THE GOP’S NEW VIEW OF OBAMACARE

A funny thing is happening to Republicans in Washington. Emboldened by their capture of the White House and the retention of congressional majorities, they were marching confidently toward the political Promised Land, certain that Obamacare would be left bleaching in the desert.

Yet weeks into a new presidency, irony has asserted itself, party realists are urging caution — and political sobriety may be setting in.

Some GOP officeholders have been brave enough to face angry constituents at town hall meetings. Others have not (looking at you, Chuck “Where’s Waldo?” Fleischmann). Some meetings have been so raucous that constituents have been slurred as having been paid to confront officeholders.

That’s one expression of contempt for voters judged to be too ignorant to understand political truths. The other was voiced nearly 350 years ago: “I say, your majesty, who are these colonial ruffians that they can challenge our wisdom?”

A familiar political axiom warns, “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.” Now, having recovered from election night hangovers, many party regulars may have started to worry that the same sentiment applies to repealing Obamacare without a replacement.

The New York Times reported several weeks ago that many GOP senators have begun worrying the party could suffer self-inflicted damage if repeal fever costs millions of Americans losing their health care coverage.

In the looming task of replacing most of Obamacare with a workable and affordable alternative, every member of Congress knows that will require, if not unanimity, then at least a majority.

That won’t be easy, given the GOP’s seven-year demonization of Obamacare. Remember those 50-plus “show votes”? House Republicans believed they would prove they were by God serious about protecting constituents from themselves.

When the Obamacare debate does begin, Americans should focus on a simple question: Will Congress’ ideologues prevail or the pragmatists?

The intra-party divisions that have emerged in the GOP’s squabbling are important because they suggest the potential undermining of party unity, a problem complicated by President Trump’s lack of political discipline.

It is unclear how much influence the party’s “tea party” faction will offer, assuming its members even intend to negotiate. The Daily Beast’s Matt Laslo reported last week that Vice President Mike Pence, trying to garner support for Trump’s agenda, addressed the House Freedom Caucus, the “tea party’s loudest voice in Congress.”

Uh oh.

After the meeting, the caucus “voted unanimously to [call] for a vote to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan needs the tea party’s support in drafting a workable alternative to Obamacare, but given its response to Pence, a hoped-for alliance seems unlikely.

Comes now Sen. Lamar Alexander’s offer of a more pragmatic, two-fold approach:

First, reassure vulnerable Americans that Republicans won’t cancel their health insurance arbitrarily. Second, common sense obligates the party to approve a replacement before any repeal.

To do otherwise would be irresponsible governing. And history shows that Americans aren’t hesitant to “retire” irresponsible officeholders, especially those safely cocooned in congressional health care plans.

Alexander suggests it could take four years to produce a workable replacement, which means that an ideological repeal would force people back to emergency rooms for health care “coverage,” creating desperate problems for individuals and damaging hospitals’ budgets.

In other words, arbitrarily repealing Obamacare would be a “wrecking ball” of false decisiveness. Guess how many millions of Americans would become collateral damage?

Michael Loftin is a former editor of The Chattanooga Times editorial page.