Republicans are horrified while Trump leaves after Obamacare

In the past 24 hours, Republican officials have watched in horror as the Trump government again adopted the Obamacare repeal a little over a year after the problem turned out to be toxic for the party at the polls.

The membership is made in two stages: the Justice Department stands in front of a decision of a lower court that declared the law on invalid health care. in alland with the president tweeting that the Republican Party would become the party of health care reform. And that quickly complicated what had been widely regarded as one of the best weeks of Trump's presidency. Summary of a four-page summary of Special Advocate Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference – a summary stating that the President was not guilty of collusion – Trump suddenly found himself in a debate that upset his administration.

GOP officials could not help but marvel at Trump's inability to enjoy a rare grace period. "They are completely deaf," wrote one of the party's leading strategists. "What do you think of some more wins over Mueller while you can get out? WTF wrong with them?

But Trump's seated hands were hardly surprised by the rake on which Trump had placed his foot. "And he has something unusual about him walking on a good message?" Said a former administration official, laughing about the timing of the announcement.

His Justice Department's Department of Justice dictated the right time for Trump to return to the health care war. On Monday night, the DoJ announced its support for the decision of Judge Reed O'Connor, of the US District Court, according to which, the individual mandate of Obamacare having been rescinded, the whole of the law was now constitutionally illegitimate. O'Connor's judgment had been widely criticized by the lawyers and even the administration had so far stated that everyone had to be defeated by the end of the term.

As a result, the department's new stance sounded the alarm among Republicans who had spent much of the 2018 electoral cycle trying to dispel voters' fears of seeing their attempts to overhaul health care leave, unlike with probable results, those who were already living in difficult conditions. whims of private insurers. Fergus Cullen, former president of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee and critical of the party's approach to Obamacare's dismissal, compared the resumption of debate with the famous battle of wits scene The princess to marry.

"That," said Cullen, "where he talks about the rules that you should never enter a land war in Asia."

One of the party's top pollsters told the Daily Beast that private data showed that the health care issue had probably cost Republicans more than 12 seats in the House in 2018.

"These were mainly all pre-existing conditions," said the pollster. "Where they had the big race. Where they went from 20 to 40 seats is about health care.

Trump did little to appease his concern later on Tuesday, when he addressed the Senate to Republicans and reiterated his desire to tackle health care reform again. according to several senators, gave no details.

Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) simply answered "no" to the question of whether the President had tabled a plan on health care. Several GOP lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol also avoided detailing details of a plan on their side and deferred to the ongoing court process.

"I do not think you can really rethink health care until you know for sure whether Obamacare continues to be part of it or not," Blunt said, "and I think we're ahead of ourselves to assume that the court would say that Obamacare is somehow no longer there. "

If the Republicans tried again to pass the law repealing Obamacare, they would do so in a much more difficult political context than the one they enjoyed just two years ago. Any bill should be passed by a Democrat-led House, where many new legislators have been elected not only to commit to protecting Obamacare's protections from people with pre-existing diseases and extension of Medicaid coverage, but also more aggressive reforms, such as additional government-managed insurance options or expanded eligibility for Medicare.

"I do not think that will happen in the House," said Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and Trump's informal adviser to the Daily Beast.

Other allies of the president have also anticipated the potential dangers. When asked if it was wise for President Trump and the GOP to return on this road to Obamacare, Barry Bennett, former senior advisor to the Trump campaign, said it depended on the party. Pre-existing conditions [protections are] widely popular, "although Bennett said" everything else has been a failure ".

The president's relatives said that part of what motivated him to continue to abolish the Affordable Care Act, even after past failures, was his inability to overcome setbacks. When other party pillars or members of the Republican elite see a responsibility and a third political pillar, Trump simply sees the visceral satisfaction of erasing a cornerstone of the Obama legacy.

"It does not surprise me because this president is a hyperbole in action every day, so if it's possible to end any Obamacare, ACA, whatever the consequences of that, he's fine," said L & # 39, former head of the administration. "That said, it is obvious that no one in the administration is backing down, and there are fewer and fewer individuals who will speak with responsibility."

The administration hopes that a disabling Obamacare court ruling will force these democrats to compromise. But few GOP officials think a resolution could be found soon after, if at all. And they think that in the absence of a replacement bill, Trump would assume responsibility.

"The average health care recipient will not say," It is the evil courts that have invalidated it, "said Tom Davis, former chairman of the Republican National Campaign Committee." They will say, "Oh, Trump it's canceled. "That's the problem. So there must be a Plan B. And with Democrats controlling the House, you will get Plan B at best. "

All Republicans were not afraid of Trump's renewed interest in tackling the repeal of Obamacare. Some of Trump's biggest boosters on the hill quickly swung from the DoJ's record on Monday night to raise questions about why Democrats were tackling the health problem.

"I think they're doing everything they can to replace it with Bob Mueller," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), a confidant close to Trump.

Others have chosen to explain the new turning point of the Obamacare saga by epilating with philosophy

"There is an old Japanese proverb: fall seven times, get up eight times. You just keep trying, "said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) about the seemingly endless quest to repeal the health care law.

"Obamacare is bad," he added. "We start with the principle of covering pre-existing conditions, but frankly, we have nowhere to go, but … Imagine what we could accomplish if we devote only 25% of the energy that everyone gets focuses on the Mueller report to the health care delivery system. "

-With additional reports from Will Sommer and Jackie Kucinich.