Donald Trump’s major business is putting his name on things. Whether it’s giant letters on the side of buildings someone else built, failing airlines, tough steaks, ludicrous vodka … Trump is a living label machine. So you would think that legislation addressing one the key features of the campaign— legislation that Trump demanded of Congress and which he’s celebrated as both great and the only opportunity to replace “failing Obamacare”—would get extra gold letter treatment.
The cascade of opposition within Trump’s movement started flowing soon after the bill was unveiled last week and picked up speed this week. On Breitbart — the anti-establishment, conservative news site that has been a platform for Trumpism and was once run by Bannon — article after article has railed against a bill its headline writers excoriate as “RyanCare.”
At the moment, Republicans seem to be divided into three categories. There are the “mainstream” Republicans who love the bill because it takes from the poor and delivers a big tax cut for the wealthy, the way that all legislation should. There are the conservative wahabis of the Freedom Caucus who think the bill doesn’t take enough from the poor or give enough to the rich, and who are particularly upset that the bill doesn’t pause to dance on President Obama’s legacy by burning down every line of the ACA. And there are the Republicans whose biggest concern is how they can use this bill to get more television time for themselves—which seems to be the majority.
With the Freedom crew seeming to dig in their heels and Trump’s in-house magazine, Breitbart, organizing get-togethers for Republicans who hate the bill, it may seem that Team Trump has completely washed their hands of the bill. In fact (ready your best Admiral Ackbar) some Republicans are even calling the bill “a trap.”
From headlines at Breitbart to chatter on Fox News Channel and right-wing talk radio, as well as among friends who have Trump’s ear, the message has been blunt: The plan being advanced by congressional Republican leaders is deeply flawed — and, at worst, a political trap.
But flawed, awkward, RyanCare, trap … none of that means that the bill is actually dead,
At the moment, there are a lot of Republicans in both House and Senate providing vocal critiques of the healthcare bill. What there are not is a lot of Republicans willing to commit themselves to voting against the bill.
Trump — who has not yet fully used the bully pulpit of the presidency to rally support for the plan — spoke privately with Ryan on Tuesday afternoon. They discussed the various factions, the opinions of several key lawmakers and developing a closing strategy, according to two people with knowledge of the call.
Despite all the raised voices and the fear of some vague backlash, Republicans are more frightened of Trump than they are of any bill.
Putting faith in the Freedom Caucus or Breitbart to stop any Republican bill is beyond false hope. At the moment, every indication is that, no matter who is on the other side, Trump still supports the bill. He’s sending Sean Spicer and the surrogate team forth to make claims about the bill daily, holding meetings with pretend “victims” of the ACA, and giving every indication that he means to close this deal.
Those guys screaming in the Freedom Caucus? They know that actually writing out every single line of the ACA would force the bill to move to the Senate under rules that would allow Democrats to filibuster, making it a guaranteed failure. Their “rebellion” is token at best.
The idea that the Republicans most dependent on the same crazy coalition that put Trump in office would stand up to him on what may be the most important vote going into 2018 is the real trap.
Trump loyalists warned that the president was at risk of violating some of his biggest campaign promises — such as providing broad health coverage for all Americans and preserving Medicaid and other entitlement programs — in service to an ideological project championed for years by Ryan and other establishment Republicans.
Trump is simply going to lie about the numbers in any case, as he’s already doing with the jobs he’s “creating” and the money he’s “saving.” Facts are the least of Trump’s worries.