It’s too bad that Easter is over, because House Republicans are set to celebrate Pontius Pilate Day by washing their hands of the Trumpcare disaster.
“I tell people not to get too worked up. If we do get it out of here, it’s going to the United States Senate, so don’t think it’s coming back here looking like it did when we sent it over,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), the vice chair of the powerful Rules Committee, told reporters. “I think people sweat these details way too much at this stage in the game.”
Unable to resolve issues for themselves, House Republicans have determined to embrace their incompetence, toss the bill to the Senate, and count of the wise leadership of Mitch McConnell to save them. This is actually the way they are pitching moderates to sign onto a bill so bad that it could cost them their seats—by telling them to count on the Senate to force them to come up with a more reasonable solution. Because if Republican factions in the House have been unable to come to a reasonable compromise, what could be better than adding Republican factions in the Senate?
“Let’s get it over to the Senate,” Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) added. “It is not the final bill. It will go to the Senate, and it will be changed.”
Republican House leadership seems confident in one thing—they’ve managed to produce a bill so bad, there’s no way any part of it will survive contact with entirely reasonable home of Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Rand Paul. And of course, once that august body transforms this ugly duckling into a beautiful Obamacare-killing swan, the revised bill will sail through the House.
“They better not change it one iota,” Freedom Caucus member Rep. David Brat (R-VA) threatened Tuesday. “If they change it, you’re not going to have 218 [votes].”
At this point, Republicans seem to be fixed on the idea of showing that their leadership isn’t so completely incompetent that they can’t manage to get a bill they’ve talked about for over seven years through a chamber that they utterly dominate. They’re just too incompetent to make a bill even Republicans like. And how is that going?
The latest snag is over whether people with pre-existing health conditions should have guaranteed access to affordable coverage, as the ACA mandates. An amendment that would let states waive some of those requirements has garnered the votes of reluctant conservatives but left more moderate Republicans concerned.
"I've supported the practice of not allowing pre-existing conditions to be discriminated against from the very get-go," Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), a former chairman of the House committee that handles most health issues, told a Michigan radio station Tuesday in explaining his decision not to support the bill. "This amendment torpedoes that."
The crux of the matter is that the Freeeeddddoooom Caucus has an innate aversion into doing anything that would help people. It’s their single test. Will this bill do anything to make someone’s life better? Then they’re against it. Other Republicans are confounded by the idea that they like being Congressmen. After all, it comes with great healthcare.
Add one pinch of the cruel to be kind cruel Freedomites, a dash of the but-I-like-my-job position of everyone else, and salt with Paul Ryan’s laughably poor leadership, and you get a recipe for one big punt burger. Which the Senate is so eager to receive.
Asked for his response to the argument that the Senate will fix all the problems in the House health care bill, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) snapped, “That is total …” and appeared to suppress the desire to curse.
If there’s one good thing to come out of the Trumpcare fiasco, perhaps it’s the final beatdown for Paul Ryan’s media-nurtured image as a “policy wonk.” Ryan’s so-called policies never had more depth than could be gleaned from reading the dust jacket on Atlas Shrugged, and everything that’s happened since Ryan took the hot seat has proven that he’s not capable of more.