Of course I remember all this and if worthless Ryan had any fucking balls, along with Mitchie, this could all be fucking over or on its way to being SUBSTANTIALLY over.

Don't you realize this because speaking of my nose it is as obvious as the BIG nose on my face!!??

They did the right thing in my estimation, but there was no politically good answer once the bill was introduced by Ryan and Trump threw his weight behind it.

It shouldn't be assumed that those two want the same things as we do, or Trump does, or the electorate voted for.  I don't see a lack of courage, I see a lack of interest, or perhaps a lack of conviction. 

Despite the massive win in November, the Republican party remains divided.

Between the religious right, hardcore small government republicans, moderates, the country club republicans, and the good old fashioned RINO's, it is hard to get anyone to agree on anything in the party.  Any speaker is going to be put in the impossible position of trying to bring these groups together to agree on anything.

All I want from the republicans is to confirm Trump's conservative justices.  Beyond that, I don't care if they sit around and do nothing for the next 4 years. Hell, that probably would be preferred. T

his means the speaker is irrelevant to me, since the house doesn't do jack for the supreme court.

The worst I can remember was House Speaker Jim Wright ('87-'89). The guy was a crook, finally got caught, and had to resign.

Well NO SHIT!!??

That is why I am PISSED............he needs to grow a set of balls and do what the VOTERS WANT!!!

I admit that the SCOTUS pick was great but, shit, DO SOMETHING RYAN AND MITCHIE!!!

I think there's a chance they'll get something done.
I read a piece which suggested that if people didn't buy insurance then their "tax credit" should be paid to an insurance company.
If the person got sick or was injured the money paid to the insurer would be applied to the insurance premium.
Presumably if they didn't decide to get insurance the insurer would pocket the money.

That's a plan that important, powerful interests could get behind!
Campaign contributions would flow.
Politicians would see the light cash.
The program would become the law of the land.
Fortunes would be made.
Other fortunes would be saved.

Congress would have fulfilled its true purpose and its solemn duty.

Welp I can see who the next target of the Bannon/Breitbart rage machine is...

I think he has different loyalties.  He doesn't work for the voters.  I've seen no evidence that he anything other than a globalist stooge.

He was hated here long before Bannon and Breitbart suggested it should be so.

Ryan was in our RINO crosshairs as soon as Boehner started looking for a replacement.

How does that accomplish anything different than single payer would?  The US tax payers foot the bill for the pool, the main difference being it is filtered through the government and then insurance companies.

There's alleged video of Ryan sucking Boner off!  At this point I believe it!

And what exactly is that with regards to Obamacare?  

Half the voters (Dems and fat chunk of indies) like it.  Let's ignore those.   Among the other half, 1/3 want no government in healthcare at all, 1/3 want private insurance plus a government safety net (i.e., Medicare/Medicaide, aka, pre-Obamacare), and another 1/3 aren't sure what they want, as long as it isn't Obamacare.

That's what Ryan was (and still is) faced with.  No matter what he did, he was going to get no more than 2/3 of that 50%.  In other words, 33% House support for anything.  We were all snowed into thinking that the GOP was united in dumping Obamacare, because of the number of bills they passed knowing that they would never make it past the Senate, much less the President.  Now, with the Senate and the White House in GOP hands, their votes have consequences.

So, you can argue that Ryan sucks because he isn't a far-right nationalist, but you can't argue he sucks because he can't get moderates and conservatives to drop their "we want all or nothing" approach.  I expect the failures of tax reform and infrastructure spending will prove that the GOP is too fractured to govern, independents are going to remember that at least the Democrats could pass shit, the House flips in 2018 and the Senate and WH (as long as the Dems don't step on their dicks in the primaries) are back in Dem hands in 2020.

By that point, Obamacare will have succeeded in torpedoing much of the private health insurance market, and we will get single payer, funded by cutting the DOD budget down to the NATO standard of % of GDP.

He and Boner are about the same.

Oh, I am pissed at Trump also over this FUCKING FIASCO.

He fucked up.

What I am saying in a nutshell is Ryan could have been more aggressive, that would have brought enough on board to pass in the House............then Mitchie and the boys would have at it.

He could have AT LEAST done that!!!

Get this fucking thing going........................don't come up with a plan that cannot even pass the majority of the GOP held House for god's sake.

"The worst?"

I'd nominate John Boehner long before nominating Ryan. You'd really prefer that Ryan stepped down and Boehner came back?

It moves one step closer to government paid, government controlled medical treatment by purchasing the support of important interest groups. Such support is crucial to successfully implementing the plan.

Relieving large employers of most of the obligation to pay for the cost of their employees' and their employees' families' medical treatment by "sharing the burden" with the entire society is the point of the exercise.

Sometimes that is described as "leveling the playing field" so those employers compete effectively in the global market with companies located in countries which already have government paid medical treatment.

Everyone supports a level playing field, right?

maybe there is a video of a daisy chain between Boehner, Ryan and Obama, it would make sense.

In principle they re right. Government doesn't belong in the health insurance industry. BUT, Obamacare DID put the government as far into the health care industry as far as you can go, without fully nationalizing health insurance. Getting out without destroying the industry is going to take a more nuanced approach. Sticking to your guns on an all or nothing strategy is a foolish approach when dealing with a leviathan like Obamacare. 

You make an interesting point. Did this bill fail because Ryan didn't exercise sufficient leadership to get the Freedom Caucus on board, or did the cats just refuse to be herded?

Did they do a bad job of assembling and selling the plan? It did seem like they didn't have a plan out there for a very long time, and then when they released the plan they tried to rush it through. 

My concern is now about the other issues; tax cuts, budget, The Wall, infrastructure, etc. Is the Freedom Caucus going to dig in their heels on everything (Border Adjustment Tax? NO WAY! KILL THE BILL! GIVE US EVERYTHING OR GIVE US NOTHING!!!) or is Ryan going to be able to get some compromises in order to move MAGA forward? 

Man. All that threeway sucking for a healthcare plan the President endorsed wholeheartedly.  That seems like a lot of work for a done deal.

Are you really blaming the Freedom Caucus for the President's inability to lead?

Is it entirely the President's inability to lead, or is it partially whiney little babies who got elected promising to stop Obama and now have absolutely no idea what to do now that Obama is gone and they actually have to start undoing Obama's legacy without bulldozing markets and systems that Obama made Americans dependent on?