Once again, Republicans could be their own worst enemyCongressional Republicans, on the precipice of repealing and replacing Obamacare, are
facing a familiar and stubborn foe: themselves.
Infighting ensued immediately Tuesday as House and Senate Republicans dissected for the first time the American Health Care Act, the GOP vehicle for replacing former President Barack Obama's signature law.
President Trump and Republican leaders made the case for the AHCA and warned conservative opponents not to stand in the way. Insurgent Republicans, deriding the bill as "Obamacare lite," said they had the votes to block it and vowed to do so absent major changes.
The intraparty warfare was
characteristic of congressional Republicans during the Obama years, and responsible for sinking some of the best deals the GOP could have hoped to achieve with so liberal a Democrat.
Now, once again, this time with a Republican in the White House,
Republicans are threatening to stand in their own way and block themselves from an incremental policy victory and potentially major political win.
The question is whether Trump will be able to forge consensus, and whether Republicans will let him.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said
Republicans had to be careful not to let the desire for perfection waste the opportunity they have to finally get rid of the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/republicans-could-be-their-own-worst-enemy/article/2616744"We need to go as far as we can to do what we said we would do if we got elected and were controlling Congress," Tillis said.