Damn, just reading up on the AHCA now. I mean I knew the GOP would never be able to square the circle and make the ACA more ideologically pure while also improving life for Upper-middle-blessed Americans and the beneaths. But this is some serious ratfucking.
It really is amazingly inept through about every conceivable prism you look through the bill with:
Policy/Economics:It's just shit. It covers less people, costs more, and by almost all accounts seems likely to make the healthcare situation in America much worse for everyone over the long-term.
Politically: You make insurance more expensive for rural living, working class, older people that are your electricians, contractors, or general working class small business employees that love Trump. By untying subsidies to the cost of the plans(which are by and large much more expensive in rural areas) and allowing insurers to charge older people more. You are gonna block-grant Medicaid and start the process right near an election year. Meaning campaigning in the midst of potentially millions losing insurance due to your policy. All the while disillusioning the hardliners that see everything through a window of "more" or "less" government and putting moderates in vulnerable positions if they bend to pressure.
Strategically: You come out the gate with your first big legislative push being the most controversial and divisive topic in politics. Instead of doing, IDK, the Republican bread and butter like tax cuts.
Morally: They are just pieces of shit, but this was already known. Though the fact the only thing there is wide agreement on is tax cuts for the rich, it just helps cement it.
