President Trump told GOP senators at the White House
on Wednesday that they should cancel their August recess and not leave town
until acting to repeal ObamaCare.
"We shouldn't leave town until this is complete," he
said during a lunch at the White House designed to salvage the healthcare
measure. "We should hammer this out and get it done."
Tensions are bubbling over between President Trump and
Senate Republicans.
White House officials are blaming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
for getting stuffed at the goal line on ObamaCare repeal-and-replace
legislation, while GOP senators say Trump failed to provide any meaningful
political momentum for the prized measure.
“He was of no help,” grumbled one GOP senator, who doubted that
Trump would have done much to defend lawmakers from political attacks if the
bill passed.
Conservatives target Congress...
Conservatives target Congress...
Conservatives are lashing out at the
Republican-controlled Congress over the lack of progress on President Trump’s
agenda.
One by one, conservative groups lined up to blame Congress — not
the president — for the collapse of Senate Republicans’ effort to repeal and
replace ObamaCare.
“It’s shocking the amount of pushback
he’s getting from his own party,” said Carl Higbie, a former spokesman for
the pro-Trump Great America PAC. “It’s time to primary some of these
longstanding congressional leaders that can’t get the job done.”
Critics from all sides hammer McConnell...
Critics from all sides hammer McConnell...
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is facing mounting
criticism from politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle after the
collapse of the Republican health care overhaul bill.
Before the bill was pulled Monday night, Sen. Ron Johnsontold a local newspaper that
McConnell’s conflicting statements to different members of his caucus were a “significant
breach of trust.”
OUT OF EXCUSES FOR NOT ACCOMPLISHING ANYTHING...
OUT OF EXCUSES FOR NOT ACCOMPLISHING ANYTHING...
After
three unsuccessful cycles, McConnell finally took back the upper chamber in
2014, but still did no governing, operating instead as an opposition party
would in a parliamentary system. Just how ingrained that thinking was came
through in a revealing comment from House Speaker Paul Ryan after his failure
to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Moving from an opposition party to a
governing party comes with some growing pains,” said Ryan, whose party had
controlled the House for six years by that point. “And, well, we’re feeling
those growing pains today.”
After Ryan pulled the original House ACA repeal from the floor, McConnell
had a spring in his step as he addressed reporters. “Sorry that didn’t work
out,” he
offered. He was, of course, anything but sorry. For a brief moment,
he thought he had dodged his own bullet. After campaigning for six years on
repealing Obamacare, the hope was that the failed House effort would be enough
and the Senate could move on to the
business
of tax reform. But the House bill came back to life and the lower chamber
passed the politically toxic potato across the Capitol to the Senate.
By any measure, the collapse
of the Senate health-care bill represents an epic failure for the Republican
Party and a major embarrassment for President Trump. The crusade that animated
— and bound — conservatives for seven years proved to be a mirage, an objective
without a solution. Power comes with consequences.
There is no way to
spin to those who were promised that the Affordable Care Act would be repealed
and replaced once Republicans held full power in Washington that what has
happened is the fault of forces outside the party. This has been a GOP undertaking
from start to finish. It is as though Republicans unknowingly set a trap and
then walked into it without having prepared escape routes.
More West Wing Leaks...
More West Wing Leaks...
