Well written article. I especially appreciated the conclusion.
To recap: Trump, in his kamikaze-style of political hard ball, is
currently a man on an island. He stands alone – apart from congressional
Republicans, the health care industry and even the Chamber of Commerce –
in holding a gun to the head of a subsidies program that benefits 7
million people.
And in stating those intentions explicitly, Trump made it hard to blame anyone else for pulling the trigger.
Applause
Let it be stated that the likely only accomplishment Trump will be able to achieve at his 100 day mark, is demonstrating how stunningly little he knows about policy, legislating, and well - playing nice with others.
Trump is the GOP without their euphemisms.
Repeating a comment from a couple of weeks ago as this issue hits the front burner:
The Repubs have a U.S. District Court judgment in hand saying the Executive Branch can’t make the payments if Congress refuses to appropriate funds for them. They got it against the Obama Administration (of course), and the judgment was stayed pending their appeal, but Trump asked to extend the stay to give them time to figure out a legislative solution.
But now that ACA opponents are on both sides of that lawsuit, Trump could drop the appeal at any time, leave that judgment in place, and say he can’t continue those support payments because the courts won’t let him. He could have done it on Day One, without new legislation in place, simply as a way to force Congress’s hand, but he obviously wasn’t willing to do that.
That means he has had an opportunity to blow up the ACA with a ready-made cover story ever since January 20, and so far … nothing but delay, and the payments are continuing.
A legal victory that destroyed ACA on Obama’s watch was in their playbook all along. A legal victory that destroys it on their watch? Not so much.
Yanking those payments now means they own the problem, no matter what the courts say or when they said it – especially after the disaster with their repeal legislation.
In fact, that case poses a real dilemma for them now. It’s looking increasingly like a legal victory with an unacceptable political cost – a judgment they can’t afford to enforce. This would not be a matter of the ACA imploding (or exploding) on its own through some obscure operation of economics, this would be a broad-daylight act of sabotage with millions of witnesses and an airtight ID of the suspects.
Will Trump do it anyway? If not, the Repubs have to find a way to back out of that judgment and continue the payments, either by executive action as before or by the actual Congressional appropriation they never gave to Obama.
Of course, these people may all be in jail by then, so it could all be moot.
i.e. he really, REALLY doesn’t want to give up his wall in order to fund those tax cuts
Agree with the positive comments about the article (and TPM’s reporting in general). However, I can’t let this go unchallenged:
Axios reported Wednesday that the White House was floating another Hail Mary compromise
Mary, who knows what a crisis pregnancy is like, is unlikely to be very receptive to this endeavor.
"That’s part of the reason that I may go the other way” on the insurance subsidies, he said. “The longer I’m behind this desk and you have Obamacare, the more I would own it.”
So to Trump the problem isn’t that he’d eliminate insurance for 7 million Americans, it’s that he’d get blamed for it. Such is the nature of the man, zero empathy and tissue-thin skin.
That so well captures the sentiment behind Trumps threats.
This would not be a matter of the ACA imploding (or exploding) on its own through some obscure operation of economics, this would be a broad-daylight act of sabotage with millions of witnesses and an airtight ID of the suspects.
The Left clearly sees this but Rump doesn’t. He needs to see Dems go to him for some kind of deal. Unfortunately for the Rethugs, Rump genuinely believes that the Dems can be brought to heel on this and it’s important for him that it happens. Really. In all his delusion, he thinks that by killing the ACA, the Dems will have to negotiate with him. Yes, I realize it’s crazy but he is very definition of insanity.
Trump is threatening to commit suicide and daring the Dems to let him do it. Brilliant plan from the master of 140 character strategy.
“That’s part of the reason that I may go the other way” - DT on the insurance subsidies
“I want people to be guessing . . . I don’t want people to figure it out. I don’t want people to know what my plan is.” - DT in campaign mode
The only campaign promise DT has not broken in the first 100 days of his boondoggleocracy.
And it’s not even that he’d get blamed for it, if you read the piece about the family business. It’s that being blamed would hurt his profits.
“The longer I’m behind this desk and you have Obamacare, the more I would own it.”
I have news for you. The ACA is the law of the land. You are the President. You do own it. All of it. Right now. Mess it up and you will own that as well.
(Sitting here hoping to hear nothing but crickets from the Democrats on this…)
More bullying from the Prez. That’s all he knows.
What I love is his tweet about how “Schumer and Pelosi should be BEGGING me.” Who the hell does this piece of shit, with his ratings in the toilet, think he is exactly? No real answers needed …
Republicans are very good at costing us more.
By the way, “kamikaze political hardball”. Love that. So true.
I’m going to jump off this cliff unless you give me a million dollars.
“…The more I would own it.”
Oh, you’re going to own it alright. Believe me.
“I’m going to deliberately hurt millions of Americans and then try to blame it on you if you refuse to do as I say.”
As I said last night, the only thing I want to hear from Dems in response to this is “WE FUCKING DARE YOU.”
Reminds me of the old joke about the man who comes home and finds his wife in bed with another man. He storms out, gets a gun and points it at the couple: “I’m going to shoot you,” he yells at the man, “and then I’m going to shoot her, too! But first, I’m going to shoot myself!!”