Determined Trump vs. spineless Republicans.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 9/29/17
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Senators John McCain and Lisa Murkowski promised, on multiple occasions, to repeal Obamacare. Indeed, Republicans from Congressional districts all across the country promised to repeal Obamacare.
On the strength of such promises voters in 2010 gave Republicans control of the House. Four years later, believing the same promise, voters gave Republicans control of the Senate.
Congress proceeded to pass multiple Obamacare repeal bills and send them to President Obama, who vetoed them as expected.
“We need the White House,” said Republicans. Voters answered that call and gave them a Republican president in the form of Donald Trump, who sits with pen in hand ready to sign just about any bill that repeals Obamacare.
That’s when Republicans like McCain and Murkowski outed themselves as the virtue-signaling quislings that they actually are. That’s when all of America learned for certain that Republicans have no idea what to do with power once they actually have it.
Now that Republicans led by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have failed three times to repeal Obamacare, the biggest mistake they could make is to assume that President Trump will just drop the subject.
He won’t.
If we’ve learned nothing about Donald Trump, we have learned that he doesn’t easily let go of things.
Obamacare is imploding and Trump knows it. He campaigned and won on the promise to do away with it. Unlike nearly every other living politician – principally because Donald Trump isn’t really a politician — he is intent on keeping his promise. And because Obamacare is not sustainable in its present form, Donald Trump knows that the longer into his watch it continues to hang around, the more he will come to be blamed for not dealing with it.
Which means two things.
First, if he has to Trump will look to make a deal on Obamacare with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Shumer and other Congressional Democrats. It’s worth remembering that most presidential candidates write books about their hard-scrabble upbringing and their resulting strong, heartfelt personal empathy for common working folks, etc., etc. Few people read the books.
Donald Trump’s book, on the other hand, is a best-seller. And it’s about making deals. Making deals is what Donald Trump does.
Second, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan could find themselves on the receiving end of a Trump-led effort to force GOP House and Senate members to choose new leadership. As recently as three weeks ago, a White House press briefing was conspicuous in its very tepid expression of support for both men.
If Trump decides to, he will make Ryan’s and McConnell’s lives miserable. (If they doubt this, they should check with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.)
It boils down to this. On the one hand you have Republicans who are not terribly bothered by losing. On the other, you have Donald Trump for whom the idea of losing is worse than death.
In the inevitable clash that’s coming, my money’s on Trump.
I am fed up with the Republican leadership as are many others. Feckless, useless drones except for the minority of true conservatives. Great that Roy Moore won. Bring on more like him and we’ll, with Trump leading, eventually drain the swamp. Liberals/progressives are pathetic little lack wits, but so are many RINO Republicans like McCain.
When he had won the nomination, and started his campaign against Hillary, I said right here there were numerous things he couldn’t do without congress. I even named the ones who were RINO’s, and no matter what he put forth that was good for the American people, they would fight him. Those RINO’s were John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell (snake in the grass), Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio (especially on immigration reform), and even sometimes Rand Paul because he’s a whiney I get my way or nothing spoiled brat. Here we have it. They can NOT afford to have a businessman come in and be successful because it would make them all look bad. Don’t conservative Americans feel totally upset with these jerks when they were able to put a repeal of Obamacare and numerous other bills in front of Obama on many occasions knowing he would veto them, BUT did NOT have bills ready for a real president to sign? THAT is sickening to me.
Excellent essay Mr. Gleiser. Kudos sir!
_______________________________
President Trump has the tenacity of the Bulldog. His agenda, the agenda of the American people, will not be denied.
He WILL get Obamacare repealed.
He WILL get THE WALL built.
He WILL get tax cuts for individuals and businesses.
He HAS accomplished much already, getting more done each and every day.
and lastly,
He WILL MAGA! as he is “proudly standing strong” for Our Flag, Our National Anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Our Country, and believes the U.S.A. is One Nation Under GOD in the spirit of our Founding Fathers.
Another EXCELLENT article.
A pretty safe bet Paul! There is a big difference between the four “leaders” of the two major parties, and a man who has actually succeeded in the risky and stressful world of real estate development. Professional politicians live in the cocoon of a government safety net, and they are able to enact laws that protect their positions of power and entitlement. It is not an accident that these denizens of the D.C. swamp are able to accumulate a fortune while “serving their country”. In the long run it may be to the Republican advantage to allow the destructive effects of Obamacare to proceed. Thanks to the revealing evidence of video recordings, Democrats will certainly receive most of the shame. Sen. McCain wants to be remembered as a man who served his country; however, along with that epitaph, an appropriate addendum would be: “but he also betrayed the trust of his constituents, due to the need to retaliate against a candidate Trump who had dishonored him”. I will agree that it was a very inappropriate statement, but the importance of the issue should have allowed him to swallow his pride. Sen. McCain used the Arizona governor’s opposition to vote against the opportunity to debate, but even after the governor announced his support for the Graham/Cassidy bill, the senator was proud to be the deciding vote to defeat the opportunity to end this monstrosity. He will be remembered as the person who stopped the repeal of Obamacare; quite a distinction; however, he received great praise from Sen. Shumer and the Democrats. Even so, I will join Paul and put my chips on the bet that Trump will eventually trump the establishment.
This whole Repeal-N-Replace fiasco is less an issue than a symptom.
Running-against how-Washington-works sure played on the campaign trail. But the fundamental rookie mistake this administration made was cracking-the-toughest-nut-first. Everyone knew repealing Obamacare would be loud.
Smarter move: Tackle Infrastructure first. There’s never been a member of Congress — of either party — who didn’t love a big, fat ‘Works bill. Louie brings home the bacon.
Those traffic cones mean jobs, and crumbling bridges are a time bomb.
THEN do taxes. Show The Little Guy you feel his pain.
THEN, on-a-roll, do Obamacare.
Instead, we heard Republicans’ desperation for a win, any win. Senator Chuck Grassley admitted “I could give you maybe 10 reasons why this bill shouldn’t be considered,” the Iowa Republican said. “But Republicans campaigned on this so often that you have a responsibility to carry out what you said in the campaign. That’s pretty much as much of a reason as the substance of the bill.”
The Tea Party put in Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and a whole list of others for the very reason they assured us that THEY would repeal and REPLACE obamacare. The feeble attempts they made during the obama years were just symbolic in order to make people think they were actually doing something when all they were doing was conning the public that elected them. Their TRUE colors have come to light now when they actually have some teeth to do something. They have failed us miserably. The truth be known they never intended on doing anything to repeal and replace this sham called obamacare! It was a con job to start with. Until these people are REPLACED, we are going to see nothing done FOR US! McCain is the biggest traitor of all and how he has stayed in office all these years is mind boggling. He has flipped and flopped so many times it makes one dizzy trying to keep up with actually what side he is truly on. McCain is a disgrace!
Memo to Ted Cruz: Your 15 minutes are LONG over.
“who sits with pen in hand ready to sign just about any bill that repeals Obamacare.”
That’s kind of the problem, kids…
One other comment: These legislators would be much more aggressive in repealing Obamacare (ACA) if they were actually going to be affected by it. If President Trump would insist that every employee of the federal government be covered under the same healthcare plan with no exceptions or subsidies, I think we would see these spineless politicians growing a backbone.