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Texas GOP Sen. Cornyn: ObamaCare will 'absolutely' be repealed by the end of July



I see three possibilities here:
  1. He knows something we don't! The Senate is much further along in its work toward a bill than anyone is reporting, and doggoneit this train is going to leave the station.
  2. There's really been little progress to speak of, but Cornyn figures that both the policy and political realities being what they are, it's going to happen because it simply has to happen. ObamaCare is in full implosion mode, and however unpopular the replacement bill might be, senators know that failing to solve the problem will be much worse for them and for the country in the long run. They'll do it because they simply have no choice.
  3. There's no reason to think it's going to happen, but saying this now allows him and the leadership to blame inflexible players when they fail to get a deal. Darn it, we were on our way, but (Ted Cruz or Susan Collins or Mike Lee or Lindsey Graham) just wouldn't get on board and we fell short of 50 votes!

Lawmakers have “no choice” but to repeal ObamaCare, as the healthcare law is in “meltdown" mode

The cynics among you will go right for option 3. I think 2 is the more likely explanation based on this: Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Wednesday that the Senate will repeal and replace ObamaCare no later than “the end of July.” “Absolutely,” he said Wednesday on “The Chad Hasty Show” when asked if that goal is possible before 2017 ends. “We’ll get it done by the end of July at the latest.” Cornyn added that lawmakers have “no choice” but to repeal ObamaCare, as the healthcare law is in “meltdown" mode. “Even if Hillary Clinton were president, we’d be revisiting this failed ObamaCare experiment,” he said of the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. “One thing I’m sure of is it won’t be perfect,” the Senate’s No. 2 Republican added of ObamaCare’s replacement. "But if it’s better than ObamaCare, I think we will have fulfilled our promise we made election after election to repeal and replace ObamaCare.” The House went back for another try after their first failure because they knew they couldn't just give up. Not only would it be suicide politically after they promised for seven years to repeal it, but the blood of ObamaCare's ultimate collapse would be on their hands because they dithered, and because enough of them simply refused to get on board unless they had the perfect bill.

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Collins and other RINO types are terrified that anyone might accuse them of falling in with those cruel, extreme, right-wing fanatics

The second, and ultimately successful, House attempt to pass the AHCA reflected that reality. Can we expect the same in the Senate? I'm not sure, and not because I question Cornyn's read of the situation. I think he's right that the final collapse is coming and it's going to be ugly. In many ways it's started already with the pullout of major insurers, and the only reason you're not hearing more about it is that the media prefers to focus on Russia! and the president's Twitter typos while America's health care finance system circles the toilet bowl. That's reality. But so is this: Compromise between the likes of Ted Cruz and the likes of Susan Collins seems . . . unlikely. Not impossible, perhaps, but Cruz and his small band of allies tend to dig in very hard with their positions, while Collins and other RINO types are terrified that anyone might accuse them of falling in with those cruel, extreme, right-wing fanatics. How these two factions come to a deal on pre-existing conditions, or Medicaid expansion rollbacks . . . I want to believe. Part of the problem is that, while you've probably got at least 44 Republicans who will vote for a repeal bill pretty close to the House version for the very reason Cornyn describes above, you've got some who wouldn't be that heartbroken about ObamaCare staying in place. Collins, Murkowski and Rob Portman read the polls and think the public has come to love it (which is not really true), while Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul figure an actual ObamaCare collapse can be used to prove once and for all the folly of big governnment. If three of the 52 Senate Republicans decide the survival of ObamaCare is acceptable as an alternative to anything that's brought to the floor, we're stuck with it for the foreseeable future. That once would have seemed unthinkable given a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress. John Cornyn seems to think it's still unthinkable. Is it? Like I said . . . I want to believe.


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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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