Slow Way Back to Health Care Status Quo

The problem, however, is that repealing the mandate may well be a deal breaker for Republican senators such as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. Since Republicans can only afford to lose two senators on the tax bill, and others have said they’ll oppose it because of its increases in the deficit, it’s likely that at best this would be a gimmick to get the bill through the House, dump it on the Senate, and let them either figure it out or take the blame. And, yes, I for one am surprised that it appears the House may be shifting into blame-ducking mode on the tax bill, just as they did on the health bill.

Back to the individual mandate: It’s certainly possible that the Trump administration could go through with an executive order to eliminate it.

It still makes no sense, however. Blowing up the individual market in health insurance in order to blame it on the previous administration just seems like very foolish politics, since most swing voters will blame the incumbent party for things that go wrong, correctly or not. Whether the logic of the situation will constrain the president and his administration is, as usual, unknown.

I still do think we’re eventually on the way to health care politics as usual, in which the parties differ on spending and policy around the edges but acc

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