Sen. John Barrasso
The
not-really-a-plan plan for dealing with the potential chaos caused by a Supreme Court ruling against Obamacare that three Republicans senators tossed out this weekend signifies one thing: they worried that the court will gut the law. Republicans who want to appear thoughtful are realizing—or at least pretending they realize—that there could be
unpleasant repercussions for them politically. Or they're putting up a smokescreen of pretending like they're going to fix it, to get the court to gut the law for them. Either scenario is entirely plausible.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on a GOP-backed case that threatens to erase healthcare subsidies for 8 million people. The vast stakes are raising alarm among Republicans, particularly in the Senate, who increasingly fear a backlash at the polls if their party can't find a fix. […]
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) promised this week that he would introduce legislation that creates a "temporary model to protect those harmed by ObamaCare" in which people could still receive financial help for their healthcare costs for 18 months after a court decision.
That could be part of the "plan" Sens. Lamar Alexander (TN), John Barrasso (WY) and Orrin Hatch (UT) wrote about this weekend, since an extension of the subsidies was an idea they floated. But then look what Barrasso told CPAC on Thursday of last week, possibly even as his staff was working with Alexander's and Hatch's people on their op-ed:
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told the panel that Congress is "not prepared" to pass any kind of fix to ObamaCare, including subsidies, and that the party would use the chance to push its own replacement strategy.
"There is nothing that the president is going to sign that would do what we want to do in terms of repealing and replacing it," Barrasso said.
No fix, including subsidies, says Barrasso. The guy who simultaneously wrote an op-ed saying Republicans were prepared to fix subsidies. Now, which Barrasso are you going to believe?