“James T. Lalos · Boston College comments:

Paul Rand (Senator from Kentucky) is indicative of the problem that the GOP has. In Kentucky, Obamacare had been marketed as Kynect. Kynect only exists because of the federal Obamacare law. I turns out that when Kentucky voters were asked about repealing "Obamacare”, they were in favor of getting rid of it. When asked if “Kynect” should be repealed, they were in favor of keeping it. Repealing Obamacare would automatically repeal Kynect. There are some very unique provisions in Obamacare that pay special subsidies to folks suffering from black lung disease–an affliction of coal miners. Guess where most of them live? The subsidy would go away with a repeal of Obamacare.

The problem the GOP has with “replace” is that any new legislation will require the support of 8 Democrats. Not only that, but the debate for a replacment will be public and it that setting the benefits of Obamacare would have to be revisted. There is a risk that such a debate might actually lead to the conclusion that the best course of action is to tweak Obamacare rather than get rid of it. Moreover such a discussion might make single-payer (Medicare for all), or public option a lot more attactive in light of both the “failure” of Obamacare and the system that existed before it.

The Urban Institute recently release a study indicating that 87% of Obamacare subsidy enrollees are working-class folks a high school diploma or less, a majority are white and live in states carried by Trump. In other words, Obamacare turns out to be a working-class benefit.

The delay tactic is intended to get political credit for “repeal” while putting some space between the repeal and th “replacement” debate.

No wonder the GOP is worried”

(more testing of the DWCrosspost tool)