Republicans had seven years during the Obama administration to develop a plan to repeal, then replace, the ACA.
Instead, they did nothing other than to campaign on the ACA bogeyman and pass several worthless repeal bills they knew would be ignored.
Trump screwed everything up by winning.
Suddenly the GOP Congresscritters had to get off their collective duff and do something—Not surprisingly, they failed miserably.
This is squarely on Paul Ryan and the Republican “leaders” in the House. Trump can berate and bluster all he wants, but there is still this thing called separation of powers.
Hopefully, this greases the skids for Ryan’s rapid exit.
Exactly - it’s the same with abortion. If congress succeeds in effectively outlawing abortion, there’s little to keep some evangelicals from drifting leftwards. So the party has a big incentive to keep the issue “live” so they can keep running against it.