House Republicans Are Not Nearly Done Trying to Kill Obamacare
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“I have not yet begun to fight!”
These words were uttered by American Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones, after being asked if he would surrender his ship during the battle of Flamborough Head. It was a heroic moment, but I would like to suggest an adaptation for Republicans in Congress, who, since the embarrassing failure of the AHCA, are now faced with giving up on their dreams of repealing Obamacare.
“I have not yet begun to screw poor people!”
A little cliche, but super accurate. Today, a Reuters report indicated that a group of House Republicans, including members of the infamous Freedom Caucus—the ones who scuttled Trump’s plan because it wasn’t vicious enough a closed-door meeting in which they re-affirmed their commitment to destroying the ACA, and hinted that the next salvo may come as soon as April.
This follows hot on the heels of Paul Ryan’s vow to donors on Monday that despite his earlier proclamation of defeat, he would, in fact, renew the fight to kill Obamacare. From ABC:
“We are going to keep getting at this thing,” he said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. “We’re not going to just all of a sudden abandon health care and move on to the rest. We are going to move on with rest of our agenda, keep that on track, while we work the health care problem.”
He also let on that a plan could be in place for further action could be in place by the end of this week—it’s possible he was referring to today’s clandestine meeting, though at this point, who the hell knows.
Earlier today on Paste, Eoin Higgins pointed out the fundamental political flaw in the legislation, which is that Republicans don’t fear Trump, and don’t respect Ryan. Considering this irrefutable truth, it’s hard to imagine what sort of new plan would unite the feuding factions of the right. But like Ahab pursuing his white whale, these Republicans will continue to chase the death of Obamacare, gung-ho, monomaniacal, heedless of reality or self-sabotage. Damn the torpedoes, gentlemen! Full speed ahead!