Reports from the ground suggest that Speaker Paul Ryan's happy-face talking points about how wonderfully everything is going in the House are not doing the job for his members back home. Politico had reporters at meetings from Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Oregon, New Jersey, New York and Texas, last week, and reports that the resistance is having none of that. Here are their three takeaways:
1) Republican AHCA critics sharpened their skepticism of the bill […]
Mainstream GOP Rep. David Young of Iowa found friends in his crowd who appreciated his decision to stake out opposition to the measure. Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, earned grudging support for suggesting he'd even prefer single-payer health care — which he hates — to Speaker Paul Ryan’s bill.
Centrist Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey, who faced scorn for his initial support of the measure, earned some rare applause when he promised to reject any health care legislation that undermines coverage guarantees for people with preexisting conditions.
No one supports Trumpcare. The far right hates it because it contains remnants of Obamacare and literally everyone else hates it because it's awful and hurts millions of people. There are no Republicans trying to defend the thing.
2) The House GOP’s civil war is getting noticed beyond the Beltway
Americans have long watched from afar as feuding Republican factions have battled each other. But after the pivotal role played by the far-right House Freedom Caucus in sidelining the GOP health care bill, constituents are taking note of the schisms that drive the House Republican Conference. […]
That constituents are asking about the various factions in the House GOP Conference demonstrates just how ugly the intraparty fighting has gotten.
It's pretty hard to miss.
3) Republicans have gotten better at handling hostile crowds […]
This time, they were ready. They phoned in local police, imposed new security measures and tightened attendance availability, and it worked, to an extent.
Politico's takeaway here is ridiculous. Republicans aren't better at handling hostile crowds than they were in February—they're better at limiting their exposure to hostile crowds. They are keeping them out of the meetings by limiting venue size, requiring people get tickets ahead of time, screening them and requiring that they have both identification and proof of residence before allowing them in, and even having security eject people who are too confrontational. That's not getting better at hostility. That's getting better at avoiding it.
Finally, they've discovered that there's one thing that works with every crowd: saying they're fighting Trump. The only thing, apparently, that garners more vitriol across the board than Trumpcare is Trump himself.
Hey guys, 2018 could be a lot of fun.