Today in the World’s Most Farcical Legislative Body
House Republicans reiterate their demands for the administration’s TOP-SECRET PLAN to mitigate the damage should the judicial arm of the Republican Party decide to wreck a majority of the country’s health insurance exchanges:
A Republican House subcommittee chairman is accusing the Obama administration of secretly preparing a fallback strategy if the Supreme Court strikes down a major piece of its healthcare reform law later this year, even as officials publicly maintain that no plan exists.
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, says federal officials are hiding a roughly 100-page document on the looming court case. The case, King v. Burwell, could cut off ObamaCare subsidies in three-quarters of states and potentially collapse the national marketplace.
Pitts confronted the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the plan, which he says is being circulated among senior officials, for the first time on Wednesday.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said she does not know of a planning document.
“This is a document I’m not aware of,” she said in response to Pitts’s questions, before moving on to outlining the negative affects of a ruling against the law. ”We believe we do not have any administrative actions,” she reiterated.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) pressed Burwell further.
“I take you at your word that you haven’t seen the plan, but don’t you think it’s prudent that there should be a plan?” he said. “I hope I don’t have a primary opponent, I hope I don’t have a general election opponent, but I have a plan in case I do.”
Burwell held her line.
“We don’t have an administrative action that we could take so the question of having a plan, we don’t have any administrative action that we believe could undo the damage,” Burwell replied.
“The administration is just going to hold up your hands and say we surrender?” Barton added.
“We believe the law as it stands is how it should be implemented,” Burwell replied.
Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) repeatedly also pressed Burwell on whether she knew of the planning document. Burwell did not categorically deny its existence, saying only that she does not know of it.
“If there is this document, and you know it, I would certainly like to know about a document, because I don’t have knowledge of a 100-page document,” Burwell said.
When Burwell again dove into the negative affects of a Supreme Court ruling against the law, Lance interrupted, “That’s filibustering.”
“I’m not familiar with the document you’re referring to,” Burwell replied.
Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) came to Burwell’s defense, noting that Republicans are supporting the high court challenge.
“It’s somewhat ironic that my Republican friends are demanding that the administration fix problems that they themselves created,” Engel said.
It should be noted that this TOP-SECRET 100 PAGE DOCUMENT also contains THE NAME OF EVERY COMMUNIST IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR BENGHAZI! and RICHARD NIXON’S SECRET PLAN TO END THE VIETNAM WAR and A FULL TRANSCRIPT OF MICHELLE OBAMA’S WHITEY TAPE.
In fairness, the idea that House Republicans would have their own contingency plan is even more ridiculous than this, so why not.
Joe “Slime” Pitts, pride of the Chester County Republican Party. “Fine, so you don’t have a plan. Now tell me what the plan is.”
Needs a “So, when did you stop fucking goats, Rep Pitts?”
…they talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed…
From Pitts’ favourite Zep song, Kashmir.
How I wish she had produced 100 pages with ELECT MORE AND BETTER DEMOCRATS NOT THESE MORON REPUBLICANS printed on very line.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
All work and no play makes Hillary a dull girl.
Stay out of room 237.
Whats the plan to get a better electorate to elect more and better Democrats?
Well, if Scotus says the Moops invaded Spain, lots of folks will lose their premium tax credits. This includes folks making as much as $45,960 for individuals or $94,200 for a family of four.
I hear that voters tend to vote based on their economic self-interest…and the obvious solution here is for States to set up their own exchanges.
Dems should run on that.
…scribbled on the back of Obummers long-form birth certificate, vault copy.
*sigh* Democrats and messaging, a match made in hell. How about this:
“Congressman Pitts, every state that has failed to set up an exchange has a Republican governor who has refused to participate. If your party is truly concerned with the plight of those citizens who will lose their access to healthcare, I suggest you have a discussion with your colleagues and ask them to get with the program.”
or
“Congressman Pitts, the ACA can easily be fixed by amending the bill to allow the Federal government to provide exchanges for those states who refuse to do so. Are you willing to go on the record saying you would support such an amendment?”
While your second bit is perfect, there are plenty of Democratic states – such as California – that use the federal exchange. Why the hell wouldn’t they?
Freedom.
We’re Democrats – we hate Freedom. I’m reliably told that.
How come no airport has been renamed “Freedom International”? Logan, I’m looking at you.
well, Newark was renamed “newark liberty” and of course national is called “reagan national” which is gaelic for “freedom”
It’s got to be Philadelphia Freedom
Where else would Benny land his jets?
California has its own marketplace. Illinois doesn’t, and while we have a Republican governor right now, we didn’t until last month.
My state, Missouri, has a Dem governor (the sadly ineffectual Nixon) and a rabid GOP majority in the lege — thus no marketplace. I don’t think Nixon’s even suggested a state marketplace. The goopers are busying themselves passing bills to give us the same tax cuts that have done such wonders next door in Kansas.
The goopers are busying themselves passing bills to give us the same tax cuts that have done such wonders next door in Kansas.
When they’re not busy bullying each other to suicide . . .
They’re just returning the favor from Kansas/Nebraska days.
California has its own marketplace
My bad. I thought I saw a map the other day of endangered states with them listed.
California has its own exchange called Covered California unless something changed recently.
DN
They were still Covered California when I talked to them last Friday.
Well, that’s what they say. You wouldn’t expect them to come right out and say that they’re now Covert California, would you?
My bad, substitute “the vast majority of states” for every state.
I doubt if Burnwell can say anything that partisan given that she is employed be the federal government.
Good thing the preznit and all tjose congresscritters work for private foundations, so they’re free to say anything they want.
[apologies if I missed a /snark tag]
If Dems only had a spine.
Where ever there is a GOP talking point in need of uncritical publication, The Hill is there.
Has anyone around here read Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story? Remember the bit where the Chinese finance minister describes the US as “an unstable, barely governable country”? Well…
These yahoos make the clown car look like serious and responsible leaders.
#notallclowncars
I like it.
Translation: You won’t hand over the super-secret plan to fix our fuck up, eh? Well then the fuck up is your fault.
I have to admit it is a pretty awesome tack to take. I guess the campaign spin will be that the GOP tried as hard as possible to make sure the administration was ready. But, noooo. The lawbreakers were dead set on breaking the law instead of fixing it.
I really hope that there is some clever administrative fix possible but I can’t imagine what it would be.
DN
That will be brilliant plan if a majority of the population holds its breath until its dumb enough to vote for Joe Pitts. Or at least forget which party voted 50+ times to repeal Obamacare outright.
The clever administrative fix is already in. It’s called applying common sense to typos in a document.
just example eight million six hundred fifty thousand and one of the ongoing republican effort to portray obama as an incompetent thug. sort of like a failed soprano family member, only thinner and darker
Of course Republicans want Democrats to create something… it will then be announced to the world as the Republican alternative to Obamacare.
I imagine a bunch of Republicans saying “please help us, pretty please” to the Democratic politicians.
A one-sentence bill to add “[…] or 1321” to the statute would do the trick.
Like with the Department of Homeland Security budget?
Didn’t the Republicans fold sweetly on that one!
Does the White House have a secret plan to fight inflation?!!!!!!
Why won’t the White House tell us about its secret plan to fight inflation!!!!!
Oh, I love Netflix!!!
That was a great scene.
“So, the administration doesn’t have a plan to fight inflation?”
Shorter Republicans:
You refuse to tell me how you will clean up after my vandalism, so the vandalism is all your fault.
It shows how you’re not serious about governing, failing to plan for the disasters we create. Also, how can we rant about how unAmerican your plan is if you don’t have one?
I expect that the administration will funnel money to ACORN so they provide medical care. I really don’t understand why this is fanciful, nor do I understand how Benghazi or Nixon’s plan to end the war fit in.
Barefoot Maoist doctors, from China.
And Cubans, lots of Cubans.
“After I murder my parents, how do you plan to provide foster care for me?”
You mean, “What is your secret plan to provide foster care to me”? The secret part makes it more sinister.
It’s a shame that Secretary Burwell has to be so polite. I’d tell them where they can find the “secret plan”. They’re so stupid that I cannot believe anyone would vote for them. Why would you reward a party which is openly hostile to making health insurance accessible to citizens? It just doesn’t make sense.
Perhaps Republicans have figured out that if SCOTUS guts the ACA, Democrats will be smart enough to use this as a rallying cry for 2016.
It’s because that the only news sources that they trust have consistently lied to them about what the ACA does. They’re under the impression that the ACA exists for the sole purpose of taking their hard earned money and using it exclusively for the benefit of Those People…just like everything else Democrats want to do, ever.
The voting patterns of people electing Republicans make sense when you realize that they’re firmly convinced that even horrible Republicans are preferable to horrors that Democrats want to inflict on the U.S. I learned to recognize this when I realized that it was my own perspective with the parties reversed. Of course I’m entirely rational in my knowledge that the Republican agenda is to create a Robber Baron Dystopia…
They wouldn’t put it that way, but the preponderance of data we have suggests such an outcome.
IIRC, the truth of an assertion is an airtight affirmative defense against libel…
I think it’s worth noting that being lied to isn’t enough. It’s that they’re being lied to in a way that panders to their deep-seated racism.
Liz Goodwin @lizcgoodwin:
Scalia said he believed Congress would fix the law if the subsidies are are struck dowm. “This congress?” The SG asked to lols.
I bet the Solicitor General could have gotten even more LOLs by asking Scalia “In what sense of ‘fix’?”
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