Thursday, May 4, 2017

"Trump faces major test as vote looms on U.S. healthcare bill"

Via Drudge:  The U.S. House of Representatives was set on Thursday for a cliffhanger vote to repeal Obamacare, as Republican leaders worked to deliver President Donald Trump a win for one of his top legislative priorities.

House Republican leaders have expressed confidence the bill would pass and several party moderates who previously objected to it got behind it on Wednesday, giving the effort new momentum.

Still, the vote was expected to be close. Even if the measure passes the House, it faces daunting odds in the Senate where Republicans hold a narrower majority.

Keen to score his first major legislative win since taking office in January, Trump threw his own political capital behind the bill, meeting lawmakers and calling them in an effort to cajole their support.

Trump, whose Republican party controls both the House and Senate, is seeking to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Aides said he worked the phones furiously.

8 comments:

edutcher said...

Actually, it's a major test for Ryan.

He has become a portrait in uselessness.

Methadras said...

Paul Ryan cannot manage his way out of a wet paper bag. His uselessness is only amplified by his feckless political cowardice.

Rabel said...

Designed to fail. Probably can't pass the Senate but scores political points for Ryan, or so they think.

edutcher said...

No, McConnell said this would get rammed through.

Think Gorsuch. I think Trump and Mitch have come to a meeting of the minds.

PS This is not the end, but the beginning. Trump has said he intends at least 2 more phases on this.

Kinda like the budget. The one passed this week is Ryan's; even Chuckie Schumer had to admit Trump had almost nothing to do with it. The real showdown comes in September.

ricpic said...

I'm not a detail guy (a sad admission that I can't get my head around complexity) BUT if this bill was good enough for the Freedom Caucus to sign on to it has to be an advance over the first Ryan mess. As the Japs say -- One step at a time, climb Mount Fujiyama.

Leland said...

I see at least 51 eggs that haven't hatched.

Methadras said...

Nancy Pelosi gave the game away years ago when her now famous quote "We have to pass it to know what's in it" was uttered out of her shit-hole. She was saying that congress has outsourced writing legislation to lobbyists. Paul Ryan did and said nearly the same thing on this go-around. They don't write that legislation at all anymore. Congress has ceded its duties to lobbyists. This country is being run by lobbyists in reality.

Fr Martin Fox said...

They are doing it all wrong.

Instead of a "three stage" approach, it should be a single bill. The three-stage approach left to phase three the stuff that matters most; and the GOP leadership admitted, the reason they left it to stage three is because they didn't know how to pass it!

So you realize what that means? They pass everything but the good stuff, and then what happens in November 2018?

Much better strategy: One good bill, with everything you need and want, put before the Senate. If it passes, you win. Yay!

If the Senate Democrats filibuster, then who broke it?