That was my view. Not so sure anymore. When the HFC got the ‘essential benefits’ returned to the states and they and Heritage Action still opposed the bill instead of taking the win... something hidden was going on. That’s not normal behavior.
Don’t understand it yet. NYTimes isn’t any help.
My guess is that Trump wants to say “Well, I tried to fix it before this happened but Congress wouldn’t let me!” when things fall apart. And thus be in a good negotiating position.
I think Trump wanted this to get to the Senate. I have a hard time believing he wanted this to fail till the writing was on the wall.
I think it was just the conservative commentariat and blogosphere who set the “bill sucks” narrative in motion and helped it snowball until it was untenable. It’s a lot easier to oppose something than to defend it and be labeled a RINO. That’s not to say this bill was great, but it would put us in a better spot, which is really all you can do with a bare Senate majority.
Remember, the only people who get more mileage out of phony Obamacare opposition are some of the GOP entertainment industry. They, along with Obama and media, are celebrating tonight. They get angry callers and ratings out of this. We get to live with this shiv in our spleen for the foreseeable future.