“The result? Stocks rally and interest rates go higher,” Cramer said. “The best stocks to buy in this scenario? The banks, because they’ve been headed down for some time on sinking interest rates. They need those rates higher. I’d snap up JP Morgan or Cramer-fave Citigroup.”
Next on Cramer’s wishlist would be industrial stocks and technology stocks, which would benefit from economic expansion.
“I’d go for Martin Marietta and US Concrete to play the border wall or any infrastructure initiative. I’d buy Alphabet, Apple, Amgen, Cisco for repatriation. And I’d pick up 3M, United Technologies, Cummins and Dow Chemical for worldwide growth,” he said.
Cramer added that if the bill passes, stay away from utilities, real estate investment trusts, consumer goods companies with high yields, and any other stocks considered to be bond market equivalents.
In the increasingly likely case that the bill does not pass the House, Cramer’s advice might seem counter-intuitive: “buy the heck out of the market, right into the teeth of the downturn.”
Unlike in other crises, the market backdrop is healthy and companies are strong, and Cramer argued that there is opportunity no matter which way the vote swings.
If the vote flops, Cramer believes there could be a second vote afterwards that passes the bill.
“Doing nothing is too politically risky for the GOP” because both Washington officials and company executives know something has to be done to prevent Obamacare exchanges from falling apart, Cramer said.
If no second vote occurs and the bill’s failure is set, Cramer said Trump could shift gears to promoting more popular parts of his agenda like tax reform, ultimately pushing stocks higher.
And “even if the bill fails and the rest of Trump’s legislative agenda turns out to be stillborn, there will be many companies with stocks that have been hammered to the point where you can buy them at a nice discount,” Cramer added.
The stocks you want to pick up if the American Health Care Act does not pass the House are the ones that do well in a slowdown in which stocks and rates decline.
Cramer suggested picking up high-yield names like American Electric Power, Pepsico, Eli Lilly, and Allergan, as well as high-growth stocks that perform well without a strong economy like Adobe, Oracle, and the FANG stocks – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google parent Alphabet.
The key is not to panic, Cramer insisted, “because no one ever made a dime panicking.”
Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC
Want to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – Instagram – Vine
Questions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? madcap@cnbc.com
