Clock is ticking on ‘repeal and replace’

“Repeal and replace.” That has been the Republican mantra since President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010.

The “repeal” part is not a problem for the GOP, at least in the U.S. House, where Republicans vote to repeal the law almost as often as the chaplain gives the daily invocation.

The stumbling block, and the reason why Republicans may be reluctant to force a repeal vote in the Senate even if they pick up enough seats in November to have a Senate majority, is that they have nothing to replace it with more than two months after party leaders promised to have an alternative plan ready for a vote. Pressed on why there is no Republican bill to rally around, GOP congressional leaders say they are waiting for a “consensus” to build.

The drop-dead date for a vote on a replacement bill in the House is July 31. Congress is gone all of August. September and October will be devoted to campaigning. And once the congressional elections are held Nov. 4, it will be tough to get a lame-duck Congress to do anything.

Moreover, time appears to be running out on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. Where once it seemed nothing could go right for the law, Obamacare now seems on a roll.

The president made a special appearance before the White House press corps Thursday to hail the fact that 8 million citizens had signed up under the act. The administration is stockpiling heart-warming anecdotes about people the law has helped. The Republicans’ favorite punching bag for Obamacare, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is gone.

The ideas Republicans have been floating — vouchers, health care savings accounts, high-risk insurance pools, letting people buy insurance across state lines — have yet to set voters’ pulses racing. And the GOP is increasingly confronting the political reality that once you give something to the American people it is extremely difficult to take it away.

Thus, Republican strategists have been coaching candidates on how to explain why the really popular parts of Obamacare — no limits on coverage of preexisting conditions, for example — are such bad ideas.

It’s a hard sell and getting harder with each passing week.