Republicans Should Reject ‘Bipartisan’ Solution for Obamacare: New at Reason

There was nothing bipartisan about the way Obamacare was passed, so why should “saving it” be?

David Harsanyi writes:

The latest iteration of Obamacare repeal has likely failed. Senate Republicans were unable to pass a watered-down repeal effort that offered states some meager level of federalism in the form of block grants. Now, we’re again going to hear a lot of noise about the need to embrace a “bipartisan” approach to fix health care.

“Since nearly every promise we made with Obamacare has failed, you now have a responsibility to save it”: To many, this might seem like a shamelessly counterintuitive thing to say, but it’s very popular among Democrats. The problem is that any effort that further entrenches a wholly partisan law is not, in any genuine way, “bipartisan.” And Republicans have zero reason to play along.

For the first time in American history, the party in power—complete power, mind you—is being asked to bail out the minority’s signature failed reform. Not just any reform: Democrats unilaterally shoved through the system a wide-ranging national restructuring of a vital part of the economy. It was an effort that blew up dozens of governing norms and was built on a giant lie, a manipulated Congressional Budget Office score and a process that, outside a few Kabuki theater hearings and technical amendments, ignored half the country while coercing every citizen’s participation. In fact, many of the people being asked to bail out Obamacare warned that Obamacare would need bailing out.

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