The GOP tried to troll Hillary Clinton. It backfired spectacularly. – Washington Post

For those about to troll, Hillary Clinton salutes you.

With policy.

Defending the GOP'splan to repeal and replacethe Affordable Care Act,the Republican National Committee sent several tweets Wednesday criticizing key senators plus the Clintons for their lack of support.

Our health care system is collapsing, but Democrats refuse to bring anything to the table. Wheres THEIR plan?@GOP posted Wednesday, showing clips from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.),Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)andformer president Bill Clintonacknowledging issues withthe health-care system.

The GOP then took a shot at Hillary Clinton, the vanquished 2016 presidential contender.

Hours later, Clinton fired back,tweeting a link to her campaign website, on which she outlined a plan toexpand the Affordable Care Act andreduce out-of-pocket health-care and prescription drug costs, among other things.

Feel free to run w/it, she offered.

If the GOP was simply trying to get Clinton to take the bait, it worked.

But the trolling seemed to backfire, based on the ratio with 4,600 comments, and far fewer likes and retweets.

The ratio on Clinton's response was far better, with more than 20 times as many likes as replies (and quite a few more shares) as the Internet scored the bout via memes and other responses.

I don't know who's in charge of the GOP Twitter account, but clearly they're no match for Hillary Clinton,one person wrote on Twitter.

Some commenters, however, criticized Clinton for her role in the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, attack, her email practices and other things.

Some even called her out on her health-care plan one person arguing on Twitter that it wasnothing more than that: a plan.

Where's draft legislation? We all have these same ideas and plans. They need to be reduced to actual draft legislation that can be scored, one personresponded. And I mean this of EVERYONE on the Left who is complaining about Trumpcare.

The Twitter spat came days after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to fast-track a vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act ahead of the Fourth of July break, then delayed it when some lawmakers asked for more time to review it.

A final vote is not expected until later this month.

[More Democrats embrace universal coverage and the GOP goes on the attack]

As The Washington Post's Amy Goldstein reported in November:

Clintonstrongly favors the Affordable Care Act. She wants to build on it in several ways, however, extending tax credits, making more people eligible for exchanges and Medicare, and tackling prescription drug prices.

ThoughTrumphas broken with conservatives of his own party on many issues, his health-policy positions are largely in line with GOP orthodoxy. He wants to end the Affordable Care Act. He also wants to transform Medicaid into state block grants, create high-risk insurance pools for people who need a lot of medical care and permit insurance to be sold across state lines.

At think tanks and elsewhere, health policy experts have assessed theoverall impact of the Clinton and Trump plans on the number of Americans with insurance and on federal spending. While the numbers vary, all conclude that her proposal would increase coverage and his would diminish it. Analyses disagree, though, on the impact of their plans on the federal deficit.

Read more:

[From the archives: The future of health care, according to Clinton or Trump]

How the demise of her health-care plan led to the politician Clinton is today

From jokes about the election outcome and the inaugural crowd size to warnings about the Trump administration's growing Russia scandal, Hillary Clinton has turned her ire on President Trump. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

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The GOP tried to troll Hillary Clinton. It backfired spectacularly. - Washington Post

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