Brilliant Idea: Repeal Obamacare And Replace With the Affordable Care Act!

When a Republican senator tells the truth, it makes news.

Senator Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania said, “Look, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation” -- trying to repeal and replace Obamacare with a plan that might actually work to the benefit of U.S. citizens.

"Every important Republican leader expected Democrat Hillary Clinton to win, and that left Republicans confused and paralyzed about how to proceed when she didn’t." (Paul Kane)

Adding to Republican paralysis -- the Trump administration's failure to "staff up" with knowledgeable people who can conceive, frame, and push policy: "...Trump’s public musings, sometimes in media interviews and sometimes on Twitter, have also sowed division on policy matters — and scared away top Republican talent from senior administration posts."

McConnell Signaled a New Idea Yesterday

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, frustrated at every turn at rooting out Obamacare, stepped forth yesterday with a new idea: If we can't repeal and replace Obamacare, perhaps we should work with Democrats to shore up the Affordable Care Act.

“If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur,” McConnell said. “No action is not an alternative. We’ve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state.”

Given McConnell's droning voice -- a monotone with little inflection and no trace of emphasis -- it might be easy to miss the revolutionary bomb contained in those two sentences. 

McConnell's suggestion yesterday that he and his Republican colleagues might spend money to rescue the ACA insurance markets (which he and his colleagues have spent months saying were beyond repair) will be one of the greatest feats of "newspeak" since "we had to destroy the village to save the village." But Republicans are fully capable of simply redefining words and disappearing whole years of rhetoric.

We're pulling for you, McConnell!