If the Republican "health care" bill fails in the House, as now seems likely, it will be a big deal for three reasons:
First, it will stop the Republicans from doing a great deal of harm to a great many people. That really matters.
Second, it will make it more difficult for the Republicans to advance other legislation on their wish list, including an enormous tax cut for the rich.
Third, it will markedly diminish Trump's political clout at the very beginning of his presidency.
This opens the way for progressives to nominate strong leftist candidates for the House and local offices. It even creates an opening for a new discussion of a single-payer system, which looked dead not too long ago.
I honestly did not see this coming. We must take such victories as we can wherever we can find them.
Trump is already distancing himself from what looks like a debacle, attributing this sinking bill to Paul Ryan. I suppose he'll fire someone.
ReplyDeleteDon't get too comfortable with that idea. If anything is certain it is:
ReplyDelete1. the mendacity of the GOP
2. the stupidity / gullibility of the American public
I wish I shared your optimism about the second item on your list--that the failure of the health care bill will make it more difficult for Republicans to advance the rest of their agenda. I fear the reverse. That all Republican members are savvy enough to know that this failure is a big black eye for them. That, in turn, will make them more eager not to repeat the fiasco and to get on with tax cuts for the rich, more for defense, less for everything else--their real reason, as they see it, for their existence.
ReplyDeletePromising development- will chew away at his aura of invisibility and chop off his pretensions at charisma. He'll come off as the dirty clay he really is and not a magician.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how loyal his base is.
Will the go down for the count with him?
I recall that Bill Clinton's first initiative was Gays in the Military. Rather than embrace Truman's precedent integrating the Armed Forces of the United States (Executive Order 9981) which was accomplished with the stroke of a pen, he wanted to win it in the Congress. What he got instead was a stupid fight with sen. Sam Nunn (of his own party) and an unworkable ("Dont Ask Don't Tell") compromise. He never recovered any legislative momentum/credibility.
ReplyDeleteIf the Ryan "health care" bill is defeated, Trump will probably conclude that Executive Orders are the better way to do everything. Congress will go back to doing nothing, as it did through eight years of Obama.