Trump and House GOP's Really Not Good Health Care Meeting - Margaret Carlson
SOOO, THAT WENT WELL!
Trump and House GOP’s Really Not Good Health Care Meeting
Trump met with House Republicans to try to salvage Ryancare. He, uh, did not make the sale. Might’ve helped if he’d taken some questions.
MARGARET CARLSON
03.22.17 1:00 AM ET
You might wonder how the president could get out of bed and head to Capitol Hill after the beating he took there on Monday at the hands of FBI Director James Comey. But roll out he did to make a big push for passage of the American Health Care Act, a bill he’s not been all that enthusiastic about but which has become a test of his leadership. Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump “knocked the cover off the ball” as he reminded members that this is our chance, this is our moment, this is our “rendezvous with destiny.” The rendezvous didn’t provide time for taking questions.
It’s just as well for Trump, as they would not have been softballs. Although he was met with applause, Trump treats Congress less like an equal branch of government than an extension of his staff. He alternately wooed (“we have a chance to do something amazing”) and threatened them (“many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done.”) He singled out Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) for special attention.
Trump invited Meadows to Mar-a-Lago last weekend for some personal arm-twisting, which hasn’t yet led to a change of heart. That produced Trump’s one attempt at humor, which fell about as flat as his earlier joking about mutual surveillance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Meadows mumbled about how lovely the weekend was, and Trump replied “not lovely enough” since it had not yet got him to yes. Trump promised he would come to Meadows’s defense should his constituents get angry with him. That was met with laughter.
The folks in the room have been home to see firsthand that the natives are restless over a bill that almost no one but Ryan trusts to make life better for their voters. A seven-page addendum improved the steaming mess—it enhances the tax credit for those aged 50 to 64 who were slighted in the bill—but it didn’t cure the overall problem. More than 20 million people could lose their health insurance over the next decade because Republicans are repealing the law that provided it, and replacing it with something that doesn’t, without getting rid of the parts voters don’t like and while giving an indefensible tax break to the wealthy. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who frequently backs Trump, summed up the danger: Voters don’t know who gave them health care, but they will know who took it away.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/22/trump-and-house-gop-s-really-not-good-health-care-meeting.html
