StrangeSox

They've lined up buses to head to the White House in celebration after they vote to destroy the American health insurance system so that they can pass big tax cuts for the wealthy. They're celebrating condemning millions of Americans to pain, suffering, financial destitution and potentially death if they merely get sick. These people are monsters.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 4, 2017 -> 11:04 AM) This is really the day I've dreaded. My mom is in basic retail, which added health insurance due to ACA requirements. This is the group that I think will be most vulnerable to the new stripped back requirements on Lifetime caps and pre-existing. With her being only 59, it's going to be a lot of crossing our fingers until she hits medicare age if something like this passes. Republicans want your mom to be sick, bankrupt or dead so that they can pass big tax cuts for the wealthy. They've been very open and honest about this for a long time, and this is what their voters keep coming back for. Meanwhile:

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 4, 2017 -> 10:30 AM) "bad lifestyles". Note that this is a recent justification put forward by some Republicans for why it's perfectly acceptable to deny some people health care and cause them pain, suffering and death. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/...dable-care.html

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ May 4, 2017 -> 10:27 AM) Imagine being raped or sexually assaulted and then having to make the decision to go to the police or not because you are afraid about how it could affect your healthcare. We live in a barbaric country. This was the status quo prior to the ACA. Maybe market-based insurance models where the main incentive is to maximize profits by minimizing health care expenditures is a bad idea?? I wonder if any other industrialized country has figured out a better, cheaper solution that covers all of their citizens?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 4, 2017 -> 09:53 AM) Well we cant really do anything because Im pretty sure that most people who post here will have Congressman/Senators who vote against the bill. I worry for guys like Greg because Kansas very well could opt out and he could be stuck with much worse coverage at a much higher rate. Hopefully he's calling his congressman/senators and asking them why they want to help Healthcare Companies make even more money. Roskam in Illinois' 6th is one of the potentially vulnerable Republicans in 2018. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/IL/6 e: if anyone lives in IL-6, get on the phone and hound Roskam to not support this train wreck.

SWA 4 LIFE

QUOTE (bmags @ May 4, 2017 -> 09:41 AM) If a bill this absurd can pass the house, and all of the "moderate" republicans get in line for it, then something awful is actually going to be made a law. Apparently the Senate requires a CBO score first since it's being passed under reconciliation, so we'll get round 2 of "here's exactly how many people this bill will kill, here is how many thousands of dollars more it's going to cost everyone for insurance every year" A number of Republican Senators have also expressed opposition to gutting Medicaid, which this bill does. I dunno, I guess I'm still holding out hope that 1) Senate Republicans aren't actually this cruel 2) they aren't actually this dumb or 3) they see the political writing on the wall and recognize that this country would actually make them pay a hefty price if they actually passed this thing. If #3 isn't true and this is what the American people want, welp QUOTE (Soxbadger @ May 4, 2017 -> 09:43 AM) I think its that a certain group of people really just dont care unless it impacts them individually. The reality of the bill is it might as well of said "Being a woman is a pre-existing condition", because generally speaking women have higher health care costs. And why should white males have to subsidize women? Over the last months Ive just decided that there is only so much I can care about the well being of people that dont seem to want to help themselves. I could write hundreds, thousands, millions of words, and it simply wont make a difference. They believe what they want, and that is their right. I have a feeling that somehow my insurance rates will go down, and Id have to imagine IL wont opt out, so Im guessing the places that will suffer the most are going to be Trump states. I work for a large employer, and my (as of now excellent and cheap) insurance plan is from Florida. There are also millions who oppose this both in blue states and red states that will be harmed greatly.

If you get your plan through your employer and thought you'd be missing out on all of the fun, don't worry! The AHCA screws you, too! Little-Noted Provision of GOP Health Bill Could Alter Employer Plans Whip count is down to only 15 hard no's at this point, so it looks like it's going to pass the House.

Remember that the main reason they want to pass this objectively awful health care bill that will result in unnecessary pain, suffering and death is so that they can more easily ram through upper class tax cuts next! This is what they've always been about, and this is what people voted for. edit: this bill cuts about a trillion dollars in health care spending and cuts about the same in taxes for the top 2%. edit2: Pre-existing conditions in new AHCA draft: - domestic violence - sexual assault - C-section - postpartum depression And of course, they've made it so lawmakers are exempt from the pre-existing conditions changes Gentlemen, to evil!

QUOTE (bmags @ May 3, 2017 -> 07:50 PM) This bill is brutal, worse than the first, but they learned their lesson not to wait for the CBO. This is almost astonishingly cynical. I think it'll get a CBO score before the Senate gets a hold of it though.

A nice representation of how badly this bill screws people with pre existing conditions. Maintains Medicaid cuts and tax cuts for the wealthy too.

Tillerson: US won't insist nations adopt US values, rights

Sen. Casey is live-tweeting Trump & Co. sending a 5 year old and his mother to their deaths: https://twitter.com/senbobcasey/status/859801158482882560

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ May 3, 2017 -> 02:11 PM) ESPN takes the most fees per cable subscriber...more than HBO, Showtime, etc. $7 per subscriber. That's a TON! My guess is the cable companies are starting to squeeze them a bit. Just an FYI. Heard something on the radio last week that cable/satellite subs have dropped from something like 110 million to 80 million. ESPN is still making tons of revenue, but they've also got a bunch of really expensive broadcast rights contracts.

I still have no idea why Tim Kaine was Clinton's VP. Who the hell was he supposed to appeal to?

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ May 2, 2017 -> 02:57 PM) Boy am I hyped for that field I'd be interested in seeing a Franken campaign tbh QUOTE (Heads22 @ May 2, 2017 -> 08:58 PM) I honestly think Booker is the favorite at the moment.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ May 3, 2017 -> 10:52 AM) And thats brutal. Doing the financial comparison between my wife going back to teaching and just staying home is awful. yeah if we do decide to have two (which would be a absolute cap), we'll have to seriously consider whether it's worth it for my wife to keep working or to take a few years off until at least one is in regular school.

QUOTE (Yoda @ May 3, 2017 -> 08:53 AM) You can't beat that. The gf and I have been lucky so far that our employers have been flexible with our schedules. I work 6-2:30p and she works 4p-8p. It's worked out pretty well. It's still $300+ a week if we're looking at 45-50 hours (7:30 drop-off, 4:30 pickup), ugh. At least we get a 10 week or so relief during the summers since my wife's a teacher.

My wife really wants the socialization aspect, and my cop cousin warned us off of home day care places (he gets lots of calls out to them for various issues). I think the couple of places we've checked out work out to about $6/hour.

You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you long-ish (and non-partisan) Oatmeal comic on the "backfire effect" and how our brains react to things that challenge our worldview, and why sometimes presenting evidence against someone's worldview only strengthens their belief in it.

Good Lord child care is expensive

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ May 2, 2017 -> 03:35 PM) *enters thread *looks around at the last few pages *backs slowly out of thread