Who owns this bill?
A sign of how little the people supporting this bill actually stand behind it is that nobody is taking ownership of it. They don’t want it to be called McConnellcare, or Trumpcare, or Ryancare. Obama owned Obamacare. It may not have been his preferred plan, but it was the best he could do. He lobbied hard for it, and owned the name Obamacare when Rs tried to use it with a negative connotation. Nobody is vehemently standing up for this bill (though Ryan did give that presentation with his sleeves rolled up – so I guess that counts). But the senators gave the bill the most boring name ever, probably intentionally to sneak it under the radar as much as possible. The bill has a very different feel than something like Operation Iraqi Freedom, where politicians were making their case to the American people. You got the sense the people who supported it believed in it, regardless of whether you agreed with them or not. I do not get that impression at all here. It feels more like, ‘eh, whatever, let’s just get rid of Obamacare. Ryan seemed to put something together. Let’s tweak it and move on.’ Nothing about this process inspires a lot of confidence that this is a good solution for Americans.
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In response to this post by Quaker)
Posted: 06/23/2017 at 4:47PM