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Maybe 2016 has something to do with it?

By Katie Glueck

11/11/14 7:42 PM EST

Republican governors with 2016 aspirations have a blunt message for their colleagues in the new GOP Congress: Weve done our jobs. Now dont screw up yours.

Their subtler message? Enjoy Capitol Hill, because the White House is going to one of us.

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The rhetorical push voiced recently by several likely presidential candidates, including governors from Louisiana, Wisconsin and Texas comes as the political world looks toward 2016 following the GOPs capture of both houses of Congress for the first time since 2006.

It helps the governors cast themselves as experienced adults compared with their squabbling congressional counterparts, several of whom also are eyeing the presidency. And it also exposes yet another faultline within the GOP, where tea party factions are still at odds with establishment figures, as the White House field comes into focus.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker fired the most direct volley on Sunday, when he wrote that newly empowered GOP legislators should put up or shut up and urged incoming leaders to make bold policy moves. That same day on Meet the Press, Walker said that overall, I believe governors make much better presidents than members of Congress.

More here:
Republican governors are already running against the Republican Congress

The wave of Republican electoral victories, and switch in Senate control, raises the obvious question: what changes are in store for Obamacare?

Conventional wisdom is that President Obama would veto legislation that made any fundamental changes to his signature bill. But even the Acts enthusiasts concede, that there are parts of Obamacare that are disliked, gratuitous, or simply unfeasible.

The question is whether theres enough common ground to make meaningful excisions to the original law, and secure White House support.

There may be more changes in store than Washingtons conventional wisdom now portends. Some easy and obvious revisions are already getting attention. But there are also some bigger changes that could get popular support.

Some conservatives will argue that Congress shouldnt do anything to blunt Obamacares painful excesses, lest they weaken the case for full repeal. That sort of thinking may leave market based reforms harder to achieve in the long run.

Thats because the marketplace is rapidly changing to accommodate Obamacare, in ways that could make market based schemes harder to eventually implement. Just look at all of the consolidation underway in the market for providers much of it the acquisitions of doctors by hospitals, stoked by provisions in Obamacare.

Without changes now, by 2016 there may not be enough local competition left in the healthcare market on which to eventually erect a solid, market-based alternative to the Affordable Care Act. Conservatives have to start injecting more competition and choice into the market right away, and push back against the erection of healthcare oligopolies that are being favored by the top down Obamacare scheme.

Some selective excisions to the current scheme could achieve these ends.

First on the easy changes:

One popular idea is full repealthe disliked device tax. This excisionhad bi-partisan support long before the mid-term elections.

Read the original here:
Republican Wave Put Obamacare In Surgery, And These Parts Could Be Amputated

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