This Friday started out with the message that popular vote loser Donald Trump was reaching out to the House maniacs and was willing to go where they needed to go on Trumpcare, and that meant killing Obamacare's Medicaid expansion as soon as this year. That kind of freaked out House leadership and apparently they got their message back to the White House—because now the White House is back on board with the original, slower plan.
After President Trump met at the White House with the House GOP leaders, his chief spokesman said the president fully supports the bill’s timeline for phasing out the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, which some on the right would like to accelerate. Earlier in the day, the House leaders dismissed the idea of speeding up.
“Right now the date that’s in the bill is what the president supports,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters, adding: “It’s not a question of negotiation.”
Addressing the suggestion from some conservative members that their proposed Medicaid expansion phaseout be moved up to begin in 2018 instead of 2020, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at a news conference on Capitol Hill: “I think right now that would be very difficult to do.”
Remember that story from back during the campaign that made headlines for a day? It was this line: "Trump tends to echo the words of whomever last spoke to him, making direct access to him even more valuable, the people said, requesting anonymity to talk about internal campaign discussions."
We're seeing that play out in policy now.
He meets with the Freedom Caucus guys: "Sure, whatever you guys want. Medicaid expansion gone now? Great." Then he meets with House leadership: "Of course we can't do it this year." That kind of makes Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell's plan to use Trump to get all their members on board a little trickier, since apparently he's going to do whatever the last person he talks to asks for. If that person happens to be Steve Bannon, and if he happens to be wearing his Breitbart hat, all bets are off.