Maybe this really is all just a plot for Steve Bannon to fuck with Paul Ryan, because it's really looking like someone is pulling popular vote loser Donald Trump's strings. Last Friday morning, Trump had decided that he would side with the House maniacs who wanted to speed up the unraveling of Obamacare and make more people die sooner. After some pushback from Ryan and team, Trump appeared to have flopped back, and was fully on board with the slower death of Medicaid. But four days later, he's back with the extremists.
President Donald Trump's White House is increasingly likely to support some conservative-backed changes to the House Obamacare alternative, two administration officials said Monday — a move that comes after a nonpartisan budgetary analysis showed 24 million people could lose insurance under the bill.
One senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, said the White House is weighing ideas for a "significant" manager's amendment to the bill before it hits the House floor next week. Officials would like the changes — which would likely be offered in the House Rules Committee — to appease some conservatives.
Possible modifications being considered include phasing out the Medicaid expansion quicker, from the current Dec. 31, 2019 date to the beginning of 2018, and moving changes supposed to occur in the insurance market from 2020 to 2018.
"I think the changes that the conservatives want are more and more likely,” said a second White House official.
So 14 million losing Medicaid in ten years isn't nearly enough for Trump and team. (And, yes, for those who remember—this is Trump breaking his promises.) The extremists are pressing that advantage, rejecting the House bill based on the CBO score because it just doesn't do enough damage quickly enough. The White House reportedly thinks "they need to beef up conservative support for the plan, a decision that comes about a week after conservative lawmakers and outside groups bashed the House plan as 'Obamacare lite.'" They believe they can get over the hurdle of the House by getting all the maniacs on board—dragging along all the other Republicans—and that somehow Trump can charm the Senate into playing along, too.
The timing of this—like everything else with Trump—is just bizarre. On the heels of the absolutely blisteringly bad CBO report, Trump is deciding to go in with the extremists to make it even worse. Making it even hard to pass in the Senate. Which would make Paul Ryan look like a complete and total chump. But that could just be a happy byproduct of whatever game President Bannon is playing here.