LIKE EVERY SOCIALIST PROGRAM THAT TAKE HOLD OBAMASCARE LOOKS TO BE HERE TO STAY- WANING THE REPEALIST STANCE FOR FEAR OF REDISTRIBUTION FROM THE PITCH FORKS AND TORCHES OF WHAT WILL BE MADE UP PROTESTS THAT THE MSM WOULD FOLLOW–CONSIDER THE NEW TAXES INVOKED ON HEALTHY AMERICANS FOR FREE- AS 20 MILLION NOW TAKE TO THE TIT OF THE GOV CONTROLLED HEALTHCARE–AS THE TAX COFFERS INCREASED TO THE GUISE OF HELPING AKA CONTROLLING AMERICAN CITIZENS HEALTH–THE POTUS LEFTIST SOCIALIST BHO LEGACY LIVES SO FAR

After five years and more than 50 votes in Congress, the Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act is essentially over.

GOP congressional leaders, unable to roll back the law while President Obama remains in office and unwilling to again threaten a government shutdown to pressure him, are focused on other issues, including trade and tax reform.

Less noted, senior Republican lawmakers have quietly incorporated many of the law's key protections into their own proposals, including guaranteeing coverage and providing government assistance to help consumers purchase insurance.

And although the law remains very unpopular with GOP voters, more than 20 million Americans now depend on it for health benefits, making even some of the most conservative Republicans loath to cut off coverage.

Facing the prospect that the Supreme Court this year could strip away insurance subsidies provided through the law in most states, several GOP lawmakers have proposed extending the aid, perhaps even until a new president takes office.

At the same time, the presumed Republican presidential front-runner, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has shown little enthusiasm for a new healthcare fight. Last year, he even criticized the repeal effort.

Republicans who still demand a repeal, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, appear to be long shots for the presidential nomination.

"Only 18% of Americans want to go back to the system we had before because they do not want to go back to some of the problems we had," Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster who works for presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, said at a recent breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

"Smart Republicans in this area get that," he added.

These developments have sapped enthusiasm among Republican leaders for "pulling out Obamacare root and branch," as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) once put it.

The waning of the repeal campaign does not mean that calls to undo the law will vanish from the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

http://www.latimes.com/business/healthcare/la-na-obamacare-republicans-20150418-story.html#page=1