[quote=zk]I’m genuinely stumped as to why republicans are voting for this, and I’m extremely curious about it, and I hope somebody out there can enlighten me.[/quote]

The Republicans have got themselves in a bind on this one. It was easy and convenient when they were not in power to bad mouth Obamacare. It was even easier to rally their supporters with talk about how Obamacare was a mess, how they would repeal it, etc.

But now the tables have turned and the Republicans are in power and they have a simple choice. 1) Repeal and/or replace Obamacare or 2) Look incompetent and stupid for railing against a bad policy, promising to change it but then not doing so.

Obviously option 2 is a bad choice. You never want to look incompetent and stupid when you are in power.

Which leaves us with option 1, repeal and/or replace Obamacare. If they simply repeal Obamacare that’s going to be unpopular because many who make up their base are actively enjoying the benefits of Obamacare and if you take that away, that will be unpopular.

If you want to replace Obamacare, then you probably want to try and fix the problems in it. And that’s where things get really problematic. There are two issues with that. First are the ideological issues. Some Republicans are angry that the govt is now giving payments to pay for poor people’s health care. Ending that doesn’t play well in the news.

The second problem is that Obamacare forces people to buy health care. Which wouldn’t be so bad except in case you hadn’t noticed, health care costs have been climbing worse than housing costs in 2004. (Maybe that’s not technically correct, but you get the idea)

So the Republicans need to figure out a way to limit the cost of health care. And that is a huge issue that there is no good answer to.

So here’s the deal: The Republicans promised everyone they would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a great program that everyone would love. They used this repeatedly during their campaigning. Now they are in power they need to deliver on this promise. But there is no good way to do this.

So why vote? Well, they sort of have to. It’s like the political world has double dared them. But note that they are all scrambling for cover as they prepare to vote. No one wants to own responsibility for whatever gets passed.

The bottom line is that the Republicans will probably be hurt by the vote, but they’ll be hurt even more if they don’t vote. It’s a choice of the lesser of two evils.