OPINION:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thinks voters will understand the complexities of repealing Obamacare.
They won’t.
He thinks constituents will consider the political partisanship in place on Capitol Hill, the mathematical realities of majority versus minority head counts, the risks of filibusters, the concerns of insurance companies, the complications that can come.
They won’t.
So seeing headlines like this, from the Hill — “McConnell signals doubts about Obamacare vote” — is not exactly a soothing salve for frustrated Republican voters.
Rather, it’s the GOP’s version of an apocalyptic horseman.
And the rider’s arrival date? Election Day, 2018.
“If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement …” McConnell said — and that’s as far as voters’ ears listened. The full remark, made to a Rotary Club in Kentucky this week, went like this: “If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to private health insurance markets must occur.”
But that’s a moot point. The rationale falls on deaf ears. Why? To voters — voters who specifically elected a mass majority of Republicans to the House, followed by a majority in the Senate, followed by a Republican in the White House — the only thing that matters is this: We elected Republicans to repeal Obamacare. And it’s not yet been done.
Excuses don’t matter.
Infighting among Republican factions doesn’t matter.
And recognizing that “no action is not an alternative,” as McConnell did, is not a solace — mostly, because the rhetoric doesn’t match the no action.
“We’ve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state,” McConnell said.
That may be true. But that’s not what was promised voters.
That’s what was predicted in the lead-up to Obamacare’s passage, and in the aftermath of its rocky implementation — that it would crash and crumble under its own socialist weight. But that’s not what Republicans seeking office, and Republicans seeking more Republicans to join them in office, told voters.
To voters, from Republicans, it was this: We will repeal Obamacare.
It’s not yet done. And if Republicans have moved passed the idea of even talking about it being done — if the GOP, as McConnell’s remarks suggest, is shrugging collective shoulders of their promised legislative responsibilities and simply letting Obamacare die the death that was predicted by number-crunchers at its inception, well then, this marks a turning of tide.
And voters should, and will, take note. It’s another Republican promise — a significant Republican promise — down the drain. Another win for Democrats, another loss for the GOP. Only with this one, this time, the Republican majority can’t cast blame on the Democratic minority. The Republicans, under McConnell and House leaders, will own this loss — this broken promise — all to themselves.
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