Republican leaders have decided what to do about their fractious colleagues who can't agree on how to either repeal or replace Obamacare. They're just going to go for it with the flawed plan that they have, and dare fellow Republicans to block it.
WASHINGTON—Republican leaders are betting that the only way for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act is to set a bill in motion and gamble that fellow GOP lawmakers won't dare to block it.
Party leaders are poised to act on the strategy as early as this week, after it has become obvious they can't craft a proposal that will carry an easy majority in either chamber. Lawmakers return to Washington Monday after a week of raucous town halls in their districts that amplified pressure on Republicans to forge ahead with their health-care plans.
Republican leaders pursuing the "now or never" approach see it as their best chance to break through irreconcilable demands by Republican centrists and conservatives over issues ranging from tax credits to the future of Medicaid.
Because that strategy has never backfired before for them, right? Just ask former House Speaker John Boehner, who had so much luck with that tactic against the maniacs in the Freedom Caucus that he's now former House speaker. That's something he just reminded Republicans about.
"In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever, one time agreed on what a health-care proposal should look like," former House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said at a health-care conference in Florida. "Not once."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is going to have just about as much luck in the Senate, where he can only afford to lose two members. Since Planned Parenthood defunding will be included in the bill, that's a problem. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says point-blank that she won't vote for any bill that includes that, as had Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). There's enough general opposition to the reckless repeal approach among Senate Republicans that McConnell will have a hard time limiting those defections to just two.
