The Republican ObamaCare Debacle

Byron York has a good analysis. This is a key point, which was entirely predictable:

‘The Art of the Deal’ doesn’t work with ideologically-driven politicians. The pundits mentioned Trump’s most famous book thousands of times during the Obamacare negotiations. But in dealing with the doctrinaire conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus, Trump was facing differently-motivated partners than in the deal-making recounted in his 1987 book. If the president wants to succeed in Washington, he’ll have to learn how to deal with people who aren’t in it just for the money.

[Update a few minutes later]

Inside the Trumpcare meltdown.

Rookies.

14 thoughts on “The Republican ObamaCare Debacle”

    1. Yes. People are assuming that Trump actually wanted this to pass. He’s always been calling for a repeal, not a kludge, and all Congress would offer is a kludge.

      By pushing them to vote, he’s killed the kludge and now they have to offer their voters something else if they want to keep their seats in the next election.

      I’m guessing a lot of Congresscritters are getting angry phone calls and emails today.

      1. I was very disappointed in Trump for this RyanCare, but Edward, your point is a good one. I hope your analysis is valid. The fact that he’s moving on to his tax plan supports your point.

        By not replacing ObamaCare, the Dems still own it. It should still be cement galoshes for them during next election. Watching them twist should be fun.

  1. So it looks like our betters are all magically and simultaneously going to stop the use of the term “ObamaCare” for the current mess, and now call it “TrumpCare”, and start blaming everyone but Obama and the Democrats for not “fixing” a mess Obama and the Democrats made in the first place, and never attempted to fix when they could.

    Okay. Whatever you think we are stupid enough to believe…

  2. Rand, you and many of your guests here on your generous provision of Internet bandwidth have had to deal with the consequences of the Affordable Care Act. I, for the Grace of a Higher Power that not everyone here acknowledges, have dealt with some of its consequences, but certainly not as severely as many others, but all things in this world can change.

    “Debacle” is a pretty strong word for what may only be a first iteration in a legislative process, and remarks to the effect that “(Mr.) Trump finally figured out that he is not CEO of the country”, I don’t know, to me, they are loaded with condescension.

    I mean, what is that you wanted? An outright repeal and a rollback to the insurance plan you had in 2008? Unlike your tormentor “Jim”, I respect that if that is where you are coming from. But do you really think any of that is remotely politically possible given the one-way-ratchet nature of entitlement politics in the U.S. and that under Mr. Obama, there have been persons deriving considerable personal benefit from the ACA (Jim, and he gloats about it)?

    Was it WFB whose rule for voting was to support the most Conservative candidate who was politically viable? I support the ACA reform that is politically viable. Look, I am teachable, tell me that I am wrong about “not letting the ACA die” or whatever the strategy is now. But this kind of scolding and gloating is as unseemly from our side as it was from Mr. Obama or Ms. Pelosi.

    1. And through it all, the State rolls on . . . . Like some giant PacMan gobbling up what’s left of the private sector.

  3. Yet another completely unnecessary own goal by the Republicans (Trump and Congress both). Controlling the House, Senate and Presidency and all they could offer was an Obamacare-lite bit of garbage legislation and then having it fail.

    They should have known better than to introduce it in the first place and avoid the entire sorry spectacle.

    1. All it did was show that congress is still the same problem it was under Obama. Trump had to address ObamaCare, but now has done it without taking over responsibility for it. Astonishingly masterful.

      People calling it incompetence are right, but it’s by CONGRESS giving Trump more leverage to get the rest of his programs accomplished.

  4. Rand, your conclusion is way too simplistic. Yes, he’s tried to brand himself as businessman-in-chief, but that’s just marketing. And of course, the first year in office will be a learning process, but that would be true of anybody. The thing every president has to learn is the mix of people in congress they have to work with.

    The only sense where the simplistic assumption may be closer to the truth is he probably expected his inner circle to better take their cues from him. Sessions had no reason to recuse himself from the Russian probe. He was being overly cautious about appearance when there was no need.

    Scott Adam’s [good] point is too simplistic as well for two reasons. Those invested in Trump = ‘authoritative Hitler’ will not abandon it… more likely it will transform into = ‘evil genius idiot.’ Second, it is not evidence of incompetence (which was the same meme throughout his winning campaign.)

    Misunderestimated as Bush would say. Trump is surround by enemies… he’s got them right where he wants them!!! Wait awhile before reaching a conclusion. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

  5. I guess I’m kind of a standard Republican, and I think the media meme that this is some kind of disaster for Republicans is silly. What’s the big deal? They couldn’t pass anything because of procedural rules and because they can’t all agree. Okay, no big deal. Move on to the next thing. Obamacare is going to collapse on its own soon; maybe next year the premiums will push everyone out.
    There are plenty of things they can do to undo regulations and such, do them.
    No fuss.

  6. As far as I can make out, the major difference between 0-care and Ryan-care is the latter weakens means for the medical coverage industry to spread out the costs of covering pre-existing conditions. Since the pre-existing conditions mandate is at the heart of what’s killing 0-care, that’s a gross failure to address the problem.

  7. One thing good came out of all of this, and that was Trump stating (and being heard) that when (not if) ObamaCare collapses, the Democrats own it 100%. He’s been pretty good at getting that message out even to his Democrat opponents.

  8. Actually I am ecstatic with the failure. It is not the end. It is the beginning of the process. One of the things the dems did passing O’BamaCare was the secret cramdown – keep details secret until the last minute and then shove the entire thing down our collective throats. Ryan tried a variation of the same thing, making the one size fits all and cramdown mistakes. Sorry guys, we aren’t playing any more.

    How to do this? Chunk it up. Pass a repeal first and then a series of bills that pass popular pieces to retain – block grant Medicare / Medicaid, MSAs / HSAs with complete portability, pre-existing condition coverage, etc. Popular pieces pass. Democrats get the blame for those that don’t .

    This is round 1. There will be others. Cheers –

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