Former Speaker of the House John Boehner, a man who retired just in the nick of time, spoke at a healthcare conference in Orlando where he delivered bad news to Republicans who still believe they're going to repeal every word of Obamacare.
Boehner amusingly dismissed talk of swiftly passing a replacement as "happy talk."
“[Congressional Republicans are] going to fix Obamacare – I shouldn’t call it repeal-and-replace, because it’s not going to happen,” he said. [...]
On Thursday, Boehner said the talk in November about lightning-fast passage a new health care framework was wildly optimistic.
“I started laughing,” he said. “Republicans never ever agree on health care.”
I'm not sure I could tell you exactly why, but this was extraordinarily hilarious to me. Maybe it's just because I had an excuse to look at photos of John Boehner crying again.
I think I'd rather have the Crier of the House than the Lizard of the House, Paul Ryan.
He's not wrong, by the way. It's difficult to see a path to a full repeal of Obamacare, especially after the latest round of town hall meetings. Boehner's prediction that Republicans will only make modest changes to the law seems increasingly plausible because they won't have the votes to do everything they say they want to do.
There are mathematic impossibilities the GOP simply can't overcome and, as evidence of this, House Republicans have reportedly delayed their bill, whatever it is, because the CBO score that came back on it is "horrific." The results the CBO's review haven't been published yet, but I'll post them here if they ever are.
Republicans haven't actually revealed a piece of legislation, making it easier for them to deny rumors about it. But that won't hold forever.