Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)
Republicans might be
at a total loss when it comes to creating a workable substitute for Obamacare, should the Supreme Court rule to strike subsidies down to some 8 million people. But they're not going to let their lack of a plan get in the way of making
demands that President Obama gut the law in return for keeping those subsidies going until the next election.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who is leading the Senate GOP’s response to King v. Burwell, said Republicans will be willing to strike a deal with Obama to ensure that the 7.5 million people who stand to lose their subsidies are protected, at least until the 2016 elections.
But in return, they would demand that Obama to do something he has long resisted: nix the employer and individual mandates for insurance coverage.
"Is the president going to say, 'Tough, I'm going to veto that?'" Barrasso said in an interview in his Dirksen office. "There will be, as part of that [deal], things we want to have happen."
There are at least six plans out there from Republicans, all premised on essential repeal of Obamacare, and none with enough consensus to actually make it through either the House or the Senate. But Republicans have one thing, according to Barrasso, even if they don't have an actual plan: "temporary aid for people who could lose their subsidies, which Barrasso said would be the crucial bargaining chip in a deal with Obama." So there you go, 8 million people who might lose your health insurance—you're just a GOP bargaining chip. Just to reinforce that:
"The president’s going to stand up and say, 'Meet so-and-so who's got cancer. Meet so-and-so who's got diabetes," [Gov. Bobby] Jindal, a longtime foe of the healthcare law, said. "And he'll say, 'These mean, stingy Republicans simply won't make a one-page change in the law."
So if you have cancer or diabetes and face losing health insurance because of the unrelenting attacks against this law by Republicans, it's your own damned problem. Republicans clearly don't care about that, they care about how they can leverage your misfortune into trying to make Obama gut his own law. Which he's not going to do. Which Barrasso knows very well: "Since we don't have a willing partner in the White House, the best idea for actually fixing health care is not things that the president isn't going to sign. He's not going to work with us on this. So we have to have a Republican president in 2016."
Even when Obama isn't on the ballot anymore, this is all about beating Obama and repealing his signature achievement. So if you're sick of Obamacare being a political football, too bad. They're not going to let go of it. Eight million people potentially losing health insurance is just one more bargaining chip for them.