AMERICA’S HEALTHCARE EMBARRASSMENT — AND THE GOP’S FAILURE TO LEAD

We’ve arrived at a full-on healthcare embarrassment in this country — an Obamacare embarrassment, yes, but also a Republican embarrassment. Let’s be blunt: the GOP has been incompetent on this issue for more than a decade. Completely, undeniably incompetent. 

I remember Trump’s first term when Republicans were chanting “repeal and replace.” Great. Repeal and replace. Except they only had the first half ready. The “replace” part? It didn’t exist. They pretended there was a bill. There wasn’t. I saw the draft they claimed was in the works — it was a joke. Any business owner understands this: if you’re planning a major transition, you prepare your replacement before you hit the switch. The GOP never bothered. 

Meanwhile, the Democrats came in with Obamacare fully drafted. Yes, it was a disastrous piece of legislation — I was actually one of the people tasked with reviewing sections of it. It was convoluted, messy, and destined to fail. But at least they had something prepared. Republicans had campaign slogans. 

Then Trump wins on repeal and replace… and they still had nothing. Nothing written, nothing modeled, nothing analyzed. And let’s stop pretending McCain’s famous thumbs-down was the sole reason it fell apart. If it wasn’t him, leadership would’ve found someone else to take the fall. They didn’t want to govern. They didn’t want to put in the work. 

Fast forward to today. We’re watching the same incompetence play out again. Moderate House Republicans want to extend Biden’s COVID-era ACA subsidies for years. They talk about “guardrails” and “preventing waste and fraud.” Nonsense. It’s the same tired routine: big talk, no discipline, no solutions. 

Speaker Mike Johnson says fixing healthcare will be “a long process” that stretches into next year. Why? Why wasn’t anything prepared already? How do you run on fixing healthcare for a decade and still have nothing ready in 2024? 

What exactly are Republicans offering voters? 
We’re not Biden. 
We’re not Marxists. 
We’re not AOC. 
That’s the whole pitch. No plan. No strategy. No leadership. 

Meanwhile, here’s a fun fact: revenue for the seven largest health insurance companies has skyrocketed from $511 billion in 2014 to $1.5 trillion today. Did you vote for that? Did you sign off on the consolidation of power, rising premiums, shrinking networks, and an industry that profits while families drown in medical debt? 

Name me one Republican you’d trust to run an actual business. A real business. Massey? Smart guy — I’d hire him. Rand Paul? Probably. Ron Johnson? He understands economics. But beyond that? The list gets real thin, real fast. Yet these are the people claiming they’re ready to “fix healthcare.” 

You know who I would hire? Rahm Emanuel — Obama’s former chief of staff. I disagree with him on 90% of things, but he gets stuff done. He knows how to move policy, build coalitions, and execute. Meanwhile, Republicans keep holding press conferences about how “hard” the healthcare work is, how “complex” the system is, and how “dedicated” they are to the process. 

Give me a break. 

Some days I genuinely wonder how the country would function if Congress simply disappeared for a year or two. Could it really be worse than this?