What a difference a day makes. The first snowflake has started to roll down the mountain, and today more snowflakes have attached. Could an avalanche be in the offing? Actually, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was the first snowflake to roll off of the mountaintop. Yesterday, after the Senate Deathcare bill was tabled, she was asked if the GOP might end up having to work with Democrats to pass anything. She was emphatic that they should have been working with the Democrats from the start. In different interviews today Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain all stated unequivocally that there should be Democratic input into the healthcare bill. Usually, once one person shouts “Fire!”, pretty much everybody runs for the exit.
Ain’t that a kick in the ass Mitch? This wold be a bitter pill for McConnell and Paul Ryan to swallow, to not be able to pass their 7 year pledge to their base with clear majorities in both chambers. And based on Mitch McConnell’s snide references yesterday, once can easily assume that his attempt at bipartisanship will be to show Shumer the bill, and ask him “This is what we got, take it or leave it, Y’all with us on this or not?” But can he get away with that?
The entire GOP is in deep shit over this issue. The roll out was pathetic. Both Ryan and McConnell were needlessly arrogant from day one, not only ignoring the possibility of Democratic input, they scornfully rejected even the thought. They have the majority, they’d do this themselves. Now they have a shit smorgasbord, and every GOP member can fill their own plate. And it turns out that this buffet ain’t at Caesar’s Palace. The GOP is learning that healthcare over the last 7 years has become as much of a third rail as Social Security and Medicare, step on it and your political career is electrocuted.
From this moment onward, if there is no bipartisanship, no matter what ultimately happens, the Republicans are boned sideways. If they pass this barbaric bill, they become responsible for kicking 22 million people off of healthcare. And if they don’t, then they couldn’t keep their premier promise to their base with unified control. And if it fails and they do nothing, and the ACA collapses, it’s their fault, they are the party in charge. For better or worse, the GOP now owns healthcare lock, stock and barrel. Especially since Trump and the GOP did everything they could to nudge the ACA towards disaster to strengthen their hand.
Ali Velshi had the President of the AMA on today who stated that with preventative cardio-vascular care alone, the ACA saves one life for every 287-304 people who got covered. That’s about 75,000 people we’re talking about consigning to an early demise, and that’s just for heart disease. Now, toss in diabetes, cancer, and other treatable diseases, and how many people are we talking about?
If Ryan and McConnell think they’re going to get any cover from Trump by playing partisan hardball, they’re out of their minds. Trump talked with a face full of the sadz from the beginning of his regret that the Democrats wouldn’t pitch in. He doesn’t care how it gets done, Trump desperately needs a win, and this one would be a real feather in his cap.
And if we weren’t living in a political alternate universe, this should be a no brainer. If McConnell and Ryan swallow their pride, work in good faith with the Democrats, and come up with a workable solution, Trump and the GOP can trumpet to the heavens that they saved the flailing, “collapsing” Obamacare. If the Democrats can work in good faith, get fixes that they want to stabilize their signature legislative achievement in the last 50 years, they can claim that Obama care works when it’s fixed. Both sides can come away claiming victory.
If these two polar opposites ever sit down and actually begin to work, it is actually all going to come down to one word, “repeal”. After the debacle that would have to happen to lead to this, the GOP literally must save face. And what difference to words make if the results are positive. Whatever portions of the current law the Republicans are able to get removed, they are going to trumpet to their base that they “repealed” that portion of Obamacare. Who gives a shit? It’s just a word, Obamacare lives to fight another day, and peoples lives are saved.
Even if the Senate manages to have that Kumbaya moment, the problem is going to be in the House. The Teahadists are never going to go along with anything that the Democrats have touched, it has cooties, and who knows what the Tuesday Slobs will do. But it really doesn’t matter. The one critical thing would be to get Paul Ryan to bring the bill to the floor for debate and a vote. If the Democrats vote en bloc for the bill, you only need 25 GOP defections to pass it, and there are more of them than that who are in districts that either Hillary won, or Trump carried by 5 points or less. The possibility is there.
Come on Murf, do you honestly think that the GOP will deal with the Democrats in good faith on this? In all honesty? Right now I put the odds at 30-70. But if the current GOP crumbling structure starts to turn into a full blown implosion, they are going to begin looking for a way down off of this ledge they put themselves on. Give them a ladder, but don’t go holding their hands on the way down. What’s the worst that could happen?