In just a couple of tweets, Republican Senate leader John Cornyn of Texas demonstrated exactly what his party wants to do about the health care crisis: Nothing. He started by recognizing a stark symptom:
In 2017, the prices paid to hospitals for privately insured patients averaged 241 percent of what Medicare would have paid.
Bloomberg reporter Sahil Kapur asked a very good, very simple question.
And Cornyn answered it by not answering it.
And that was the Republican Party, in a nutshell. Cornyn was asked what he would do to solve a problem he himself had identified, and he responded with what he wouldn't do. He didn't say what he would do. Because he has nothing to say. He has no answer. He has no solution.
When they controlled both houses of Congress, the Republicans voted dozens of times to repeal Obamacare. They never offered an alternative. The impeached Donald Trump is trying to get the courts to kill Obamacare, which, given that the Russian asset has packed them with his own often unqualified ideologue judges, they may very well do; but he also hasn't offered an alternative. Of course.
The different Democratic presidential candidates offer multiple substantive health care plans, from Medicare for All to an optional Medicare buy-in to a public option in Obamacare. They all take the health care crisis seriously. The Republicans offer nothing, because they don't take the health care crisis seriously. And that's one of the defining differences between Democrats and Republicans: Democrats want to use government to help people; Republicans don't. Because Democrats care about the common good, and what's best for everyone; Republicans don't.
Cornyn is former Senate GOP Whip and former Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He’s also up for re-election next year. It’s a long shot, but it would be nice to make him a former Senator, too.