Trump’s Got No Mojo on Health Care

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I’ve had some kind of stomach bug for the last few hours, but have decided I will survive. So, back to work.

So today the so-called President said this:

President Trump promised a surprise on the matter, though he did not specify what.

“Health care is working along very well. . . . We’re going to have a big surprise,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “We have a great health-care package.”

Trump offered no details, only reiterating, “We’re going to have a great, great surprise.”

I’m going with “delusional,” myself. The New York Times reported this:

If Republicans do manage to broker a deal — as Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, pledged to do during a lively East Room back-and-forth with the president — it is not likely to be because of Mr. Trump’s involvement. Until Tuesday afternoon, the president was largely on the sidelines as the fate of one of his most important campaign pledges played out.

Mr. McConnell, who kept the president at a polite arm’s length while he oversaw negotiations over the bill, asked Mr. Trump to arrange the meeting with all 52 Republican senators during a morning phone call, in part to show senators the White House was in fact fully engaged, according to two people with knowledge of the call.

When asked by reporters clustered on the blacktop outside the West Wing if Mr. Trump had command of the details of the negotiations, Mr. McConnell ignored the question and smiled blandly.

WaPo is more scathing:

The president is the leader of his party, yet Trump has struggled to get Republican lawmakers moving in lockstep on health care and other major issues, leaving no signature legislation in his first five months in office. The confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch is his most-cited achievement to date.History suggests that presidents who have governed successfully have been both revered and feared. But Republican fixtures in Washington are beginning to conclude that Trump may be neither, despite his mix of bravado, threats and efforts to schmooze with GOP lawmakers. …

…The Senate could pass a revised version of the bill once lawmakers return from their July 4 recess and pick up deliberations. Still, some Republicans are willing to defy their president’s wishes — a dynamic that can be attributed in part to Trump’s singular status as a disrupter within his party.

“The president remains an entity in and of itself, not a part of the traditional Republican Party,” said Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), a moderate who represents a district Trump lost by 16 percentage points. “I handle the Trump administration the same way I handled the Obama administration. When I agree, I work with them. When I oppose, I don’t.”

The man’s got no political capital at all.

One senior Republican close to both the White House and many senators called Trump and his political operation “a paper tiger,” noting how many GOP lawmakers feel free “to go their own way.”

And, I suspect, they will.

In private conversations on Capitol Hill, Trump is often not taken seriously. Some Republican lawmakers consider some of his promises — such as making Mexico pay for a new border wall — fantastical. They are exhausted and at times exasperated by his hopscotching from one subject to the next, chronicled in his pithy and provocative tweets. They are quick to point out how little command he demonstrates of policy. And they have come to regard some of his threats as empty, concluding that crossing the president poses little danger.

“The House health-care vote shows he does have juice, particularly with people on the right,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said. “The Senate health-care vote shows that people feel that health care is a defining issue and that it’d be pretty hard for any politician to push a senator into taking a vote that’s going to have consequences for the rest of their life.”

Asked if he personally fears Trump, Graham chuckled before saying, “No.”

And so on. Do read the whole thing. See also The GOP’s health-care bill is political kryptonite and The dirty little secret of the GOP’s health care push: Not even Republicans are demanding this.

Mitch McConnell is pushing for a revised bill to be voted on this Friday, before the Senate goes into recess. I’m predicting he will fail. Surprise!

5 thoughts on “Trump’s Got No Mojo on Health Care”

  1. The man’s got no political capital at all.
    Hmm, small wonder. I think he’s a little short on credibility also. Whatever political capital he ever had has been consumed by his pathological lying and severe narcissism. He’s just a big bag of shit who delights in the evasive rhetoric of his ignorance…Yeah, no matter how the results work out for the Senate version of the bill, of course it’s going to be a surprise, but the one surprise that’s not going to be there is the fact that no matter how it shakes out Trump is going be playing it to his perceived advantage. It’ll be either he’s the one who carried it over the line or it failed because it didn’t have enough “heart” (whatever that means) like he wanted.
    He’s just a bag of shit who is repulsive in every way imaginable.
    The only good thing that will come from this administration is that Jared is going to secure world peace. Then the lion shall lie down with the lamb?

  2. “The president is the leader of his party…”

    And your point is what, WaPo?
    That he’s a greedy older white male sociopath, with illusions (more like delusions) of grandeur, with demagogic tendencies, etc…
    And that his party is full of those types – in both the House and the Senate.
    That’s pretty obvious, no?

    The disconnect is that while he’s off playing “Populist,” his party remains the party of “HELL NO!” when it comes to progress.
    They’re the party of regression, not progression.
    He promised the moon and start when running for office. Especially, in the realm of health care.
    The GOP sees this moment as their time to use his “Populism,” and wipe out not just the PPACA – aka: Obamacare – but The New Deal, the Great Society, and any other advancements for working people/minorities/women/LGBTQ folks, etc…
    The result is, TrumpDon’tCare.
    It’s not only an attempt to kill Obamacare, but to take the hated Medicaid away from working people, and use that money for tax cuts for people who already don’t know what to do with all of their money – but still want more!
    Republicans, if successful, will then look to privatize Medicare – and then, in their wildest dreams coming true, turn Social Secuity over to Wall Street, impoverishing seniors, handicapped people, and turning the USA into a real life version of, “The Hunger Games.”

    It’s not just imperative, it’s the most important thing we need to do in our lives ritht now, to make sure that Ryan and Mitch’s TrumpDon’tCare Death care programs are swept into the dustbin of history, and then pissed and shat upon, and finally, buried.

    Worry about terrorist attacks?
    Bullshit!
    Why? How man can they kill, wound, displace, etc…?
    The Barbarians aren’t at the gates, with anything from box-cutters to suitcase nukes. The Barbarians who want to destroy America as we know (or, once knew) it, are already sitting inside – in the halls of the Oval Office, US HoR, US Senate, the Federal Courts, and most state in this country.

    t-RUMPLE-thin-sKKKin is a joke.
    A bad one.
    And he’ll likely be the one who prevents the maximum amount of harm from befalling the American public. Not because he intends to. But because he’s so inept.
    At least, that’s MY hope.

    My fear, is that there are others who want the same things that Ryan and Mitch want who aren’t buffoon’s.
    There’s a Tom Cotton – among others – and other more polished socio/psycho-paths out there, just itching to take t-RUMP’s un-orthodox playbook, and try to use “Populism” to really turn this country into a Theocratic “Christian” Fasicst Plutocracy/Oligarchy.
    The last 40+ years have been a prelude – a “Cold Civil War” with a 40-year ‘Battle of Bull(shit) Run.”
    There will be other Bull)shit) Runs.
    And a full-blown Civil War.
    “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” But it can sure house what once was one one loosely affiliated family, as one faction fights for the final supremacy over the other.
    THAT’s where we’re at!

  3. “Mr. McConnell ignored the question and smiled blandly”

    I sort of hope they pass the worst healthcare bill possible, it may suck in the short run but given the apparent political incompetence of the democrats it may be our only hope in getting control of the house or senate or both! Senator McConnell ignores a question and smiles blandly, he’s done this before!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw8n7jAYMrE

  4. McConnell may call for a vote tomorrow so he can get the failure behind him before a long recess. If he leaves it hanging, it’s an issue which will dominate the news until they act on it in the Senate. If McConnell wants it to go away, he will proceed.

    The big problem is tax cuts. Major players were planning on paying less when Obamcare was un-funded. Others were expecting the savings from the repeal of Obamacare would be gift wrapped in ‘tax reform’. Wall Street will take a hit when the Senate does not deliver.

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