Nancy Pelosi, the best speaker of the house most of us have ever seen, will respond to Paul Ryan and Donald Trump’s epic failure of leadership. Of course their aim was to strip health care from millions, so thank God they’re incompetent.
Dem leadership looks pretty happy standing up there. Pelosi says she’s proud of the ACA and that the people stood behind it and told their Republican reps keep it—what happened today was a victory for the American people.
It’s pretty exciting for us—yesterday the anniversary and today repeal fails. “Honoring the values of our founders” was how Democrats approached this fight and we were united to fight behind our values.
Hoyer: “This is a good day for the American people.” We worked hard to create and pass the Affordable Care Act—Pelosi was indefatigable in fighting for it. The bill went down today because the majority of representatives thought it was a bad idea.
It was a bad bill already, made worse last night when they gutted essential health benefits. We can’t just abandon this effort, can’t let administration destroy indirectly what they couldn’t destroy directly today.
Jim Clyburn: Joins leader Pelosi in quoting MLK, who talked about healthcare as a fundamental right—it was “inhumane” and “egregious” to deny healthcare. Nothing more inhumane or egregious than denying health care to someone who has diabetes, or telling someone with cancer they have to end treatment.
Clyburn and Hoyer both offer to work in bipartisan way. Like that’ll happen. But they have to say it, because they are the better party.
Crowley: yeah, we’re gloating maybe a little bit. Reminds Paul Ryan that they have a responsibility to keep the ACA working well and robust for the American people.
Linda Sanchez: This is a temporary victory—they couldn’t deliver after 7 years their “better way.” Dems will work with them if they want to work on Obamacare, but will not stand by while they try to destroy it from within. What was on the floor today was “just plain heartless.”
Halperin: You know the Republicans, how do you think they’ll work with your? Pelosi: We worked with GW Bush, we can do this. Not a question of what we do with Trump, but what we did as a matter of record in a normal process.