McCare: Payback is a Bitch, Donald
Question: Who is the most powerful man in the health insurance debate? Answer: Senator John McCain Question: Why Didn't McCain Vote For a Repeal ? Answer: Some moron said "I like people who weren't captured". Politics is personal. You might LIKE that Trump is your Uncle Gus but the tenured political faculty doesn't and McCain is Professor Emeritus Maverikus of the tenured political faculty. McCain didn't think Trump was qualified to be President, Trump insulted the crap out of him, and McCain is not going to hand him a political victory. The personal bonus from McCain's defection? John McCain is the most powerful man in Washington now. Here are three reasons why the "repeal and replace" will have McCain's fingerprints all over it: 1-McCain has a sense of urgency John McCain's health problems make it likely that he won't serve more than a year or two. McCain, for all of his detractors on the right and left, is still respected by his colleagues. If ANYONE can broker a deal with Democratic support, it's John McCain. The American people are impatient and a mid-term election is 15 months away but McCain has to GSD. He will invoke his illness, if he deems it necessary, to get both sides to the table. Does this make your blood boil? It shouldn't when you read reason #2. 2- McCain is a political animal. McCain sells himself as a "mavericky statesman" but he's not. He is a crafty, old politician who knows how things work in DC and his home state. He sidestepped the "Keating Five" scandal, beat down a popular news anchor in 2010, and crushed a Trump-supporting, tea party type in 2016. When the powerful Maricopa County GOP censured him for not being conservative enough, McCain picked off the grass roots activists, one precinct at a time-- it was an exercise in raw political power at the grassroots level. McCain sincerely believed that he deserved to be President in 2008. He went to Annapolis, He served as a Naval officer. He spent 5.5 years as a prisoner of war. He served in the House from 1982 until he won his Senate seat in 1986. He stepped aside after he lost the Republican nomination in 2000 and "waited his turn". McCain believed that he has spent his life in service to America and rightfully should have been elected President in 2008. When he referred to Obama as "that one", it was only a reference to his youth and inexperience. I have met McCain and I don't think he has a racist bone in his body but, like so many retired military officers, he abhors those who don't "pay theor dues". McCain never thought Obama paid his dues and he thinks that Trump is a charlatan. McCain is a brawler. He was Trump before Trump was Trump. Consider what he said in his 1982 primary election when he was accused of being a carpet bagger: Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi. He will do whatever it takes to win, He loves to call political opponents "weird". McCain is a brawler. 3- McCain is a statist. I believe, at his core, McCain mistrusts the free market and trusts government. He suspended his Presidential campaign, in 2008, to pass TARP--this was no political ploy. John McCain sincerely believed that only government could save the economy from another Great Depression (then said he was lied to when he felt the heat in 2010). Like many (not all) retired military officers who run for public office, McCain lacks an understanding of how small businesses operate. He has never had to meet a $4,000 payroll with $3,000 in the bank. He has never had to increase his advertising budget because of a poor location. McCain has never had to miss an electric bill payment so he could a buy a ticket to his best customer's favorite charity's gala. McCain is looking at the health insurance crisis like a commanding officer might view a logistics problem; beg for more money and make to do with what we get. I expect him to lead the health insurance compromise that way. Expect the eventual "bi-partisan" health insurance plan (I call it McCare) to: retain the individual mandate and pre-existing condition requirements, open up markets by letting insurers compete across state lines, expand health savings accounts, and offer more Medicare expansion for the states. McCare is going to suck. It will suck a little bit less than Obamacare but it's still going to suck. McCain has a heightened sense of urgency, the political will to say f*** y*** to Trump, and the political acumen to bring big government Republicans and Democrats together. McCare, like Obamacare, will suck and be unsustainable. The government will always be begging us for more money and we will all have to make to do with what we get. McCare is coming because this "my friends", is John McCain's last stand.
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