This is politics at its worst. Everyone knew Democrats were going to be against anything the Republicans put up. They could have offered a completely identical bill to the Affordable Care Act and Democrats would have vilified it. Instead, House Republicans put forward a socialized medicine bill that did not repeal Obamacare and continued to have elements in it that even threatened the rights of Americans, but it was not Democrat opposition to the bill that forced the hand of Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump. It was real conservative Republicans, mostly from the Freedom Caucus.
Now, understand they didn’t even put this to a vote! They bailed because they knew they didn’t have the votes and they didn’t want to be embarrassed.
WASHINGTON (AP) – House lawmakers and aides: Health bill short of support ahead of vote demanded by President Trump
— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) March 24, 2017
With @RepDaveJoyce’s announcement, CBS News counts 38 GOP “no” votes for repeal/replace https://t.co/KgjYfY7Dsn
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— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) March 24, 2017
“We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future,” conceded Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Trump isn’t bringing up healthcare again anytime soon per @costareports
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) March 24, 2017
Ryan is one that pushed budget legislation that implemented Obamacare, when he could have stood on the side of the Constitution and the people and not funded it. That just proved to be too tough for him and former Speaker John Boehner.
Speaker Ryan told the White House they didn’t have the votes, even though the Trump administration claimed they were confident they would get them.
President Trump then blamed Democrats, according to the New York Times (for what it’s worth), and said that Democrats would be seeking a deal within a year after “Obamacare explodes” due to premiums skyrocketing.
“The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened – watch,” Trump told NYT. “It’s enough already.”
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said that the president was tired of negotiating. I thought he was going to be a fighter for the people on this. Oh wait! Perhaps we are going to see a list of Republicans who were set to vote against the bill in the future. According to The Daily Beast, White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon told Trump to keep a list of those who opposed the bill.
According to multiple Trump administration officials speaking to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity to talk freely, the president is angry that his first big legislative push is crumbling before his eyes—and his chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon is advising him to take names and keep a hit list of Republicans who worked for Trumpcare’s defeat.
“[Bannon] has told the president to keep a sh*t list on this,” one official told The Daily Beast. “He wants a running tally of [the Republicans] who want to sink this…Not sure if I’d call it an ‘enemies list,’ per se, but I wouldn’t want to be on it.”
One aide described it as a proposed “hit list” for Republicans not sufficiently loyal. Courses of action stemming from any related tally is yet to be determined, but the idea and message is that “we’ll remember you.”
Hot Air’s Allahpundit had some comments on this:
Pitiful if Ryan forces a vote just so that Trump can count his enemies
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) March 24, 2017
Ryan should protect his caucus by yanking the bill if he knows they don’t have the votes, however Trump may feel
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) March 24, 2017
No surer sign that Trump is governing as an independent than if they force the GOP to do a roll call on a bill that’s doomed
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) March 24, 2017
Ryan said the bill included “huge conservative wins,” including cutting off federal funds to Planned Parenthood for… one year.
The bill was not a win for conservatives. It was a win for progressives. It continued big government Medicaid. It continued to allow for the gun control agenda. It continued to try and regulate the insurance market to death rather than open up the free market.
Were there some good aspects, like the tax penalties being removed? Of course, but those could be raised by another Congress because there was not a full repeal of Obamacare.
I suggest the House come back with a simple one to two-page bill that simply nullifies or repeals the Affordable Care Act in all its aspects. This is not rocket science. If Obamacare was bad, repeal the legislation. End of story. But establishment Republicans want to socialize the health care system in some way, even if it is a small way. They want to subsidize insurance for some people and give free insurance to others in America, just like the Democrats.
If you don’t believe how poorly done this was, take a look at these pieces.
The last-minute change to the essential health benefits rule is irresponsible, ambiguous, and destructive. https://t.co/MYuler6ZO3 pic.twitter.com/0w6r1lA8Dp
— Nicholas Bagley (@nicholas_bagley) March 24, 2017
https://twitter.com/petersuderman/status/845284937284681728
I knew establishment Republicans and a president that favors universal healthcare would botch this, and now they are just going to take their ball and go home instead of realizing that they were not doing what they promised to do. It’s time some of these “leaders” in the Republican Party are removed from office and we put some simple people with common sense in office to get rid of the mess that has been created. Better yet, why don’t we simply decentralize government in Washington and govern ourselves against as sovereign states?
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