Why Republicans want to repeal Obamacare

John Boehner’s House is scheduled to hold yet another symbolic vote to repeal health care reform tomorrow. This will be their 31st vote on “repealing Obamacare.” They’ve long ago stopped pretending they want to replace it with a plan of their own. They simply don’t have one. So why do they keep holding these votes?

The obvious answer is to trick their angry anti-Obama base into believing they’re actually doing something with their time. But here’s another possible reason I didn’t know about until today. Repealing Obamacare would give them back their gold-plated health insurance:

Repealing President Obama’s healthcare law would let members of Congress keep their government-subsidized insurance coverage after they retire — a benefit they lost under the health law.

The Affordable Care Act — specifically, a Republican amendment to the Affordable Care Act — kicked members of Congress and their aides out of the healthcare program for federal employees.

Instead, lawmakers and staff have to get coverage through the insurance exchanges created by the healthcare law. …

In other words, they would have to deal with the same insurance system as the rest of us do instead of receiving their formerly guaranteed cushy lifelong benefits. Heck of an incentive.