Yes, it's been five years and two reaffirming Supreme Court decisions since Obamacare was signed into law, but few issues continue to motivate GOP voters like the health law.
That's why some Republicans are still pushing to make it the centerpiece of 2016, even though they have no idea how to dismantle the law, report Peter Sullivan and Sarah Ferris.
“I think next steps, whatever they are, really do need to include the ballot box and the 2016 election,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said.
There's just a few hitches with that approach. The law's overall favorability ratings are now higher than its unfavorability ratings (by about 47 to 42 percent according to a
New York Times/ABC News
poll this month, among others). Second, Republicans have no viable route to repeal with President Obama in the White House.
Many Republicans now hope to seek repeal of the law through a budget process known as reconciliation. The procedure allows bills to be passed on a majority vote, meaning a reconciliation measure that repealed the healthcare law could go through the Senate on a majority vote with no Democratic support.
Even then, it would face a certain veto from the president.
And the GOP got bad news last week when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), led by a director handpicked by Republicans, found repealing the law would add to the deficit.
That
$353 billion price tag pretty much goes against everything they have campaigned on and preached for decades, but especially since 2010.
Does anybody else wonder when GOP voters are going to catch on to the fact that Republicans probably can't do anything about this law even though they keep running on its demise?
