quote:

Republicans have no real plan to establish a new health care system if the courts strike down the Affordable Care Act before the 2020 election. But plenty of them are rooting for its demise anyway — even if it means plunging the GOP into a debate that splits the party and leaves them politically vulnerable.

After a decade of trying to gut Obamacare, Republicans may finally get their wish thanks to a Trump administration-backed lawsuit. Its success would cause chaos not only in the insurance markets but on Capitol Hill. And Republican senators largely welcome it — even if they don’t know what comes next.

quote:

Even Republicans not known for taking a hard line are eager for a forcing mechanism to take on Obamacare.

“I have a plan that I would be delighted to have Congress pick up and go forward with,” added Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) of a proposal to protect pieces of the law. “Necessity is the mother of acceptance. I hope that we reach that necessity and that would propel my proposal to see a good deal of support.”

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
My problem with the GOP's lack of action on this
is they no longer have any credibility on the issue, and as the article said no replacement for the things we really do want like preexisting condition coverage. They blew it and have left the way wide open for a singe payer system.

I may not love that but it is a plan, versus nothing I can see.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
That doesn't work for me after 10 years of 'we will have a better plan'. Put up or shut up.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Well sure. I would expect you to get wiser over the years. It's natural.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
You know what's really hard? Having a serious discussion with conservatives having to so with how your opinions differ. I did it twice this weekend.

It takes hours to get past talking points. Keep the phone handy, you'll need to call up facts. No emotion - keep your eye on the prize.

It's exhausting, and in the end you'll discover you both want the same thing.

I blame the media.

quote:

Farming used to be fun, Bob Kroboth said.

“It ain’t fun anymore," he said, quoting a neighbor. "It just isn’t fun.”

These days, the price of corn, soybeans and wheat have plummeted, land in the Lehigh Valley has gotten scarcer, and when a tractor or other piece of farming equipment breaks, repairs can run anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000, he said.

Kroboth, who farms in Plainfield Township and received the second-highest federal payment in the Lehigh Valley aimed at compensating farmers for the cost of tariffs imposed by China on U.S. goods like soybeans, said $114,000 he received is nowhere near enough.

“A lot of us smaller guys are really getting hurt,” he said. “I’m getting a little ticked off they can’t get this business with China [resolved].”

There are rumors that farmers will receive three more rounds of federal payments, with the first ― and largest ― coming in the next month. But Kroboth and other farmers don’t know exactly when they can expect that payment, or how much it will be.

He and other Lehigh Valley farmers are questioning how much longer they can survive under current conditions: variable weather, rising equipment costs, competition for arable land in the Lehigh Valley, a booming soybean scene in Brazil and Argentina, a hog disease wiping out soybean-eating pigs in China and, of course, retaliatory tariffs put on U.S. goods by China.

quote:

Lehigh Valley farmers greeted the tariff announcement with a mixture of trepidation and, at times, optimism. They felt validated that someone was taking a stand against China, which they view as playing fast and loose with trade rules.

But they also hoped that the move was just posturing, a short-term sanction that would lead to better trade later on.

Almost a year and a half later, farmers are starting to lose patience with the tariffs.

“I would like to see the negotiations come to a resolution,” said Mike Braucher, a Berks County farmer who grows 500 acres each of corn and soybeans. In April 2018, he hoped the tariffs were just “shots across the bow,” intended to help the country get down to business.

quote:

President Donald Trump's trade policies cost Americans tens of billions of dollars through April, according to new estimates, even before major tariff escalations took place.

The pricetag of duties levied by the Trump administration added up to nearly $22 billion during that time period, the free-trade group Tariffs Hurt the Heartland said in a new report. That was before Trump more than doubled the tariff rate on $200 billion worth of Chinese products in May, so current totals are likely much higher.

Senator Chuck Grassley, who is leading efforts to craft a bill that would seek to rein in presidential trade powers, has given the same estimate. US Customs and Border Protection has assessed more than $15.2 billion in tariffs on China and more than $6.5 billion from those levied on steel and aluminum imports, according to the Republican from Iowa.

"To be clear, American importers and consumers are paying for these tariffs," he said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday. "$22 billion out of the pockets of hardworking Americans is not in our national best interest."