GOP/HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “For years, Congressional Republicans have promised that their policy ideas, paired with a Republican in the White House, would lead to an instant obliteration of President Barack Obama’s health care law and the advent of something less expensive, more efficient and delivering better care.
In the wee hours of Friday [7-28-17] morning, that plan unraveled on the floor of the Senate, undermined by a toxic brew of a poorly assembled bill, the undeniable rising popularity of the current health care law among many Republican governors and voters, and a president who undermined their efforts at every turn, spending the final crucial days threatening the senators he was trying to woo while attacking an attorney general they admire.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, tried after the failed health care vote to lay the blame at the feet of Democrats, whom he criticized for not participating ‘in a serious way’ in the process that he pointedly prevented them from joining. But after six months of repeated failures to pass any meaningful legislation during what is traditionally the most productive time for a party with unified control of both the White House and Congress, it is Republicans who are clearly flailing.”
-Jennifer Steinhauer, “On Policy, Republicans Find They Cannot Beat Something With Nothing,” The New York Times online, July 28, 2017