President Obama is going to get the better of Republicans one final time, as the GOP has been forced to break their promise to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare because the law is too complicated and a prompt gutting of the law would result in an immense public backlash.
Republicans have changed their language on Obamacare from repeal and replace on day one to repeal sometime in January, and we’re going to need at least three years to replace the ACA.
The New York Times quoted top Congressional Republicans:
“We are not going to rip health care away from Americans,†said Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which shares jurisdiction over health care. “We will have a transition period so Congress can develop the right policies and the American people can have time to look for better health care options.â€
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate health committee, said: “I imagine this will take several years to completely make that sort of transition — to make sure we do no harm, create a good health care system that everyone has access to, and that we repeal the parts of Obamacare that need to be repealed.â€
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Notice the change in language? Now that it will be Republican heads on the chopping block, the GOP is suddenly very interested in taking their time and not harming anyone. Also, note that full Obamacare repeal appears to be off the table. As Sen. Alexander said that parts of Obamacare would be repealed, not the whole thing.
President Obama is going to get the last laugh. Republicans are going to pass some token form of ACA repeal, and slap a new name on it, but if one reads between the lines, it is easy to see that big parts of Obamacare are going to be sticking around.
Obama has outsmarted the Republican Party one final time. All of those ACA repeal bills that the House has passed since 2011 weren’t worth the paper that they were printed on. What Republicans will pass in January may be nothing more than another show vote.
The GOP has found out that they can’t just get rid of Obamacare.
Even after he is no longer president, the legacy of Barack Obama will continue to defeat the Republican Party.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
