Republicans had better get a message on health care soon, or they are destined to see Obamacare 2.0 signed into law in Biden's first 100 days.  Early signs are that Republicans have not become tired of losing.

The Republican agenda for the first 100 days of President Joe Biden will be to curtail Biden's agenda.  Not many Republicans see Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the guy who is going to stop the Democrats from steamrolling Republicans.  People are more likely to look to the House Freedom Caucus leaders like Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to dig in and fight.  Moderate Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) has never been looked upon as a fighter, yet she has been installed by McCarthy to run the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  This is a time for Republicans to put conservatives out front in the fight against creeping socialism.

Republican House leadership put personal friendships ahead of good policy on health care in committee assignments.  Rep. Burgess was expelled from his slot as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health because he ran for chairman of the full committee against the leadership's choice, McMorris Rodgers.  Good policy on health care should matter more than whom McCarthy wants to install as chairman.

This is an important committee with jurisdiction covering many of the issues contained in the Democrats' Green New Deal.  McMorris Rodgers was quoted in Politico saying the "E&C is at the center of the race to win the majority."  She is right, but does anybody believe that someone who vacated leadership is the right person to lead some epic battles over the next two years?  Had leadership done a better job of mapping out an agenda for this new Congress, they might have taken power in the House, yet no discernible agenda was pushed.  The Republican Party is currently a rudderless ship when it comes to policy.

There will be many battles with the Biden administration over policy, and one of the fiercest is likely to involve health care legislation.  Democrats have pivoted from Medicare for All to adding a public option to Obamacare.  Rep. Burgess is a medical doctor who has pushed conservative ideas to fix health care.  His ideas will reduce government control of individual health care decisions of American citizens.  Dr. Burgess would be a good choice to run point to defeat more government control of health care, yet leaders put personal friendships ahead of good policy by exacting retribution against Burgess.

The danger Republicans are facing is that "the public option" sounds nicer than "Medicare for All" because the latter has been successfully characterized as health care socialism.  Both Medicare for All and the public option advance the goals of spending more government cash on health care, yet a public option being added to Obamacare is a more effective way to inch America toward 100% health care socialism.  Both ideas eliminate all private health care coverage and replace it with a government-administered health care plan.  The public option is the next phase in the left's agenda, a system that will end up bankrupting the taxpayer while leading to substandard health care.

The left's pivoting to the public option strategy may be a slower and less radical path to a government-run health care system than Medicare for All, yet the strategy may have a chance if weak Republican leadership allows it.  Republican voters would rather have Jordan and Roy in the political foxhole with them than McCarthy and McMorris Rodgers.

Now is a time for bold leadership.  Republicans in the House need to rely on conservative policy experts like Burgess and fighters like Jordan to lead the party the next two years.

Image: PD-USGov.