@Smokin Joe But that wasn't what they have been telling the folks back home who have been clamoring for the repeal of this disaster. From the beginning, some 60% of Americans were in favor of repeal, and while that looks highly unlikely, those same people who were aghast at Roberts' failure to find a penalty for not purchasing a product to be unconstitutional are again aghast that those who voted for repeal when there was no chance of anything but a veto, now will not when there is a chance the bill will be signed into law.
The polls were always more complicated than that. Very rarely was there actually a majority saying repeal it and do nothing else. Generally, votes were divided between "fix", "repeal and replace", and "repeal". And as it turned out, some specific parts of Obamacare, like no denial for pre-existing conditions and coverage of adult children to age 26, usually polled well. I personally think both are terrible ideas, and I know you do as well. But we aren't, and never were, the majority. And members of Congress knew that. This is from 2014:
Protection against preexisting-condition exclusions is a core guarantee of Obamacare, and one that consistently garners the greatest public approval. In a Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll in March 2014, some 70% of respondents had a favorable view of the rule, a result that spanned political coloration -- even 69% of Republicans were in favor. (See chart below.)
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-pre-existing-conditions-20151104-column.htmlNo, apparently there was no intent to actually repeal the thing, any more than America had a snowball's chance in Hell of seeing it thrown out at the SCOTUS.
I don't think that's fair. I think a solid 85-90% of the GOP Caucus in each House honestly intend/desired to repeal ObamaCare completely. The problem has always been that there were enough moderates who didn't want to eliminate it completely to deprive the rest of a majority. It's not Senator Cruz' fault that Senator Portman insists on preserving Medicaid expansion.
That is the reason Ryan pulled the bill. If it had gone for a vote, someone would have voted for it, and they'd have had some awkward moments at townhall meetings back in their home district explaining that.
I disagree with your premise that there really is a majority in each district that truly wanted every little bit of ObamaCare repealed with no replacement. I'm in Ohio, and I know that the guaranteed issue and the 26 year old extension were both popular. Portman may get hung if ObamaCare isn't fixed, but he probably would have been hung for eliminating guaranteed issue and the 26 year old extension as well.
This way they can hide behind the actions of the speaker.
I think Ryan personally would be thrilled to repeal the entire thing, and either not replace it, or deal with that down the road. He's just constrained by a lack of votes for that position, and knows it won't pass.
[quoteTrump's willingness to keep parts of the bill enables this nonsense, too.[/quote]
Agree.
Which tells me the scammers on The Hill are lining their pockets over this deal. There can be no other explanation for throwing out the 94% of the American people who got the shaft.
There is more than 6% of the population that supports the pre-existing condition inclusion, and the age 26 expansion. You and I know that both of those carry a lot of baggage that inflates costs, but a great many people don't see it that way. They like those things, and want to have those things and lower costs. It's unrealistic, but people vote all the time based off unrealistic expectations.
The deal was simple. We sent them to Washington to get rid of Obamacare.
But it really wasn't a "simple" deal at all. Us self-professed conservatives sent them there for that reason, but a lot of people voted for Republicans based on promises that they would "repeal" Obama
but also keep some things. I saw the ads Portman ran in Ohio myself. He ran on "Repeal ObamaCare,
but also....." He's essentially stuck with that.
