Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives at the US Capitol on July 18, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
As the Senate’s “Better Care Reconciliation Act” finally came undone on Monday, another scheme to undermine health care access was hastily embraced by both Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. In the wake of Trumpcare’s latest setback, both Trump and McConnell indicated that they now suipported a simplified but equally ominous goal: a repeal and delay strategy that would allow the GOP to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with a two year window to hatch a replacement.
Given that every version of Trumpcare has been an attack on the vulnerable, this repeal and replace effort was an obvious effort to create a greater health care crisis that would allow Republicans to portray themselves as saviors when they finally passed a new bill. The GOP has thus far adopted a strategy of claiming that the country was already faced with a health care crisis, due to the failings of the ACA, but given that the GOP’s bill would have exponentially worsened conditions for just about every vulnerable community in the United States, the idea of righting the ship by causing it to sink it has, to say the least, failed to gain the approval of most Americans.
Given the authoritarian nature of the Republican project in Washington DC — unpopular policy decisions, a disregard for longstanding rules of government, and consistent efforts to interfere with voter participation — the bill’s low approval rating was a surmountable impediment for Republicans. Due to Trump’s low approval rating, the GOP’s political strategists can only gain ground if they are not bound by popular opinion, or the Republican party will accomplish none of its aims.
So how did we win this round? There are a number of factors to examine there, and some of them are…