The Senate GOP has decided to include the repeal of the individual mandate in its tax bill. Last summer, McConnell proposed "skinny repeal," which was a simple repeal of the individual mandate. There are plenty of ways to design healthcare systems that are intellectually defensible on differing ideological grounds. Government intervention through regulation and taxation has costs and benefits. How you weigh those costs and benefits is a matter of ideology.
Usually.
Some systems, though, are objectively, indisputably stupid. Requiring health insurance companies to sell plans to people who are sick and have expensive healthcare needs without requiring healthy people to buy into the system... is objectively, indisputably stupid.
And as of last summer, even Republicans knew that.
When Mitch McConnell proposed a simple repeal of the "individual mandate" last July, it wasn't under the premise that the proposal would become law. He did so claiming that passing his proposal would send the bill to a House-Senate conference committee, and while the Senate couldn't come up with a bill that they found agreeable, a House-Senate conference committee would be up to the task.
This was... batshit fucking crazy. On many levels. First, McConnell was proposing a bill that every Democrat, and many Republicans knew would be horrible policy. The individual mandate was, after all, the Heritage Foundation's idea, and as recently as 2009, during the Obamacare debates, Chuck Grassley was basically arguing in favor of the mandate!
Take away the individual mandate, while leaving the Obamacare regulations on pre-existing conditions, and you have a system that is completely, totally indefensible.
And you know who knew that? The GOP. Last summer. That little, fucking twerp, Lindsey Graham, gave a press conference with some of his buddies saying that "skinny repeal" was terrible policy, and he needed an assurance that it would never go into law!
Think about that. He understood how stupid the bill was, and wanted an assurance that the House wouldn't pass it, as a condition for him voting yes.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) put it best. "Nuclear grade bonkers."
The point of the bill was for it to not become policy! Keep that in mind. It was a proposal intended to move the process to the House-Senate conference committee under the ridiculous premise that they would do what the Senate itself had been unable to do-- come up with a palatable bill.
Skinny repeal failed because Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and by surprise, John McCain, said no.
Everyone else in the GOP, including that twit, Lindsey Graham, was OK with this plan! The plan that said, "let's pass a bill we know is stupid in order to move things to a House-Senate conference committee, which we hope will come up with a non-batshit bill."
OK, got that?
Where are we now?
Now, that same caucus has decided to take the bill, which they knew was batshit crazy, stupid policy, and not intended to become law, and include it as a provision in their tax bill. Intended to become law.
As I wrote yesterday, I think there is a better-than-50% chance this happens now. And that's terrifying, on multiple levels. Not just on a policy-level, because we know that this is stupid policy. Lindsey Graham knows that this is stupid policy. Or, he did last summer, anyway.
What is more terrifying here is the demonstration of how batshit craziness gets normalized. An idea goes from unthinkable, and just a crazy gimmick to... included in a tax bill with a damned good chance of passage in just a few months.
And where are the voices against this in the GOP? As I said yesterday, even Susan Collins isn't taking a hard line on this. She made some squishy comments about how including the healthcare provision might make things "controversial," but don't count on her either to support an amendment to strip the provision, or oppose the whole bill.
The idea of "skinny repeal" has gone from crazy gimmick intended to get things to conference, to real policy in just a matter of months.
This is hard to wrap your brain around. Politics have been getting exponentially more crazy, so it is hard to remember that even just a few months ago, some of what we are now seeing was considered beyond the pale, but remember that "skinny repeal" was not intended to become policy. McConnell tried to assure his caucus that it wouldn't. Graham demanded such an assurance because he thought it was so fucking stupid.
Now... we just shrug at the idea that the GOP would vote to repeal the individual mandate without touching the regulations on pre-existing conditions. Craziness is being normalized at an alarming rate.