Remember that the Republicans always had an easier option on Obamacare, and still do

Amid the flaming wreckage of their repeal-and-replace fantasies, it is worth remembering that there was always an easier way.  From the beginning of this mess, I pointed out that the easiest thing for Republicans to do was as follows:  piecemeal repeal of the easiest provisions to eliminate.

Begin with the employer mandate.  The employer mandate requires any employer with over 50 employers to provide health insurance.  It creates a threshold problem.  Hiring the 50th employee can dramatically raise the cost of doing business.  How big a problem is that for the economy over-all?  Not a 'yuge' one, but it does create perverse incentives.  Besides, the vast majority of employers over 50 provide insurance anyway.  Get rid of it in one small, separate bill.  Will the Freedom Caucus really oppose that?  Not likely.  It is deregulation.

Next, get rid of the medical device tax.  It's a tax cut.  The Freedom Caucus can't oppose a tax cut, nor can anyone in the Republican Party.  In fact, you'll get some Democrats on board for both of these.

After that, things get more obscure, but the point is to do a sequence of repeal votes.  My original proposition was that the best way to handle the GOP's repeal dilemma was with a series of repeal votes of ever-decreasing magnitude because trying to do an actual repeal just wouldn't work.  Repeal failed.  The small-bore measures can still happen.  What is stopping or will stop them at this point?

Humiliation.

Unless pressure builds because they need to do something.

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