Conservatives to GOP: Hurry Up and Repeal Obamacare
When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in Congress right now are a bundle of nerves.
As Obamacare’s supporters jam town-hall meetings across the country, GOP lawmakers in competitive states and districts are growing nervous about repealing the law without a replacement in hand. And conservatives in safer seats are getting nervous that their colleagues are losing their resolve.
“Members of Congress are scared. All the time,” Representative Raúl Labrador of Idaho told reporters on Tuesday, by way of explaining why the Republican-led Congress seems no closer to keeping its pledge of repealing Obamacare than it was the day after Donald Trump won the presidency in November.
Sensing that the momentum for full repeal was slipping, conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus that they would not support legislation that fell short of the bill Republicans passed in 2015 that repeals most, but not all, of the key provisions of the 2010 law. Then-President Barack Obama vetoed the bill, but with Trump in the White House, its path should be clear.
