Why didn't the GOP just roll back to pre Obamacare America?

It's hard to take away freebies once they're given.

Good question

Because the GOP is full of phony conservatives. The only way to improve Congress is to contest all Republican primaries where RINO incumbents are running. Run true conservatives and pressure them to fulfill their campaign promises right away before the Beltway ruins them.

It would be like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. An outright repeal wouldn't undo the damage.

Because they have no balls.

Because despite all the GOP's bitching about Obamacare they really love it because it helps out the insurance/pharma companies who line the pockets of the lawmakers.

So they pretended to hate it to get votes. They promised to "repeal and replace" but they don't want to cut into the insurance and pharma profits so they're fricked.

Their solution is to swap the letters of "OBAMACARE" around and hope we don't notice when they roll out "ABEARCAMO".

"Its hard to do that" is an excuse from the GOP that just doesnt fly anymore. Their big doners want a big government and they are in DC to deliver just that

The real answer here is that Americans want health care.

GOP knows it, and the entire fallacy of Obamacare was that the Dems created it, therefore it sucks.

The last six months have been nothing but trying to erase Obamas legacy. No new policy, no real political gain other than appeasing the base that abhorred President Obama.

This revised version of the ACA does nothing but give a tax cut to the 1%.

There will still be the bloat on the taxpayers back in the long run, and in the longer run it will hurt more than it will help when it comes to actual medical care.

The GOP did nothing but massage Obamacare into a tax credit for the rich, camouflaged with the sort of bullshite the base loves.

I'd have appreciated your party much more if they'd have stuck to their bullshite rhetoric and killed the entire thing.

Instead we've still got a giant shite sandwich on our plate with no one willing to take a bite.

Because the whole ACA isn't repealable through the reconciliation process they're stuck with since the filibuster is operative for a straight repeal and they don't have 60 votes to overcome it.