A thought occurred to me as I watched reports of the latest lunacy in Washington. Joy-Ann Reid made a comment that I had thought self-evident. She said that Trump had figured out something the RNC hadn't. That Republicans were in favor of big government (I think she said "huge government") for themselves but nothing for anyone else. You can hear them say, "Of course the government isn't going to take away my health care, they're just going to stop illegal aliens from getting it" (and if they feel they're among friends they'll include Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians and all the rest of the non-WASP's). Anyone who has spent any time at all with Republicans will see the obviousness of this fact.

However, in previous posts I've said words to the effect of, "But they'll get their comeuppance and no one will deserve it more." I think I might be in error here. It is possible, indeed likely I now believe, that Republican politicians may be attempting to have their cake and eat it, too.

Consider this unfolding of events. The Senate passes their version of the health care legislation. The bill then goes into reconciliation, which, surprise, doesn't get completed before November 2018. During that period they start plans to cut taxes (always a hit with the myopic). Republican candidates go home for the 2018 elections and are able to tout Getting Rid of the Black Dude's Healthcare "Repealing Obamacare" and the Marching Morons vote to re-elect them. But then they go back to Washington and realizing that even as stupid as their base is, they'll realize that not only Brown People's healthcare disappeared, but theirs did, too. They have to do things like move grandma back into the house from the nursing home because of cuts to Medicaid. None of this will sit well with them and the Republican candidates know it. If the bill comes out of reconciliation, the Dunce in Chief is sure to sign it and all the horror of Trumpcare will be visited upon their base. That would cost them dearly in 2020. So what to do? Easy. Let the bill die in reconciliation like so many bills before it. Then for 2020 they can say, "Well, we passed it but those damned Democrats stopped it."

Ride out the benefits, such as they are, of Neoliberal policies before applying the Repo whip.

The ACA left millions of people uninsured for a variety of reasons - the most damning of which imo is insufficient subsidies for working men, women and their dependents (read children and elderly family members). I mean, if you're going to keep voting for corporate Democrats and thereby allow your government to continue to be the handmaidens of the Wall Street/Banker/Big Pharma fascist class then you ought to at least print enough money to allow people working full-time to pay the oligarchs for private health insurance. But they didn't do that, hence, "such as they are."