The big story so far in Donald Trump’s presidency was the misstep on Obamacare. It appears that he thought The American Health-Care Act (AHCA) would be simple, since Republicans had already passed more than FIFTY “repeal Obamacare” bills since its passage. But it wasn’t so easy.
Breitbart quotes Trump as saying that the Freedom Caucus not only kept Obamacare alive, but also saved funding for Planned Parenthood.
“The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows [Planned Parenthood] to continue if they stop this plan!” Trump wrote on Twitter Friday morning. . .
Thursday night, senior White House aides delivered a message to House Republicans from the president: pass the bill on Friday, or leave Obamacare in place.
On Friday, Trump tried to rally support through Twitter.
“After seven horrible years of ObamaCare (skyrocketing premiums & deductibles, bad healthcare), this is finally your chance for a great plan!” Trump wrote.
So. . .who’s to blame? Most people blame Paul Ryan, for pushing it too early, but Ryan says it’s Trump who should have made it work, according to the conservative Washington Examiner.
During a televised press conference, Paul Ryan just unraveled his cognitive dissidence. Against all evidence, the speaker had been hoping that President Trump could somehow cut a deal with the Freedom Caucus without making major concessions. . .
For months, Trump’s business acumen has been grossly exaggerated, and the stubbornness of the “hell-no caucus” underestimated. The subsequent failure of the American Healthcare Act reflects both basic arithmetic and recent history.
Trump tried. And he’s incensed that he failed, according to Fox News—to the point that he’s going to war with the Caucus.
President Trump on Thursday struck back at the House caucus that sunk his ObamaCare replacement bill, threatening their legislative careers if the staunchly conservative members refuse to get on board with the new president’s agenda.
“The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!” Trump tweeted.
The Caucus didn’t take it lying down. Member Justin Amash “returned fire in the civil war.”
“It didn’t take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment,” Amash wrote. . .
Later, Amash told Fox News that “most people don’t take well to being bullied” and compared Trump’s tactics to those of a fifth grader.
Thomas Massey was up-in-arms over Trump’s abuse in his own Tweet, according to ZeroHedge.
If Exec branch tells Legislative branch “when 2 vote” “how 2 vote” & “what it will b allowed 2 work on if vote fails,” is that a republic?
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 24, 2017
And Jim Jordan claims the Caucus did America a favor, according to the Washington Times.
Rep. Jim Jordan said Sunday that he and fellow House conservatives may have done America “a favor” by derailing the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Mr. Jordan, a leading member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, insisted that his group had remained true to its values in bucking the bill supported by President Trump.
Leading NeoCon Karl Rove struck back at Jordan, according to Fox Insider.
In an op-ed this morning, Rove called out the Freedom Caucus’ “tired, familiar act,” where its members accuse other Republicans of being “RINOs.”
He said it amounts to political “fratricide” for the conservative House members to brand the failed health care bill as “ObamaCare lite.”. . .
Rove singled out Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who was on the show earlier, for making a “dishonest” argument against the bill, which was championed by Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan.
Louie Gohmert says the failure just shows Trump is human, according to the Washington Times.
Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas said President Trump’s attempt to blame the House Freedom Caucus for the failure of the House GOP’s health care bill shows that “nobody is perfect.”
AND Gohmert blames Priebus for Trump’s attack on the Caucus, according to the Washington Examiner.
House Freedom Caucus member Louie Gohmert said he suspects White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus authored President Trump’s Thursday tweet threatening the HFC with 2018 political repercussions, and he warned that wiping out the faction could hurt Trump eventually.
Gohmert, R-Texas, said Trump may regret the tweet, since many of the same lawmakers came to his defense when others attacked him.
Now, having hit a Freedom Caucus brick wall, Ryan is considering [GASP!!] negotiating with Democrats, which Bob Corker can’t comprehend.
“What I worry about, Norah [O’Donnell], is that if we don’t do this, then he’ll just go work with Democrats to try and change ObamaCare and that’s not – that’s hardly a conservative thing,” Ryan told CBS.
Sen. Bob Corker, an avid backer of Trump’s during the presidential campaign who was among those considered to be vice president, shot back on Twitter: “We have come a long way in our country when the speaker of one party urges a president NOT to work with the other party to solve a problem.”
The debacle has caused one casualty, according to the Washington Examiner.
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, has left the group due to conflicts over the group’s strategy on the American Health Care Act, which was pulled right before a scheduled vote on Friday because of opposition from caucus members and moderates.
“I have resigned from the House Freedom Caucus,” Poe said in a statement. “In order to deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions to move this country forward. Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do. Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective Member of Congress and advocate for the people of Texas. It is time to lead.”
The National Review agrees that it’s time to accept what’s possible.
The GOP now looks ridiculous, and it may have passed up the opportunity of a lifetime to defeat the Left. . .
The first purist conservative example were the Never Trumpers, who believed it was better for Hillary Clinton to be elected president and for the Left to have four more years of presidential power than for Donald Trump to win.
. . . just as in the general election the question wasn’t whether candidate Trump was our ideal, the question now wasn’t whether the bill was our ideal. The question during the election was: What will happen if the Democrats and the Left win the presidency again? And the question now was and remains: What will happen if the Republicans don’t pass a bill favored by all but 25 to 30 Republican representatives and, most important, by President Trump? But purists don’t ask such questions. They live in a somewhat different world than the rest of us who actually agree with them on everything. Because we don’t ask what is ideologically pure and true to our principles. We ask: What is closest to our ideology and to our principles?
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