Republicans had a narrow majority, and they could only pass something through the Senate by reconciliation, which imposes limitations. But the thing is, Republicans don't hide behind the vagaries of Senate procedure during campaign season. Trump did not win the Republican nomination telling rallies of thousands of people,
"We're going to repeal and replace Obamacare — as long as it satisfies the Byrd rule in the judgment of the Senate parliamentarian!"What's so utterly disgraceful, is not just that Republicans failed so miserably, but that they barely tried,
raising questions about whether they ever actually wanted to repeal Obamacare in the first place.The contrast between Obama and Democrats on healthcare and what just happened is stunning. House Republicans
slapped together a bill in a few weeks (months if we're being generous)
behind closed doors with barely any debate. They moved the bill through committees at blazing speed, conducted
closed-door negotiations that resulted in relatively minor tweaks to the bill, and within 17 days, Trump decided that he'd had enough, and was ready to walk away if members didn't accept the bill as is.
Here's the bottom line:
Republicans didn't want to repeal Obamacare that badly.
Obamacare was a useful tool for them. For years, they could use it to score short-term messaging victories. People are steamed about high premiums? We'll message on that today. People are angry about losing insurance coverage? We'll put out a devastating YouTube video about that. Seniors are angry about the Medicare cuts? Let's tweet about it. High deductibles are unpopular? We'll issue an email fact sheet. Or maybe a gif. At no point were they willing to do the hard work of hashing out their intraparty policy differences and developing a coherent health agenda or of challenging the central liberal case for universal coverage. Sure, if the U.S. Supreme Court did the job for them, they were okay with Obamacare going away. But
when push came to shove, they weren't willing to put in the elbow grease.Failing to get the votes on one particular bill is one thing. But failing and then walking away on seven years of promises is a pathetic abdication of duty.
The Republican Party is a party without a purpose.http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/caving-on-healthcare-bill-is-the-biggest-broken-promise-in-political-history/article/2618413
