Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) tried to seize the cultural zeitgeist of the moment to deflect from her truly embarrassing performance in caving to Mitch McConnell's empty promises in return for her tax cut vote. She's only been under so much scrutiny for it, she complained, because we're all sexists.
"I believe that the coverage has been unbelievably sexist, and I cannot believe that the press would have treated another senator with 20 years of experience as they have treated me," she told reporters in the Capitol. "They've ignored everything that I've gotten and written story after story about how I'm duped. How am I duped when all your amendments get accepted?"
The degree to which the traditional media let that deflection just go is, well, typical. But we're not going to let that happen here. Let us rewind to what Collins said were her lines in the sand, to the promises she said she got—in writing!—from McConnell. They were votes on stabilization bills for Obamacare and a promise that the bill wouldn't kick in PAYGO rules to take additional cuts automatically from Medicare. Neither of those things is happening, as everyone who knows anything about Congress already knew. The House was never going to vote on Obamacare stabilization because the maniacs wouldn't let it happen. That, by the way, is now official. But Collins is okay with that she now says. She's releasing McConnell from his promise for a vote, and anyway, it's all the Democrats' fault for refusing to let it happen. Sure, Susan.
As for both Paul Ryan and McConnell promising to not let PAYGO apply to Medicare, they can't achieve that legislatively either because of the House maniacs. Everyone has always known that. So what is possibly in the works now is for Trump to delay signing the tax bill until next month, which would keep the cuts from kicking in until 2019. Not to appease Collins, mind you. To make sure Medicare cuts didn't happen in an election year.
But let's get back to the unprincipled hackish part of Collins. She basked in being the hero in opposing Trumpcare, in protecting the health care of millions. She tried to use that hero status to say she was going to single-handedly protect people from that in this tax bill. When it was blatantly obvious that the whole exercise was kabuki. Now, to be an even bigger hack about it all, she's trying to say we're all sexist because we're talking about that. Never mind that Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has also been labelled a dupe for giving up his vote to be in the room when the powers that be talk immigration.
Here's the other thing. Would Collins rather be labelled a dupe or would she rather have the narrative that she knowingly hurt millions of people in order to give the donor class a great big tax cut? That's not too sexist a question to pose, is it? Because it's one way or the other.
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