Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel responding to reporters curious as to why Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republican lawmakers are finally interested in seeking possibly helpful tweaks to "Obamacare," the federal Affordable Care Act, especially after several years of calling for the act's total repeal:
"The only criticism I will take is that we believed the president."
Heh, heh, heh! Sure, that's Vos' story, now. Actually, however, one of the main reasons tweaks to the act are necessary is that congressional Republicans, assisted by a handful of blue dog Democrats and GOP governors, have done everything in their power to delay, sabotage, obfuscate, hamstring, defund and demonize "Obamacare" since before its enactment. Heretofore, Republicans haven't acted as if they indeed believed the president, especially given their endless negative rhetoric.
But cut Vos a little slack. His comment may be true in a narrow sense: He and other Republicans finally may be coming to believe the president is not going to roll over on his signature legislative achievement, and that the GOP's tactic of fighting the ACA head on is increasingly unpopular with the citizenry. Which is another way of saying Republicans don't think Obamacare is going away, despite all their threats, posturings and skullduggery. At most, now, they'll try to whittle away at the ACA a little bit at a time, hence Walker's latest brilliant idea.
The Obama adminstration is unlikely to approve Walker administration requests allowing Wisconsin residents to bypass the initially troubled online health insurance marketplace. While that miight help some applicants in the short run, in the long run it would destroy a key reform inherent in the marketplace: The ability of customers to more easily compare approved policies and plans that enable tax subsidies for income-qualified applicants. There's absolutely no reason to think individual insurance companies, allowed to offer these products independently, wouldn't go right back to obfuscating comparisons with competing firms. In short: It'd be a big step backwards, which is unsurprising wherever the Walker administration seeks to get involved. See attached link for more background.