Conservatives warn GOP is losing momentum on Obamacare repeal

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article129487024.html

Congress was poised to start major work this week on dismantling the Affordable Care Act, but conservatives are already fuming over lost momentum that they fear could doom the repeal effort.

Lawmakers missed a non-binding deadline to deliver details of a repeal plan Friday and left a GOP retreat without reaching consensus on a replacement package that an increasing number of Republicans want to see agreed before the 2010 law is taken apart.

Complicating the effort, Congress is struggling to find its footing with an unpredictable administration whose actions in only one week have distracted from what lawmakers thought was the top item on the Republican agenda. Indeed, with President Donald Trump’s immigration order causing chaos at airports and drawing global condemnation of what is seen by many as a U.S. ban on Muslims, GOP lawmakers could have a hard time remaining focused on the ACA.

And some conservatives worry that delay could be costly, perhaps even fatal, sapping lawmakers’ drive to repeal and sidelining the effort in the face of other priorities, such as keeping the federal government running.

“Right now you are seeing the question of replace stopping the momentum of repeal,” said James Wallner, a former Senate aide and group vice president for research at the Heritage Foundation. “Before you know it, you are into the late summer or fall because you have to do stuff like funding the government, and you haven’t done (repeal) yet. You can see very quickly how you end up in a place where you’re just trying to shore up the existing system.”

According to a Reuters report, Wall Street portfolio managers are already betting against full repeal. They cite congressional gridlock and expect instead a modified version of the law known as Obamacare, which insures an estimated 20 million Americans, many of whom previously lacked health coverage.

“The moment they agreed to have a replace, they may have lost the issue,” said Brian Darling, a senior vice president at Third Dimension Strategies and Sen. Rand Paul’s former senior communications director. “Ultimately when you get hung up on the idea of replacing, it gives leadership an excuse to do nothing.”

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