Politics

[deepdarkblue]

What a disgusting hypocrite. Or maybe it's jealousy, since nobody is ever going to offer him $400k to talk about anything.

 

[ZackM]

I've been seeing a ton of shit on facebook about Fred Upton today. Apparently yesterday he said he was against the new health care bill but now today after meeting with Trump he's saying he'll vote for it.

 

[CK86]

This healthcare bill looks like a complete disaster. Of course Congress is exempt from it.

Also Trump is supposedly going to sign a "religious freedom" executive order tomorrow. Can't wait to see Pence's awfulness on full display.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Cutting dat Additional Medicare Tax tho.

 

[deepdarkblue]

What a giant bag of bullshit this is. Republicans are going to pat themselves on the back for finally repealing that evil Obamacare and replacing it with something that strips the protections away for millions. All to finance a tax break for the rich. Trickle down economics has never been shown to work better than investing for the poor and middle class in the long term. At best the short term benefits accumulate almost entirely to those who are already wealthy.

How do they convince people that this is the Christian, charitable, and humane way to run a society?

I'm not sure those are traits of the typical, modern, self-proclaimed Christian. At this point, I know a lot more non-believers who regularly perform acts of true charity and self-sacrifice than I do Christians who do anything similar.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Seems that the main positive effects of repeal and replace to conservatives would be to: (1) make abortions more difficult to get, including by de-funding planned parenthood for at least one year (there is some other way they are making abortions more difficult to get, involving excess contributions to HSAs or something, but I don't really understand that); (2) making wealth accumulation easier for the wealthy and healthy, including by getting rid of the 3.8% net investment income tax for families making over $250k/individuals making over $200k starting this year and the 0.9% additional medicare tax for those same families/individuals starting in 2023, and by more than doubling the max employer contribution to HSAs (HSAs are pretty much only used by healthy people, as a mini-tax haven).

I'm not against #2, but they probably need another way to fund this thing if they're getting rid of significant taxes on the wealthy. There must be some way that this blows up down the road without that extra revenue bookmarked for it. #1 is the only thing the religious right cares about, so this will appeal to them even if it means they will lose their coverage or need to pay a lot more for it, and ultimately die sooner - at least babies won't be murdered as much. I'm not ridiculing this stance, just stating the obvious. This is a microcosm of the game that has been played by wealthy conservatives to win over the poor to be competitive in elections for decades.

 

[deepdarkblue]

As much as I've raged against organized religion, and Christianity in particular in the past, I'm gaining some tolerance with age.

Most of the actual Christians I know have been nothing but kind in their daily dealings with me. I've got nothing but loathing for the brand associated with our Republican party though.

I spend a lot of my days among the salt-of-the-earth so-called Christians who like to call our former president a ni&&er, who believe ripping people off is just "good business", who believe abortions are murder but that funding birth control or food programs for poor children is "just paying them to have more kids".

Forgive me if I can't relate to your own Christian experiences.

 

[rome8180]

Right, but how does this actually convince poor people that these people have their best interests at heart?

I know this was a rhetorical question but: appeal to bigotry, religion, and the false belief that the "free market" actually exists and will one day work for them.

Well, those things and blatantly lying.

 

[rome8180]

What I don't get is how this level of corruption is tolerated. I mean, Republican voters also talk about hating corruption in politics. Are they just so ill-informed that they are not aware of things like Congress repealing the ACA for everyone but themselves? If Republican politicians think, in good faith, that their own bill is better, why don't they want to lose ACA benefits?

 

[rome8180]

I guess I get it if you're a rich sociopath who cares about nothing besides making yourself richer and you don't care if everyone else dies. I don't get it from anyone else.

 

[surfpenguin]

This is a microcosm of the game that has been played by wealthy conservatives to win over the poor to be competitive in elections for decades.

Exactly. People in power doing whatever they can to stay in power for as long as possible. Keeping people dumb and easily manipulating them is a brilliant long-game move. Until society collapses.

 

[deepdarkblue]

Yeah, for as long as there's been an upper or ruling class, they've used the fears, ignorance, and superstitions of the poor and uneducated as a means of controlling them. It's somewhat amazing that in an age where there is ready access to real facts and information, people remain so ignorant.

 

[rome8180]

These people are murderers. Not gonna sugarcoat it. They are human scum, and they are singing on the House floor about the eventual deaths of tens of thousands.

And they literally say things like the Republican plan reduces "the costs to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy." When one of them is diagnosed with cancer, does that prove they've lived a bad life? Are they kicked out of their rich murderer club? Or is the real bad life they're referring to simply not being rich?

 

[rome8180]

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith

 

[DurhamSon]

These people are murderers. Not gonna sugarcoat it. They are human scum, and they are singing on the House floor about the eventual deaths of tens of thousands.

And they literally say things like the Republican plan reduces "the costs to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy." When one of them is diagnosed with cancer, does that prove they've lived a bad life? Are they kicked out of their rich murderer club? Or is the real bad life they're referring to simply not being rich?

It was the house dems who were singing

 

[dkst0426]

I've got nothing but loathing for the brand associated with our Republican party though.

Especially since there's very little that is particularly Christ-like reflected in it.

 

[deepdarkblue]

Seeing a lot of this

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

This isn't getting past the Senate as is anyway, so I think it needs some important factors fixed before it's final. Really, the only thing the Republicans in Congress should hold firm on is the elimination of the extra taxes caused by Obamacare (net investment income). I believe that's the only thing they actually care about in this entire health care fight.

Find a way to improve the features in the final version while sneaking in more subtle costs for the poor to fund their own improved healthcare, I guess. Probably not going to be popular among the masses, but the members of Congress won't care, and what people think doesn't matter at this point. Rooms of wealthy old white men are making decisions for the poor.

I don't think the Democrats GAF about this, either. They come out of this looking great by publicly opposing it and faking how upset they are, while they and their families will largely be unaffected.

 

[physicsfactor]

As much as I've raged against organized religion, and Christianity in particular in the past, I'm gaining some tolerance with age.

Most of the actual Christians I know have been nothing but kind in their daily dealings with me. I've got nothing but loathing for the brand associated with our Republican party though.

I spend a lot of my days among the salt-of-the-earth so-called Christians who like to call our former president a ni&&er, who believe ripping people off is just "good business", who believe abortions are murder but that funding birth control or food programs for poor children is "just paying them to have more kids".

Forgive me if I can't relate to your own Christian experiences.

Physics is gonna laugh his ass off when he reads that I'm defending Christianity after some of the things I've said here, even a year or two ago.

Brother Ben!!

 

[aiw]

As much as I've raged against organized religion, and Christianity in particular in the past, I'm gaining some tolerance with age.

Most of the actual Christians I know have been nothing but kind in their daily dealings with me. I've got nothing but loathing for the brand associated with our Republican party though.

They're nice individually to you, but they vote for people that vote for this bullshit.

I am disgusted and this is something that will save me money. I fucking hate it and hate all of them. That picture of Chaffetz rolling in on his prosthetic so he could vote to strip people of their insurance is sickening. I hope he gets cancer.