Campaign Action
Mitch McConnell might have thought he'd won the Trumpcare tussle with the orange being that occupies the Oval Office, making that issue go away for 2020. But when it comes to Trump, there is no winning. Trump's revising history as he goes along this morning, and he's keeping Trumpcare front and center. On purpose.
As usual, Trump's grand pronouncement came on Twitter: "I was never planning a vote prior to the 2020 Election on the wonderful HealthCare package that some very talented people are now developing for me & the Republican Party," he announced, clearly forgetting his promise from a week ago that it was "Moving forward in Courts and Legislatively!" [Exclamation point his.] Back to today and the real news: "It will be on full display during the Election as a much better & less expensive alternative to ObamaCare…"
Woohooo!!! Republicans are going to be running on their much better and less expensive alternative! Even better, "…This will be a great campaign issue." For Democrats, yes, it will. Then he reignites a few feuds. "I never asked Mitch McConnell for a vote before the Election as has been incorrectly reported (as usual) in the @nytimes, but only after the Election when we take back the House etc. Republicans will always support pre-existing conditions!"
Maybe he didn't ask Mitch for a vote. Maybe Mitch just told him it was never going to happen without being asked. Either way, Mitch did not make this go away. And, by the way, Republicans have never created a plan that protects people with pre-existing conditions. They just say they have. And since June of last year, Trump has been arguing in court that those protections are unconstitutional! [Exclamation point mine, because WTF?]
Never mind all that. Republicans better hop to it. They have just a year and a half to have a brilliant plan to show the American public before the election. Given that they haven't been able to do that in 10 years, they'd better get on it.