Conservatives Sound The Alarm: Why Is Obamacare Repeal Taking So Long?

[DonViejo]

By TIERNEY SNEED Published FEBRUARY 7, 2017, 6:00 AM EST

Lauren Fox contributed reporting.

With the Affordable Care Act squarely in their sights, conservative lawmakers and activists are beginning to wonder why the GOP leadership in Congress isn't pulling the trigger.

It’s been over a month since the new GOP-controlled Congress came to Washington, and three months since President Trump’s surprise victory secured for Republicans an opportunity to do away with President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Yet lawmakers, at least in their public statements, have not moved far in their plan to do so, beyond a vote on a procedural first step.

The lack of action -- and even the lack of clarity about what eventual action will look like -- is causing frustration among the GOP’s right flank and its outside organizations.

“They need a fire lit under their asses, and we're not seeing that right now,” Jason Pye, director of public policy and legislative affairs at FreedomWorks, a conservative grassroots organization, told TPM.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-repeal-conservatives

[spanone]

1. what happened to 'Day One' Bwahahahahaaaa

you'd think after all those votes in congress to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, they'd be prepared....naw

[DetlefK]

2. Maybe because Obamacare is so good it's hard to come up with something better?

Well, it's not like they have had 7 years to come up with something better than Obamacare...

[Wounded Bear]

3. Maybe they're trying to save their phoney baloney jobs...

Harrumph!

[Hortensis]

4. Of course. FreedomWorks is a Koch alliance front, NOT

a "conservative grassroots organization." So the Kochtopus with its Koch caucus in Congress think they need to turn up the heat under this pot. Interesting but not surprising.

[mindem]

5. They are worried about positioning

They already know they are just going to kill the ACA and not replace it. They have to come up with the right language so the devastation it causes can be blamed on Obama and the Democrats.

[Cracklin Charlie]

6. They better hurry.

It's already been eighteen whole days!



Feels like eighteen friggin years.

[TransitJohn]

7. They have no possibility of replacing it

The Democrats, in passing it, were pretty smart. They predominantly used the right wing's own ideas, now they have no alternative to replace it with if they ever do repeal it, since single payer is ideological anathema to them.

[zipplewrath]

8. Oh, they have plenty of ideas

Their problem is that all of them will cost money. The ACA didn't save people much money, but it did save the federal government a lot of money. Any change that the GOP might make will almost assuredly increase the cost to the feds. They can try to avoid that through "block grants" to the states, but the states know how much things cost and will howl if they block grants aren't big enough. And of course they have the insurance companies to satisfy as well. They like their guaranteed customer base, as well as the federal government subsidizing that customer base. They practically demand the mandate. So the GOP congress is surrounded on all sides by either the insurance companies, the states, or the individuals that like their subsidized insurance and their pre-existing condition ban.

The reality is that the only solution that will work better than the ACA is basically some variation of the public option/medicare for all/single payer. In the end, much like most of our international competitors, we need to control the price of health CARE and about the only way to accomplish that is by having the feds in a position to negotiate/dictate the price of goods and services. No one has figured out how that can be accomplished on a state by state level. God knows the GOP hasn't.