Profiles in Cowardice

I'm not a Republican (obviously).  One of the many things I don't understand about Republicans is how they're not embarrassed when their Senators do things like this:

A quartet of crucial Senate Republicans said they won’t back Senate leadership’s “skinny repeal” of Obamacare on Thursday unless they get a guarantee the House won’t just pass it into law, enough to kill the effort to repeal the law.

“There’s increasing concern on my part and others that what the house will do is take whatever we pass… go directly to the house floor, vote on it and that goes to the president’s desk,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), flanked by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).

These four giants of moral fortitude are perfectly willing to vote for a bill which none of them actually want, and which Graham calls a "disaster" and a "fraud" --- but only if the House promises that it will never become law.

I've never served in elected office, but here's a pretty good rule of thumb.  If there's a particular bill you DON'T want passed into law, then vote 'no' on it.  Don't play games, especially when those games might result in a 25% increase in health care premiums for those who need it, a loss of coverage for an estimated 16 million people, and a possible death spiral for the individual health insurance market.

The Republicans don't have a good replacement for Obamacare; if they did, they would easily have passed it by now.  Since they don't, they have to play these legislative games to try to placate their tea party base.  But it makes them look like morons and it puts people lives and livelihoods at risk.

So please, Senators.  Shut the hell up, let Obamacare do its job, and focus on fixing the country's other problems.