By voting to repeal the ACA over and over and over again, even though it had zero chance of being signed by Obama, the Republicans managed to keep the possibility alive. The status quo applies to your friend driving past the firehouse. The firehouse is status quo. The ACA, consistently derided by the right, has remained in flux enough so that most people still think it is possible to undo it.
Go to Reddit and read the rightwing political subs. They certainly don’t think it’s a given there. They may not like the new bill, but they hate the old one, and if some there had their way, ACA would be repealed and not replaced.
Just about everybody would like the replace the ACA with something better. The problem is that there are radically different ideas about what constitutes something better. And that is why in politics it is much easier to be against something than for something.
Yeah, I do not see this conversation going anywhere. Opinions aren’t facts, and the law isn’t an opinion. Not interesting in being gaslit by any narrative such that what it needs to be true, already is.
Interesting POV, thank you for sharing it today.
FWIW, I’d love it if the Republicans won and repealed the ACA. Lots of short term pain for America, followed by Single Payer. I hope the /r/Rebubrigade does their best most effective work.
Look, they hold all the cards. They’ve effectively shut the Democrats out of the process. Whether you like it or not, their reality is thereality. You can put your fingers in your ears and scream “la-la-la” and be dismissive of me all you want, but the ACA is essentially in flux, and the fact that undoing it would cause all sorts of havoc for them personally and politically – forget the havoc it would cause the country – is the only reason why they won’t just undo it.
Your faith (if that’s the right word) in the US’s ability to arrive at the right solution is impressive. I could see them killing the ACA, enacting this horrible alternative, and rubbing their thighs gleefully as the moats and barricades are installed.
I fail to understand how you see the GOP as being bluffers? At last check: They control the White House. The senate. And the congress. That’s the equivalent of holding a straight flush not a situation you would bluff in.
I wouldn’t call it a bluff on the GOP’s part. Perhaps it’s not the right analogy. It seems more like a game of chicken between them, the Democrats and also affected Americans. It’s a fight no one is willing to flinch away from or compromise.
A compromise would not be the worst thing ever, but i suspect that the Republicans would ultimately not be happy if they didn’t get to screw Americans over.
I don’t think he’s really the problem. First of all, he didn’t come up with that curve. It just got his name tacked on to it. Prior to Ford, the Republicans were more likely to advocate in favor of tax increases, in the name of fiscal responsibility. Ford, in fact, wanted to raise taxes right after he took office in order to deal with inflation, and that’s when Cheney and Rumsfeld introduced the concept of the Laffer curve to him. The truth is, promises of tax cuts have always been popular with voters, and Cheney and Rumsfeld are really political strategists more than policy wonks. They wanted to push tax cuts to get more votes, even if they won’t admit that. But they needed a way to sell tax cuts to old school conservative ideologues, who up until that time felt tax cuts were irresponsible. Enter Arthur Laffer, and the rest is history.
