The Senate's Obamacare repeal is a trap
A review of the Senate's Obamacare repeal legislation suggests that this isn't a repeal at all. What it amounts to is a new and improved version of Obamacare with a little more realism on funding, a little more freedom for insurers, a lot of tinkering with mandates and subsidies, and full acceptance of the idea that health care is a federal responsibility.
The thing itself is nearly 200 pages of turgid govspeak, but even a cursory review of hits found by an internet search for its key provisions should leave you wondering what McConnell and his colleagues were smoking – or, more reasonably, just how far the GOPe is willing to go to dump Trump.
The reason this thing is a political disaster in the making is simple: if something like 18 Democrats vote for this thing while five or six Republicans don't, President Trump won't be able to count on Paul Ryan to stop it in the House – but letting it become law would alienate many of those who voted for Trump and local GOP candidates, let Democrats blame the costs and continuing collapse of a bad program on Republicans, and encourage the media to run special after special pinning the blame for every health care loser they can find or make up on Trump personally and Republicans generally.
Bottom line: McConnell must not let this come to a vote. It's simply too dangerous.