The UniParty is sly, I would say professionally and expertly so, and before readers feel the need to point out the obvious – when it comes to legislation, yes, I am professionally cynical.

The reason is simple, having trained ourselves to see when the pea is never under the shell, the legislative conversations that really matter are always behind a Potemkin Village called K-Street.

You have to know the unwritten legislative rules of the UniParty as they have been evidenced for almost 15 years to understand the ruse.

♦ First, the reason a vote, any vote, is “announced”, and just doesn’t take place, is because it provides the controlled opposition time to frame their anti-(fill_in_the-blank) talking points.  This is by design.  When a legislative vote is “announced” it is a dog-whistle call out to the institutional lobbyists that the legislation will be rail-roaded and ultimately fail.

(more…)

Well, don’t say we didn’t predict this reality.  The Democrats are smartly not waiting for any recovery efforts by Republicans; and immediately following the failure of President Trump’s healthcare repeal and replacement approach, Senator Bernie Sanders begins putting their ‘single provider’ alternative together.

(Story Link)

The strategy is, unfortunately, brilliant.  When Obamacare further collapses, and all Americans are being further crushed by the skyrocketing costs, at exactly the moment when the American electorate are at their most frustrated and everyone is in crisis mode – whammo, here’s the solution.
All of the previous opposition to single-provider has been kicked out of the Democrat party.  [Blue Dogs Dispatched] The DNC will unify, as one single voting bloc without a single representative in divergence, behind the Sanders proposal.
As ObamaCare explodes, the factional infighting between the purists in Hillary’s Favorite Republican Caucus and various GOPe proposals will continue.  Directly into this void of leadership will flow the single-provider plan, just as the Democrats and the coordinated media messaging tell the American electorate the solution is right there:

“Medicare for all”.

(more…)

Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe has announced he is giving up membership in Hillary’s Favorite Caucus over their unwillingness to support President Trump:

“I have resigned from the House Freedom Caucus,” Poe said in a statement. “In order to deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions to move this country forward. Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do.
Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective Member of Congress and advocate for the people of Texas. It is time to lead.”  “Some only want to be the party of ‘no’ & would’ve voted against the 10 commandments,” (link)

Congressman Poe’s exit from #NeverTrump leaves 29 remaining members.
We now await the most important person to leave the caucus, the first follower.
(more…)

President Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus appears on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace to discuss the intransigence of the House Freedom #NeverTrump Caucus.

(more…)

Jumpin’ Ju-Ju bones, check out the level of Moonbattery in this exhibit.

CNN’s Michael Smerconish affirming government mandated health insurance by comparison to mandated Home and Auto insurance required by the underwriting lender:

Holy Cats !  Have Pennsylvania liberals really reached that level of cognitive dissonance?
The requirement to take out mortgage insurance policy, or an auto-insurance policy is directly related to the loan underwriter, the private bank or financial institution, mandating you insure them against the risk of loss. You agree to the loan terms.
If you want a loan for the product (house or car), you must insure the lender against catastrophic loss (fire, accident etc.), or your own default on the loan.  In the auto example the state can also demand coverage in the event your behavior with the vehicle produces catastrophic loss to another (ie. uninsured motorist).
This has nothing to do with government forced insurance coverage of your own body or physical health – UNLESS the progressive argument extends to: the government underwrites or loans you your personage; ie. the government owns your physical body.
Is that what Smerconish is arguing here?

Don’t take this the wrong way because I actually like Congressman Louis Gohmert a lot.  However, this sketchy all-over-the-map interview is at an almost Tippy Guam level of  bizzarro.  The sum total of this interview would be exhibit “A” in the sketchy trial of “methinks he doth protest too much”, the Broadway musical.
Um, Louie.. dude. Rather than shout: “he lie”, “he lie”, “heeee lieeeee”; I’m left wondering if your hands or fingers are broken.  Why didn’t Louis Gohmert, a sitting member of congress, just walk over to the Senate and ask the Parliamentarian herself – if he had a question.  Weird.

.
For want of koch nail avoidance, the war was lost.  Louie, have a nice sammich and a diet Koch, then go lay down a bit…. maybe, get some sleep.
(more…)

In the final hours prior to the healthcare debacle, the billionaire Koch Brothers sent a warning to the House Freedom Caucus that they’d better hold the line and kill the ObamaCare repeal or replacement bill, or else.

…”The advocacy groups helmed by Charles and David Koch have unveiled a new pool of money for advertisements, field programs and mailings that would exclude those who vote for the health care bill they oppose on Thursday. The effort, which they described as worth millions of dollars, is an explicit warning to on-the-fence Republicans from one of the most influential players in electoral politics not to cross them”… (more).

Weeks earlier the Billionaire authors (special interests) behind the ObamaCare repeal and replacement, Tom Donohue U.S. CoC et al., warned Speaker Ryan they expected the boundaries established years earlier to be retained.
Two sets of billionaire interests representing: ‘who-pays-the-insurance-premium‘ within the Healthcare issue.
It’s Paul Ryan’s fault, “remove him” some say.  No, it’s the House Freedom Caucus. “Grab the tar and feathers”, others say….
Odd, no?
Odd, because in the aftermath of the fiasco all of the blame-centric attention is focused on Speaker Paul Ryan and/or the House Freedom Caucus – meanwhile the billionaires garner nary a critical side-eye?
Perhaps it’s just too disconcerting of a paradigm shift for the average voter to ask?

Why are two billionaires Charles and David Koch allowed to threaten standing members of congress who are collectively at least supposed to represent the interests of approximately 28 million voters?

Why is Tom Donohue (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President) allowed to threaten the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and author legislation affecting 300+ million?

No-one seems to ask those questions.
(more…)

CTH has fought this for years.  The best thing we can do now is to try and assist people with information that will help them make forward decisions.  It isn’t Paul Ryan’s fault and I’ll explain on that later.  First the foundations:
All DC Republicans and all DC Democrats are the DC UniParty.  The DC UniParty is fueled by special interest donor lobbying money.   The DC UniParty created Obamacare and the DC UniParty wants ObamaCare to remain in place.
For six years we have attempted, and failed, to educate people on the UniParty.  There is only one political party in Washington DC, the UniParty.

In 2009 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Donohue), the AFL-CIO (Trumka), SEIU (Stern), AFSCME together with Wall Street, Big Pharma and Big Healthcare entered into negotiations with a massive White House team to create ObamaCare.   [see the collage above]  Everything after that successfully executed ’09/’10 deal was each organization ensuring the construct remained in place.
(more…)

President Trump, Vice-President Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, stood united in defeat in the Oval Office as President Trump shares his thoughts on the failure of the ObamaCare repeal/replace bill to pass the House of Representatives.
President Trump points out that any future attempt at repairing ObamaCare will necessarily include Democrats. Ultimately that means a much worse future outcome caused by the intransigent CONservative caucus today with their opposition.

President Trump thanks VP Pence, Speaker Paul Ryan and Secretary Tom Price for their united team effort toward the repeal and replace road map created by Secretary Price.  President Trump also affirms his intention not to let Americans suffer as a consequence of the democrat or republican party and their inability to deliver an appropriate healthcare outcome.
Moving forward, any tax legislation will now have to keep the $1 to $2 trillion ObamaCare spending in place; ultimately meaning far less room for comprehensive tax reform.  Again, the intransigent CONservative caucus just dealt a blow to tax cuts – this is “disappointing” to the Trump economic agenda and will ultimately mean lesser job growth.
[TRANSCRIPT] 4:26 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. We were very close, and it was a very, very tight margin. We had no Democrat support. We had no votes from the Democrats. They weren’t going to give us a single vote, so it’s a very difficult thing to do.
(more…)

UPDATE:  3:35pm Speaker Paul Ryan Pulls Bill.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will give a presser at 4:00pm announcing he has pulled the healthcare reform bill.  Ryan saves his own skin by allowing the nest to reassemble. Between 2:30pm and 3:30pm the UniParty wing of the GOP moved to protect itself from sunlight by drawing in more “NO” votes.  Crowding makes sunlight avoidance much easier.
Apparently, faced with the reality the “Yeas” and “Nays” were going to scurry back into the lair of the UniParty nest, President Trump has accepted the bill being pulled.

Costa on MSNBC: Trump says bill won’t be coming back in near future & he’ll see if the Dems want to work with him on healthcare.

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 24, 2017

(more…)