Not it! That's the collective cry of some 240 House Republicans, 49 Senate Republicans, and one GOP pr*sident.
"They've been working on that one for seven years," Trump remarked Friday during a speech, indicting the entire Republican Congress. "Can you believe that?"
Well, yes, actually, offered Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of New York, who had his eye on a different culprit.
"One of the issues was the president never really laid out core principles and didn't sell them to the American people," Dent said Friday morning during an interview aired on MSNBC.
Other GOP members of the House pointed fingers at the upper chamber.
“The House did its job… The Senate needs to deliver,” said Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.), on his way into the morning meeting. “We’re all on this plane, and if it crashes, we all go down together.”
Iowa Rep. Steve King went straight for the jugular and named names.
Among the votes saving ObamaCare last night was Lisa Murkowski’s. Murkowski is a Senator who was initially appointed to her position by her father, and whose 2010 write-in campaign was essentially a revolt against GOP primary voters.”
“As a final point, John McCain recently told the Senate he would return and ‘give all of you cause to regret the nice things you said about me.’ He kept his word.”
As did Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama.
“We need new leadership in the United State Senate,” said Brooks, who is running for an open Alabama Senate seat. “If Mitch McConnell cannot get the job done, then those 52 senators need to get together and try to figure out who amongst them has the leadership capability to get the job done.”
But this isn't just about the health care vote—this is about every piece of legislation that is potentially forthcoming from congressional Republicans, including tax reform, which could potentially be their next folly.
“The House time and time again has passed strong legislation and the Senate isn’t able to get anything to the finish line,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) a top deputy whip for GOP leaders. “We want to see them get off the dime and get moving. This is a disappointment. It’s a failure for the American people — and this is on the Senate."
More accurately put, House Republicans time and again have passed legislation so extreme that it couldn't possibly get through a chamber that is, by design and predictably, more moderate in nature. Far from being exempt from blame, House Republicans sit at the beginning, middle, and end of the problem, anchored by a commander in chief who is in so far over his head, he can't see the bubbles he's supposed to be following up to the surface for a gasp of oxygen.