The Freedom Caucus in the House just rebuffed Trump’s offer to make his proposed healthcare plan nastier and less inclusive. God forbid anyone should actually be able to get meaningful coverage. Trump, political neophyte that he is, thought he could bully members of the House to get it passed. That didn’t work. (Pro tip: Bullying should be the last tactic, not the first.) So then Trump tried to make his healthcare plan acceptable to House troglodytes, and that’s not working either.
Trump has no clue how to get bills through Congress. Good. His budget is in trouble too. A couple of big defeats and even his hard-core supporters will begin to leave him, because it will be clear he is incompetent.
Republican Senators have already loudly and repeatedly said the House healthcare plan is not acceptable. That was before Trump made the plan even worse, which lessens chances of it passing the Senate.
Conservative House Republicans rebuffed an offer by President Trump on Thursday to strip a key set of mandates from the nation’s current health-care law, raising doubts about whether House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has the votes to pass the bill.
If Republicans fail this initial test of their ability to govern, Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans may face a harder time advancing high-priority initiatives on infrastructure, tax reform and immigration. They might also find themselves navigating strained relationships among themselves.