McConnell wants to pass legislation conservatives hate, so he's placating them with a fake Obamacar

[DonViejo]

Highway to healthcare repeal: Mitch McConnell’s wildly cynical new strategy

McConnell wants to pass legislation conservatives hate, so he's placating them with a fake Obamacare vote

SIMON MALOY

While the political media has been enthralled with the incendiary spectacle of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign freak show, Congress has been doing its part to erode what little faith remains in our public institutions. The issue at hand is the Highway Trust Fund, which provides federal funding to states so that they can build and maintain roads and other infrastructure. It will run out of money at the end of the month unless Congress can pass legislation to replenish it.

For several years now, the trust fund has subsisted on a series of short-term funding extensions, and the House of Representatives passed yet another patch earlier this month that would reauthorize funding through the end of the year. The action now is in the Senate, in the hands of majority leader Mitch McConnell, who is trying to pass a longer-term (six years) funding bill in defiance of the House. And he has devised a cunning strategy for shepherding the bill to passage: repeal Obamacare.

Why is McConnell trying to repeal Obamacare as part of the highway funding bill? It has everything to do with the Export-Import Bank. Conservatives hate the Export-Import Bank, which provided federally subsidized loans to overseas companies so that they could buy American products. They consider the bank to be nothing more than corporate welfare, and were quite pleased when Congress declined to renew its charter at the end of last month. But Democrats and the “pro-business” wing of the Republican Party establishment throw in with groups like the Chamber of Commerce who very much want the Ex-Im Bank revived (political support for Ex-Im tends to be variable). McConnell wants to clear the path for a vote on an amendment to reauthorize Ex-Im’s charter, which will likely pass with bipartisan support.

That’s where the Obamacare amendment comes in. McConnell’s offering it up as a bone to the conservatives who oppose the resurrection of the Export-Import Bank. “Ex-Im shouldn’t be the only vote we take on this bill, and under the compromise I just filed, it won’t be.” McConnell said. “That’s a much fairer way forward.”

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/24/highway_to_healthcare_repeal_mitch_mcconnells_wildly_cynical_new_strategy/

[Gothmog]

1. The GOP does not believe in government and so the GOP is bad at governing

[liberal N proud]

2. Look over there

Diversions!