Yes, if only Cruz were VP right now, everything would be different. Gimme a break!
In any event, Cruz obviously had no interest in being VP, as evidenced by his profoundly "unifying" speech at the RNC.
Your assertion is questionable, to be kind. If this bill had passed, then "our 3D chess-playing savior" (snark much?) would have been "whipped first round at the checkers tournament".
I sense lingering butthurt.
This Ryan/Trump-care bill was always a bad idea and the way they used the same old secrecy, then fast-track and strong-arm crap was very lame.
"Trump-care"? "The way they used the same old secrecy?"
Did Paul Ryan have a frog in his pocket?
You just can't resist trying to equate President Trump with this bill, can you? Obviously, the President didn't feel the same way, as evidenced by the fact that he was willing to move on from it.
Just to get the facts straight, it was Paul Ryan who was responsible for the production of this bill, not President Trump, and it was Paul Ryan who used secrecy behind closed doors and let the insurance companies author this garbage, and it was Paul Ryan who arrogantly said "take it or leave it" and didn't even want to allow changes.
Conversely, it was President Trump who indicated his willingness to talk to all parties interested in improving the bill, but who rightly issued the ultimatum and indicated his willingness to walk away from a bad deal.
Think about it: if this bill had passed, President Trump would have been totally dependent on a GOPe titan (Ryan) for "phase 3", which never would have happened. I can't think of a worse scenario.
It's perfectly reasonable to believe that Paul Ryan wanted to produce a garbage "Obamacare lite" bill which wouldn't have reduced a single American's insurance premium—a bad piece of legislation that would have been dubbed "Trump-care" and would ensure that Donald Trump was only a one-term President.
Instead, we now have a severely damaged Paul Ryan, who might even be deposed as Speaker, which would be an ideal outcome for President Trump.
3D chess, my friend...
“I sense lingering butthurt.”
I’m not sure how you knew I ate too much habanero last night, but I’ll assume you have a friend in the NSA.
No need for the emotional defense of Trump or extraordinary lengths to image he was not pushing this disaster-lite bill as being great and needed.
Just because I favored Cruz does not mean I wish ill to Trump. We whipped Trump’s ass here in WI during the primaries. Fortunately, with Paul Ryan out of state most of the time, the average of WI’s collective political maturity and wisdom is way up. So after the primary whipping, we still did the mature thing and voted for Trump over Hillary.
I was quite critical of Cruz’s behavior at the convention and quite critical of things Trump has done. I trust them both in a general sense, but I don’t put my faith in men.
If the 3d chess stuff means denying responsibility for things your guy promoted which failed, then our new prez has some followers which are real Jedi masters.
I actually think Trump was very humble and practical in his remarks after the failure, there is no need to pretend it did not happen.