The GOPs Lack of Policy Specifics Is Making Its Town Hall Problem Worse

[riversedge]

Town halls + no legislation to defend = political trouble http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/gop-s-lack-policy-specifics-making-its-town-hall-problem-n724051 … #saveACA #Indivisible #RESIST




Politics
Feb 22 2017, 8:48 am ET


The GOP’s Lack of Policy Specifics Is Making Its Town Hall Problem Worse

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/gop-s-lack-policy-specifics-making-its-town-hall-problem-n724051

by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann


You take the boisterous town hall grillings that Republican lawmakers are receiving, add it to a lack of detail on the GOP's biggest legislative priorities (Obamacare, tax reform), and you get political trouble. Big league. After all, you can't beat something with nothing. And right now, all Republican lawmakers have are outlines and goals about their legislative priorities — but nothing concrete to defend. Indeed, one of the consequences of this town hall backlash coming so soon in the Trump Era (it's Town Hall Winter, not Town Hall Summer) is that there hasn't even been time to craft legislation, let alone begin key committee hearings. And it all creates additional pressure on President Trump, who holds a legislative-affairs strategy session at the White House at 4:00 pm ET.

Where is direction on how to repeal and replace Obamacare? Where is the movement on taxes? The longer it takes, the less political cover Republican lawmakers will get. Of course, it's an open question how long and sustainable this Dem/progressive energy will last. But as long as it's there, it puts Republicans in a bind, especially when they haven't even started the legislative process.



Why have the town halls and protests come so early?

One answer: a lack of outreach to the opposition: One reason why the boisterous protests — in the streets, in town halls — have come so early in Trump's presidency is due to his lack of outreach to the millions of Americans who didn't vote for him (remember, Trump lost the popular vote by about three million votes). At yesterday's White House press briefing, NBC's Hallie Jackson asked Press Secretary Sean Spicer why Trump had previously declined to broadly denounce anti-Semitism before yesterday, and Spicer responded, "Well, I think the idea, Hallie, that -- he has. And I think there's a point at which he talked literally on election night about uniting this country and making sure that all Americans, et cetera." But when you have to go back to Election Night to highlight an example of Trump promoting unity, you realize why there's this level of energy among the opposition and why Trump's approval rating is in the low 40s. (Even at yesterday's event at the National Museum of African American History, Trump was flanked by supporters like Ben Carson, Sen. Tim Scott, and Alveda King, not African Americans who didn't vote for him in 2016.)

While the protests and low poll numbers were always coming — they happen to every president, after all — you could imagine that he might have enjoyed more of a political honeymoon had he made a more concerted effort to reach out to the millions who didn't vote for him.

[Wounded Bear]

1. They got nothin'......

and they can't hide behind an Obama veto any more.

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. Lack of specifics..lack of detail surrounding their policies

that is their MO...as this continues "all about trump" - they work their policies under the radar..IMHO - I don't think their policies are much different from the WH - just either more subtle about it..or no information whatsoever...we will still be left with their economic hateful agenda...

[Phoenix61]

3. For eight years their political agenda was

obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. If they had a brain between them they would have planned what to do if they got a Republican president. Greedy and stupid is not a winning combination.