The reason why repealing and replacing Obamacare was a disaster in the Republicans’ hands is this (from a comment at the NYTimes):
PEWashington DC
The Republicants got nothin’. Morally bankrupt, they have now demonstrated that they are intellectually bankrupt as well.
The Fiction: Republicans implied that they had a plan to make the individual mandate easier and cheaper to swallow, giving every voter the freedom to pick their doctors at a lower premium than they are currently paying, all while not imposing cost controls on the providers, hospitals, etc.
The Truth: The Republicans never had a plan to replace Obamacare. They just used anger over the individual mandate, Medicaid gap and lack of cost controls to make a case for a “change” election. That’s how they got votes. You need to attract real voters and what better way to do it than to target people who don’t have the time or inclination to think things through. That’s right, get them all angry with resentment and sic them on groups without power. Viola!
The Ultimate Truth: The very wealthy donors to Republican coffers see themselves as shareholders in an Ownership society. They didn’t authorize all that money be used for the healthcare of so many Americans who can’t figure out how to make their own god damned wealth. They’re not interested in pitching in to take care of other people. Let other people take care of themselves. What’s it got to do with them?? It’s not even the token tax cuts they want back. They’re just ideologically opposed to a whole nation of individuals banding together in an entity called “government” to negotiate on their behalf for a thing that all other modern western countries take for granted. They’re not interested in participating in that.
That’s what this is all about. Very wealthy people who want to own our streets, bridges, police force, airports, air traffic control systems, coast guard, CDC, etc, etc, etc, and don’t want to pay for it or let the rest of us who pay for it to use our government to negotiate on our behalf on a group discount.
In other words, they’re deadbeats.
The Republicans’ one job was to get Obamacare off the backs of the rich. They didn’t need a plan to replace it. They tried, they failed. Trump will now make it fail through starvation and incompetence.
Either way, mission accomplished.
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