Before I get to the meat and potatoes, just a little pet peeve appetizer for you. AL Rep. Mo Brooks is delusional. He was on “All In With Chris Hayes” last night, which I don’t get. He’s a frequent guest, and I’ve actually seen Chris on the split screen chuckle at him when he’s talking. Unless he can’t see Hayes, he’s gotta know he’s getting played. And God knows that none of his constituents that matter back home are watching. But he stated that he had the fix for the health care bill. He said that two years ago the House passed a clean repeal bill. I also cleared the Senate, but that mean old Scrooge Obama wouldn’t sign it. Just bring out an identical bill, and Trump will sign it. Clearly Mo Brooks watches nothing but Fixed News, and hasn’t held any town hall meetings since January 20th.
Well, that was satisfying, but now on to the main event. I hope you enjoyed the Trumpcare debacle, because you’re going to see it again and again. Trump will begin to think that he’s starring in “Groundhog’s Day”, but without the funny parts, at least for him. Trump is 70 years old, he’s not changing his lifelong habits now. It is obvious that he won’t take advice from career politicians like Ryan, Priebus and McConnell, and there’s nobody in the west wing with the experience and stones to sit him down and explain this shit to him.
Now Trump wants to tackle Corporate tax reform. This is a joke in bad taste. Trump has never filled out a tax return form in his life. He hires accountants to do that. They bring him a form to sign, and he signs it. The same thing goes for everything else in his life. Trump is what he likes to call a “big picture guy”. He hires lawyers to do the nuts and bolts work of negotiating his deals. He has his accountants to make sure the numbers line up, and that the bottom line is sweet enough. Engineers design a car, and workers actually build it, Trump is the sleazy salesman that comes out to actually sell you the jalopy. This is his fatal flaw.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of grand visions in politics. But any politician knows that actually creating and legislating bills that get signed into law requires rolling around in the mud, and actually putting the nuts and bolts together so that they fit. Trump has absolutely no interest in this. As the bill ran into more and more resistance in congress, His Lowness repeatedly asked aides whether or not this was really a good bill, he had no idea of what was in it, that was Ryan’s problem. The thing that caught my attention the most is the report that what dismayed the Freedom Caucus members the most was that they showed up and wanted to talk about objectionable items in the bill and Trump’s basic response was; “Don’t bother me with the little shit, pass the bill”. How do you negotiate with someone who has absolutely no idea of what you’re talking and negotiating about.
Trump is not going to change. And because he won’t change, and he has no one he trusts to “splain stuff” to him, the same thing will just keep happening over and over again. It doesn’t make any difference into how many small pieces Hair Furor dices tax reform into, it will involved intricate details, not one of which he will understand. If something doesn’t change drastically, the only bills congress will be able to pass that Trump can sign will be renaming post offices. This is what killed his Immigration EO’s, they were created by people who had no practical knowledge of what the constitution means, and he just signed it.
There is no longer any reason for anyone in congress to fear or respect Trump. Certainly not the Democrats. The Freedom Caucus flipped him off and he blinked. So did the moderate conservatives. There is no reason for Democrats to help him, even if he begs. The longer he struggles, the weaker he looks, and the more incompetent the GOP controlled congress looks, increasing our prospects for 2018. To paraphrase Barack Obama, “Please proceed Mr. President”.