March 31, 2020

Republicans never have to go to the trouble of reassessing their political stands in light of changing circumstances -- mostly because they're always serving corporate donors, not the voters. That's why Republican AGs are pushing ahead with a lawsuit meant to kill Obamacare, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Via the Daily Beast:

Representatives for five of those attorneys general—from the states of Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee—confirmed to The Daily Beast that the coronavirus outbreak has not changed their plans to try and kill the health care law as parties to the case of Texas v. California. Their steadfastness comes even as their states are beginning to feel the acute impact of the coronavirus’ spread. Georgia currently has over 1,700 coronavirus cases, while Tennessee has nearly 1,000 and the others have anywhere from 350 to 600.

The other 13 state attorney general offices, including that of lead state Texas—where the state’s most populous counties have issued shelter-in-place orders to counter the spread of the coronavirus—either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment. None of them have announced any plans to reconsider their participation in the lawsuit.

Their determination to kill the law, no matter the circumstances, mirrors President Trump’s. Asked at a press conference last week whether the virus had changed his plans to press ahead in court, Trump affirmed that "what we want to do is terminate it.”

If the Trump administration and these states succeed in repealing the ACA, the impact on the country’s public health system would be immense, pandemic or not. That the decision could come early next year—at the tail end or recovery stage of a devastating outbreak—gives it a seismic significance for the 20 million Americans covered by the law, the 84 million who are uninsured or under-insured, and the insurers, hospitals, and governments that have adapted to Obamacare over the course of a decade.

This is why we always vote for Democrats, not just against Republicans.

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