GOP's Plan B for Obamacare -- repeal first, replace later — began with quiet push from Koch network , CD3 DFL

The following article by Lisa Mascaro was posted on the Los Angeles Times website June 30, 2017:

*Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) talks on his phone outside the Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)*

President Trump’s surprise suggestion Friday that deadlocked Senate Republicans shift their focus to simply repealing Obamacare — and worry about replacing it later — has its roots in a Koch network proposal that has been shopped around Congress for months.

The influential Koch network, backed by the billionaire industrialists, floated the idea most recently at a retreat last weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo., where key conservative lawmakers heard an earful from frustrated GOP donors about the party’s failure to deliver on their signature campaign promise.

Among those attending the gathering at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel was Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has been working with the White House behind the scenes on the idea.

On Friday, as GOP leaders left Washington still unable to agree how to revamp the Affordable Care Act, Sasse went public with the proposal.

Among those attending the gathering at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel was Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has been working with the White House behind the scenes on the idea.

On Friday, as GOP leaders left Washington still unable to agree how to revamp the Affordable Care Act, Sasse went public with the proposal.

In reality, however, it’s possible — perhaps even likely — that Congress would never agree on a replacement. That risks abandoning 22 million Americans who have received health coverage thanks to Obamacare, including many who voted for Trump. It could also create even more disruption in the individual insurance market and lead to a return of high-priced polices as well as discrimination against people with preexisting health problems.

For those reasons, many centrist Republicans find the idea as troubling as the current Senate bill.

Perhaps more than a viable strategy, the new proposal may be intended as a signal to Republican senators that time is narrowing to reach a deal.

McConnell said as much last week, warning senators he would have no choice but to reach out to Democrats for a bipartisan deal that would likely “include none of the reforms we would like to make.”

Getting the healthcare issue off the agenda would also free up time for the other main Republican priority — tax reform — which has stalled amid the Senate’s logjam, and is also a Koch network priority.

Political strategists at the Koch network — a conglomerate of small-government advocacy groups — lauded Sasse’s approach, which largely aligns with what they have been promoting in a position paper issued in January.

“While we are continuing to work with the Senate to help improve their current legislation, the two-step repeal and reform approach that Senators Paul and Sasse have proposed would put Congress and the administration in the position to keep their promise and deliver that relief,” said Nathan Nascimento, a vice president at the Koch-backed Freedom Partners chamber of commerce, in a statement. The group first posted its idea in January. “The best way to provide relief to Americans suffering under Obamacare has always been to fully repeal Obamacare and work together to fix our broken health care system.”

It wouldn’t be the first time the Koch network has provided a legislative road map to Republicans in Congress in the Trump administration.

Freedom Partners encouraged Congress to use the little-known Congressional Review Act to rollback more than a dozen Obama-era regulations – even helping to compile the list — which Republicans now count as one of the chief achievements of this Congress.

Sasse’s office said the senator did not discuss the healthcare plan when he attended the Koch seminar last weekend in Colorado, where he delivered a lunchtime speech on Sunday.

But the senator has been working with the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence’s office, for months on the healthcare plan.

Pence met privately June 23 with billionaire Charles Koch ahead of the weekend seminar.

Trump had once panned the two-step approach, disagreeing with McConnell and other congressional leaders who early on also preferred the repeal now-replace later strategy.

When Sasse floated it anew, the administration signaled its support.

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