The Republican rush to replace the Affordable Care Act with the American Health Care Act could spell trouble for the party in the 2018 elections, says Michael Warren, a senior writer at the Weekly Standard.
"Not much over the past couple of days has made the passage of the American Health Care Act seem more likely," Warren wrote in a column published Monday.
One of the House bill's chief Republican critics, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, told ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "The proposal 'as it's written today…cannot pass the Senate."
Cotton was harsh not only on the bill's prescription for Obamacare but on the political fallout for Republicans who support it.
Warren asks if Cotton's warning is "alarmist or shrewd?"
"It's obviously too soon to tell — the House committees have voted the bill through but GOP leadership won't bring to a floor vote until after the Congressional Budget Office scores it —but Cotton's sentiments reflect a growing sense among some congressional Republicans that the party is not just squandering a great chance to implement a conservative health-care program.
"With this bill, the GOP may be sowing the seeds of their demise. Bad policy and bad optics, say Cotton and the various Republicans (from Freedom Caucus members in the House to Maine moderate Susan Collins) urging the House to start over, will make for bad politics."
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