This failure has enraged the Republican grassroots and has sent three outsiders — Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina — to the top of the GOP presidential field.
What have the congressional Republicans been waiting for?
Well, according to ace Washington policy analyst Dan Clifton of Strategas, the Ryan-led Ways and Means committee has been moving on three pieces of reconciliation legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and target specific pieces of Obamacare for repeal. And Clifton notes that reconciliation legislation requires just 51 votes in the Senate. Sure, Obama would veto this. But at least the GOP would signal its intentions should they win the White House in 2016.
And with John Boehner on the way out, House Republicans have now developed a laundry list of reconciliation provisions to repeal the individual mandate, the employer mandate, the medical-device tax, the Cadillac tax, IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board), and the auto-enrollment requirement that forces small businesses to enroll full-time employees in Obamacare.
Good news.