Let's Get to the Skinny of it...

Is anyone actually even bothering to bring up the notion to fix the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?  All we hear is repeal and replace, but not "lets get together and fix it to our liking."    I watched the debate at Capitol Hill about the "Skinny" repeal on the ACA.  The Senator from Wyoming, Mike Enzi, operated an "anti-filibuster" in which he is rambling on about the ACA with no real significance, taking long pauses, and not yielding any questions from Democrats (if you remember, the GOP has all but shut out the Democrats from reading the healthcare bill).   Enzi knows he has 40-plus minutes to the Democrats) to speak on the floor and all he is doing purposely making sure that the Democrats will have barely any time to read the bill.  He even ran out of things to say about the ACA and proceeded with other nonsense.

Enzi--as nation's health care system is on line--now discussing Segways. And how a guy got to a cocktail party on a wheelchair

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) July 28, 2017

The GOP begs two things from from this whole instance:  Why won't the GOP give more details on their repeal by answering the Democrat's inquiries, and why do they keep accusing the Democrats of being ignorant of this repeal when they don't even bother to let the Democrats into the discussion?

All of this frustration could have been solved if the GOP would have went back to the ACA to fix any issues they have with the program.  Of course they had no way of doing that with Obama in control, but now they have control of both Houses and the Presidency.  Modify, cut, replace, whatever, but what they are doing now has no consideration of the future of American healthcare.  None!  The Skinny Repeal will have 16 million lose their insurance and the Fat Repeal would have been 32-44 million!

Besides the 16 million stat, premiums will go up 20% so if you were paying 100 bucks a month, you will now be paying $120/month.  20 dollars does not seem a lot, but if you are living paycheck-to-paycheck that $20 will take you away from a tank a gas or a decent portion of their food bill.

The only saving grace in this whole debacle tonight is this:

I hope you’re paying attention to your government tonight. Republicans know the bill is awful and don’t want it to pass, still voting for it

— Jeff Cannata (@jeffcannata) July 28, 2017

To just take a step back, we currently reside in a world where the weird outcome is the bill zero senators want to see become law fails

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 28, 2017

So lets look at two scenarios I think will happen prior to voting:

1. The vote will be tied at 50-50 much like the vote the other day for the Motion to Proceed.  It required Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie in favor of the MTP.  If this happens, Pence will vote in favor of the repeal.
2. The vote will not reach the 51 vote threshold needed for the Skinny Repeal to pass the Senate and go to the floor of the House of Representatives. There are a handful of Republicans against the repeal which could stop this current version in its tracks.

Here are some opinions before the vote:

To my GOP colleagues, after I was diagnosed with cancer, you showed me your care. You showed me your compassion. So where is that tonight? pic.twitter.com/BfWMIDd0Vo

— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) July 28, 2017

And here’s the worst part: The @SenateGOP knows this bill is appalling. One senator called it “a disaster.” “The dumbest thing in history.”

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 28, 2017

I would provide opinions from the Republicans, but none of their accounts had any opinions of the Skinny Repeal vote.

The first vote went this way:
For the Murray Motion to go back to Committee:
Yes- 48 
No- 52

If you do not understand what that means it means that regardless of a "yes" or "no" motion it does not make the Skinny Repeal go away, it just means that if the vote went "yes" it would need more revisions before being brought back for another vote, but because the vote went "no" it means that the Senate proceeds to voting for the repeal itself.

Here is how the vote for the Skinny Repeal happened:
Partial Repeal of Health Care Law or "Skinny Repeal":
Yes- 49
No- 51

The Skinny Repeal is defeated.


Republican Senators McCain, Murkowski, and Collins voted no which was the pivotal moment.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calls the effort a disappointment and you can hear the deflation in his voice.  Further on in his speech McConnell still blames the Democrats for many things that McConnell's comrades did the past two years of Obama's second term.  The only positive thing from McConnell is his concession that they need to work with the Democrats to get the best bill possible.

The partisan politics needs to end when it comes to the healthcare of America.  If neither side can work together, both sides will lose their positions of power.  This hopefully brings for better bi-partisanship.  The Democrats want it, Senator McConnell is starting to concede to that motion, but it has to actually get in motion before we can feel that the American machine is running smoothly like it used to.