17 July 2017 — 2148 mdt

GOP health care moon shot moons the public

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced tonight that he’s pulling his healthcare bill in favor of a bill that repeals the Affordable Care Act but delays approving a replacement for two years. His announcement came after Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) said McConnell’s bill wasn’t conservative enough. Added to the already announced opposition from Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Susan Collins (R-ME), and John McCain’s medical absence, that left McConnell without the votes to pass his bill.

But the repeal now, replace later, option is just as crazy as deciding to land on the Moon, and once there, figuring out how to get home.

There’s no guarantee that the fools on the moon will figure out how to get home. Likewise, there’s no guarantee that the GOP will figure out a replacement for the ACA, although a case can be made that the replacement Trump, Ryan, and McConnell, favor is the status quo ante, and that therefore they would let the clock expire and welcome back the good old days of denying insurance for pre-existing conditions and reinstating the other evils the ACA banned or diminished.

McConnell may welcome heading for the Moon without a ticket home as he might believe that would provide the leverage he needs to peel off a few weak Democrats, allowing him to say that the replacement for the ACA had bipartisan backing. Indeed, that may be have been his plan all along.

Meanwhile, Americans who need health insurance are being mooned by the senior senator from Kentucky.