MUST WATCH: Leaders from nine major pharmaceutical companies—Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi—discuss moves to lower prescription drug prices for Americans.

Completely unprecedented. pic.twitter.com/sBjCfKO41Z

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 19, 2025

They're all kissing his ring a like he's a king or something.

Big C said:

---

The good thing about ACA was that it largely got rid of the "pre-existing conditions" problem and just in general increased the number of Americans who had health insurance.

Where it fell short was in not driving down medical costs.

It needs to be built upon, or perhaps significantly reworked. This is way beyond my level of expertise, but I'm thinking now that maybe it was a yet another career niche that I missed out on.

---

And the thing about medical costs is that they were rising, quite rapidly, before the ACA took effect and still are now. So did the ACA cause that? Or did it just not reverse the trend? There is evidence that it at least slowed down the increase.

https://econofact.org/factbrief/fact-check-have-healthcare-costs-risen-faster-since-the-affordable-care-act-was-passed

The ACA made a lot of compromises to get more people covered while also not being a "socialized medicine" takeover of health insurance. Personally, I'm fine with much larger government involvement in health insurance (like almost every other wealthy country does it), but the more conservative members of Congress (Democrats and Republicans) weren't having it. So we got this. It's better than before but still needs improvement.

The problem for Republicans is that the only "improvement" they will accept is to drive down costs by throwing more people off of insurance. They don't have anything else, because anything else is more socialism, and people losing health coverage on your watch is a massive political poison pill. So they will do nothing. I look forward to the day when they can prove me wrong about this.

The ACA is the biggest cost cutting legislation in our lifetimes

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01478

+1000

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

Fox News: JUST IN: President Trump announces that nine of the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers have agreed to offer "flagship" drugs at "heavily discounted" prices."

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

It's a twofer: Just as RFK Jr and his staff are making people sick with their policies, Trump is torpedoing their healthcare. That should purge a few voters of Red state rolls.

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Excuses, excuses.

Aunburdened said:

---

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

---

I provided my evidence for how the health-care system is at least slightly better since Obamacare was implemented. You are throwing out claims and then complaining there is no "honest analysis" out there because Democrats are covering it up or something. Okay, then how do you know your claims are correct? Show me your evidence.

I'm not being facetious here. I want to actually see the basis behind your claims that health care was better before the ACA. Right now you just state it like it's a settled fact.

sycasey said:

---

Aunburdened said:

---

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

---

I provided my evidence for how the health-care system is at least slightly better since Obamacare was implemented. You are throwing out claims and then complaining there is no "honest analysis" out there because Democrats are covering it up or something. Okay, then how do you know your claims are correct? Show me your evidence.

I'm not being facetious here. I want to actually see the basis behind your claims that health care was better before the ACA. Right now you just state it like it's a settled fact.

---

You are never not being fake. You just pretend you are.

Aunburdened said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Aunburdened said:

---

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

---

I provided my evidence for how the health-care system is at least slightly better since Obamacare was implemented. You are throwing out claims and then complaining there is no "honest analysis" out there because Democrats are covering it up or something. Okay, then how do you know your claims are correct? Show me your evidence.

I'm not being facetious here. I want to actually see the basis behind your claims that health care was better before the ACA. Right now you just state it like it's a settled fact.

---

You are never not being fake. You just pretend you are.

---

So you have no evidence. Thanks!

sycasey said:

---

Aunburdened said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Aunburdened said:

---

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

---

I provided my evidence for how the health-care system is at least slightly better since Obamacare was implemented. You are throwing out claims and then complaining there is no "honest analysis" out there because Democrats are covering it up or something. Okay, then how do you know your claims are correct? Show me your evidence.

I'm not being facetious here. I want to actually see the basis behind your claims that health care was better before the ACA. Right now you just state it like it's a settled fact.

---

You are never not being fake. You just pretend you are.

---

So you have no evidence. Thanks!

---

See? Fake request for basis of belief followed by smarmy reply. That's the first down "run up the middle" play in the sycasey playbook.

And this is why I don't bother. This was going to be your response, regardless. Evidence in the Ukraine thread never moves you. Evidence about COVID being man-made didn't move you. Why would I ever waste time trying to convince you of anything when you just dismiss any evidence that counters your preconceived notions?

Thing is though, long before we had evidence that we were lied to about the COVID vaccines, a reasonable person anecdotally could have asked themselves the question "Why are people still getting sick after vaccinating when they told us it stops the spread?" At that point, no articles had been written that I could show you proving that the vaccines were promoted under false pretenses, but lived experience showed that it was bull***** Eventually, it became so obvious that people started exposing the carefully constructed propaganda that you took as "evidence."

So yeah, liberals can continue writing their articles about how health care is bad, but it would have been much worse without Obamacare and I'll continue using common sense about how much worse health care is now and you can pretend you're smart.

Aunburdened said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Aunburdened said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Aunburdened said:

---

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

---

I provided my evidence for how the health-care system is at least slightly better since Obamacare was implemented. You are throwing out claims and then complaining there is no "honest analysis" out there because Democrats are covering it up or something. Okay, then how do you know your claims are correct? Show me your evidence.

I'm not being facetious here. I want to actually see the basis behind your claims that health care was better before the ACA. Right now you just state it like it's a settled fact.

---

You are never not being fake. You just pretend you are.

---

So you have no evidence. Thanks!

---

See? Fake request for basis of belief followed by smarmy reply. That's the first down "run up the middle" play in the sycasey playbook.

And this is why I don't bother. This was going to be your response, regardless. Evidence in the Ukraine thread never moves you. Evidence about COVID being man-made didn't move you. Why would I ever waste time trying to convince you of anything when you just dismiss any evidence that counters your preconceived notions?

Thing is though, long before we had evidence that we were lied to about the COVID vaccines, a reasonable person anecdotally could have asked themselves the question "Why are people still getting sick after vaccinating when they told us it stops the spread?" At that point, no articles had been written that I could show you proving that the vaccines were promoted under false pretenses, but lived experience showed that it was bull***** Eventually, it became so obvious that people started exposing the carefully constructed propaganda that you took as "evidence."

So yeah, liberals can continue writing their articles about how health care is bad, but it would have been much worse without Obamacare and I'll continue using common sense about how much worse health care is now and you can pretend you're smart.

---

Believe it or not, I would actually be willing to look at your evidence. I looked at the evidence in the Ukraine thread too. I do not find it convincing, but I tried to give it a fair shake. As for COVID being man-made . . . I don't know that I ever denied this was a possibility. If I argued against it, I argued that there wasn't conclusive evidence either way. I didn't ever say it was NOT man-made. If you can find an example of me saying that, I will happily admit to being wrong.

See this is part of the problem with talking to you. Very often you seem to substitute "sycasey believes" with "generic liberal I made up in my head believes" and I have to argue against THAT instead of you addressing my actual beliefs. If you could start doing the latter we might have more productive exchanges. I don't think our actual desired policy goals are all that far apart. We disagree on methods more than anything.

Where does your family go for treatment of a serious medical condition requiring surgery or ongoing treatment?

If UCSF and Stanford Medical would lie to us about the lethal nature of the COVID vaccine, then their medical advice isn't trustworthy period.

Shocking! 🙄 Jared Kushner’s firm just ditched a $500 million luxury hotel project in Serbia following a major bribery probe involving government officials. https://t.co/c7bJjKfd9k pic.twitter.com/r43AK3uCWs

— Annie (@AnnieForTruth) December 19, 2025

Presudent Trump is proposing these new reduced medication costs:

Blood thinner: $750 to *$16*
HIV: $1,500 to $217
Hep B medication: $1,400 to $413
Hep C: $25,000 to $2,500

This is for everyone just not Medicare.

DiabloWags said:

---

PAC-10-BEAR said:

---

cal83dls79 said:

---

Notice anything missing?

---

Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries apologizing to the nation for the extended shutdown?

---

How could that happen since the GOP controls BOTH the Senate and the House?
Or were there some Republicans that didn't want to see their constituents shafted with ACA subsidies expiring?

My guess is that you won't be able to answer the question.
You'll just "answer" it with yet another question like you usually do.

---

Republicans control the Senate with 53 seats but needed 60 to end the shutdown. It would take seven Democrats to agree to reopen but they repeatedly refused.

Aunburdened said:

---

Big C said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

movielover said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Still waiting for the conservative health care plan that will fix all of this.

---

Choice?

---

As I said: show me the plan. Among Republicans, only Mitt Romney ever did it and Obamacare took a lot of those ideas.

---

Obama once said our health care plans would be the cost of a cable bill. You can keep your doctor. Etc.

---

Trump is in charge with a Republican Congress. They will fix these issues now, right?

---

Too many Democrat messes to clean up, disaster.

---

Sounds like you have your official talking points ready to go for when the GOP-controlled government doesn't do jack squat to improve health care. Good advance planning!

---

This talking point would be so much better for Dems if the vast majority of the country didn't prefer the health care they had in 2009 to the health care they have now.

No, I don't expect the Republicans to come up with a good health care plan because Republicans are not and have never been interested in maintaining a strong social safety net. But if you look with a critical eye at the Democrats, nearly everything they ever passed that improved the social safety net was done when FDR was President, which coming up on almost 100 years ago. In fact, they've worked much harder to destroy the safety net than to build it up or did we forget Bill Clinton's war on welfare?

The one and only thing they ever tried to do was health care and they ****ed that up so badly that now everybody has high deductible plans they didn't have before, limited choice on which doctors will accept their insurance, and worse job choices because employers want to avoid giving people full-time employment so they don't have to give benefits.

But of course, you won't read any honest analysis of this out there because Democrats and the media have to defend Obamacare like it was this great achievement without ever looking at the other countries that don't have medical bankruptcies because they treat public health as a social good. Every article written on the subject is "Yeah, health care is awful, but it'd be so much worse without Obamacare." No, Obamacare made things WORSE. But because Congress doesn't do anything anymore and the President only cares about waging wars around the world to protect the business interests of corporations and their profits, everything continues to get worse while morons on this board fight over which side sucks less.

---

I honestly don't know enough about the healthcare situation to affirm or repudiate anything you wrote about ACA above. However, there is one thing that do I know: My side sucks less!

sycasey said:

---

The problem for Republicans is that the only "improvement" they will accept is to drive down costs by throwing more people off of insurance. They don't have anything else, because anything else is more socialism, and people losing health coverage on your watch is a massive political poison pill. So they will do nothing. I look forward to the day when they can prove me wrong about this.

---

The Republicans have only had 15 years to get their health care act together and they haven't, which is shameful. That said, the idea their plan is to drive down costs by throwing people off healthcare is left wing talking point nonsense.

dajo9 said:

---

The ACA is the biggest cost cutting legislation in our lifetimes

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01478

---

This article is laughably bad.

Cal88 said:

---

Shocking! 🙄 Jared Kushner’s firm just ditched a $500 million luxury hotel project in Serbia following a major bribery probe involving government officials. https://t.co/c7bJjKfd9k pic.twitter.com/r43AK3uCWs

— Annie (@AnnieForTruth) December 19, 2025

---

Lighten up on Jared. He has criminality in his DNA just like Rudy does. It is not their fault. A zebra can only be expected to act as a zebra.

tequila4kapp said:

---

sycasey said:

---

The problem for Republicans is that the only "improvement" they will accept is to drive down costs by throwing more people off of insurance. They don't have anything else, because anything else is more socialism, and people losing health coverage on your watch is a massive political poison pill. So they will do nothing. I look forward to the day when they can prove me wrong about this.

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The Republicans have only had 15 years to get their health care act together and they haven't, which is shameful. That said, the idea their plan is to drive down costs by throwing people off healthcare is left wing talking point nonsense.

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Well, my contention is that they have no plan (except when Mitt Romney was a governor, and Obamacare was based on that). They say they want to drive down costs, but IMO there isn't a way to do that except with either (1) more socialized medicine or (2) tossing more people off of insurance, mostly the high-risk people who can't get on a company plan or some other group insurance. They don't want to do #1, so . . . what else is there?

If there is some other way, then I'm all ears, but I'm taking the long conservative silence on this question as a tacit admission that there isn't.

So here's where I get to remind people that although I'm certainly right of center I'm not a Republican. I don't especially like trying to defend them because they are not my team. They have had a lot of time to do something and they haven't. This feeds into my own biases against them - the elected federal reps are collectively a bunch of political opportunistic hacks, largely without seriously held beliefs or values, and in any number of ways this manifests as flip flopping and doing nothing.

Re HC I am aware of stuff because I live in a blue state with leaders who regularly use that "kick off phrase" so I have looked into it, and it's false / disingenuous. Quick version…20 hour work/volunteer/education requirement for healthy working age people "kicks people off Medicare" … the partial enforcement of an existing unenforced reimbursement rule (state TO fed) "cuts" state funding and "kicks people off"…and rule changes which work against states providing free HC to illegals "kicks people off" (yes, this does happen…in OR we spend 1.4 Billion on free HC for 'migrants without regard to legal status' via the Oregon Health plan (ACA), twice the amount we spend on state police).

HC solutions are beyond my pay scale. The Libertarian in me says free market solutions. But I've also been noodling on a modified version of Medicare for all where the fed govt covers preventive care and we buy (effectively) Medicare plan B type policies for the rest. Those are very diametrically opposed solution sets. As I said, I don't know.

PAC-10-BEAR said:

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DiabloWags said:

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PAC-10-BEAR said:

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cal83dls79 said:

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Notice anything missing?

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Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries apologizing to the nation for the extended shutdown?

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How could that happen since the GOP controls BOTH the Senate and the House?
Or were there some Republicans that didn't want to see their constituents shafted with ACA subsidies expiring?

My guess is that you won't be able to answer the question.
You'll just "answer" it with yet another question like you usually do.

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Republicans control the Senate with 53 seats but needed 60 to end the shutdown. It would take seven Democrats to agree to reopen but they repeatedly refused.

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Rational adults would have negotiated a compromise to avoid the shutdown, but rational adults in Washington DC are in short supply these days.

tequila4kapp said:

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So here's where I get to remind people that although I'm certainly right of center I'm not a Republican. I don't especially like trying to defend them because they are not my team. They have had a lot of time to do something and they haven't. This feeds into my own biases against them - the elected federal reps are collectively a bunch of political opportunistic hacks, largely without seriously held beliefs or values, and in any number of ways this manifests as flip flopping and doing nothing.

Re HC I am aware of stuff because I live in a blue state with leaders who regularly use that "kick off phrase" so I have looked into it, and it's false / disingenuous. Quick version…20 hour work/volunteer/education requirement for healthy working age people "kicks people off Medicare" … the partial enforcement of an existing unenforced reimbursement rule (state TO fed) "cuts" state funding and "kicks people off"…and rule changes which work against states providing free HC to illegals "kicks people off" (yes, this does happen…in OR we spend 1.4 Billion on free HC for 'migrants without regard to legal status' via the Oregon Health plan (ACA), twice the amount we spend on state police).

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That's not the kind of "kick people off" I'm talking about. I'm talking about what existed before the ACA, which is that if you lost your company plan and wanted to get insured again but you once had cancer or any other "pre-existing condition," you were out of luck. Better be ready to pay full price for all procedures. Or if your insurance later discovered that you had one of those conditions that you hadn't disclosed before, they could kick you off without paying for the treatment you already got and put you in bankruptcy. It was monstrous.

But the thing is, there was a reason those people were kept off the individual marketplace: they are more expensive to insure! Obamacare tried to make compromises within the system to introduce the requirement that insurance cover everyone and not be able to to turn people away, but it doesn't completely solve the cost problem. It's still a pretty complicated and unwieldy health-care system in this country. I don't see a way out of that other than (1) further socializing the system with more government intervention or (2) letting insurance companies resume with kicking people off of their coverage for pre-existing conditions and the like (the libertarian answer). If conservatives have another answer other than (2) I am still all ears.

His binary choices leaves out other options. President Trump is working to bring down prescription drug costs, I've read mixed reviews about how to enforce said mandates / EOs. Obama left them out of ACA so he wouldn't have to fight their PR $$$ / message.

DEMAGOGUE
dem a gogue


noun
a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
"a gifted demagogue with particular skill in manipulating the press"

No new wars, 8 peace deals, closed the border, $10-20 Trillion in new investments, some manufacturing coming home, including pharmaceutical and chip production, car and steel plants expanding, tariff revenue exploded, inflation down, Real Wages up.