In news that will shock absolutely no one, House Republican leadership says it
won't have an Obamacare replacement plan this month, as promised, and won't any time soon.
The issue is one of “policy, trying to get it all together,” House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said when asked why a planned April unveiling was being pushed back. […]
“Our committee chairmen are working on the issues in terms of the kind of reform that we want; our whip as well as our conference chair are also working with members to make sure that we can coalesce around a real health-care reform,” Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters today.
At least we're not getting the
laughingly lame excuse we heard from Speaker John Boehner two months ago that they just have
too many ideas for reform to sort through to come up with their brilliant plan. But what we're hearing is coming is
nothing new: allowing insurers to sell across state lines; tort reform; and the big boon to the financial industry—more health savings accounts. None of which offers consumers the protections that Obamacare provides and that voters
approve of by huge margins.
The reality for Republicans, however hard the tea party is fighting it, is that more than seven million new enrollments, and millions more added through Medicaid and allowing adult children to stay on family plans, means that repeal just isn't an option any more. It can't happen without a real replacement plan. And a real replacement plan, one that offers all the protections that Obamacare provides, can't happen because the tea party won't let it.
The reality for Republicans is that Obamacare is not going to be the electoral boon for them in 2014 that they imagine.