Two more Senate Republicans have declared their opposition to the latest plan to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, potentially ending a months-long effort to make good on a GOP promise that has defined the party for nearly a decade and been a top priority for President Trump.They are running into a classic problem from history: Invading barbarians tear things down, but then find that they can neither build nor maintain things, and so they cannot maintain control.
Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) issued statements declaring that they would not vote for the revamped measure. The sudden breaks by Lee, a staunch conservative, and Moran, an ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), rocked the GOP leadership and effectively closed what already had been an increasingly narrow path to passage for the bill.
They joined Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine), who also oppose it. With just 52 seats, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes to pass their proposed rewrite of the Affordable Care Act. All 46 Democrats and two independents are expected to vote against it.
Republicans, who have made rallying cries against President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care law a pillar of the party’s identity, may be forced to grapple with the law’s shift from a perennial GOP target to an accepted, even popular, provider of services and funding in many states, which could make further repeal revivals difficult.
The Republicans are constrained by their philosophy, they have come to believe that government is an unalloyed evil, and as such they cannot propose something that might be seen as an improvement by all but the most delusional right wingers.
Unfortunately, those, "Most delusional right wingers," have large enough numbers within the party to swing a primary, but there aren't enough to swing a general election. (They already vote 'Phant in the general now)
Mitch McConnell, meet the Kobayashi Maru.
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