That smug tone, he's so certain that he's right. He's more an idiot than a liar. Is that any consolation?

It is so exciting to see the press actually doing their job for a change.

Well, not anymore. All it took was one speech of him half-reigning in the hostile tone while reading from a prompter for all the media to start falling in line and sucking his dick "HE SEEMS TO HAVE FINALLY GROWN INTO THE OFFICE AND COME OFF AS PRESIDENTIAL!"

The Post, The Times, MSNBC. All of them towing this horseshit line.

Some of the press is bending over, but they're coming under fire for doing so, so who knows, maybe CNN and friends will be shamed into at least framing Trump as "controversial".

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/04/death-panels-redux/
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/12/whoppers-of-2009/

the ACA itself:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/html/PLAW-111pub l148.htm

I'll never forget, during the ramp-up to the Obamacare vote, the old lady at the town hall who said "I heard that if this passes, government men will come to my house and ask me how I want to die."

I'm sure some people were unironically picturing some Logan's Run situation with everyone getting sent to Carousel once they hit 74.

Except they're really old, so instead of floating into the air they're rattling around with their walkers and falling over and exploding.

Amen.

Well, there's one small contradiction I'd like to offer: I don't think an ACA repeal is likely to happen right now. The town halls have rattled the GOP so that they're wary of repealing ACA & replacing it with nothing, and they're hopelessly divided on what to replace it with if they *do* repeal it. Hence, repeal seems to be unlikely ATM. At least, based on what I've read.

If they had any brains or spines whatsoever they'd just steal the good parts of ACA and add some sort of controls for healthcare costs and insurance premiums.


But that goes against the prime directive of 'Screw poors, cut taxes'

For you, not for our future.

"If they had any brains or spines whatsoever they'd just steal the good parts of ACA and add some sort of controls for healthcare costs and insurance premiums."

Good news: the ACA already imposes cost controls on insurance premiums. 80% - 85% of all premium dollars collected have to go to paying medical claims; everything else -- all the costs of doing business, and after that any profits -- come from the remaining 15% - 20%.

That means that insurance premiums are keyed directly to healthcare costs. Premiums can't go up without medical costs going up, but premiums can't come down without medical costs coming down either.

Controls for healthcare costs are the correct next step to fixing our health care system, but that's where it REALLY gets complicated. Hospitals will have to tighten their administrative belts, doctors (not all of whom are making money hand over fist) are going to have to figure out how to pay their student loans and their malpractice insurance on less income, and so on. Every entity on the medical provider side will have incentive to oppose to those changes, and what's more, they will all have legitimate arguments about how they too have bills to pay, just as patients do.

>>>It is not an exaggeration or political hyperbole: the GOP is literally killing people and getting paid for it. It's about money for dead people.


This is effectively true, but the more accurate description is that they see healthcare as a business whose primary purpose is to make money for investors, not to care for patients. Sick people have no power or value in a free-market health care industry. When you've got a major health issue, no one is going to compete for your business.