There are di­lem­mas and then there are real di­lem­mas. On health care, Re­pub­lic­ans are in a real di­lemma. Con­gres­sion­al Re­pub­lic­ans prom­ised their base a mil­lion times that they would re­peal and re­place the much-des­pised (by the GOP base) Af­ford­able Care Act. No am­bi­gu­ity what­so­ever. In the House, they voted over 60 times to re­peal the ACA, though the re­place part was a little vague. Now that Re­pub­lic­ans oc­cupy the White House and hold ma­jor­it­ies in the House and Sen­ate, the Re­pub­lic­an base would be re­war­ded with re­peal of Obama­care, right? But here comes the di­lemma. While Amer­ic­ans are not ex­actly de­li­ri­ously happy with Demo­crats’ health blue­print, they like it a lot bet­ter than the Re­pub­lic­an House-passed Amer­ic­an Health Care Act. It’s un­likely that Sen­ate Re­pub­lic­ans will come up with something any­time soon that will be much more pop­u­lar than the ver­sion passed by their House col­leagues. So, do Hill Re­pub­lic­ans be­tray all of those prom­ises to their base to re­peal and re­place Obama­care, or do they pass something that people will hate even more? That’s what you call a di­lemma.

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