2. A new budget resolution for reconciliation next year.

3. Potentially killing Obamacare in a post 2018 midterm lame duck session.

Here.

These are greedy, acquisitive people. They don’t see health care as a social public health issue, like garbage collection, sewage treatment, or water purification. They see it as a handout they have to provide for lazy stupid people who can’t afford their own doctor and medicine. And like all greedy, acquisitive people, they are terrified that someone, somewhere might have a hand in their pocket; a right that they reserve solely for themselves.

This attitude is similar to the one they have for education. They don’t want education to be free, paid for publicly, because then anyone who qualifies for education can receive it; which would mean they would have to compete economically with an educated populace.
They want university education to be just expensive enough so they can afford it, but no one else. Of course, this does not mean they are willing to pay fully for their own schooling, they want the state to subsidize the bulk of it, as long as only those who can afford the price of admission get to benefit from that subsidy. And its why they are so fanatical about “local control” of public schools. They reserve the right to pay top dollar for schools for their kids, but they have no intention of paying anything to educate anyone elses.

If they could find a way to only pay for THEIR police, courts, or mail delivery, they would, and to a certain extent, this is what private security guards, expensive lawyers and parcel delivery companies are all about. Meanwhile, the public institutions that provide these services are starved of funding and gradually replaced by their for-profit counterparts. Hell, even prisons are being privatized and convicts farmed out as cheap labor. In fact, the insurance industry is another mechanism to do this–reserve basic social services only for those who can afford the price of admission. Socialism for the rich, free enterprise for everybody else.

The health care debate isn’t just about health, it permeates every level of social organization and every infrastructure institution in this country. The wealthy don’t want to be taxed to pay for anyone’s civic services but their own, but they have no objection to taxing anyone else to help pay for theirs. It’s just that in health care, the consequences are more obvious and more deadly—and much more expensive.

This level of cynicism and irresponsibility about 1/5 of the economy and tens of millions of lives is horrifying.

They’ve had seven years to come up with their own proposal, or even a suite of proposals that could be debated, merged and eventually evolve into a true Republican plan. They have done nothing. They have published nothing. They have put forward no plan of their own for public review or consideration, other than some meaningless hand-waving wrapped in populist rhetoric. They haven’t got a plan. They don’t care that they haven’t a plan. All they can come up with is “Obamacare is imploding”, but I don’t see it, all I can see is obstruction and sabotage to try and get it to fail.

And why should they? They can afford health insurance, or they work for a company that provides it, hiding the true cost in the withholding. Why should they give a damn that most of the rest of us can’t afford it? All they really care about is keeping their own taxes down and workers terrified of losing their jobs. A worker concerned about being unable to protect his family’s health will think twice about asking for a raise or refusing to put up with shit from his boss.

List of national health care groups opposed to the GOP bill (Source:WAPO)

Adult Congenital Heart Association
ALS Association
Alzheimer’s Association
Alzheimer’s Impact Movement
American Cancer Society
American Diabetes Association
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Cancer Society
American College of Emergency Physicians
American College of Physicians
American College of Preventive Medicine
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American Diabetes Association
America’s Essential Hospitals
American Foundation for the Blind
American Health Care Association
America’s Health Insurance Plans
American Heart Association
American Hospital Association
American Liver Foundation
American Lung Association
American Medical Association
American Nurses Association
American Osteopathic Association
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychological Association
American Public Health Association
American Society for Addiction Medicine
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Amputee Coalition
The Arc
Arthritis Foundation
Association for Community Affiliated Plans
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
Autism Society
Autism Speaks
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Big Cities Health Coalition
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Catholic Health Association
Children’s Hospital Association
Center for Medicare Advocacy
Coalition to Stop Opioid Overdose
Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
COPD Foundation
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Family Voices
Federation of American Hospitals
HIV Medicine Association
Infectious Diseases Society of America
JDRF
Lutheran Services in America
Kaiser Permanente
March of Dimes
Medicare Rights Center
National Association of Medicaid Directors
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Association of School Nurses
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
National Down Syndrome Congress
National Health Council
National Institute for Reproductive Health
National Kidney Foundation
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
National Organization for Rare Diseases
Planned Parenthood
Public Health Institute
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Trust for America’s Health
WomenHeart

They will keep trying…