So Let Me See If I Have This Right

 The Big Ugly Bill killed the ACA. It passed because of “reconciliation,” meaning, basically: the filibuster doesn’t apply. 

Democrats were trying to save the ACA from the BUB, but Republicans decided that was a hill they would die on. Democrats don’t have the votes to pass anything; just to filibuster it in the Senate. The only Republican to recognize this was a problem for the GOP was: MTG.

May you live in interesting times.

Or Democrats could shut down the government, and play chicken with the Republicans. Except the Republicans were willing to have the head on collision.💥 

Democrats were never going to get a vote that would save the ACA. Not before 2027, anyway. Dese are de conditions dat prevail. Trying to blame the Republicans for starving 16 million people was not going to give 16 million people even the semblance of a Thanksgiving dinner. But now we acknowledge that meal is much more expensive this year than last. A lot of people already knew that, but at least it’s in the national discourse. And 16 million people may still miss Thanksgiving dinner. For what? And what would it have been for if government was still unfunded?

We also found out a lot of “right thinking” people want to see the filibuster eliminated; people who denounce Trump and all his works. But it was the lack of a filibuster that got us into this mess.

Maybe the solution is not in Senate rules or who you think is “fighting,” and how well they are, or are not doing that. Maybe the solution is to get people to see the problems begin and end with Trump. Which seems to be the one big simple answer to how last Tuesday happened. 

Because, honestly, the electorate caused this problem, and at this point only the electorate can remedy it.

OTOH, the Speaker now needs a new excuse to not reconvene the House and swear in one more vote to release the Epstein files. Whatever will he do? Shit? Or go blind?

Every cloud has a silver lining. 

(And the complaints that the 8 Senators were not up for reelection (and so voted the way they did) is really ludicrous. That’s the way the Senate has operated from the beginning. The House is up for replacement every 2 years, but only 1/3rd of the Senate is on that calendar at a time. And retiring Senators still get to vote until their term is up. You might as well complain that the sun came up this morning and so made this day possible.)