Same Old Song: GOP Lawmakers Divided On Pushing Obamacare Replacement

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talks about his agenda for a GOP-controlled Congress during an interview with The Associated Press at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. McCon... Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talks about his agenda for a GOP-controlled Congress during an interview with The Associated Press at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. McConnell says approving the Keystone XL pipeline will top the Senate agenda in January. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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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.”

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