Alligators still winning the battle in D.C.

So in his first effort to drain the swamp, the swamp wins. President Trump has decided to let Obamacare explode. Couldn’t get the votes needed to pass a bill to repeal it so he agreed to pull the bill.

The first problem with that is nobody actually had to go on the record as voting for or against the bill. That is one of the biggest problems with the swamp in Washington, D.C. The cowards we elected always get to argue both sides of the issue but when they actually have to go on the record and vote they avoid accountability by withdrawing the legislation.

In either case the legislation fails but we don’t really know how our representative would have voted. We are left with the question, were they really serious or just acting out a sham? 

They can go home and continue to be ambiguous in discussing difficult issues. They can go home and blame it on some other unnamed member or members of the other party who didn’t have to go against their party leadership when put to the test.

Trump’s mistake here was to give into Speaker Paul Ryan when Ryan claimed he didn’t have the votes. He probably didn’t have the votes but would it have been different if the individual members had to go on the record and vote against repeal? After eight years of promising to repeal Obamacare the Republicans failed again to live up to the promise they made to voters. 

Once again the Washington establishment wins and the American people lose.

Trump is right. Obamacare will collapse. It has already failed to meet the promise of affordable care for all. Insurance companies are withdrawing from Obamacare and premiums are rising at unsustainable rates. 

Republicans have been running on the promise to repeal Obamacare. They have not run on the promise to replace it with their own version of socialized medicine. Supposedly, that is why conservatives wouldn’t support their bill. 

Many say they can’t just repeal it because too many Americans would be left with no coverage. But guess what, with the deductibles and co-pays in these plans Americans have no real coverage now. And the mandates for employers to provide coverage are causing many Americans to be underemployed as employers limit hours to avoid having to buy the insurance for their “full time” employees.

President Trump said Democrats now own Obamacare. The truth is they always owned it. Only one Republican voted for it originally. 

Failing to repeal it once again indicates that many establishment Republicans are privately in support of Obamacare. It is true they voted numerous times during the Obama administration to repeal it. Those votes were truly specious since they knew that even if they got it through the Senate Obama would veto it. So failing to vote to repeal it once again shows their complicity in retaining this failed legislation.

Forcing members of the House to vote on the bill would make it clear if they were simply voting the party line or if they were opposed on principle. It is easy for representatives from either party to tell party leaders they would support the party line. But when forced to go on the record publically, especially if they are facing a potentially close fight in their next election, they may vote differently.

Before Obamacare does any more damage, Trump needs to force a vote to repeal it. That is what he promised he would do. 

Let’s find out which alligators, Republican or Democrat, support this disastrous bill.