It all started with popular vote loser Donald Trump and an early morning tweet, as it usually does.
Obamacare "repeal and replace" thereby became a three-stage process, but one that Trump has fully embraced—which maybe is not going to go so well for him, considering that pretty much every far-right activist group has come out against this along with all of the healthcare industry associations. At this point, it’s Trump, his cabinet, and Republican leadership against the whole rest of the world.
But in a follow-up meeting with Republican leadership Tuesday afternoon, Trump doubled down on his support. And then he added this: "I think it's going to go very quickly. I hope it's going to go very quickly." Which is where things got kind of confusing again.
Because Vice President Mike Pence told Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus (the maniacs who came out in force in opposition to the bill before they even had a chance to read it) that the bill is "still up for negotiation." Which would suggest that the House is no longer on a breakneck pace to jam the bill through this week. In fact, it's hard to see how it will “go very quickly.”
Health Secretary Tom Price doesn't seem to think it's going to go very quickly. He said in the White House briefing Tuesday that the whole thing is a "work in progress."
[Price] praised the House bills as a step "in the right direction" but stopped short of saying the Trump administration supports everything in it.
"This is a work in progress," he added. "This is an important process to be had." […]
Price cautioned that the House bill is only the first step in Trump’s three-phase plan to overhaul the healthcare system, which also includes regulatory changes and additional legislation to allow insurance to be sold across state lines, among other changes.
"This is the beginning of the process and we look forward to working with them and others," the HHS secretary said when asked about opposition from conservatives.
Great! Now we have three opportunities for Republicans to go at each other's throats over repeal and its replacement: Ryancare! Price also suggested that Republicans were going to wait for a CBO score before completing work on this, which doesn't at all follow the plan to have this done within days that Ryan and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to be pushing just hours earlier.
Does the GOP have any idea how it's proceeding from here on Ryancare? Good question. The tweet below is about as elucidating as anything else you will find.