Thus far, the Senate Democrats have done ok in a difficult time--how to slow or stop Trump when they have a minority. Not easy and burning down the government is something that a party that believes in governance cannot do. But selling out Americans on health care to get a bipartisan effort on Russian sanctions is going way too far.
The deal is this: the Senate agrees to keep sanctions on Russia and the Dems agree not to obstruct too much on health care. This seems to be exactly backwards for both moral and political reasons.
First, AHCA will get Americans killed. Sorry, but there is no way to avoid this basic truth--people losing access to health care will lead to needless deaths. The lives of millions of Americans will be hurt, one way or another, by gutting ACA. More money for premiums, more people losing insurance because of pre-existing conditions, less medicaid money so that kids and poor folks get bounced. Just awful. So, the toll of not fighting AHCA is going to be huge.
Second, will Americans vote in 2018 and 2020 based on how much we sanction Russia? Or will they vote on health care? Yeah.
So, this is both bad and dumb. I really don't know what the Dems are thinking--maybe they just suck at obstruction and this is the way to turn lemon in lemonade. Maybe they want AHCA to pass so that the GOP loses in 2018/20. Maybe so, but the point of being in office is not just to win the next election but to protect your voters and those who didn't vote for you now. I am easily outraged this days, but this is really epitome of outrageousness.
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