Beltway kabuki. Trumpcare “Bucket” 2 will get bogged down in the courts and bucket 3 will never happen. We are being played. Again. How stupid do they think we are?
I suspect it's not going to unfold this way.
Rush Limbaugh had an interesting take on this today, and I'm starting to think he's right about it. Whatever 'Bucket 1" bill the Republicans come up with is never going to pass: either vulnerable Republicans won't support it because it's never going to reduce premiums for anyone, or conservative Republicans won't support it because it keeps 95% of Obamacare intact.
So maybe the best approach is to cram everything from Buckets 1, 2 and 3 into a single bill -- and let the Democrats vote it down in the Senate. Bring it up for a vote whenever the 2018 premium notices start going out, and then bring it up again for a vote every other week until the 2018 elections.