Are Senate Republicans Really Doomed on Health Care?
It’s no surprise to hear doom-and-gloom prognostications about the likelihood that Senate Republicans will pass legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act. Pessimism is the default mood in the Senate, a chamber that demands consensus even when none exists.
What’s notable about the latest predictions of failure, however, is that most of them were coming from the Republicans themselves.
“It’s unlikely that we will get a health care deal,” Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina told a local television station last week.
“I just don’t think we can put iton Monday, repeating his minority view—among Republicans, at least—that the party erred by pursuing a strictly-partisan approach to health care. Several other GOP senators have voiced similar doubts in recent days, suggesting that weeks worth of closed-door discussions have yielded few breakthroughs.
