Hey guys, guess what? "GOP heads into 2016 fight with no clear ObamaCare plan." Can you believe it?
What's really fun, though, are the excuses House Speaker Paul Ryan and crew are offering for not having a plan.
Senior House Republican aides and lawmakers say they do not plan to hold votes on many of the agenda items the party plans to unveil—such as a health care plan to replace Obamacare, or tax reform—because of a tight legislative calendar over the next few months and the reality that none of the bills would be signed by the president, anyway.
Ryan (R-Wis.) is hoping to release his agenda by March or April—well before the Republican National Convention in July, to avoid being drowned out—and top aides say it's not feasible to craft a massive overhaul of health care or the tax code in such a short period of time. Ryan does hope Republicans across the country will run on the ideas they develop, to provide a contrast with Democrats.
They're prisoners of the tight legislative calendar! Which they created for themselves, and which did have room for an Obamacare repeal vote and a veto override vote before the end of this month. But beyond repeal, boy there just isn't any room at all for dealing with policy.
But you notice how they "plan to unveil" agenda items like an Obamacare replacement. Who the fuck do they think they're kidding? Besides, of course, Politico. And in the next paragraph, it's "not feasible" to create an Obamacare replacement in "such a short period of time"? Well, of course it isn't. Not for Republicans. So far they've only had five years to come up with one.