03-25-2017, 09:21 AM
(03-25-2017, 06:04 AM)Duchess Wrote: I don't think they are going to get over this defeat, Republicans are going to do whatever they can to sabotage it. They voted over 60 times to repeal it, they have hugged this close for years and I don't see them simply walking away or reaching out to Democrats in order to work together. I can count on one hand the number of Republicans I find to be credible. Hells bells, I don't even believe they work for Americans, I think they satisfy their own needs, whatever they may be, needs like grudges and old resentments.
I agree that Democratic congresspersons have their work cut out for them in fighting against Republican attempts to sabotage Obamacare.
It's not even disputed by most Republicans that their party gained majority seats in the last two mid-term elections primarily by promising to repeal and replace 'evil' Obamacare, which their conservative constituents were convinced was a step towards socialism and an affront to the free market.
Tom Price, Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services and one of the key drafters of the failed Trump/Ryan healthcare replacement plan, has a lot of latitude when it comes to health policy and regulations. That's something that Democratic representatives have gotta be keeping their eyes all over. As a Georgia Representative, Price was a member of the extreme right Tea Party caucus (now the Freedom Caucus) and a vocal opponent of any governmental assistance/involvement in healthcare. Price opposes vaccinations and insists that healthcare coverage for birth control is an infringement on religious liberty as well.
Ironically, the far right Freedom Caucus brought down Trump's and Ryan's and Price's American Health Care proposal. Republicans didn't need a single Democratic 'yes' vote to pass the bill if they'd stood united, and they made no attempt to bring Democrats to the table.
It's possible that the unwillingness of the Freedom Caucus to compromise will be the catalyst forcing Republicans to work with Democrats to repair and improve the broken parts of Obama's Affordable Care Act, which is the right thing to do as decent human beings and for political survival. I hope that happens; healthcare is deeply personal and a matter of life and death to a lot of their constituents. They need to dump the inflammatory anti-ACA rhetoric and get their asses in motion to better the care and lives of the constituents for whom they work.