Trump blindsided by implosion of GOP health care bill

[DonViejo]

While the president strategized with Republican lawmakers at the White House over steak, two senators were finalizing their statements tanking the current proposal.

By JOSH DAWSEY 07/18/2017 12:31 AM EDT

President Donald Trump convened a strategy session over steak and succotash at the White House with senators Monday night, trying to plot an uphill path to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a GOP alternative.

He made an impassioned pitch on why Republicans needed to do it now — and the political peril they could face if they didn’t “repeal and replace” after promising to do it for years. He also vented about Democrats and the legislative process. “He basically said, if we don’t do this, we’re in trouble,” said one person briefed on the meeting. “That we have the Senate, House and White House, and we have to do it or we’re going to look terrible.”

Meanwhile, two senators — neither invited to the dinner — were simultaneously drafting statements saying that they couldn’t support the current Senate health care bill. They released the statements just after Trump’s White House meal concluded.

Trump had no idea the statements were coming, according to several White House and congressional officials. His top aides were taken aback, and the White House was soon on the phone with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The abrupt collapse of the current plan blew up what the White House wanted for months and undoubtedly set back Republicans in their goal to overhaul President Barack Obama’s legislation. It certainly frustrated a number of the president’s top aides, who have negotiated to-the-letter certain packages for certain senators for a summer solution.


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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/18/trump-blindsided-by-healthcare-collapse-240657

[cilla4progress]

1. THiS!!!

YAAAASSSSS

[C_U_L8R]

2. Sufferin' succotash

Trump is such an clown... anyone could see the GOP plan was doomed. Even if they passed it. It's simply a lousy plan thought up by Republican miscreants, stooges and Randian morons who don't give two shits for the health and wellbeing of others.

[Canoe52]

3. "Only I, Donald Duck, can fix America!"

Still waiting mr Duck...

[gratuitous]

4. Part of Republicans' problem with their efforts is right there in the story

The story mentions the Republicans' goal: "To overhaul President Barack Obama's legislation." It wasn't President Obama's legislation; it was legislation proposed by the Democrats, worked through the system, with input from various stakeholders in health care, written, re-written, amended, and enacted over a period of 14 months.

Compare that process and contrast it with how Republicans have worked on their bill. Have there been any hearings? Has testimony and evidence been meticulously gathered and analyzed? Has the bill been out in the open, with full input from care providers, insurance actuaries, citizens, employers, and others with a stake in the bill? Has it been submitted to the CBO for a full scoring of its provisions and likely outcomes?

Or has the Republican replacement been concocted in secret, away from the people who will be affected by it, kept under wraps from the CBO, and subject to scrutiny of only a select, elite few?