Republicans seem no more capable of figuring out what in the hell they're doing with dead Trumpcare than they did while they were still trying to push it through the House, with disastrous consequences. On the one hand, we've got talk about another attempt next week at a floor vote. No. Really.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who helped derail the bill, have been talking with some Republican moderate holdouts in an effort to identify changes that could bring them on board with the measure. […]
Asked if the GOP health bill will come up again, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, "Yes. As soon as we figure it out and get the votes."
But McCarthy said nothing is currently scheduled and didn’t indicate how leadership would resolve divisions between the Freedom Caucus and moderates in the so-called Tuesday Group. "Lot of people are talking," he said. "Lot of people are working."
Meanwhile, Freedom Caucus member Rep. David Brat of Virginia is telling Breitbart that the maniacs are ready to work with the moderates in the Tuesday Group. But North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, who supposedly leads the maniacs, says they're not planning any meetings. And one member of the Tuesday Group "emphatically" denies that there are any talks between them and the Freedom Caucus.
But the possibility that they are doing something backs up White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who said that the bill that couldn't get through the House—couldn't even get to the floor—is "the current vessel." Which, considering they couldn't come up with anything better in seven years of talking about doing something, makes sense. Seriously, they'll come up with something new? But Republican Whip Steve Scalise says they’re not bringing it to the floor in the near future. Which kind of fits with the insistence of Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam, a senior Republican who used to be in leadership that they have to "bury" Trumpcare and start over from scratch.
The move by the senior House Republican who sits on the Ways and Means committee could complicate any GOP leadership attempt to resurrect the bill that Ryan pulled from the floor Friday. Lawmakers and aides have suggested that Ryan and his top lieutenants might offer new changes to the American Health Care Act sought by conservatives and moderates in the hopes of garnering enough votes to pass it. Ryan would then try to pass the revised legislation through the chamber in the the coming weeks.
But during a closed-door GOP conference meeting Tuesday, Roskam argued that that would be short-sighted, according to multiple sources in the room. The former chief deputy whip said Republican leaders tried their own approach and it failed, and it would be fruitless to "double-down" on the same bill. House Republicans should instead write a bill that epitomizes Republican ideals, Roskam continued — regardless of whether it can pass Senate rules, sources said.
What does any of this mean? Who in the hell knows? Republicans surely don't.