Acknowledging that they have far more important things to be doing this fall than repealing Obamacare, Senate Republicans have apparently settled on a plan to ... repeal Obamacare. Seriously. They have figured out
how to take a shortcut to having the vote that will bypass Democratic objections so that they have time to do the stuff that they're supposed to be doing. Like keeping the government from shutting down.
GOP leaders are considering an abbreviated form of the powerful budget reconciliation process this year, giving them the leeway to focus on other pressing matters while still issuing a prod to the president on the health care law.
Under the approach being discussed, the Senate would act on a House-written reconciliation bill to overturn the health care law, rather than going through the laborious steps it would take to write and debate its own measure.
An accelerated reconciliation schedule would take less time away from what lawmakers say are essential laws they must pass during an increasingly jammed legislative schedule. That includes finding a way out of an impasse over the fiscal 2016 spending bills, reviewing President Barack Obama’s Iran deal, passing highway legislation and extending tax breaks.
Yes, the 60 times congressional Republicans have voted to repeal Obamacare have not been enough prods to the president to let him know that they hate the law. So far, they haven't absolutely decided that this is the route they'll take, but one senator in leadership, John Thune (R-SD) says "I certainly wouldn’t rule that out […] I would certainly be open to it only because, like I said, I think that anything that can help expedite our ability to process a lot of the things that we have to get done would be helpful."
You have to have your priorities straight, after all. You have to make sure that there's enough time to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood, so spending as little time as possible on legislation that you know will be vetoed when you don't have enough votes to override that veto is just the responsible thing to do.
No wonder America hates you.