Trump's America, March 2017: Using His Inside VOICE

Welp, pulling out is one way not have to pay for prenatal care HEYOOOOO

of course, isn't it the political resilience of social welfare programs that conservatives are so afraid of? like, once you've given everyone health care there's no way they're gonna let go of it

― jason waterfalls (gbx),

that's what they're rending their garments about on FOX News as I type.

He's trying, isn't he

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/845367270759153664

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/845367528062902273

TRUMP told me he is happy having this in the rearview mirror. "It's enough already," he said of the negotiations....POTUS did not sound mad, showed uncharacteristic discipline as he talked about who had let him down (he said Democrats).

(he said Democrats).

love the parentheses

https://twitter.com/charliespiering/status/845368042058121216

Paul Ryan: “Doing big things is hard”

Pobrecito.

Roffle. (Re Trump calling NYT/WaPo out of the gate)

https://twitter.com/DylanByers/status/845366186757926912

Colleague notes this is reminiscent of the way Trump used to call New York tabloids when he was getting divorced...

Ryan: "We were doing Democrats a favor" by repealing the bill.

Wow at all this.

Ryan's presser is kind of beautifully pathetic.

why not just try to make Obamacare work better

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7hzA2XVwAAsg8I.jpg

Trump trying to blame Democrats (and not his own caucus) indicates he's aware that party in-fighting isn't going to help him.

obamacare is so bad, so evil, so catastrophically constructed that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to improve it in any way.

Ryan: "We were doing Democrats a favor" by repealing the bill.

Fascinatingly abysmal that this is the route they're both going. They're obviously going to try and claim come 2018 that there wasn't anything they could do in the intervening time to stop projected problems. Exactly how does that even work?

Trump trying to blame Democrats (and not his own caucus) indicates he's aware that party in-fighting isn't going to help him.

True but they're in charge, so.

Lawmakers say Paul Ryan says "we are done with the subject. We are moving on," per @HouseInSession

this is idiotic. why don't they try to come up with another bill that is palatable to their party? it's almost as if they don't really want to repel it and are taking the first opportunity possible to give up.

Seeing plenty of responses like this:

https://twitter.com/brithume/status/845366933788745728

Political reality: the GOP majority, after trying and failing to undo it, now owns Obamacare as it gradually collapses. On them now.

And (assuming collapse happens) true. If it doesn't happen...that would be funnier.

lol, someone just asked ryan about whether or not they planned to move ahead to Phase 2 and Phase 3

there was this beautiful moment when you could see Ryan remembering that Phase 2 and Phase 3 were things that they had referenced and that it was real to some people

they had eight fuckin years to come up with something and spent like 2 weeks trying to pass it then giving up

why don't they try to come up with another bill that is palatable to their party?

there isn't one

proud of paul ryan for not crying during that presser. poor guy. maybe they can just cut taxes harder now going forward to make him feel better

A fair number of reactions to that Hume tweet are truly hilarious. Clueless would be an understatement.

i bet there is something they could put together. make concessions to the right ppl, give out some pork, whatever. obamacare took a lot of dealmaking to pass. i think it's more likely that they'd rather lose.

they are really good at blaming obama for stuff though. i will give them that. they could just do that for four years.

True but they're in charge, so.

right, I don't think it's a winning strategy either. But it does indicate that Trump has learned a lesson about the importance of party unity - he's not going to go after the FC caucus guys - he actually managed to reign in his ego in an act of self-preservation, which is unusual.

Aw, he was so dewy-eyed and hopeful then

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/839883804315684864

i bet there is something they could put together. make concessions to the right ppl, give out some pork, whatever. obamacare took a lot of dealmaking to pass.

nope - FC is just that far from the middle. and there's no more traditional "pork" projects, remember all that type of shit got banned from the budget.

trump, unfiltered, on the phone with NYT, once again proves what a fucking asshole he is:

Mr. Trump, in a telephone interview moments after the bill was pulled, blamed Democrats and predicted that they would seek a deal within a year, he asserted, after “Obamacare explodes” because of high premiums.

He expressed weariness with the fight.

“The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened — watch,” he said. “It’s enough already,” he added.

imagine if what he's saying comes to pass. obamacare "explodes", no one can afford health insurance, the death spiral spirals, etc. and that's the "best thing that could happen" because apparently it would be a political victory for him (itself a very dubious proposition but just imagine it's true for a second). fucking asshole.

@MaggieNYT
TRUMP tells me in interview this is now the Democrats' fault, and that he anticipates that when Obama "explodes" they will be ready to deal

@DougHenwood
I have some issues with Obama but I hope he doesn’t explode.

as I've said before, Ryan could probably cobble together a coalition of "moderates" from both parties, but he won't do that because he would risk losing the speakership.

xp

“The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened — watch,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCm9788Tb5g

BethKnits‏ @KnittinBeth 14m14 minutes ago

@brithume You vastly underestimate @realDonaldTrump He will stick by his promise to the American people. Time for @RandPaul to step forward.

Step forward, Rand Paul!

anyway, announcing he'll be involved w/ the biz sounds like a "make my day" taunt to Dems

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell are sharing magnums of champagne right now.

bethknits

is the ACA collapse a fiction invented by the gop or something that is actually possible? it's hard to look at the result of today and the decision to potentially leave the ACA in place as anything but a significant victory for tons of people

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7tcUNpVMAAq7DU.jpg

it's mostly a fiction. a lot of the bigger problems w it are in GOP-controlled states that refused the Medicaid expansion, so sort of a "cutting off their nose to spite their face" scenario.

is trump dumb enough to try to make a deal on single payer?

Sure.

Theoretically they could announce that they won't enforce the mandate, though I guess the IRS director would have to be on board.

Meantime:

https://twitter.com/costareports/status/845372996982358016

Does Trump regret starting his agenda with health care? “No, I don’t,” he told me. "But in a way I’m glad I got it out of the way.”

Whaddaya gonna do.

is there a single republican who would vote for single payer?

Haha!

https://twitter.com/costareports/status/845369036242370560

“I would say within anywhere from 5 to 12 votes,” Trump told me, of how close the GOP came to passage

xxxpost the markets have been said to be stable with ACA, contrary to what the GOP has said (the CBO even indicated under the new bill there would have been stability even though the prices would cause so many people to stop buying). the issue with ACA isn't so much that the market is collapsing, it's that people in specific areas (like the ones Shakey referenced above) can't find affordable options if they're on the bubble where they make too much for subsidies or "waivers", but not enough to actually afford the insurance.

so there are real problems (including the nightmare of a website), but the price increases under ACA have been less than that prior to that act, and some have said the last increases may have been bigger than future ones will be.

oh, i'm guessing you mean after 2018, when theoretically the democrats might regain the house

that would be AWESOME, and yeah, who knows about trump

i don't know, i feel like he's dumb enough to try it without a democrat majority, but yeah, i was thinking after 2018.

Roffle again

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/845369177636524034

TRUMP singled out Tuesday Group for praise, said they'd been "terrific" in implicit knock on Freedom Caucus.

TRUMP'S GOING ON TV RN

he's dumb enough to try it without a democrat majority,

wtf guys this will never happen