Stock market took a small hit after the bill failed today so I imagine the making tax reform harder part probably has some truth though not sure why.

Where do you think the dead weight is?

Wouldn't tax cuts be in the 2-400b range a year? The AHCA wouldn't save that much to make it possible for the whole thing to be deficit neutral would it? Also wasn't the AHCA medicare surcharge cut what was offset by the medicaid cuts? How do they get more tax cuts from that legislation?

So now would they have to find a bunch of other cuts to get tax reform? Where can they even get it?

Agree on tax simplification but feel it'll never happen on much of a grand scale, too many jobs based on middleman compliance.

Part of the reason why Trump chose General Mattis to be Secretary of Defense is he looks a lot like General Patton.

Yes, same from me. We are all a little paranoid and on edge these days, but definitely glad to see another person ready to fight Trump and fascism.

They'll probably just handwave it by saying that cutting taxes increases revenues because reasons like they always have.

No they had all sorts of other cuts. If you remember the budget they reposed it cut almost everything but defense spending and a few others. Even without the ACHA there will be proposed cuts but there were additional cuts that were going to be funded by the ACHA money, for the top income brackets.

Hospital care, prescription drugs and medical devices.

Military seems obvious. You're spending 3x as much as the 2nd biggest spender.

Take a deep breath and a long toke. Close your eyes and imagine your happy place. Disabuse yourself of iq scores and poker winnings. None of those things matter. What matters is speaking to people who comfort you by their actions, who show empathy, concern, and hope. Open your eyes and open this webpage https://www.womensmarch.com/100/action2/ . Find a huddle close to you and attend it this month. You'll feel a little better every time you do some constructive way of resistance.

+1

I don't like the idea of women's march. I'm a man. Sure as hell I don't wanna march cos I have some physical problems and I don't like walking and I don't think some of the women would even want me marching with them.

Right now I'm in a good place. Trust me. I just come across a little crazy, but I'm okay. I'm in a better place than I've been for the past three years I would say.

Women marching I don't have a problem with as long as it's peaceful, which it is. I like the idea.

You can't grab women by the pussy. That tape should've destroyed Trump, but idk how he came back. Scary world.

Yeah but wasn't the budget revenue neutral already (i.e tax cuts would make it deficit spending) because the cuts were offset by the 54B in military spenidng gains?

So now, where do they get 3-400B of cuts (I believe the Bush tax cuts were 375B a year?)

A huddle is not a March.

Yeah I guess. I'll think about it. Just don't worry about me. I'll be okay. I have a brother and two parents that I see regularly.

I actually had an American girlfriend that injected me with conservative propaganda. One time she said she was offered a role to be an American spy. Maybe she was telling the truth and she took the offer.

Create your own huddle with your parents and brother! Invent new forms of dissent.

If anyone isn't reading Ezra Klein, they should be.

His work at Vox is top notch and he is a workhorse. 4 different columns about ACHA alone today.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...alth-bill-ahca

His latest

Yeah I have talked with them. They somewhat agree with me about Trump, that he's bad.

That's good. The next thing to do is find some ways to act positively. It can be in your own local community too, but find some way to fight this. Fascism is spreading potentially across Europe as well and it is very much a global threat.

Yeah, except they failed in the Netherlands and I'm fairly sure they're gonna fail in France. Everyone needs to calm down a little bit and just see how everything plays out. But peaceful resistance is always good. Gandhi is good.

OK where's where I can't tell if Bannon is just dumb or saving face and just a normal free market Republican who just wants to put white people first on cultural issues. "It's obvious in the last few days" that this bill goes against Trump's populist appeals? Where was he for the entirety of the bill? It was 100% obvious that this wasn't going to make insurance "better" which is supposedly what the populists want. If you could read any analysis on the bill it would have told you that. It was to cut taxes. You could say that he wants to "dismantle the administrative state" but then he'd be supporting the Freedom Caucus, who want to cut all the regulation out, not against them.

Democracy is a never-ending fight. As soon as you take it for granted, you get somebody like Trump who can tear the whole thing down in far less time than it takes to build up peace and prosperity and enterprise. Remaining vigilant means remaining active. We all have to find ways to positively contribute to our own communities and countries in this fight.

Absolutely not. This is why we are in the mess we are in.

"Stop overreacting! Give Trump a chance!" You've heard this before I assume.

The problem is once you give something a chance, oftentimes, you can't undo it.

The only way to fight authoritarianism and fascism is to stop it before it begins.

Okay, sure. I'm just saying violence is not the answer, and I don't think that's what you're saying.

We're not talking about violence at all. Grassroots activism can take many forms. It can be as simple as taking on the project of building a community garden that people in the neighborhood help grow the food, take care of the garden, and get fresh fruits and vegetables whenever they need it.