Snatching Defeat From Jaws of Victory: GOP Is Losing The Obamacare Repeal Battle

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. arrives with Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017, for a closed-door GOP strategy session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The GOP knows how to campaign effectively enough to win elections. However, when they win, their strategic initiatives are like boys throwing wet tissue paper against the ceiling in the school bathroom. Sometimes it sticks but other times it comes falling to the ground with a splat.

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The GOP promised since the passage of Obamacare, that given the reigns of government, they would repeal what most people would agree is a garbage law. It was never intended to provide “coverage” as the revisionists would have people believe. It was passed to make coverage more “affordable.” It’s not. Premiums have risen. If you’re not lucky enough to qualify for subsidies, you’re likely paying out of your rear and that’s for a garbage plan with a super high deductible.

It should have been easy for the GOP to repeal it but they’re blowing it. Allowing Democrats to control the narrative is making Obamacare more popular:

The 2010 health care law is becoming more popular, even as it heads toward the chopping block — further complicating efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal and replace it.

While both Trump and Republicans in both chambers of Congress campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act — passed exclusively with Democratic votes and signed by then-President Barack Obama — a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows voters are now split evenly on the law. Forty-five percent of registered voters approve of the law, the poll shows, and 45 percent disapprove.

In early January, before Trump took office, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll showed only 41 percent of voters approved of the health care law, compared with 52 percent who disapproved.

And now there’s little consensus on what Congress and the Trump administration should do next. Only 12 percent want to keep the law in place, while 24 percent want to repeal it entirely. But there’s a sharp divide between the 27 percent who want to repeal parts of the law, but not all of it — and the 26 percent who want to expand the existing law.

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This is due to the fact the GOP had no plan going in. They allowed “repeal and replace” to be used and let Donald Trump set the tone by declaring more people would have coverage under his plan. Contrary to media reports, Republicans do have replacements but they haven’t sold it to the public.

Meanwhile, Democrats are out there saying those mean Republicans are going to “take away your healthcare” to people. Scaring them, and it’s working.

Pretty soon we’ll be hearing more on how the GOP will “fix” Obamacare.

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