Greg Walden dodges a bullet

Greg Walden is a Happy Guy.   He Wanted to Lose the Healthcare Vote.

If repeal and replace had succeeded Greg Walden would have had a very bad law to defend.  He needed to fail.  That lets him keep Obamacare for his District and have Obamacare to criticize.   It is perfect for him.

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Greg Walden had a problem.   His success at politicking for a Republicans earned him a big role: chair of the House committee overseeing the supposed repeal and replacement of Obamacare.  The only thing that would have been popular was what Trump and Walden promised: something impossible.  It was going to be terrific: universal, simple, inexpensive, and better.

Greg Walden is not embarrassed.  He is relieved.

It was just political salesmanship, also known as a lie.   It was a fantasy.  It was buncombe.  Donald Trump understood that and so did Greg Walden.

Greg Walden understood far better than did Donald Trump that "success" was a disaster politically.  They would have had a complicated, expensive, inadequate law to defend.   Obamacare isn't that bad--especially for Walden's district.   The biggest thing wrong with it was that voters had been taught to hate it.   The solution was right at hand.   Fail.

And fail he did.  Now his constituents who voted for him, not realizing he and his team were actively working to reduce the Medicaid expansion which gave so many of his voters care under the Oregon Health Plan, will get to keep what they have.  The rural hospitals in his district will get to stay solvent.  From a health access point of view, Obamacare is a satisfactory arrangement.   And now, as a politicajl matter, it is perfect.  People who resent paying for the healthcare of people poorer than themselves have Greg as a frustrated advocate.   Prosperous people with the ACA tax surcharges stay angry and they have Greg as a frustrated advocate.  Voters who hate anything Obama get to stay unhappy, right along with Greg.

Isn't this rank hypocrisy??   Of course.  So what?  It works for Greg Walden and it saves the things that people in the district need.

High school students fresh from civics classes might be disappointed in Walden, but older more jaded voters will simply have their expectations met.   Congress is a mess.  Nothing works.  Greg appears to be on "our side" because we do keep the Medicaid expansion which helps so many of his constituents and the hospitals stay solvent and Planned Parenthood stays in business.  

But meanwhile we also have good old Greg saying that there is something out there that would be really terrific, if we could only get that through Congress.  

For a moment there it looked like Republicans would have to govern and they would have to do what they promised.  But they failed.  Whew.  Now back to what works politically:  blame it on Obama.