Trump will try to strong arm the House on healthcare tomorrow
President Trump has sent a message to the House that he's through negotiating on health care and wants the yeas and nays on Trumpcare called.
A series of votes- including one to repeal basic health benefits established by the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare")- has been scheduled for Friday. It is not clear that the president and Speaker Ryan have the votes.
Either the president and the speaker are going to wind up with egg all over their faces or lots of Americans are going to find their healthcare coverage in mortal danger. This kind of treatment of a co-equal branch of the Federal government is quite Trumpesque, and exactly the kind of arrogance I and many others expected from him.
Doubtless, the red meat crowd will cheer. They realize no more than the president that in Washington things get done by compromise and accommodation. We will find out tomorrow whether or not the members of the House have the testicular fortitude to stand up to bullying from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Whatever kind of bill finally comes out of Congress will emerge from the reconciliation process between the House and Senate versions. Trump's "my way or the highway" approach to the contrary, the compromising has only just begun.
Tomorrow the mettle of the House will be tested, and we'll find out whether the nation is going to be governed by Constitutional means or by executive intimidation. Any way it plays out, for Congress to yield its responsibility to act as a deliberative legislative body will set the stage for a very tough four years for the separation of powers and, in all likelihood, a tragically bad healthcare law.
The president takes this risky and high-handed move even as a new Quinnipiac poll shows his support eroding among his core constituencies.
Fasten your seatbelts. The trainwreck I predicted if Trump was elected is about to start.
A series of votes- including one to repeal basic health benefits established by the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare")- has been scheduled for Friday. It is not clear that the president and Speaker Ryan have the votes.
Either the president and the speaker are going to wind up with egg all over their faces or lots of Americans are going to find their healthcare coverage in mortal danger. This kind of treatment of a co-equal branch of the Federal government is quite Trumpesque, and exactly the kind of arrogance I and many others expected from him.
Doubtless, the red meat crowd will cheer. They realize no more than the president that in Washington things get done by compromise and accommodation. We will find out tomorrow whether or not the members of the House have the testicular fortitude to stand up to bullying from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Whatever kind of bill finally comes out of Congress will emerge from the reconciliation process between the House and Senate versions. Trump's "my way or the highway" approach to the contrary, the compromising has only just begun.
Tomorrow the mettle of the House will be tested, and we'll find out whether the nation is going to be governed by Constitutional means or by executive intimidation. Any way it plays out, for Congress to yield its responsibility to act as a deliberative legislative body will set the stage for a very tough four years for the separation of powers and, in all likelihood, a tragically bad healthcare law.
The president takes this risky and high-handed move even as a new Quinnipiac poll shows his support eroding among his core constituencies.
Fasten your seatbelts. The trainwreck I predicted if Trump was elected is about to start.
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