The Failure of "Trumpcare" aka the American Health Care ActThis is a real crippler for Trump,
having to pull the bill out of the pile to sit on it indefinitely; allegedly he will move on to more Right-wing "tax reform" which means rigging the system so that corporations and rich people pay even less in taxes,
somehow. He's blaming the nearly-powerless Democrats, of course, but he should be blaming the
American people at the townhall meetings for telling their Republican representatives off badly.
How disastrous for Trump is healthcare collapse?, Anthony Zurcher, BBC News
Quotes:
How bad was Friday's defeat of the American Health Care Act in the House of Representatives? Bad. Very bad.After a tumultuous week, it's worth stepping back for a bit of perspective.
For the first time in 11 years, Republicans control the presidency and both chambers of the Congress.
There are 44 more Republicans than Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Republicans have been vociferously calling for repeal of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms for seven years.
The American Health Care Act was the first major piece of legislation pushed by the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress, a key political test early in the president's term, when he should be at the height of his power and party cohesion at its strongest.
In spite of all of this, Mr Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republicans running Washington could not get the job done. The president tried to lay the blame at the feet at the Democratic House minority. Nobody will buy that.
For Republicans Friday wasn't just bad. It was a disaster. Here are three reasons why.
A busted dealmaker
Donald Trump staked his reputation as a dealmaker - as a "closer" in the words of press secretary Sean Spicer - on getting the healthcare bill through the House of Representatives.
The president sang the bill's praises on Twitter, in press events and at campaign-style rallies.
On Friday Spicer told reporters the president had gone through "extraordinary feats" to try to get the bill approved.
"Has he pulled out every stop, has he called every member, has he tweaked every tweak, has he done every single thing he can possibly and used every minute of every day that's possible to get this thing through, then the answer is yes," Spicer said.
The reality, whether or not the president tried his absolute best-est, is that the bill went down in flames. Not only that, but all the threats and promises he made in the process were proven to be hollow.
He guaranteed a vote on Thursday that didn't happen. Then guaranteed a vote on Friday, and that didn't happen either. He warned his party of the dire consequences of a failure to act, and they ignored him.
Just over two months into his presidency, and Mr Trump's poll numbers are sagging, his agenda is on the ropes and his power is greatly diminished....
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Pretty much the Zurcher view is that Trump stupidly lashed himself to getting items done in a way he did not want to do, and now the failure of the AHCA screws up any "tax reform" and also makes the idiotic border wall an impossibility. Also, Paul Ryan is done as Speaker; he cannot control the House GOP factions. My view is that the stumblebum quality of the Trumpcare rollout reflects the inner turmoil of Trump's White House, where everyone is paranoid, no notes can be taken at meetings because they trust no-one to leak things, and
near-retirement civil servants are getting ready to quit anyway to dodge the stress.