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[Lord Shonus]

Welp the new healthcare thing passed.  I guess rape and domestic abuse are now officially preexisting conditions now in the eyes of the government.   If you wanted healthcare I guess you should not have those preexisting conditions then.  You should get them medically treated so you don't have them anymore.

Oh that's right, even if they were treatable you don't deserve the healthcare to treat it anymore.  Go die please, the country does not want scum like you.

We could use a good armed revolution in DC right about now.  It would be justice.

First off, not one of those things are mentioned in the controversial amendment. The furor is because insurance companies used such reasons for denial pre-Obamacare, not because there is a law that would define those things as legal grounds for denial.

After finding a more explicit analysis (as I couldn't understand the legalese properly), the amendment allows states to apply to the government for a waiver to the ACA ban on prohibiting pre-existing conditions. That is a serious problem, but it is NOT an official "Rape victims don't deserve treatment" law.

[Playergamer]

Welp the new healthcare thing passed.  I guess rape and domestic abuse are now officially preexisting conditions now in the eyes of the government.   If you wanted healthcare I guess you should not have those preexisting conditions then.  You should get them medically treated so you don't have them anymore.

Oh that's right, even if they were treatable you don't deserve the healthcare to treat it anymore.  Go die please, the country does not want scum like you.

We could use a good armed revolution in DC right about now.  It would be justice.

i've been waiting for the armed revolution for years.

why do people care so much more about things like healthcare than, yknow, the complete obliteration of privacy by a corporate government disguised as a democracy.

just saying.

[McTraveller]

Doesn't matter anyway: If the bill passes, health care will be more expensive and no better quality. If the bill doesn't pass, health care will be more expensive and no better quality.

[Telgin]

The right of churches has moved from "preach about anything but don't endorse specific candidates" to "preach about anything you want".

Sky is falling everyone, best start digging your bunkers.

The preachers I know already preached politics all day every day anyway.  Full on Hitlery is going to get us all killed in WWIII but Trump is God giving America a second chance kind of stuff.  I'm now kind of curious if I could have gotten them in trouble by reporting that to someone.

Oy, people, it's not a bill yet. Only a third of the way there. Keep the doom and gloom until we see what the Senate thinks of this.

I'm more in disbelief that, what, over 200 people could have voted to pass it.  I'm not sure if I should believe these people just have no soul, if they managed to remain willfully ignorant of its contents, or if they're just plugging their ears and chanting that the experts are wrong and they're right.  Having any of those qualities is pretty terrible, so it doesn't really matter which it is.

[Strife26]

The right of churches has moved from "preach about anything but don't endorse specific candidates" to "preach about anything you want".

Sky is falling everyone, best start digging your bunkers.

The preachers I know already preached politics all day every day anyway.  Full on Hitlery is going to get us all killed in WWIII but Trump is God giving America a second chance kind of stuff.  I'm now kind of curious if I could have gotten them in trouble by reporting that to someone.

Oy, people, it's not a bill yet. Only a third of the way there. Keep the doom and gloom until we see what the Senate thinks of this.

I'm more in disbelief that, what, over 200 people could have voted to pass it.  I'm not sure if I should believe these people just have no soul, if they managed to remain willfully ignorant of its contents, or if they're just plugging their ears and chanting that the experts are wrong and they're right.  Having any of those qualities is pretty terrible, so it doesn't really matter which it is.

If you wanted to report them specifically endorsing Trump, it'd be the responsibility of the IRS to investigate it if they decided they wanted to, then possibly revoke tax exempt status.

Rules that were either utterly toothless or specifically used to target specific political views.

[Greiger]

Hm maybe I've been reading some unreliable sources then.  Little hard to find reliable ones when it just happened.  My apologies for stirring up the bees nest.

I'm more in disbelief that, what, over 200 people could have voted to pass it.  I'm not sure if I should believe these people just have no soul, if they managed to remain willfully ignorant of its contents, or if they're just plugging their ears and chanting that the experts are wrong and they're right.  Having any of those qualities is pretty terrible, so it doesn't really matter which it is.

Pretty much that at this point. They have shown an inability to perform their jobs competently and need to be removed from their positions, immediately, before they can do any more harm to the country, by any means necessary.  What ever happened to protecting the country from threats both foreign and domestic?  In my eyes, just like how Donald Trump thinks that the media is the enemy of the country.  I think the house of representatives no longer has their constituents needs first. They are an enemy of the people and should be treated as such.

[smjjames]

Reporting what exactly? And it's been mentioned in a bunch of places that there are polls saying that a lot of people (80%ish) don't want politics in Mass or whatever, so, it seems like people are making a bigger deal out of that than it really is.

The law that is being changed has more to do with money rather than free speech, or something about churches donating to candidates or overtly supporting candidates.

As I said earlier, allowing organizations like churches to support candidates seems like it opens the door for other organizations that typically stay out of politics, like universities maybe, to join in. Which is why I said it's kind of a double edged sword.

[Strife26]

Hm maybe I've been reading some unreliable sources then.  Little hard to find reliable ones when it just happened.  My apologies for stirring up the bees nest.

I'm more in disbelief that, what, over 200 people could have voted to pass it.  I'm not sure if I should believe these people just have no soul, if they managed to remain willfully ignorant of its contents, or if they're just plugging their ears and chanting that the experts are wrong and they're right.  Having any of those qualities is pretty terrible, so it doesn't really matter which it is.

Pretty much that at this point. They have shown an inability to perform their jobs competently and need to be removed from their positions, immediately, before they can do any more harm to the country, by any means necessary.  What ever happened to protecting the country from threats both foreign and domestic?  In my eyes, just like how Donald Trump thinks that the media is the enemy of the country.  I think the house of representatives no longer has their constituents needs first. They are an enemy of the people and should be treated as such.

Crying Aux armes, citoyens, Formez vos bataillons is something to be done lightly. Citizen interaction on the Federal and especially State level still has weight. We get the political community that we deserve and work to, and there's no passing of the moral buck to anyone else, be they rick/poor, political/apolitical, rural/urban, or left/right.

[Strife26]

Reporting what exactly? And it's been mentioned in a bunch of places that there are polls saying that a lot of people (80%ish) don't want politics in Mass or whatever, so, it seems like people are making a bigger deal out of that than it really is.

That's conflating issues. Even if politics from the pulpit is an immediate "Nope" from me (and it is, to a ridiculously large extent), this is independent from a politics from the pulpit being an acceptable thing if that's what a church and congregation wants to do.

[smjjames]

Stopping clergy from talking politics while in church isn't exactly an enforceable thing, plus it runs into the whole first amendment.

I get what you mean with the "Nope", and there are definetly those out there that aren't a good influence on the political discourse, but like you said, it's going to be up to the individual congregations.

I mean, the Pope dips his toe into politics every now and then..... Though he keeps it subtle, given his position.

[Lord Shonus]

Link to the legalese?

http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20170424/MacArthur%20Amendment.pdf

[Draignean]

Well, to those demanding armed revolution, it's never been easier in this country to buy a gun.

No. Just, no.

We don't shoot people who disagree with us, even if they do really stupid shit while doing so. There are few, very few, crimes worthy of armed retribution.



Now, here's my perspective.

Option 1: Bill doesn't pass through the full process. Things keep spinning as they've been spinning and all Trump's supporters hear is that the damn demoncrats and swamp politicians are continuing to stonewall progress. The rift between parties grows more polarized, but we don't end up denying coverage to people who desperately need it based on frivolous conditions.

Option 2: Bill passes through the full process. Trump succeeds in making 'good' on one of his promises, and the common people get to experience the 'benefits' as such. This will be horrible for a great many people, and there will almost certainly be lives ruined and even lives lost from an adequate system of healthcare. Public fallout from Trump's base, who are prime beneficiaries of the Obama care system, should hopefully go a long way in mending fences.

The latter option will hurt people, pretty certainly, but it will hopefully also go a long way to showing Trump's core that the things they've railed against for years are actually doing good work- and a helluva lot better than the alternative.

I'm not saying it's a good thing (far from it), but it might do more to erode Trump's support than it NOT passing.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You say it isn't enforceable, but it is. There's even a specific IRS form for reporting a 501c org for engaging in political activity. Back during my euphoria days I even saw people who were pressured into attending a malignant church be advised to fill one out in secret.

If this does come to pass, it'll be interesting to see how America's churches react. They've whined about "militant secularists" for a long time just because people won't listen to them. But if they actually want to stop getting their toes wet and wade into the shitstorm of politics? It'll be poetic justice when they're co-opted, bleached out, and left as just another grafted on skin tag of the political machine.

[smjjames]

Option 1 is more likely given how far left it'll get pulled in the Senate. We all saw how far left the budget got pulled.

[Greiger]

"People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people"

I had a big long post but after a bit figured it would probably be against the TOS.  And as really the only stabilizing place and usually relaxing activity in my day to day, I would rather not get banned from bay 12, I'm probably already skirting the border as it is. so I'll just leave that quote and do something else for awhile.