The plan to stick a knife in the back of the American people and pass Obamacare Lite has failed miserably. As the Hill reports:
Republicans pulled their ObamaCare repeal bill from a scheduled Friday afternoon vote, abandoning a years-long effort as they acknowledged their legislation was headed toward an embarrassing defeat.
President Trump asked Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to pull the measure a day after issuing an ultimatum that the House had to vote on it, a GOP aide said.The stunning decision is a huge setback for Trump, Ryan and the GOP, which has promised for years to repeal ObamaCare.”We are going to be living with ObamaCare for the foreseeable future,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said at a news conference after he met with his conference and told them the party would be moving on.
The GOP bill that was debated on the floor Friday seemed doomed to failure. The Hill’s Whip List said 36 Republicans would vote no, with many more possibly voting against the measure. The GOP could only afford 22 defections.
This is good news, and should serve as a teaching moment for the GOP Establishment. As the Federalist’s Ben Domenech notes:
Yes, AHCA failure is a failure for the president, but it’s much more a failure for House leadership and Paul Ryan. They had seven years to prepare for this moment, and they failed to do so sufficiently.
At some point, it is incumbent upon Republican leadership to reevaluate their approach. They’ve been complaining about a post-earmark legislative process for years – when will they realize it isn’t coming back?
The point isn’t that the Freedom Caucus isn’t obnoxious. The point is that they’re not going away. An economically and politically self-sustaining conservative faction in the party isn’t a fad. It’s the way things are now.
Leadership types have bitched and moaned about this reality… K Street certainly hoped Trump’s win would tame the Freedom Caucus faction or alter the incentives… But this is a wake up call to leadership to recognize the reality they’re dealing with isn’t going to change any time soon.
And this didn’t just fail because of the Freedom Caucus! It failed because of moderates too, and centrist minded conservatives like Comstock and Frelinghuysen. How do you end up with, after seven years, a bill opposed by every major conservative, elderly, and doctors groups? By coming up with it behind closed doors and counting on Donald Trump to be your blunt weapon against members who virtually universally ran ahead of him in 2016… for a bill that has 17 percent support.
In the long run, this will end up being a good thing. Republicans, now free of this bunkum artificial deadline pushed by the president, can get together and hash out a bill and a strategy to truly reform the American healthcare system.
