As I’ve stated many –far too-many– times before, I don’t like to dwell on politics.  Those who have read these posts know I’m aghast that Donald Trump is president.

The thing Trump decided to focus on upon being elected was dismantling the Affordable Care Act, ie “Obamacare”.

So far, this hasn’t gone too well.

Though the Republicans were able to get the bill passed through the House of Representatives, they’ve so far had a tougher go in the Senate, though as these things go, this could well change.

Anyway, the new bill was drawn up in secret and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hoped that by being really quick and secretive with the whole thing, he’d get it passed and out of his hair.

Well, it didn’t work, again, at least as of today, and the bill will not be voted on before the July 4 break as was originally planned.

What was most amusing, to me anyway, was the fact that after it was announced the bill would not be voted on, three Senators, all Republicans, felt the heat was sufficiently off them that they could announce in public they didn’t care for the bill.

The article below, by Pete Grieve for CNN, details their announcements:

Senate punts, then 3 new Republicans oppose health care bill

The reason I don’t like to dwell on politics around these parts is because its one of those topics (I suppose religion is the other) where a rational conversation is pretty hard, if not impossible, to have.  You believe what you believe and you’re on this side or that side and, increasingly, the other side is the “enemy” and they lie and they’re unAmerican and etc. etc. etc.

In this case, I have little doubt the Senators mentioned in the article probably had deep reservations about this bill but, because of party dynamics, felt uncomfortable “speaking out” or, at the least, speaking their mind.

I wish they had done this before the heat was effectively off them.

And while I don’t particularly care for the politics of Rand Paul or Ted Cruz, at least they were upfront in voicing opposition to this bill, though the cynic might suspect they did so to try to pull it closer to their ideals (ie, repealing the ACA completely).

Ah well, that’s politics for ya.