Congressional Republicans led by right-wing think tank test-tube baby Paul Ryan have been claiming for a solid eight years to be putting the finishing touches on a workable alternative to Obamacare. On Monday, Paul Ryan finally, really unveiled an Obamacare replacement bill. Everyone hates it.
No, seriously. Obviously liberals/leftists/Democrats were almost certainly not going to like it no matter what, and indeed, there has been nary a whisper of a rumor that even the most moderate Dems are interested in voting for the bill. But what’s been really remarkable is how much heat it’s gotten immediately from both the moderate and hard-line and insider and grassroots segments of Ryan’s own party.
- Congressional libertarians Justin Amash and Rand Paul are against it because it’s “Obamacare Lite,” i.e., still involves the federal government more heavily than they’d like in paying for low-income Americans’ health care.
- The Club for Growth conservative economic policy group is likewise against it because it isn’t “free-market” enough.
- Same with the Koch brothers’ activist groups.
- And the Tea Party Patriots group.
- And conservative Utah Sen. Mike Lee.
- Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner don’t like it because it harms Medicaid too much, i.e., doesn’t involve the federal government heavily enough in paying for low-income Americans’ health care.*
- And the conservative policy writers linked to in this Jonathan Chait piece simply don’t think it’s coherently or competently designed.
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the rollout of your Affordable Care Act repeal-and-replace legislation?
*Correction, March 7, 2017: This post originally misspelled Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s first name.
