“Many Republicans assume” that a positive election result for their party will inspire it to attempt another repeal of Obamacare next year, reports Caitlin Owens. It may be difficult to believe that, after a devastating failure that registered historically ruinous approval in public opinion surveys, Republicans would try the same thing again with a presumably narrower House majority. But such an outcome may be more plausible than you might think.
If Republicans keep their House majority, albeit a smaller one, the psychological aftershocks would be almost incalculable. Both parties have priced in the near certainty that Democrats will take the House. That expectation is one reason the Republicans have all but given up on legislating after dragging their tax cut past the finish line. The Republicans who survived the anticipated wipeout of the midterm elections to reconstitute a majority caucus would emerge blinking into the sunlight of a transformed landscape. The price of Obamacare repeal would have been paid by the Republican House members who lost. Those who returned to Washington would feel no such constraint.
