It’s not...
- Because of private health insurance companies giving them campaign donations
- Because the Republican Party thinks people don’t deserve medical care they can’t pay for
- Because they believe a word they tell their Base or the Media, like “Obamacare is failing”
Then what in the hell is driving the Republican insistence on Repeal & Replace of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka PPACA, ACA, Obamacare)?
What is the ultimate driver of anything Republican?
Winning
They spent over two generations in the political wilderness after causing the Great Depression, which left a huge impact on the psyche of the nation. Then after JFK stole the 1960 White House from their candidate because women thought he was handsome and voted for him in record numbers, they got serious about winning in the modern era.
They got big money from wealthy conservatives who agreed that the liberal ideas of the Left in American politics were dangerous, because they caused social chaos, which hurt the stability of the stock market, where most of their wealth was quietly increasing, decade after decade. They used that money to build think tanks and training and financial support for local level Republican Party actions. They rewarded successful politicians who survived a decade or more in Congress with six figure salaries as board members or special consultants, or more often, as Lobbyists to wield their personal contacts in the Congress to affect legislation via lobbying. They bought up the conservative side of American politics from the grassroots right on up to the top floor of those Wall Street banks and Investment Houses.
The Democrats spent the last 30 to 40 years chasing the Oval Office, keeping a Democratic President their prime directive. The Republicans allowed a horde of Clown Car candidates to chase the presidency and concentrated on the State Houses and Congress.
The side that picked the local action and Congress held the majority in each of the last 3 Census re-districting years, and thus got to be in charge of redrawing boundary lines on precincts and Congressional Districts in the States was the Republicans. Because of that, they hold 2/3rds of the seats in Statehouses and the US Congress.
They used that power to change Voter Id laws in many states and got a Supreme Court willing to agree that racism is dead (enough) to eject Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and free states which had been proven to unconstitutionally gerrymander their Districts from supervision of changes to their state voting regulations. And the great erasing of legally eligible voters from state rolls began in the George W Bush era have gone into overdrive in the past five years. Stripping average people of their right to Vote, and targeting POC (persons of color) and poor voters because they know that statistically those voters will cast their ballots for Democratic candidates.
The Republicans ran almost exclusively on repealing and replacing the PPACA for eight years, even knowing full well that bills they passed to President Obama to do so would be vetoed. So they could go to their voters and say, “We tried and we’ll keep trying until we get rid of this terrible jobs killer, uh, failing legislation!” And get re-elected, again and again.
Until 2017. When they finally won the jackpot in D.C. — they won the House the Senate and the Oval Office. Surely, now they would be able to do exactly what Donald Trump (President) and Mitch McConnell (Majority Leader, US Senate) and Paul Ryan (Speaker of the House) had been telling the conservative Republican voters for nearly a decade, and on DAY ONE they would repeal and replace the dastardly Obamacare, which was on it’s death bed, spiraling into death more and more each day.
Because when they did that, they would be the winners and the voters would send the Democrats into a 40 years stroll in the political desert, and the Republicans could turn back the clock on all of this “progress” the liberals had forced on an unwilling nation for so many years.
No more protection for those illegals who certainly do vote in our elections, bring us an original birth certificate if you want to vote in our country and we’ll be satisfied that you are a real American and eligible to vote here.
No more (icky) gay marriage or any of that claptrap.
Just one or two more Justices on the Supreme Court and abortion will finally (FINALLY) be illegal again and all the babies will be saved and those young women will learn some decorum and stop having sex, like they should, by god.
It would be like paradise on Earth.
Except that hasn’t happened yet and it’s already six months into the presidency of Donald J Trump.
Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan keep bringing these zombie bills forward, and I guess they’re deluding themselves that the CBO won’t find these idiot policy choices shock the private insurance markets and deprive tens of millions of citizens of any insurance at all. Only the CBO is not filled with lunatics disguised as Lawmakers, and keeps reporting back to the Republicans and Congress that each one of these bills (all of them) will cause massive economic disruption and force tens of millions to lose the ability to get and keep healthcare insurance.
Which, it turns out, is massively unliked by the American public, private health insurance companies, hospital associations, AARP, State Governors (both Dem and GOP) and millions and millions of voters who have spent all of 2017 calling and calling Congress to tell them to LEAVE OBAMACARE ALONE!
Now, the Republicans are in serious trouble. They were certain that getting the House the Senate and the White House in a single election would give them the power to do what they want. After all, that’s how it works in America, and always has. Those who win elections win the power that comes with the Offices they occupy, and they call it “political capital”, which can be spent to achieve policy goals.
Only here they are, they WON it all in November of 2016, but they don’t seem to be able to wield the power that should have come with that big win. Because all they’ve been doing since Donald Trump was inaugurated is losing. A lot. Because they allowed a dangerous clown to take over their Party and become President of the United States. A man their deluded and ill-informed Base continues to support, but the rest of the nation and rest of the world now look at Donald Trump with side-eye most days, and deservedly so, even if just for his ridiculous Tweeting on Twitter as @realDonaldTrump.
So what is it that keeps the Republicans chasing that dream of scourging the PPACA from the US Code, down all of these long years?
They simply can’t bear the thought of another 40 years in the wilderness without any power. They just cannot allow the Democrats to be the ones to put their (omg) black president’s name on the law that has made life so much better for tens of millions of voting Americans and reap the benefit of the gratitude of all of those voters and their kids, too! They need to be the ones that The People are grateful to, like they were to the Democrats after Roosevelt gave so much to them, all of the little people. They need to be The Winners this time around. It’s their turn, damn it.
Like eight year old boys who are unable to accept that sometimes life isn’t fair, these crazy people are willing to allow 1/6th of the nation’s economy to be unstable on purpose so that they can turn around and claim they just want to fix things. It’s in a Death Spiral, after all, everyone know it. Trump and McConnell and Ryan and all of them keep saying, “Obamacare is failing” and we’re going to fix it by getting rid of it and giving the American people something so much better that costs less!
But they’re just lying, again…
Don’t be surprised if, contrary to the assurances of the tv news talking heads, the Republicans continue to chase this dream of Repeal and Replace all year long. They’ll stop for 3 days in late September to authorize another Continuing Resolution instead of a new Budget Bill (because they don’t have the votes for a Budget bill, either) and a Debt Ceiling Rise bill, too (although I’m afraid we’ll see another short economic disruption when they let the Gov’t shutdown for at least a week).
Because all they’ve done so far in the Trump Era is fail.
And these people just cannot accept that they are losers. Even when it’s as plain as the numbers in the latest CBO score on their latest version of what passes for Healthcare Insurance Reform in the modern Republican Party. Even when it’s the choice between Country over Party.
That’s just who they are.
#MorallyBankrupt
I will no longer accept that we cannot change things.
If there were any moment in American history to change what we cannot accept?
NOW IS THAT TIME
#Resist
Join the Indivisible Team and help us keep those assholes LOSING —
Twitter: @IndivisibleTeam
Facebook: Indivisible Guide Team
URL: www.IndivisibleGuide.com