As Republicans congressional lawmakers plot their year ahead, they can’t agree on whether to push an alternative to Obamacare in the lead-up to the 2016 election, The Hill reported.
While House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has made proposing replacement legislation a priority of 2016, other Republicans are lowering expectations.
“Until we are in a position to get a new president who will actually sign the repeal of ObamaCare, the president is going to veto it. So it’s really more of a hypothetical,” Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) said, according to The Hill, and the report suggested Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was also reluctant to bring any alternative legislation up for a vote.
Part of their concern is political, as Republican strategists point out Democrats will try to use what Republicans propose against them as the election heats up.
But it also reflects the GOP’s overall failure, after six years of promises, to coalesce around any of the alternative bills that have been proposed as lawmakers struggle to grapple with tough policy tradeoffs that come with reforming the health system.
In The Hill story, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) called his party’s lack of replacement plan a “mistake.”
“That’s why we’ve been so aggressive in talking about the fact that we’re going to lay out an alternative to ObamaCare. We’re not just for repealing it. We want to replacement reforms that lower costs and put patients in charge of their healthcare,” he said. “I’ve always said we ought to have a replacement to the president’s healthcare law.”
The reason the GOP can’t come up with a plan to replace Obamacare is that Obamacare was originally a GOP idea. It was the best, most complete plan that they originally came up with. Then it was enacted by the Muslim Kenyan. So instead of being happy that THEIR plan was enacted (and is actually working fairly well for it not being a single-payer system), they throw a hissy fit. And they have nothing else to go to.
“I’ve always said we ought to have a replacement to the president’s healthcare law.”
once again… the Republican priority is to get re-elected rather than what might be in the best interests of the Country as a whole…
It’s just so darn strange that legislators can write and sponsor bills for their own pet projects, but none of the legislators that think a replacement plan is needed have the ability to write their own!
“lower costs and put patients in charge of their healthcare”
Translation: “lower costs” = for employers & businesses
“patients in charge of their healthcare” = patients ‘responsible’ for more costs & navigating unregulated system