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June 23, 2017 01:31 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (June 23)

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Trumpcare and Russia: That’s pretty much the extent of the news today, but here are a few more headlines worth following. It’s time to Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

 

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Senate Republicans on Thursday released their plan to kill as many Americans as possible make massive changes to healthcare in this country. Vox.com breaks down the Senate Trumpcare bill — officially called “The Better Care Reconciliation Act” — into a handful of “winners” (rich people) and “losers” (pretty much everyone else). As Sarah Kliff explains in a separate story for Vox.com, the Republicans’ primary argument for supporting its healthcare efforts is a complete sham:

Republican lawmakers consistently claim that the Obamacare marketplaces are collapsing, so they need to pass a bill to repeal and replace the health law…

…The marketplaces, though, have refused to cooperate. They are not working perfectly — but they are far from ruinous demise, experts say. But the Republican replacement plan, introduced Thursday, could change that. It contains several provisions that could accelerate the crumbling of the marketplaces and leave millions of Americans with no health care options.

“Honestly, the marketplaces are in okay shape,” says David Anderson, a research associate at Duke University who studies the individual market. “The amount of competition isn’t where some people would like it to be, but this isn’t collapse.”

Republicans such as Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) are all over the place on their talking points; Gardner, for example, was part of the Senate working group on the healthcare legislation, yet he insists that he never saw any of the bill’s proposed language until it was released to the public. And then there’s this nonsense from Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

 

► Jennifer Rubin, the conservative columnist for the Washington Post, doesn’t understand what Republicans are doing with Trumpcare:

Instead of getting run over by the right wing of their party, as their House counterparts did, Senate moderates have the chance to strike out on their own and come up with reforms that bolster the exchanges and that improve Medicaid. They can test Democrats’ promise to work constructively across the aisle. Conservatives, meanwhile, should understand that the bill is nothing more than a repudiation of their seven-year fight to repeal the ACA. They will leave a legacy that amounts to: Obamacare, but worse!

 

► President Trump announced on Thursday that there are no tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director Jim Comey. Trump Tweeted the news a full 41 days after he first floated the idea on Twitter that such tapes might exist.

The Washington Post does a deep dive into how the Obama administration handled (or failed to handle) information that Russia was trying to influence the 2016 election. Regardless of how Obama handled the information, it is indisputable that Russia’s meddling was intended to help Trump win the Presidential election.

 

► Vice President Mike Pence is in Colorado Springs today to speak at a “Focus on the Family” anniversary event. Not everyone is happy to see the VP.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► According to poll results from AARP, only 3 in 10 Colorado voters over the age of 50 are feeling good about Trumpcare:

Roughly three in 10 likely voters in Colorado age 50 or older support the U.S. House-passed version of the American Health Care Act, according to a poll released Thursday by the AARP that also found the state’s residents are overwhelmingly against cutting Medicaid funding.

The survey found that 81 percent of likely Colorado voters age 50 or older don’t want any Medicaid dollars cut — including 70 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats.

 

► Two of Colorado’s top elected officials — Senator Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper — are voicing strong opposition to Senate healthcare efforts.

 

► Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican who is among the most vulnerable incumbents in 2018, says he will not support the Senate healthcare plan unless major changes happen first.

 

► Democratic candidates for Attorney General in Colorado weigh in on a controversial legal case being pursued by current AG Cynthia Coffman.

 

► Local elected officials from Western Colorado are lobbying the federal government to approve a natural gas project in Oregon.

 

► Senate Republicans are being widely criticized for crafting their latest healthcare measure in secret, but they may be planning a similar strategy for a tax reform measure. 

 

► The private company that operates toll lanes on I-25 and U.S. 36 is proposing new changes that could increase fees for drivers.

 

► The City of Fort Collins is looking for a new police chief.

 

► The NBA Draft was Thursday night. The Denver Nuggets made some very uninteresting moves.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

 

► “Fox and Friends” is to journalism what Cheez Whiz is to fine cuisine.

 

► Please go away, Eric Nelson.

ICYMI

► The New York Times is keeping a definitive list of all of the lies peddled by President Trump. This is a big job. 

 

Click here for The Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!

 

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21 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Friday (June 23)”

  1. The Washington Post has another analysis of the cynical and extremely cruel game the GOP is playing with American lives all in the name of cutting taxes for their wealthiest benefactors.

    The Senate bill front-loads the sweet stuff and delays all the painful stuff. The tax cuts kick in immediately; so too does relief from the individual mandate. But the bill holds off on slashing Obamacare subsidies until 2020, well after the next round of congressional elections. And it delays the Medicaid cuts until 2021, right after the next presidential election. So, by design, the law aims to allow Republicans to duck political accountability for taking insurance away from people.

    Republicans have gone to enormous lengths to obscure the plan’s profoundly regressive features. They have endlessly told the lie that no one will be worse off (because everyone will have “access” to affordable coverage), and they’ve developed numerous cleverly designed talking points designed to create the impression that, by slowly phasing in the loss of coverage for millions over time, this will create a painless transition to … well, to a blissful state in which everyone, again, has “access” to affordable coverage. Among these: “Smooth glide path.” “Rescue mission.” “Bridge to better health care.” “Soft landing.”

    Worst of all, the title of the article is: "How Trump and Republicans may get away with hurting millions of people"

    So basically, just like after Bush, if we do regain the Presidency and perhaps Congress, we’ll once again have to clean up a massive pile of elephant crap, and listen to GOP bitching and moaning (actually, more likely right wing nutcase violence, GOP Congressional calls for impeachment, and of course lies, lies and more lies)

    2. The Wash Post's analysis of the talking points is spot-on. When I spoke with a Gardner staffer yesterday, she used the same exact (false) talking points (aka LIES) our trolls on here use:

      *Nancy Pelosi quote ( I won't bore you with it again) means that it's OK to have zero hearings on the GOP health bill.

      *The AHCA was not put together "in secret" – anybody could go to a meeting. And it wasn't all men, either. There were women present in the room.

      *It's just a "working draft" that will be reviewed and amended – nothing will be voted on in a big rush.

      *Obamacare is collapsing, and it is going to "go away" and people will be better off.

      *We are not the only industrialized country in the world without a public health care plan. If we were , why would we have so many immigrants? (Don't look for the logic in that one – there isn't any).

      *Senator Gardner cares about Medicaid and pre-existing conditions. The "truly needy" won't be affected.

      *Planned Parenthood really sold fetal body parts – that's why they're being defunded.

      I would swear that she really  believed this stuff, too.

  2. The GOP is being absolutely destroyed today among the national media because of their utterly transparent WealthCare scam.

    The light-and-truth-averse rightie cockroaches are scurrying for their miserable lives, but finding no place to hide!

    And DEMOCRATS are the RAID!

    Meantime, the Marmalade Menace continues to melt down in the face of the gathering Russian maelstrom heading directly toward the Oval Office. No wonder ol' Lard Butt looks more every day like he's going to stroke out at any moment…

    1. I beg to differ.

       

      Democrats are the Dollar Store "Raid" that you might think will work, but is absolutely worthless once deployed. Please see any one, or all, of my comments below. 

  3. "There will be ads……." – some Brilliant, Professional, Democrat Strategist on Meet the Press talking about the Republican Death Panel Law. 

    So what?!?!?!?

    Were there ads in 2016?!?!?!? Were they effective?!?!?!?

    Were there ads in 2014?!?!?!? Did they refute Republican talking point that "Obamacare is killing America"?!?!?!? What did our f*kstick Senator do to spread the good word about ACA?!?!?!? (Nothing, in case you missed it.)

    Were there ads in 2012?!?!?!? What political good did Professional Democrats, like those who run this site, reap from their bold support of health care for all Americans?!?!?!?

    This story is so old……..Pelosi is still the titular head of the party….Dems still trying to act the "adult"……..and they lose their ass every regular, every special, and every mundane election to be seen.

    And with Russia's coders beating America's coders day in and day out (Thank you, Outsourcing!) there is no end in sight for Repub-li-ssian Hegemony of the "United" States of America,.

  5. No "Moderate" Republican (as if!!!!!!) is going to do what the entire Democrat Establishment has failed to do these last 10 years. 

    Why would they cave to the Titanic of political parties that can see the icebergs but that won't look 5' under water to gauge the current????????

      1. Easy on the vulgar language Zap-O. Don't you know the PolCats are trying to exhibit more diffused rhetoric? Maybe you meant to say "men of ill repute".

        1. The Zapper is not likely to take advice on language from you, Pillsbury Pudboy. I'm sure that he was being precise and intentional in his rhetoric.

    1. I read both the WaPo and the Esquire articles, Zap, and "bipartisanship" didn't seem to be the problem. It was a f*cking mess, and O made the best decisions he could. And realistically, he could have shown video with Putin diagramming on a whiteboard how to attack the American election to favor Trump, and that hardcore 20-30% of Yammer's base wouldn't believe it.

      What Comey and Obama have to live with, though is what the Esquire piece did get right about the other 70% of the electorate:

      the American people needed to know this before they voted, spin and fauxtrage and punditry be damned. They had a right to factor the question, "Why does Putin want this guy to be president?" into their thinking in the voting booth.

      Voter suppression, and possibly direct Russian hacking of voter databases, was still more of a deciding factor in the 2016 election, in my opinion. We'd better figure it out. Other states need to go to the "unhackable" option of all-mail-ballot elections, as Colorado did. As a reminder, that's when Colorado began to turn blue. When voters get all the information, AND their votes are all counted, that's when they'll do the right thing.

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