The Republican Party Is Catastrophically Broken
When the history of the fledgling, fumbling Trump presidency is written, the past week will go down as either the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end. Trump’s disastrous week began with FBI director James Comey confirming that his campaign is under investigation for possible “coordination” with Russian officials to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. It ended with the ominous slam of a door Friday night: House Speaker Paul Ryan pulling the monstrous American Health Care Act because he didn’t have the votes to pass it, admitting that the GOP’s seven-year crusade to repeal the Affordable Care Act is over.
A president who campaigned on the promise that “we’re going to win so much, you’re gonna be sick of winning” has suffered a disabling string of losses in his first two months. He had to fire his National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, for lying about conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak; Attorney General Jeff Sessions, also discovered dissembling about his Russian ties, had to recuse himself from Comey’s investigation into Trump campaign coordination with Russia. Federal judges have repeatedly blocked his Muslim ban. But nothing has been as publicly humiliating as the betrayal of a core campaign promise: That Trump and Republicans would “immediately,” in his words, “repeal and replace” the nightmare of Obamacare. Influential conservative writer Philip Klein called Trump and Ryan’s move to pull the bill from consideration “the biggest broken promise in political history.”
Although it only lasted 17 legislative days – a ridiculous timeframe for a major health system overhaul – it was enough time to show that Trump is an incompetent poseur, hardly the master negotiator he claims to be, and that Paul Ryan is a shallow opportunist who pretends to be a policy wonk and sharp political leader, but is neither.
The bill was a tax cut for the rich disguised as healthcare reform, financed heavily by cruel cuts to Medicare. Most people would have paid more in premiums, and the plan would have insured 24 million fewer Americans over 10 years. As I’ve written before, it couldn’t have hurt Trump’s voter base – older white working class red-state residents – more had it been expressly designed to do so.
Clearly an unprecedented progressive mobilization played a huge role in the bill’s failure. Republican lawmakers reported receiving thousands of phone calls on the AHCA, all but a handful against it. That stiffened the spines of House Democrats; by staying completely united, Democrats exposed the deep fissures in the GOP.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-republican-party-is-catastrophically-broken/
When the history of the fledgling, fumbling Trump presidency is written, the past week will go down as either the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end. Trump’s disastrous week began with FBI director James Comey confirming that his campaign is under investigation for possible “coordination” with Russian officials to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. It ended with the ominous slam of a door Friday night: House Speaker Paul Ryan pulling the monstrous American Health Care Act because he didn’t have the votes to pass it, admitting that the GOP’s seven-year crusade to repeal the Affordable Care Act is over.
A president who campaigned on the promise that “we’re going to win so much, you’re gonna be sick of winning” has suffered a disabling string of losses in his first two months. He had to fire his National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, for lying about conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak; Attorney General Jeff Sessions, also discovered dissembling about his Russian ties, had to recuse himself from Comey’s investigation into Trump campaign coordination with Russia. Federal judges have repeatedly blocked his Muslim ban. But nothing has been as publicly humiliating as the betrayal of a core campaign promise: That Trump and Republicans would “immediately,” in his words, “repeal and replace” the nightmare of Obamacare. Influential conservative writer Philip Klein called Trump and Ryan’s move to pull the bill from consideration “the biggest broken promise in political history.”
Although it only lasted 17 legislative days – a ridiculous timeframe for a major health system overhaul – it was enough time to show that Trump is an incompetent poseur, hardly the master negotiator he claims to be, and that Paul Ryan is a shallow opportunist who pretends to be a policy wonk and sharp political leader, but is neither.
The bill was a tax cut for the rich disguised as healthcare reform, financed heavily by cruel cuts to Medicare. Most people would have paid more in premiums, and the plan would have insured 24 million fewer Americans over 10 years. As I’ve written before, it couldn’t have hurt Trump’s voter base – older white working class red-state residents – more had it been expressly designed to do so.
Clearly an unprecedented progressive mobilization played a huge role in the bill’s failure. Republican lawmakers reported receiving thousands of phone calls on the AHCA, all but a handful against it. That stiffened the spines of House Democrats; by staying completely united, Democrats exposed the deep fissures in the GOP.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-republican-party-is-catastrophically-broken/
