Third Time's A Charm For Obamacare Repeal
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Earlier this month, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy introduced a third iteration of an Obamacare repeal bill. With a dozen other stories fighting for headlines, the bill has largely flown under the radar — especially as America’s top political reporters like Chris Cillizza are slaving away on hard-hitting pieces like “What Melania Trump’s Choice Of Footwear Says To Middle America.”
Graham, who has consistently spoken out against Trump by tweeting indignantly at him while voting with his administration 95% of the time, is now ironically poised to hand Trump the biggest legislative victory of his presidency so far. By speaking out against Trump, Graham had backed himself into a proverbial closet, but with this new bill, he seems ready to come out of that closet in support of the President.
What the bill does specifically is unclear, and best left to all the nerds who thought they were going to have jobs in the Hillary Clinton administration but now work at think tanks called the American Center of Excellence to figure out. In general, the bill will unleash market forces to create more innovation in health care. As every Ayn Rand book shows, market forces are clearly the most effect form of preventative medicine.
The bill’s chances of passing the Senate are largely dependent on the decisions of a number independently-minded GOP Senators and Republicans in swing states. Health care repeal has turned previously little-known Senators like Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins into household names. Anyone who was ever really weird in middle school but also got an Xbox before everyone else can certainly understand the pressure these Senators are feeling from the newfound spotlight.
Passing the bill is contingent upon not just winning over a few undecided Senators, but also on navigating some of the more byzantine laws of the Senate. Rules about hearings, committees, schedule, and budgets will all affect the bill’s ability to pass, and what can be accomplished with only 51 votes versus the 60 votes typically needed to pass a law. The brightest minds America has to offer are still trying to determine what constitutes a catch in the NFL, so for now, the Senate is still stuck with its complex and outdated procedures.
The Graham-Cassidy bill is of course not without its detractors. The American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the National Rural Health Association, the AARP, VoteVets, NARAL, Republican Governors John Kasich and Brian Sandoval, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the American Diabetes Association have all come out strongly against the bill. The bill is however strongly supported by Mike Huckabee, who has claimed that this legislation is the most effective way to “own the libs,” despite the lack of protections the bill offers for large adult sons.
As hurricanes batter much of the United States, North Korea provocation is at a new high, and Piers Morgan does even more bad tweets, this new healthcare bill could fly quietly under the radar and finally repeal Obamacare. After two long drawn out defeats in his attempt to unravel the ACA, Trump could is closer than ever to getting the major win he’s been seeking on healthcare. If the Godfather movies and Baldwin brothers have taught us anything, it is that true success often takes three attempts.