House Speaker Paul Ryan just couldn't be happier to be taking people's health insurance and health care away, and is absolutely certain every Republican is just as happy as he is.
“This is a monumental, exciting conservative reform,” Ryan said. “I’ve been working on this for 20 years. This is exciting. This is what we’ve been dreaming about doing.”
Yes, he's a sociopath.
Ryan played down the conservative opposition, calling it an outgrowth of the GOP’s new grasp on power.
“I think what we’re seeing is, we’re going through the inevitable growing pains of being an opposition party to being a governing party,” he said. “It’s a new feel, a new system for people.”
It's been a long six years of growing pains, then. This feels anything but new.
So far, though, conservatives are still digging in against it. Here's what Freedom Caucus member Dave Brat said as he headed into the meeting across the street from the Capitol: The bill needs "major changes" so it focuses more on bringing costs down for everyone, not just covering the uninsured. "We've paid way too much attention to coverage."
Which sounds an awful lot like Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who says that insurance "is not the end goal." And Mulvaney is a bit of the problem since he's telling his old Freedom Caucus buddies that the White House is there to make sure they are heard. Which is apparently what they are also hearing from popular vote loser Donald Trump. He's supposedly "moving to quiet conservative opposition to the House GOP Obamacare replacement, drawing on his newfound bully pulpit to pressure but also coax rebellious lawmakers." But this is what they're hearing:
Trump isn’t putting his foot down in demanding that GOP leadership stick to the current bill. Trump instructed the deputy whips “several times” that “if someone has constructive suggestions that make the bill better, let them have at it,” summarized one source in the room. […]
Conservatives plan to take him up on that offer. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said, “Right now, the speaker of the House does not have the votes to pass this bill unless it’s got substantial Democrat support.”
They insist, however, they haven’t eased their positions: They still support a full repeal of Obamacare, followed by a separate vote to replace it. And they’re vowing, as before, not to back down — at least not tonight.
So much for Ryan and McConnell using Trump to steamroll this bill through.