The Republican Mask Slips Once Again

And as it slips, Republicans accidentally tell the truth. Today's contestant, Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King on HCR:

I didn't want to confuse the message on repeal by adding the word "replace" because there's a question mark that hangs on "replace," which is, "What would you replace it with?" and then the discussion gets drug down [sic] into something that all Republicans are not going to agree on.

That's because a significant number of Republicans want to replace "Obamacare" with "the same damn status quo we had before Obamacare" and admitting that little gem robs the Republicans of their main talking point this fall.  They have to replace it with something better, because the onus is on them to do so, especially since the plan that exists now incorporates a great many of their initial ideas:  a mandate to expand the pool of insured to spread risk, health insurance exchanges, and high-risk pools to help defray costs.

The bigger admission of course is that the GOP simply doesn't have a plan to replace HCR with, because they never bothered to make one.  They never bothered to make one when they were in power, and they don't have one now.  They will not have one in the future, because they never really wanted a plan to "reform" health care.  They're happy with the system the way it was and so were the insurance companies that back the GOP.

There is no "replace" in "repeal and replace".  There never will be.  Might want to keep that in mind when voting this fall.