No, we’re not.
But there is not now, was not yesterday, and WILL NOT BE TOMORROW, enough votes for the kind of repeal that we all want. Regardless of how many times they took a show vote for the home team to keep their seats.
But when it came to vote for real, we learned about the real political positions of many GOP members. Whether it was members hoping to keep their Tribal/Alaskan health care carve-outs, or members preserving the Medicaid expansion for their governors (an originalist position, I might add!) or a genuine disagreement over subsidies, etc.
Don’t misunderstand me, here: I think the Ryan bill was pure crap, and I agree with Newt that the FC probably saved the GOP majority.
But, it’s gonna take longer than 70 days to come up with a bill to satisfy them and get enough votes.
And it shouldn’t begin with a guy who was regularly meeting with the insurance companies, and kept the bill hidden as part of the Witness Protection Program.
I couldn’t agree more that the entire repeal effort was bungled
I think though, with all due respect to the President (because make no mistake I’ve been largely pleased with his performance up to this point even though I have t said so) we should have the guts to lay at least part of the blame for the bungling on him!
He’s the President for goodness sakes. He should have said to Ryan, “don’t come to me until you have worked out an agreement with the FC and any other objectors. Work it out in private so the Marxist press doesn’t make hay over your infighting and then we’ll bring it to the public”
That is NOT what he did. He aligned himself early on with Ryan and the other CINO’s and basically told the FC to stuff it. Trying to play a numbers game in his “art of the deal” basically attempting to string arm the FC into submission.
And he’s still doing that now with this tweet!! It’s inexcusable and any spin or apologetic for him at this point is delusional. He needs to press the reset button on this work out a deal with the FC behind closed doors and then present it to the public.
This attack on the FC is literally biting the hand that fed him the victory in November and if he continues with this madness we will deserve Hillary (or Warren or whoever) in 2020. Because Blue Collar Democrats and their populist agenda isn’t going to save this country (if it even can be saved at this point I’m not even sure of that)
But if it can only true CONSERVATISM can and will save it. Not some populist purple coalition!
Trump is grappling (with the rest of us) at the hardest thing to understand in all of this....What have the R’s been doing for 7 years? The public who voted for Trump and probably Trump himself, have wondered why the R’s did not have a bill ready and waiting.
Newt gets this...it is going to take time to pull it together.
Reality: R’s did not believe they would get Trump as President.