Is GOP Wavering on Obamacare Repeal?

(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Some of this is pure media disinformation, of course, designed to dishearten the voters who voted for Donald Trump in November. On the other hand, given the level of mendacity and cowardice on the part of Paul Ryan and other GOP bonzes in the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party, it’s entirely plausible:

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Republicans love cutting taxes, especially if they were authored by a president named Barack Obama. But as they push their wobbly effort to erase his health care overhaul, they’re divided over whether to repeal the levies the law imposed to finance its expanded coverage for millions of Americans.

It’s a trillion-dollar dilemma – actually closer to $1.1 trillion. That’s the 10-year price tag the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office puts on revenue the government would lose if the law’s taxes on wealthy people, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and others were eliminated.

Biased weasel words in bold, just so you civilians can see how the “neutral” AP frames the story.

Republicans and President Donald Trump have been edging away from their promise to quickly eliminate Obama’s entire law. Still, annulling its taxes would be a partial victory and is irresistible for many GOP lawmakers and the conservative voters at the core of their support.

“We should do full repeal,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leading House conservative. “And full repeal means not taking the taxes” from people.

Well, yeah. Obamacare is not by any definition (other than the Democrats’) “health care” or even “health insurance.” It was a massive tax hike — in the form of higher premiums and penalties — in order to expand Medicaid, which is (unlike Medicare) a welfare program for the poor. It was sold by deception and stealth, rammed through in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, through parliamentary trickery.

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If Ryan and the “leadership” do not deliver on one of the pillars of the recent campaign, they will have — deliberately –damaged the nascent presidency of Donald Trump, cheated their voters and revealed themselves to be the cowards we all know they are. And if that all comes to pass, the wrath of the electorate will be astounding to behold.

Restoring the status quo ante from 2008 would not seem like a very heavy lift, were there a will to do it. And if chips fall, let them fall where they may; the feds had no business getting involved with the medical system in the first place.

Follow me on Twitter @dkahanerules

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