to get them all through -- ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP, public education... these things will take time.

Having said that, delaying the vote in any way we can, for whatever reason, is a good idea. Also, protesting ACA repeal in districts like these would be terrific.

NOW They Tell Us

The Kaiser Family Foundation published a new survey today showing that Americans basically want to keep the Affordable Care Act.

In fact, they like almost everything about it:

Allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26 (85% of the public, including 82% of Republicans);

Eliminating out-of-pocket costs for many preventive services (83% of the public, including 77% of Republicans);

Providing financial help to low- and moderate-income Americans who don’t get insurance through their jobs to help them purchase coverage (80% of the public, including 67% of Republicans);

Giving states the option of expanding their existing Medicaid programs to cover more uninsured low-income adults (80% of the public, including 67% of Republicans); and

Prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage because of a person’s medical history (69% of the public, including 63% of Republicans).

The only thing they don't like so much is the individual mandate, which, as Hillary Clinton pointed out in 2008 and Barack Obama disagreed with, is vital for the ACA to work.

The question now is, how do Democrats take advantage of this? Do we bring back Harry and Louise?

Might be time to get back on the phone with those Senators and tell them specifically how much we like each of the above five benefits. I'm going to get calling tomorrow.

I'm reposting these lists of Congresscritters you should be calling.

Democrats:
Claire McCaskill (D-MO) (202 224 6154)
John Tester (D-MT) (202 224 2644)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) (202 224 2043)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH) (202 224 2315)
Joe Manchin (D-WV) (202 224 3954)
Bob Casey (D-PA) (202 224 3954)
Bill Nelson (D-FL) (202 224 5274)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN) (202 224 4814)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) (202 224 4822)
Republicans:
Dean Heller (R-NV) (202 224 6244)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ) (202 224 4521)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT) (202 224 5251)
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) (202 224 6472)
Marco Rubio (R-FL) (202-224 6472)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA) (202 224 3643)
David Perdue (R-GA) (202 224 3521)
Richard Burr (R-NC) (202 224 3154)
Thom Tillis (R-NC) (202 224 6342)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) (202 224 6665)
Cory Gardner (R-CO) (202 224 5941)
Kelly Ayotte (R-ME) (202 224 3324)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (202 224 5972)
Bob Corker (R-TN) (202 224 3344)

It certainly can't hurt to call others while you're at it... the directory is here.

I hope you all have unlimited calling. We're going to have to do a lot of this the next four years.

Taking Action Against Tom Price

I don't think I do this sort of thing enough, but this one's both too important and at the same time potentially realistic to prevent:

Let's start calling to save Medicare, the ACA, Medicaid, abortion rights, and contraception, as well as to get Senators to reject Tom Price, period. We need all 48 Dems and three Republican Senators to hold the line firmly on this.

From Richard Mayhew:

Democrats who need a call to remind them that their base has their back:

• Claire McCaskill (D-MO) (202 224 6154) 

• John Tester (D-MT) (202 224 2644)
• Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) (202 224 2043)
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH) (202 224 2315)
• Joe Manchin (D-WV) (202 224 3954)
• Bob Casey (D-PA) (202 224 3954)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL) (202 224 5274)
• Joe Donnelly (D-IN) (202 224 4814)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) (202 224 4822)

All of these Senators represent states that voted for Trump. Let’s get them some support and pushback.

The pressure [JASON'S EDIT: REPUBLICAN] list is much shorter

• Dean Heller (R-NV) (202 224 6244)

• Jeff Flake (R-AZ) (202 224 4521)

These Senators are up for re-election in 2018. Heller is actually vulnerable, Flake is a stretch goal.

The next round of Republican calls are to either the old line establishment (Bob Corker, Orrin Hatch) or to Senators who represent a lot of retirees (Shelly Moore Capito, Marco Rubio, both Georgia Senators, both North Carolina Senators)

So get calling.

I'm actually headed to a Planned Parenthood event, but I'll update this post later with phone numbers a few additions to these lists.

UPDATE (11/29/16 11:20 PM): Added phone numbers for above group and a couple of additional Republican Senators who I think MIGHT have a semblance of a soul and/or are also up for reelection in a blue state:

• Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) (202 224 6665)
• Cory Gardner (R-CO) (202 224 5941)
• Kelly Ayotte (R-ME) (202 224 3324)
• Lindsey Graham (R-SC-I'M REALLY REACHING) (202 224 5972)
• Bob Corker (R-TN-DITTO) (202 224 3344)

Just call the shit out of them...

Rope-A-Dope on Obamacare?

More from TPM on "Repeal and Replace":

McCaskill challenged Trump and Republicans "to be honest" and actually come up with a plan rather than just ragging on Obamacare.
"Let's see how that would work for the millions of people who have certainty and security right now," she said.

Democrats admit that Obamacare needs some fixing, but they are dubious Republicans can just do it themselves.

"I think they should fix Obamacare and call it a repeal and replace," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI).

"That is both the best public policy and the best politics for them. If they actually repeal the thing, people are going to suffer and they will suffer electorally."

Republicans are balancing conflicting pressures. On the one hand, they have promised their constituents for nearly seven years that they would repeal and replace this law. They have little wiggle room to escape that now. They've gone through the motions to pass legislation repealing it dozens of times, but the president's veto was a stop gap.

I don't know if this is the best strategy, but is another one available to the Democrats? The problem here is, it depends on both shame and the fear of the response from voters. The Republicans have no shame, and enough may be in really safe seats or be backstopped by the prospect of cushy think tank or lobbyist jobs if they succeed in gutting Obamacare or do lose. The potential gain for Republican backers if they get Obamacare repealed is likely massive in comparison to having to promise a "safety net" to Republicans taking the leap on their behalf.

In other news:

Republicans, according to Politico, plan to roll back DAPA, an Obama administration order that gave the parents of DREAMers legal status to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation. Republicans also want to reverse Obama's fiduciary rule, which was designed to eliminate conflicts of interests for financial advisers who were balancing corporate clients and individual investors. The other rule Republicans want to eliminate is an overtime rule that requires companies pay overtime to employees making $47,000 or less a year, Politico reported.

Republicans are also prioritizing tax cuts, according to the Politico piece. While they will use the procedural process known as budget reconciliation to repeal and replace Obamacare as soon as January, they are also considering using another budget reconciliation process for the 2018 budget to push through tax cuts.

Obviously, Republicans want to screw immigrants. But look at the other items they're trying to get through. Overtime? Easing rules on banks? Tax cuts on the wealthy? This should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention at all, but for the media to keep saying the it's the DEMOCRATS who can't appeal to the working class?

Yesterday, I published quite the stemwinder disagreeing with Ed at Gin and Tacos. Today, I agree 100% with this:

Given that reality, the Democrats' failure was in not offering a scapegoat. Maybe it's time to dust off the Joe Hill / Mother Jones / Eugene Debs playbook. If scapegoating is the only thing that wins these people over, then the best strategy is to point them in the right direction again and remind them that Capital is the enemy of Labor. End the worship of and fixation with Job Creators and the idea that the boss is your buddy and your role in the economy is a matter of personal responsibility, fully within one's own control.

Is that going to work? Doubtful. Racism is an easier, more effective play. Anything that requires people to think is going to lose out to anything that plays directly into their basest prejudices. I don't know how you beat the path of least resistance. The older I get, the less I believe that is possible.

It's not that the Democrats don't have a message that can appeal to the "white working class." It's that their message is inherently not as strong as racism, and if the Democrats want their votes, they need to push their economic message at least twice as hard as the Republicans push their racist one, which slides down as smoothly as butter.

UPDATE: Adam Johnson at FAIR has more on "identity politics" and appealing to the "white working class voter."

First On the Chopping Block: Obamacare

According to Mike Pence, anyway....

"Decisions have been made by the president-elect that he wants to focus out of the gate on repealing Obamacare," Pence said on "Fox News Sunday."

"And beginning the process of replacing Obamacare with the kind of free-market solutions that he campaigned on."