For some time, I've been arguing that the GOP should have had a plan to repeal ObamaCare ready - and on the President's desk - the week that Donald Trump took office. The ACA's elimination should have been a day one priority, then you could rest of the year working on healthcare fixes and tax reform. I've heard a whole pile of excuses about why that didn't happen and I've never really bought any of them.
There were only two answers that made sense: Either the GOP didn't really want to repeal ObamaCare, or they simply dropped the ball and we're witnessing one of history's worst cases of political shortsightedness.
While I still suspect there are a lot of Republicans who'd love nothing more than to leave the ACA in place and have the whole issue go away, it sounds more like the GOP just ...failed. According to Pat Toomey (R-PA), no one bothered to ready an ObamaCare repeal bill, because they all thought Hillary was going to be your next President.
He made the remarks during a town hall, hosted by ABC27 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation.
And given how difficult it is to get to a consensus, it was hard to force that until there was a need to.”
In other words; "We could vote to repeal ObamaCare 40 times when we knew Obama wouldn't sign the bill, but we never wasted our time preparing for the eventuality that we might actually win the next election." That's just pathetic, and it validates a lot of criticisms that Democrats were lobbing at Republicans back during the Obama years.
It's an admission that their healthcare votes during the Obama administration really were just obstructionist political theater and it suggests that they spent more time preparing for a Hillary presidency than they spent trying to secure a victory.
Remember, they had eight years to ready a repeal, replacement, or fix. Instead, they put on a big show, yakked about their alleged principles, smiled at their constituents, and kicked the can.
They squandered their time, your money, and our collective efforts because it was easier than getting together on a solution.
No wonder they're so despised.
GOP Senator Pat Toomey on Why Health Care Has Stalled: We ‘Didn’t Expect Donald Trump to Win’
