The Republicans in both the House and Senate have released their proposed budgets for 2016 -- and both of them included the complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Is this really what they want? As the chart above (from Mother Jones) shows, there are nearly 30 million people who have gotten health insurance thanks to the health care reform known as Obamacare -- and most of those people would lose that health insurance if the program was repealed (because they could no longer afford it).
I don't think they really want to repeal Obamacare. I think they put that proposal in the budget just to placate their teabagger base. They know the Democrats in the Senate would never let that repeal stay in the final budget resolution. They will filibuster until it is removed -- and even if they didn't, the president would veto any budget that repealed Obamacare.
The Republicans can put the proposal in because they know the Democrats will take it out. There is no way they want to go into the 2016 election after taking health insurance away from 20 to 30 million people. It is nothing more than a political game to keep their base happy.
