Here comes the Freedom Caucus—again—with yet another "deal" they're making on Trumpcare, as if pleasing their ranks was going to make this monster live.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Tuesday told a local radio station that he expects to hear back from Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) by noon about "two options" on the table. He did not elaborate.
"We're very close. The biggest thing for all of us is we want to make sure we don't just have repeal, but we have a replacement that drives down insurance premiums," he said.
"It's our encouragement to have a vote as soon as we possibly can, even perhaps before we return back to DC in 13 days."
Sure, you do that. You bring everybody back from recess to try and have a vote on this thing that is universally reviled and will never get a vote in the Senate in its latest form.
Meadows has some backup this time, though, in the form of the Club for Growth—which is going to try to bully "moderate" House Republicans in to supporting it with a $1 million ad campaign. That's sure to work.
What the ad does not mention is that Trump himself has blamed the Freedom Caucus—not the moderates—for the health bill's failure so far, and that there is deep concern among both House Republican leaders and the GOP rank and file that rolling back the ACA mandates could easily be cast as a betrayal of Trump and other GOP leaders' pledges to protect insurance access for those with preexisting conditions.
Anything the Freedom Caucus cooks up will be so reviled by the entire population that any not-Freedom Caucus member is safe in continuing to oppose them, no matter how much money Club for Growth spends.
And there's still the problem of the Senate, which the House maniacs think will also bow down and break what's left of their rules to pass this. News flash: the Senate is not going to do that. Another news flash: the non-maniacs in the House are not going to want to take a vote on a horrible bill that hurts their constituents when they know it's for nothing, because the Senate won't do it.
This isn't a positive development, and it continues the chaos that is going to damage Obamacare. But Zombie Trumpcare is no closer to becoming the law of the land today than it was two weeks ago.