Obamacare Repeal, Imported Canadian Drugs

At about 1:30 am ET the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution act, most notable right now for containing elements which will fast-track the repeal of Obamacare. Stricken down were amendments (or something- provisions?) which might have preserved coverage for pre-existing conditions, the ability for young people to stay on their parents' plans well into their 20s, and other good stuff. Slate reported that it is going to be a tax-break windfall for the rich. There is little clear vision for any kind of replacement to Obamacare. This has been referred to as bridge-burning. Basically saying it is a move of political strategy, the Washington Post had an article describing the strategy. Not simply "bridge-burning" in the traditional idea of the term, but bridge-burning in a military sense. When your military opponent sees you have burned the bridges behind you, they see that you are unable to retreat and this changes their mindset (perhaps in your favor) for how they are going to attack you. 

I posted an article, a rather dense one from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, stating that one thing the GOP might do is include the money employers pay to cover their employees in those employees' incomes (it is currently not counted as income and thus not counted in figuring the employees' tax dues). So essentially we have a clear-cut tax boon for the rich and a tax on the average American. 

Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar proposed an amendment that would allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada. It narrowly failed, but not entirely along party lines. 12 Republicans voted in support of it (including Ted Frickin' Cruz), and 13 Democrats voted against it, most notably New Jersey's Cory Booker, often a name bandied about as a potential presidential nominee in 2020. Booker and other Democrats who opposed it stated that they were concerned about unfit safety standards for those imported drugs. Baloney, says Robert Reich (and Bernie Sanders). Essential rebuttal to that is that we import many thing from Canada, and also the drugs we'd be importing are often made by American companies (I am a little confused about how, then, they are coming in from Canada. I guess American companies do business in Canada, not that complicated, I s'pose). I don't know. Booker and others have riposted that they did in fact support other amendments to import drugs, apparently those amendments had such safety provisions. They basically want to make sure that the drugs live up to American safety standards. But Canadians care about safe drugs, too, says Reich. We're not talking about importing from some desolate dictatorship.