Digital Desktop - Monday, March 27, 2017

A day or two late to this story, but there have been other events going on around me....

So, the Republican-controlled Senate, the Republican-controlled House and the "Republican"-controlled White House failed to pass their long talked-about healthcare bill late last week.  Dubbed "Trumpcare", it failed to even convince some Republicans.  If there was some haste apparent in getting this bill rammed through Congress, that would seem to be right.  The more people found out about the bill, the less they liked it.

Many have weighed in on this issue.  

Occasional Republican David Frum, who has been sounding like a conservative voice of reason compared to some on the right, had this to say, calling it The Republican Waterloo.

Of course, he penned a roughly similar article back in 2010, when "Obamacare" was passed into law, despite total Republican obstructionism.  His Waterloo article seems rather prescient given last week's events.

The Washington Post devoted quite a bit of column space to all of this, one article wondering (and answering) why the Republicans were in such a hurry to get this thing passed.  One revealing quote went as follows:

The surprising thing, then, isn't that as few as 17 percent of people approved of the American Health Care Act. It's that as many as 17 percent did.

 The Interweb, of course, has come out with plenty of memes playing on all of this, pointing out how this is just one brick in a promised policy wall that is crumbling.

So, there you have it.  A valiant attempt to remove access to healthcare to millions and give even more advantages to insurance companies seems to have failed.  RIP.