Get It Done

America moved a half-step closer to replacing ObamaCare this week with Sen. Mitch McConnell’s release of his draft reform bill. Senate Republicans need to work out their differences quickly and keep the ball moving.

Congress has a ton on its plate, and the GOP can’t afford to bog down.

Like the one that passed the House, the bill is just a start on moving beyond ObamaCare. It would repeal the earlier law’s taxes and individual and employer mandates and revamp its subsidies into tax credits.

And also slowly begin reforming Medicaid, one of the entitlement programs that collectively are on track to eat the entire federal budget in a few decades if Congress doesn’t start making changes. (Supposedly a program for the poor, Medicaid now enrolls 74 million Americans.)

And, yes, provide a faster off-ramp for the Obama law’s temporarily federally funded expansion of Medicaid, by moving forward the end of the time when Washington picks up the full tab for states that increased eligibility.

This is not the “shredding of Medicaid” that critics (and much of the media) claim: As with the rest of the bill (like the House version), it only undoes of what Democrats did back in 2009.

Then again, with Democrats refusing to provide a single vote for reform, Republicans’ options are limited. McConnell’s 142page Better Care Reconciliation Act is at the edge of the possible, with several GOP senators already saying they want changes before they’ll vote it through.

McConnell is pretty good at herding cats, but these particular cats best not stray too far unless they want to leave ObamaCare completely intact, despite years of GOP promises to end it.

With the Obama exchanges headed to collapse in much of the country, dawdling isn’t an option. McConnell is entirely right to plan a floor vote next week: That gives the dissenters enough time to offer changes that aren’t just wishful thinking.

Democrats would like nothing better than to see the GOP bog down in health-reform details, and get nothing at all done in Congress this year. But the nation needs Republicans to deliver on multiple fronts — not least a tax reform to get the economy rolling.