The Republican Party could've Gotten Smart. Instead they're choosing KAOS

[flamingdem]

http://acasignups.net/17/02/27/republican-party-couldve-gotten-smart-instead-theyre-choosing-kaos

For weeks now, one of the rallying cries in Congressional and Senatorial Town Halls across the country has been "Care, not Chaos!". There's a whole website about it and everything. There's a bunch of different organizations dedicated to preserving the Affordable Care Act...but some of them are taking a different approach, by reasonably stating that if the GOP is absolutely dead-set on repealing the law, they should at least make sure there's a decent replacement plan ready to go the moment that the ACA is shredded:

Thirty million people will lose their health insurance. Insurance premiums will skyrocket. Hospitals will lose billions. And if the Medicaid program is cut, state and local governments could raise taxes on hardworking families to make up the difference.

We must work together to make healthcare better and more affordable for all. Our healthcare system is far from perfect, but repealing our healthcare without an immediate replacement plan that protects our care will put the health and financial security of millions of Americans at risk.

Well, despite of moderate (or at least what passes for moderates in the GOP these days) Senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski stating that they refuse to vote for any bill which defunds Planned Parenthood...and despite absolutely no agreement whatsoever among the House GOP about what the replacement bill should look like, it looks like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have decided to go with a "damn the torpedoes!" approach:

WASHINGTON—Republican leaders are betting that the only way for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act is to set a bill in motion and gamble that fellow GOP lawmakers won’t dare to block it.

Party leaders are poised to act on the strategy as early as this week, after it has become obvious they can’t craft a proposal that will carry an easy majority in either chamber. Lawmakers return to Washington Monday after a week of raucous town halls in their districts that amplified pressure on Republicans to forge ahead with their health-care plans.

Republican leaders pursuing the “now or never” approach see it as their best chance to break through irreconcilable demands by Republican centrists and conservatives over issues ranging from tax credits to the future of Medicaid.

They need at least 50 votes in the Senate. Assuming the bill does defund Planned Parenthood and Collins and Murkowski keep their word (?), that means they can only lose one more vote on that side of the aisle...and this is just to do the "partial" repeal, keep in mind.

On the House side they can only lose 22 GOP members...which presents a problem, because aside from every other issue (Medicaid, etc), the 2015 GOP repeal bill included killing Planned Parenthood funding...and the GOP's House "Freedom Caucus", which includes about 40 members, has stated point-blank that they refuse to accept anything less extreme than the 2015 bill.

Again, assuming all involved stick to their guns, this issue alone could end up causing a mess for the Republicans: 40 House members refuse to vote for a bill which doesn't defund PP, while at least 2 Senators refuse to vote for a bill which does.