… For seven years, Republican politicians have made one overriding bargain with their conservative constituency, which was that they would repeal Obamacare as their first order of business if they ever had the power to do so. Now that they have the power, they still haven’t found a way to make good on that promise.
The other reality that has become clearer as Republicans have struggled to turn a campaign promise into a satisfactory piece of legislation is that, even if they eventually put a bill on Trump’s desk, they still could be buying themselves political problems in the months and years ahead. That is perhaps a second-order problem right now, given the goal of getting something through the House. But as Obama and the Democrats learned, changing the health-care system is fraught, no matter which direction the changes go. CONT.
Dan Balz, Washington Post