Republicans, step away from the brink - By the WaPo Editorial Board

[DonViejo]

By Editorial Board June 28 at 7:31 PM

REPUBLICAN SENATORS are regrouping after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) put off a vote on his Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill. The stumble was for the better. The bill was drafted in secret. Not a single hearing was held. Democrats were not consulted. With only a single week afforded to absorb the legislation’s contents before a vote, the timetable was absurd. Mr. McConnell’s attempt to jam it through stank of legislative malpractice and hypocrisy.

Republicans should treat this as an opportunity to step away from the brink and reevaluate their foolhardy push to rush through an ill-wrought overhaul of the nation’s health-care system without any input from the other side. Despite President Trump’s claims otherwise, GOP leaders have not engaged Democrats seriously on the health-care issue, as Democrats did for at least a time as they drafted Obamacare. Republicans have instead advanced coverage reductions and tax cuts that Democrats — and, indeed, most of the public — could never embrace.

The Congressional Budget Office has repeatedly exposed these ideas to be abjectly cruel, finding that they would result in north of 20 million more people uninsured in a decade, as government health-care assistance was rolled back to finance a large tax cut for the wealthy. Mr. McConnell has reportedly argued, however, that pressing forward would be better than negotiating with Democrats. What does it say about the Republican Party that even this bill is more appealing than reaching out to moderates on the other side of the aisle?

Not all feel this way. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the Senate bill’s skeptics, this week suggested fixing Obamacare markets in cooperation with Democrats. She and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) released a compromise health-care proposal before Republicans began their mad repeal-and-replace rush. For his part, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged Republicans Wednesday to “start over” and find a “new, bipartisan way forward on health care.” If Mr. Schumer wants to show that he is interested in doing more than trolling his GOP counterparts, he could appoint a group of moderate Democrats to serve as credible negotiators.

If both sides sat down in good faith, there would be a wide range of possible compromises. Senators could work off the Cassidy-Collins plan, which is not preoccupied with cutting taxes and allows states that want to keep the Obamacare system to do so, while letting others try a different course. In any compromise scenario, Democrats would seek commitments that health-care markets would be properly subsidized and administered, and Republicans would seek some loosening of Obamacare regulations, particularly if doing so allowed younger people to buy bare-bones coverage. That is grounds for an obvious trade.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-step-away-from-the-brink/2017/06/28/2f68503c-5c46-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.cda8dda119fe&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

[DetlefK]

1. Not as long as McConnell is the Majority Leader:

McConnell especially warned that the GOP would have to work on a bipartisan bill with the Democrats if they don't manage to pass this partisan bill.

The horror!

Pass this bill or else we have to write a new one with input from the Democrats!!! Gaaaaaah!!!!!!

[Moral Compass]

2. They've chained themselves to repeal

The Republicans have shackled themselves to repeal and if you look at the numbers coming out of the CBO that's where this bill would get them. They're not doing so good on replace.

If you look at this paper (http://www.kff.org/uninsured/report/the-uninsured-at-the-starting-line-findings-from-the-2013-kaiser-survey-of-low-income-americans-and-the-aca/) by Kaiser it shows that the number of uninsured was roughly 47 millions pre-ACA.

Both the Senate and the House bill do a dandy job of repealing. But don't do a damned thing to replace. Both will lead to uninsured numbers that are almost an exact match of pre-ACA numbers.

The Republicans a few days ago were pointing out that there are still 28 million uninsured and were trying to use that as a justification for repeal of the ACA. Somehow, in their minds, going back to close to 50 million uninsured is an improvement. I guess we'd be going back to the good old days when the uninsured that weren't poor enough just quietly suffered and died.

I think everyone that is paying attention knows that they are trying to accomplish two long sought after goals with this bill: a large tax cut for the highest earners in the country which they're trying to justify by claiming that these tax cuts will magically result in increased economic growth (supply side redux...because it worked out so well that last two times); and gutting Medicaid by imposing per capita caps AND make it a block grant to the states.

They are just quivering with eagerness. But, as Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, have complained--all these interest groups keep pointing out how many millions of American citizens this will screw over.

There are only two ways this is going to going to end and neither one of them is all that good for the treasonous opposition. The first outcome is that the the bill makes it to Trump's desk. He'll sign it even though he has no idea what it will actually do. The problem with this is the timing. They'll have the legislative win they want so badly but it comes before 2018. The attack ads almost write themselves.

The other possible outcome is that the bill dies in the Senate and the Republicans will actually have to do their jobs and work with the Democrats to "fix" the ACA. They'll have the embarrassment of a huge (yuuuuuuge) legislative loss hung around their necks. The right wing will start sharpening their knives. Again, the problem is the timing. It is before 2018 and the attack ads almost write themselves.

I don't see any outcome that is going to be a net win for the Republicans. I keep thinking they can't really be this stupid, but at some point the Republicans became a suicide pact. While they've done an incredible job of gerrymandering and making the field of battle really challenging to the Democrats they've had to move so far to the right to avoid being primaried that the current Republican platform is composed of things that are incredibly unpopular. It is getting harder and harder to make the shit smell like roses.

Don Viejo, as always, love your posts.