GOP Extremists Delay Trumpcare Vote, Demanding Exclusion Of 'Essential Benefits'
Steven Rosenfeld
GOP Extremists Delay Trumpcare Vote, Demanding Exclusion Of ‘Essential Benefits’
March 23, 2017 11:10 pm
No matter when the House votes on repealing Obamacare—it was scheduled for Thursday but abruptly postponed—President Trump and the House GOP have shown the nation that the Republican Party’s most extreme elements are in the driver’s seat.
Instead of anything resembling political discipline or party unity, the arch right-wing House Freedom Caucus has demanded a series of increasingly draconian measures to be put in the Obamacare repeal legislation to secure their yes votes. Whenever Speaker Paul Ryan brings a repeal bill forward with enough votes to pass it, it’s likely to be a hollow victory for Trump and the House GOP. That’s because its details will be so harsh that even more GOP senators will likely side with Democrats and vote no.
“There are at least a dozen skeptics of the bill among Senate Republicans, who maintain a slim 52-to-48 advantage, and many of them want to maintain some of the current law’s more generous spending components,” the Washington Post reported midday Thursday, before Ryan postponed the vote. “If Republicans fail this initial test of their ability to govern, Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans may face a harder time advancing high-priority initiatives on infrastructure, tax reform and immigration. They might also find themselves navigating strained relationships among themselves.”
The White House and House Republicans know they have to pass something to save face, as they have gotten off to the least-productive start of any recent presidency. However, beyond the question of whether any legislation that suffices in the House is doomed in the Senate, is the emerging reality that the House’s most ideological Republicans now know that they have power to hold that body hostage to their bottomless whims.
As of late Thursday, it appears the Freedom Caucus is on a rampage that neither Ryan nor Trump can satisfy or defuse. The nation is seeing a primetime display of boundless extremists who, once they are given concessions, keep demanding more. Millions of Americans who value Obamacare can only hope that these Republicans continue their stampede sufficiently to derail any repeal.
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/gop-extremists-delay-trumpcare-vote
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