Chuck Shumer Says if GOP Repeals Without a Replacement, ‘They Will Own It’

Republicans should not expect Democrats to bail them out of the hole they have dug themselves in their quest to destroy Obamacare. It will be a wildly unpopular move, depriving 20 million Americans of healthcare, not to mention protection from denial of insurance based on pre-existing conditions or lifetime maximums.

No. In an interview with The Washington Post‘s Plum Line, Chuck Schumer told Greg Sargent that Democrats will play hardball.

Schumer has tweeted the groundwork of the Democratic resistance. The stakes need to be clearly defined from the get-go:

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And this is the risks Republicans face in destroying Obamacare. What Schumer intends is that all the blame falls where it should: on the GOP. The Senate Democratic caucus, he said, will not come up with “a replacement” if Republicans do not:

“We’re not going to do a replacement. If they repeal without a replacement, they will own it. Democrats will not then step up to the plate and come up with a half-baked solution that we will partially own. It’s all theirs.”

Because Republicans say they will waste no time dismantling Obamacare, though they may wait until after the 2018 midterms to avoid punishment for their vile acts. There is nothing Democrats can do about this, but by holding firm, they hope to force the Republicans to come up with a better replacement than they otherwise might.

“The odds, after they repeal without any replacement, of us sitting at the table to do something that will chop one arm off instead of two is very small.”

The Democrats have shown they will fight tooth and nail against regressive Republican policies, and Schumer is telling Republicans not to expect the Democrats to save them from themselves.

“They’re giving us tremendous leverage,” he said. The philosophy Senate Democrats will follow is very simple:

“They broke it, they own it. All the problems in the health care system that they blamed on Obamacare will now be in their laps. We’re going to make sure that we say things would have been a lot better, had they been thoughtful and careful and worked with us to fix Obamacare.”

The Republicans can try to put off the fallout but they cannot escape it altogether. The Democrats, Schumer assures us, will make sure of that.

Photo: www.senate.schumer.gov

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.