Sen. John Barrasso, lead Obama-blamer.
Today's installment comes from Reuters, which
helpfully points out that many of the people who are in danger of losing their health insurance because of the upcoming decision by the Supreme Court in
King v. Burwell are Republicans. To recap, this case is a challenge from the far-right that says Congress did not intend for people who buy insurance on the federal exchange to get federal subsidies, arguing that the subsidies were limited to just state-established exchanges based on one four-word phrase that occurs once in the entire statute. Because pretty much only solidly Democratic states established their own exchanges, it's the red states—and Republicans—that will suffer if the subsidies are cut out.
The outcome could mean millions of Americans, many of them Republicans, would lose their Obamacare health insurance coverage. One of them might be Rosel Ettress, of Chicago.
A daycare center manager and mother of three, Ettress could lose $250 a month in tax subsidies that help her afford the premiums for her insurance under 2010's Affordable Care Act.
She said in a telephone interview that this would be a blow and she urged Republicans and Democrats in Congress to act.
"I would like for Congress to come up with a way to fix this where everyone could still get the subsidies and still save a little money in the process," she said.
That fix doesn't exist, and Reuters—along with many other traditional media outlets—recognizes that Republicans are seriously divided over what to do about it, if anything. Because, there are so many Republicans who might lose their insurance, and if that happens, "who would they blame at the polls in 2016?"
"Republicans Divided" reads a subhead in the story, which goes on to report that Republicans still can't agree on what to do, though many are leaning toward keeping subsidies flowing long enough to keep people like Etress "from possibly seeking revenge on the party." Then there's the Republican Study Committee, which has a huge bloc of 170 members, many of whom continue to believe that this is their chance to end everything Obamcare once and for all and refuse to consider extending any part of it, including the subsidies.
That's the House. The Senate at least has a majority of Republican senators signed on to Ron Johnson's (R-WI) temporary extension, the one that would last as long as it would take him to get re-elected but still throws a sop to the tea partiers he needs to get there—repealing the mandate in Obamacare. That, of course, is veto bait. It sets up the GOP for the only thing they really can seem to agree on—blaming it all on President Obama. Wyoming Republican John Barasso sets the narrative: "The president made the mess. He doesn't seem to be a willing partner to work with in finding solutions to the mess he's made."
So far, that's the plan. It's Obama's fault, and will remain Obama's fault when the Republican Congress fails to find a fix.