Paul Ryan announced that the Freedom Caucus and the president came back to the negotiating table regarding Obamacare repeal. No doubt, all sides are anguished. Well, not all sides.
Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn, the majority leader and whip, seem cheered at the possibility of working with their pals, the Democrats, to get health-care reform passed. Schumer would love to work with the president. I bet. That would be something conservative — like Medicaid for all.
Further proof they never were serious about repealing Obamacare in the first place. https://t.co/xtyB8fO3GN
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) March 28, 2017
Here’s the thing: The president’s best friends could be the Freedom Caucus. They will help him on nearly everything, but they have to keep the Obamacare repeal promise to their constituents. What the rest of Congress can’t seem to get through their thick melons is that keeping the promise will help restore faith in all Republicans. It will strengthen them all to have this win, but they have to work together, and it cannot be perceived as an insult to the Republican voter who has spent three cycles giving the Republicans the House, Senate, and now presidency based on the promise of a full repeal.
It would be wise that Republican leadership stop treating these decent people like stooges.
Paul Ryan needs a win. President Trump needs a win. The Senate leadership are craven power mongers and need to be weakened. The way to do that is to send over legislation that puts their reputations on the line. John Cornyn has to answer to his conservative constituents, too. From the New York Times:
House Republican leaders and the White House, under extreme pressure from conservative activists, have restarted negotiations on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, with House leaders declaring that Democrats were celebrating the law’s survival prematurely.
Just days after President Trump said he was moving on to other issues, senior White House officials are now saying they have hope that they can still score the kind of big legislative victory that has so far eluded Mr. Trump. Vice President Mike Pence was dispatched to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for lunchtime talks.
“We’re not going to retrench into our corners or put up dividing lines,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said after a meeting of House Republicans that was dominated by a discussion of how to restart the health negotiations. “There’s too much at stake to get bogged down in all of that.”
The House Republican whip, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, said of Democrats, “Their celebration is premature. We are closer to repealing Obamacare than we ever have been before.”
Fact is that McConnell, Ryan, and Trump all thought that they could jam conservatives in order to get their shite sandwich passed. It would be a political win that changed little or made things worse, but it would be enough to say, “We won.” It’s not enough. It’s insulting.
The voters are savvy. Every day they’re losing their insurance, paying higher premiums, having unreasonable deductibles, and generally suffering, while they see their money redistributed to people.
Obamacare repeal can’t be a half-measure, and it will not be a dead issue, until it is repealed. If this doesn’t get done, voters will mutiny. Republicans will be primaried. Again.
Time to get this done. Time to respect the voters. Time to respect the stakeholders.
