Republican No Votes on AHCA Were All Over the Ideological Map

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Here’s a fascinating chart from the Wall Street Journal:

Even the Journal’s own description says “holdouts from two wings of the party” sank the Republican health care bill. But that’s not what their own chart shows. Ideologically, there was neither a “coverage caucus” nor a “conservative” caucus. The holdouts spanned the entire spectrum of the party in a pretty even way.

I can’t think of any insightful point to make about this, but it’s worth mentioning anyway. The conventional narrative of the bill being caught between two extreme ends of the party looks like it’s not really correct.

By the way, here’s how the Journal’s article begins:

With the collapse of Republicans’ health plan in the House on Friday, the Trump administration is set to ramp up its efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act in one of the few ways it has left—by making changes to the law through waivers and rule changes.

Obamacare won’t implode on its own, but it might after Trump does everything he can to sabotage it.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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