Erie County Republicans Ignore COVID-19 Crisis and Petition to Put Fake Green Candidates on Ballot

An analyst warns Thursday that GOP lawmakers "drunk with power" have made a major stumble amid the ongoing government shutdown, unleashing "Republicans' worst nightmare."

Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton writes about how Obamacare premiums are set to soar — something President Donald Trump had promised to replace — and now "appears to be one step too far" for Americans.

"Ten years of similar promises have shown that replacing the Affordable Care Act wasn’t so easy after all — and that the only health care plan the GOP ever truly wanted was one called 'you’re on your own,'" Digby Parton writes.

Republicans haven't introduced any alternatives, instead people are receiving notices that their healthcare premiums are set to rise, while they cut Medicaid and close a number of rural hospitals, add work requirements and deny care to millions. And although they've pointed to Project 2025, aiming to force people into a privatized version of Medicaid and "plan to open up the market to sell junk insurance plans which are worth virtually nothing," it's still a half-baked policy, the writer argues.

"But the GOP’s lack of strategy and success makes it clear the party is as flummoxed on this issue as they’ve always been, and they know it’s a loser for them," she writes.

Healthcare matters for Americans because it's something that effects their daily lives, she adds, and "it’s now on the front lines of this massive war against our social safety net."

As the Trump administration works to defund scientific research and following "the government's shambolic response during the first year of the pandemic and the damage being done every day by the administration to our scientific research community, I suspect a lot of people are feeling insecure about their actual health care these days."

That could leave room for Democrats to step in and hold the line.

"If Democrats can find the fortitude to hold out for their demands, they will have taken the first step in reining in this lawless administration and given the American people something to hold onto in these dark days," Digby Parton writes.