Does the GOP still want to repeal Obamacare?

While Johnson said he supports fixing the nation’s healthcare system, he was not suggesting that “repealing and replacing Obamacare should be one of [the GOP’s] priorities,” the Guardian reported.

Nonetheless, this is an instance where (to borrow a phrase) Republicans need to be taken both literally and seriously.

The head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign wing, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, already has rolled out a stupendously wrong-headed policy agenda that takes a sledgehammer to the nation’s social safety net, even as it raises taxes on the poorest Americans.

If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said no such plan will pass while he’s running the Senate GOP. An additional fringe benefit — Republicans also have proven almost comically incompetent at actually coming up with a replacement for the healthcare law.

But the fact that Republicans are talking seriously about this is worrying enough.

Even if it faces a guaranteed White House veto, it’s not hard to imagine reinvigorated GOP majorities in the House and Senate trying to repeal the law in 2023, even as they work to stymie President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda heading into 2024.

Hence the Pennsylvania press call, one of the many that Democrats have been holding over the past few months to tout the components of Biden’s agenda — from jobs and COVID to infrastructure and school funding — as they try to rally Democrats ahead of a tough campaign season.

“We know that Pennsylvanians and all Americanas need support, and that they want leaders who will work tirelessly to improve their lives,” Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, whose seat is a takeover target for the GOP, said. "… A Republican majority would be devastating for Americans.”

The pandemic, which cost us so much, underlined the importance of the nation’s healthcare system. And so many sick Americans were able to obtain treatment because of the coverage they had through the Affordable Care Act.

What has happened once can happen again. That’s reason enough to take GOP threats literally and seriously. And it’s reason enough to make sure they do not prevail.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.