Obamacare Creators Tell GOP: We Told You So

[mobeau69]

"Maybe I should just say karma is a serious thing," said Neera Tanden, who was a top health official in the Obama administration. "Health care is hard. Governing is hard. And Republicans are now living with the fruits of never putting forward a plan and making promises they can't keep."

"It's healthcare, it should be easy. Everyone goes to the doctor. But it's super hard," Gruber said. "As a result, it's easy to demonize everything."

He added, "They (Republicans) have spent years trying to demonize Obamacare and say there was something better, but there was nothing better ... It's overall a sad story. I don't think anybody can feel good about this."

Republicans "now own the American health care system, which is something that they very effectively said that we owned for seven years," said Ben Wakana, a former spokesperson for Obama's Department of Health and Human Services.

"As you see this circular firing squad, part of the problem is they don't have any principles on health care," he added. "The thing that kept us grounded when things got hard was we had principles. That kept us all on the same team and in the same room."

The 2018 midterm elections are still a ways off, but Democrats say they intend to put repeal front and center.

"GOP Senate candidates will now have to defend an agenda that protects the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of Americans who actually work for a living," said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Regardless of whether it gets a vote, we'll make sure there is no rock Republican Senate candidates can hide under."

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/09/obamacare-creators-tell-gop-we-told-you-so.html

[Girard442]

2. My money is on the R's burning it all to the ground.

And then seeking jobs at Breitbart and Fox News.

Not a good outcome for actual humans but maybe the least bad for the Reich wingers.

[underpants]

3. Repubs are caught between their rhetoric (media) and reslity

On this issue and several others.

The main goal of a politician is to get re-elected. That's the WHAT. HOW they do it has many options. The Repubs almost universally have adopted the "greatest hits" plan. Keep saying what their people hear on TV and radio. And then keep saying it. Obama gave them cover because they knew that certain things just weren't going to happen. That's gone. They have to govern and they've never been good at that - actually worse at that than math and they are bad at math.

The weirdest part is that some of them, a lot of them actually, really believe this stuff. I mean they BELIEVE it.

[area51]

4. There actually is something better.

Or to be specific, this is one of the better ways. Single-payer. But god forbid people should come before profits.