Let's Hope That Finally And For Good, The Real Susan Collins Will Be The One Voters Reject Next Time

Naw, Bill Nemitz, I don't buy that part of it, I don't buy that Susan Collins got "played" over her betrayal of her state and the nation.   Susan Collins has been in and around the Senate and government jobs for forty-two years, she was on William Cohen's senate staff beginning in 1975, you can read a pretty accurate version of her CV on Wikipedia - my guess is it was written by someone on her staff.

Born in Caribou, Maine, Collins is a graduate of St. Lawrence University. Beginning her career as a staff assistant for Senator William Cohen in 1975, Collins later became the staff director of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs (which later became the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs[2]) in 1981. She was then appointed as the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation by Governor John R. McKernan, Jr. in 1987. In 1992 she was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as the director of the Small Business Administration's regional office in Boston. Staying in Massachusetts, Collins became that state's Deputy State Treasurer in 1993.

After moving back to Maine in 1994, Collins became the Republican nominee for governor in the 1994 general election. Becoming the first woman to become the nominee of a major party for Governor of Maine, Collins finished third in a four-way race with 23% of the vote. After her bid for governor in 1994, Collins became the founding director of the Center for Family Business at Husson University. Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996. She has been re-elected three times, in 2002, 2008, and 2014. After former New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte lost reelection in 2016, Collins became the only Republican in the U.S. Senate currently representing a state in New England.

To believe Susan Collins got played instead of walking into what she did with her eyes wide open and knowing there would be no mitigation of the damage to the Affordable Care Act you would have to believe she didn't know how a bill becomes law, that he was unaware of the politics of her own party and that she wouldn't know the nature of the Republican Congressional leadership and the fact that Donald Trump is a pathological liar with a long, long record of not paying those he owes even what he's legally contracted to pay them.   Susan Collins did this for some other reason than that she believed the guarantees which provided her with cover for her betrayal.   Most absurd of all is her using the month old threat by Chuck Schumer that if they did what they did, Democrats were not going to help them in the cover up as her excuse for the "iron clad" promises by Republican leadership getting shelved.   Actually, Bill Nemitz doesn't buy it either. 

While Trump boasted Wednesday outside the White House that “we have essentially repealed Obamacare” (the tax bill eliminates Obamacare’s fiscal cornerstone – the “individual mandate” requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty – starting in 2019), Collins could only point fingers at those who, in her view, torpedoed her deal with McConnell.

She blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who announced last week that Democrats in the Senate would not support the Obamacare rescue legislation as part of a year-end stopgap spending bill.

It was indeed a deal killer: With the Obamacare bills and other add-ons attached, the spending bill would need 60 votes to pass the Senate.

“Maybe I should have been more cynical or skeptical of the Democrats on this, but it never occurred to me that they would pull back on their support. It truly didn’t,” Collins said.

So, Susan Collins is trying to blame Democrats for McConnell, Ryan and Trump lying to her and immediately exposing her excuse as a lie, or "her being played".  Na, uh, she' not going to get away with it. 

Seriously? When Schumer said on the Senate floor over a month ago that Democrats “will not go for” the so-called Alexander-Murray bill, which restores cost-sharing subsidies to insurers, if the individual mandate is repealed?

If that’s not a warning sign of danger ahead, what is?

Collins also blamed House Republicans for passing a “skinny version” of the stopgap funding bill. That measure left no room for either Alexander-Murray or the bill Collins co-sponsored with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, that would lower insurance premiums through the use of high-risk pools.

Again, did Collins not hear the rumblings from House Republicans that any life buoy for Obamacare, now or whenever, was out of the question?

Put another way, is Collins, a 20-year veteran of the Senate, still so naïve that she simply failed to notice the cracks in her deal with McConnell? Or did she quietly calculate that, if and when the bottom fell out, she’d somehow manage a hasty escape?

Even now, when she’s supposed to be busy meting out all those “consequences,” Collins continues to skate.

She points to the call she received Wednesday, after her vote in favor of the tax bill, from House Speaker Paul Ryan. He promised her, she said, that the Obamacare bills will be taken up first thing next session.

“Paul Ryan called me and volunteered this,” Collins said, “If he were going to say, ‘Phew, that’s over with!’ why would he affirmatively call me?”

I dunno, maybe because Mitch McConnell begged him to?

Collins also noted that the Congressional Budget Office plans to roll out a new model for evaluating the fiscal impact of legislation after the new year and – as Ryan was quick to remind her – the Obamacare legislation will “score” higher and thus direct more money toward shoring up the health insurance markets.

So … the new CBO model isn’t official yet, the Obamacare bills haven’t been scored, and already she knows the outcome? How so?

“I had my staff economist call the CBO and talk to them about it,” Collins replied. “Believe me, I’m not taking anyone’s word for anything.”

Oh, but she is. Her entire game plan right now is based on promises from Trump, whose word is about as trustworthy as an email from Nigeria; from McConnell, who just failed to deliver on one whopper of a promise to Collins; and from Ryan, who’s widely rumored to already have one foot out the door.

Little wonder that much of Washington, D.C., not to mention Maine, now snickers about how Collins got played.

“If I get the bills that I’ve been advocating for passed, but they’re passed six to eight weeks later than I expected, how does that mean I’ve been played?” she asked.

“How do you know you’re going to get them in six to eight weeks?” I countered.

“How do you know I’m not?” she replied.

I don’t.

But like most common-sense Mainers, I know enough to stay off thin ice.

The spectacle that Susan Collins who, for the first time in her public life is having to face the consequences of her biggest betrayal of the residents of Maine, being so very bad at doing it from never having gotten this kind of look before is a kind of satisfaction that I'd rather not be getting, I'd rather have 13 million people keep their healthcare, Medicaid expanding as Maine Voters supported in November and jillionaires and their corporations not pillaging the country, etc. 

Susan Collins is a disgrace, she has been all along, though never at this level of disgracefulness, no one should let her off the hook she so willingly put herself on, banking on the Maine media snow job that she has benefitted from all along.  She shouldn't be able to elected to a school board after what she did.