"..."repeal and replace" appears to have been rebuffed and rejected."

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/08/10610790-so-much-for-repeal-and-replace

So much for 'repeal and replace'
By Steve Benen
-
Thu Mar 8, 2012 10:45 AM EST


Shortly after the Affordable Care Act became law two years ago, congressional Republicans adopted a simple, three-word, poll-tested phrase: "repeal and replace." The GOP would repeal the moderate reform law, which is based on a model Republicans used to support, and replace it with something new.

Whatever happened to that? It's a funny story, actually.

The "replace" part of the slogan is clearly in trouble. Fourteen months after Republicans took over the House, GOP legislation to reform the nation's health care system is nowhere to be found. There have been no plans circulated, no hearings scheduled, nothing. It's almost as if Republicans weren't sincere about following through on their promises to reform the old, dysfunctional health care system.

What about the "repeal" part of the phrase? That's not going well, either. Just last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told his caucus "that he does not want to vote again on repealing President Obama's healthcare reform law until after the November elections."

This apparently isn't going over well with some on the right.

Senate Republicans are clashing with conservative groups over whether to hold votes this year to repeal all of President Obama's healthcare reform law.

One group, the Restore America's Voice Foundation, plans to spend $50,000 to $100,000 per week on television ads pressing Senate Republicans to force a vote on repeal... Last week, {Restore America's Voice chairman Ken Hoagland} said McConnell should resign as leader if he did not pledge to force a vote on a full repeal of the healthcare law.

An official at the Club for Growth said, "We should have a vote on repealing ObamaCare every week." Someone at the Heritage Foundation went a step further, pushing "votes every day on repealing ObamaCare."

These folks are likely to remain frustrated. For one thing, repeal can't pass. For another, a vote for repeal is a vote for higher taxes on small businesses, higher prescription drug prices for seniors, fewer protections for consumers, a larger deficit, and taking health care coverage away from millions of Americans. It's not exactly a smart election-year move.

While we're at it, Joan McCarter reminds us that the latest polling shows most Americans opposed to total repeal anyway.

What's more, even having a debate over this brings up an inconvenient issue for the Republican Party: its likely presidential nominee created a reform law in his state that's practically identical to Obama's plan and was crafted by the same policy experts. The more GOP lawmakers push a repeal fight that can't pass anyway, the more Democrats get to remind everyone about Romney's record.

The right doesn't have to like it, but "repeal and replace" appears to have been rebuffed and rejected.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. What makes McConnell certain that he will be able to win repeal of ACA after the November elections?

Only way in hell that will happen is if one of their clowns winds up getting elected POTUS AND the Senate and House go Republican, which is highly unlikely IMHO the way things are going now. The only wildcard is SCOTUS and what they will do but the worst that will probably happen IMHO is that the mandate would be judged unconstitutional but I can't see the entire law falling because of it, particularly since only one court has killed the entire law whereas all of the others have either upheld it in its entirety or attacked the mandate. I still don't understand all the fuss over the mandate b/c, as I understand it, the "mandate" is rather toothless and nobody is going to be hauled off to jail or fined if they don't buy health insurance- and most people already have some form of health insurance coverage, so...........?

[babylonsister]

2. It's all bluster...

Fourteen months after Republicans took over the House, GOP legislation to reform the nation's health care system is nowhere to be found.

They don't have a plan and I suspect they never did. Probably requires too much work.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. That's true. I know

"........full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"-a perfect description of the modern day GOP. That blank sheet of paper that they kept talking about back in 2010 must still be........blank.

[zipplewrath]

4. It was never clear how

They were asked many times how they would "replace" and there was never any answer. It is politically impossible to "repeal" the closing of the donut hole and you can't "replace" it without the savings that were achieved with the original legislation. And the insurance companies will howl if they try to repeal the mandate without also elminating the very popular "pre-existing condition" rules.

It was just so much election year sloganeering. Even if they get a majority in the Senate, they won't be able to repeal anything, especially with Obama sitting there with a fresh second term.

There is no interest on either side of the aisle on making any substantive change in what we got. We're all stuck with it pretty much as is, regardless of how elections come out.