Obviously this is something he understands there is a balancing act that goes on as you try to get 216 in this case. But I think we continue to make progress every day," Spicer said at the daily press briefing. “We walked out with more members in support of the American Health Care Act today than we started the day with. And I continue to see that number climb hour by hour. And I anticipate that we will get there.”
But, as I said before, we weren’t looking for any deals. So this will get done by the greatest deal maker ever with unicorns, fairy dust and clapping his hands.
The tRump train leaves the station …
I do love watching these oh-so brave, rebellious, principled Freedom Caucus revolutionaries who the GOP thought were so brilliant in 2010 bring them all down now.
The Closer just gave up a grand slam to the health care vampires of his own party.
The “moderates” (aka “not insane far right”) and the hardliners (“insane far right”) could all get together in their six year long kumbayah of hate when they knew that their votes to repeal meant nothing. That it was all meaningless grandstanding.
But now their votes count - and they have to compromise between diametrically opposed positions:
Republican “moderates” who realize the having large numbers of their constituents suffer when health care is taken away is bad politics, and do not want that to happen;
“Hardliners” that actively want to take away healthcare from millions and think (in their madness) that candy will rain from the sky for them if they do it.
These positions cannot be reconciled. It is either one or the other.
I imagine Boehner is enjoying a scotch about now.
My money is on the other.
Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.
As safe a bet as they come.
I was going to say that for the past 9 years, you would have always won by betting on the crazier of any two choices facing the former GOP. But they I stopped, and asked myself, when was the last time that was not true, really? I think you have to go all the way back to the pre-Gingrich era, in fact before Bill Clinton was first elected, a full 25 plus years.
Trapped:
And weeping for joy…
The biggest problem is that the moderates are wimps – it took until today for them for any of them to come out against the bill, even though we’ve known for quite a while that it would take insurance from 24M people, destroy Medicaid, including children’s health care and nursing home care (get a job, stroke victims!)
And that’s not even taking into account likely destabilizing of the individual market place.
I wish I believed that the moderates would stick to their guns, but moderate Republicans are wimpier than blue dog Democrats. But maybe now that they’ve come out of the closet, they’ll buck each other up. We can hope.
“Hardliners” that actively want to take away healthcare from millions
and think (in their madness) that candy will rain from the sky for them
if they do it.
Just like circa 2003, they believed that as the US marched into Baghdad Iraqi’s would be throwing rose petals at their feet. The Reactionary hardliners are always unhinged and untethered from reality.