Poe would be as bad as Ryan
Exactly right. That should be something that everyone can agree on.
The blame for this outcome lies squarely with the Speaker of the House, not the President, and not the House Freedom Caucus.
While it may be true that that HFC "moved the goalposts" to a certain degree, the only reason that is true is because of the inferior character of Ryan's bill in the first place.
Whatever the details of the bill might have been, it was not even remotely constructed in such a way as to "put the patient first", "use the free market to encourage competition", and "bring Americans' insurance premiums down".
To the contrary: by all accounts, this bill was authored "secretly, behind closed doors by the insurance industry" (sound familiar?), there was "no effort to build consensus" among the interests who were supposed to support the bill, and it was rolled out with a "take it or leave it, all or nothing" attitude.
In short, this bill reeked of Establishment influence and was basically the opposite of what the President and his voters called for during the campaign.
The HFC tried to put lipstick on this pig, but once it became apparent that it was indeed a pig, and that the RINO's would begin to peel off the more the HFC was appeased, things fell apart very quickly.
In essence, the GOPe (through its senior House member, Speaker Paul Ryan) tried to screw President Trump nine ways to China.
The bill was exactly what shouldn't have been introduced in this Revolutionary atmosphere.
Indeed, if the bill had only been wrapped in the populist trappings which I mentioned above, even with mostly the same provisions and effects, it might very well have had a chance to pass.
As soon as it became apparent that this bill wasn't anywhere close to what the voters had asked for, it was doomed to fail, one way or another—either by the loss of conservative votes or, alternately, by the loss of "moderate" (RINO) votes.
The only chance for Obamacare repeal & replace to pass under the current state of things will be for a true statesman to propose it, not the epitome of the Establishment.
Because Paul Ryan was the Speaker, it made sense for him to get the first crack at it. But he rolled out a totally Establishment "Obamacare lite" bill which, even if passed—which would benefit the President in the short term—it would have been terribly damaging to the President in the mid- to long- term, quite possibly guaranteeing him only a single term. The public support simply wasn't there to pass an Establishment measure which didn't do anything for Americans in advance of the 2018 midterms.
Paul Ryan should be replaced. Again, that should be something that everyone can agree on. I don't believe that Paul Ryan has the President's best interest in mind, and this bill he offered is ample evidence of that...
Right you are.......