Going Down In Flames?

If the Institutional Democrats screw these up (for which they seem to have an inexhaustible talent) then they truly are hopeless and it’s time to sell what you can and get out of Germany before Kristallnacht.

Right now, there are more than enough House Republicans opposed to the health-care bill to kill it
By Amber Phillips, Washington Post
March 23, 2017 at 10:16 AM

As the House of Representatives prepares to vote Thursday on a GOP Obamacare replacement plan, it remains to be seen if Republicans have enough votes to pass it.

Assuming no Democrats support the measure, Republicans can lose two votes in the Senate and 22 votes in the House.

Here’s how many Republicans have said as of Thursday morning — the day of the vote — that they’ll vote against it:

• 36 House members
• 6 Senators

Other GOP lawmakers still have serious concerns about the legislation or said they are leaning against it. We count:

• 14 House members
• 16 Senators

In recent days, more than a dozen mostly conservative House lawmakers have indicated they’ll switch their vote from “lean no” to “yes” as they get affirmation from President Trump and House Republican leaders that there will be some big changes to the bill. That means a vote Thursday in the House could be much closer than our count suggests.

Most likely is if Ryan doesn’t have the votes the bill will never reach the floor, but we’ve seen Republicans keep votes open long past deadline in order to crack heads in their caucus.

Update: Postponed.

Democrats will filibuster Gorsuch nomination
By Ed O’Keefe, Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post
March 23, 2017 at 12:54 PM

Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s pick to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, faced a critical blow on Thursday as Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would join with other Democrats in attempting to filibuster the nomination — a move that could complicate his confirmation and lead to a total revamp of how the U.S. Senate conducts its business.

Since last year’s elections, Democrats have threatened to force Trump’s Supreme Court nominees to clear procedural hurdles requiring at least 60 senators to vote to end debate and proceed to a confirmation vote. Republicans are eager to confirm Gorsuch before an Easter recess next month, but with no Democrat expressing support for Gorsuch, they have threatened to change Senate rules to ensure the judge’s swift confirmation — a move that would allow Supreme Court picks to be confirmed with a simple majority vote.

On Thursday, Schumer warned that they should focus instead on changing Trump’s nominee.

“If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes — a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees, and George Bush’s last two nominees — the answer isn’t to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee,” he said.
…
Schumer’s opposition was widely expected, given his leadership of a party facing increased pressure to block all of Trump’s nominees and policy decisions. But his speech did not include calls for the rest of his chamber to join him in opposition — a sign that he is leaving political space for certain Democrats to find ways to work with Republicans, if necessary. Several Democrats are facing political pressure from conservative organizations bankrolling a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to bolster Gorsuch.

In his speech, Schumer echoed the frustrations of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who have struggled to extract answers from Gorsuch this week on specific legal issues or past Supreme Court cases.

Gorsuch “declined to answer question after question after question with any substance. . . . All we have to judge the judge on is his record,” Schumer said.

In addition to Schumer, Sens. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) and Robert Casey (D-Pa.) also announced on Thursday that they would filibuster Gorsuch. Both are up for reelection next year. Casey is one of 10 Democratic senators running next year from states that Trump won in the presidential election and who are facing increased pressure from Republicans to work with them on the president’s priorities.
…
(M)oderate Democrats facing pressure to support Gorsuch have said they are hoping that both parties can come to an agreement that leads to Gorsuch’s confirmation and the preservation of current Senate traditions.

“If the Senate goes to a 51-vote threshold, I’m not really sure who wants to be in the Senate at that time or what’s the purpose,” Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a key moderate Democrat, said at a Washington Post Live event on Wednesday.

Democrat? Moderate?