For the past few years, Republicans have been firm about repealing Obamacare once and for all – but that perspective has now shifted.
Looks like the GOP is now leaning toward smaller changes from within as opposed to an overhaul, especially considering they’d like to appeal to voters, and many voters are currently insured through the Affordable Care Act.
Repeal of the Affordable Care Act “is not a possibility,” George Scangos, chief executive officer at biotechnology company Biogen Idec Inc., said in an interview. “They would somehow have to explain to millions of people that they will lose health insurance.”
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The newly GOP-controlled Senate will have the opportunity to vote on anti-Obamacare legislation soon, but it looks like they aren’t going to block bills the way that was previously expected, according to some lobbyists and aides.
“I’m guessing that they’ve had this ‘squirrel finds a nut’ moment of reasonableness,” one Senate GOP aide said, according to The Hill.
Although not everyone in the Republican party agrees on how to tackle the issue, it seems like the goal right now is just to prove that the GOP Congress can govern and to secure a spot in the White House.
“If we can show that we can lead, we might get an even bigger majority in 2016. We might get the White House,” the Republican aide said. “Republicans can say, ‘See, we were right? Put us in charge, and we’ll repeal the whole damn thing.’”
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Not everyone is in agreement with this back-away-from-full-repeal mentality. Brent Bozell, the leader of the Tea Party group ForAmerica, warned that Republicans who are backing down when it comes to Obamacare are creating “civil wars” within the party.
Others are in agreement that the new tactic makes sense for the party, and it doesn’t mean goals and efforts aren’t still in place. Making the law better really might be better for the party (and Americans) than throwing the whole thing out the window.
“Up until now, it’s been that any move by critics to improve the law, from their perspective, was almost seen as admission of defeat,” said Larry Levitt, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.