August 01, 2017 11:38 AM UTC

Trumpcare: Let's Try Again--And Again, And Again...

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports on the latest undead proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act circulating among U.S. Senate Republicans, this one courtesy Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Call ’em gluttons for punishment:

Senate Republicans couldn’t agree on a way to repeal and replace Obamacare. So now they’re contemplating a totally different approach: Blow it up and let the states sort it out.

The latest attempt to resuscitate the GOP’s repeal bid would reshape the nation’s health care system by sharply curtailing the federal government’s role and placing the future of Obamacare in the hands of governors. But Republican senators will have a hard time overcoming the internal divisions that doomed their three attempts last week to unravel the Affordable Care Act…

The so-called Graham-Cassidy plan would still force deep health spending cuts, as well as set new limits that would end Medicaid’s open-ended entitlement status and threaten subsidies designed to help people afford coverage. Each element could raise objections from moderate GOP senators. That comes on top of keeping nearly all of Obamacare’s taxes, a likely deal-breaker for conservatives still intent on scrapping the entire law.

We’re obliged to mention this latest highly unlikely attempt to pass an Obamacare repeal bill for two reasons: first that it exists, and second because based on experience Sen. Cory Gardner would likely vote for it like he did every version of Obamacare repeal that came up for a vote this last round. But beyond that it’s very difficult to see this latest grab-bag of contradictions going anywhere, since it doesn’t really do anything to bring the intractably opposed Republicans in this debate together.

With the exception of President Donald Trump and far-right diehards who don’t know when to quit, repealing the Affordable Care Act is fast becoming a subject Republicans only want to change.