Discussion: Conservatives Claim They Can Still Sink GOP O'Care Bill As Resistance Weakens

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Conservatives Claim They Can Still Sink GOP O'Care Bill As Resistance Weakens Conservatives Claim They Can Still Sink GOP O'Care Bill As Resistance Weakens Back to article
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Time for Ted Cruz to swoop in at last?

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Remember lying Ryan …

Crow is a dish best eaten …warm –

Not that that will ever happen — Ha !

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We are truly watching the “sausage being made” and it ain’t pretty. Let’s hope this awful bill does not make it through both houses of Congress. Heaven help us all if it does.

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Won’t make it because it ain’t awful enough! Ha!

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I am predicting this will fail and Trump will deliver a knock out punch to Paul Ryan, and blame him for its failure. Paul Ryan was a weasel to Trump, and never really supported him, so now comes King Baby Trump’s revenge. Good, let them cannibalize each other!

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Majority parties usually find the votes in situations like this, especially in the first year of a President’s term. So if one were placing odds on this, you’d have to favor Trump/Ryan getting the votes in the House. However, they started far in the hole in their vote count; there isn’t any voter intensity support on the GOP side for this bill; and this bill has an uncertain future in the US Senate with a lower margin for error. On top of that, Trump’s poll numbers can’t be ignored. So I don’t really know what happens with respect to this vote. I don’t believe Ryan has done a proper whip count. I think he’s just using party loyalty and is jumping in head first. He may also be pushed by Trump, who is a ‘go with the gut’ gambler type.

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Trump: These freedom caucus conservatives are liberal plants and work for Russia.

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That $75 billion “reserve fund” thing essentially requires the senate to modify the bill. So there’s a chance that the senate will create an entirely different bill that gets the supposedly sane republicans on board, and then all the don’t-kill-grandma provisions get stripped out in conference. At which point every republican in both houses regretfully votes for it because it’s the best they could do, and they have to pass something.

And then everybody is too busy going to grandma’s funeral to vote.

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King Baby! That’s a term I haven’t heard in years. Wonderful description.

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Hey, FreedomFriars------

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Boss Baby------From NightmareWorks…

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Generally, I agree, but there has to be a constituency that is pushing for the bill, an influential group that is willing to take the lead. Right now, I’m not seeing that group. The only people that come out clear winners with this bill are billionaires. But, so far, they’re mostly staying on the sidelines or, like the Koch brothers, attacking the bill because it’s not cruel enough.

So I don’t really know what happens with respect to this vote. I don’t believe Ryan has done a proper whip count. I think he’s just using party loyalty and is jumping in head first.

I agree that anything can happen and that it would be a mistake to assume that the battle is over. My impression of Ryan’s strategy is that he was counting on two things:

  1. Ramming it through before resistance had a chance to build, preferably even before the CBO had a chance to rule on the bill. Well, that’s failing. The bill proved to be universally hated and the CBO score was worse than they expected or hoped.

  2. Daring members to be the vote that caused a failure to repeal Obamacare. They’ve voted for repeal over 50 times, they’ve made it a campaign attack ad in the last three elections, their base hates Obamacare past all reason, and this is their first, and likely best, real shot at repeal. I think Ryan was saying, “Do you really want to have to face your base voters and admit that, despite voting to repeal dozens of times, this one time, the time when it really mattered, you chickened out?”

I honestly don’t know how this plays out. On the one hand, the base remains adamantly opposed to all things Obamacare. I don’t see a good outcome for the GOP if they fail to repeal it. They’ll be attacked on the right, and legitimately so, given how they’ve demonized the ACA and everything associated with it. On the other hand, their replacement bill is truly dreadful, solving none of the problems and making most things worse. And it’s universally hated by damn near every individual, group, and institution. And, should they manage to pass it, they own the results. They own every death, every loss of insurance, every failure to get good medical care, every price increase, everything.

I don’t see a path to a good outcome for them.