Did Trump Throw Paul Ryan Under The Bus?

The Donald did not blame Ryan for the failure to replace Obamacare with new healthcare plan.  He praised him on TV for working hard on the bill and he did his best to place the blame on Democrats for not supporting the bill.  The Donald then turned around and tweeted to his followers that they should watch a Fox News show which placed the blame on Paul Ryan.  Of course,  The Donald was held blameless.  It was all Ryan's fault.  Apparently, Trump's support for Ryan lasted about as long as it took the press to find fault with The Donald's inability to sell the bill to the Republicans in the House.  Trump was blamed for not understanding the details of the bill enough to properly sell or modify the bill so that Republicans would vote for the bill.  He played the role of the deal maker who did not know the product well enough to sell it to a divided Republican House.

The failure to pass the bill was largely the result of Trump's inexperience and incompetence.  In the first place he left the details of the bill in Paul Ryan's hands.  Ryan produced a bill that was consistent with his ideology as well as that of the Republican elite that Trump pretended to run against in his campaign.  It cut taxes for the rich and paid for the tax cuts by cutting benefits and access to healthcare for those who believed that The Donald really cared about their welfare.  Only 17% of the public supported the bill.  It was also strongly criticized by almost every organization responsible for delivering healthcare to our citizens.  Clearly, The Donald should have understood the product that Ryan produced before he staked his reputation on its passage.  Apparently, he had little input into the development of the bill.  He must have believed that any bill that repealed Obamacare would be accepted by House Republicans.

Ryan did work hard to sell the bill to a deeply divided Republican Party.  The members of the Freedom Caucus were strongly in favor of repealing Obamacare.  They hated anything that had Obama's name on it.  More importantly, they are also libertarians who oppose government entitlement programs in general.  They were encouraged to oppose the bill by the libertarian Koch brothers who promised to fund their political campaigns.  Ryan attempted to mollify the Freedom Caucus by making changes to the bill that made a bad bill even worse.  That made it more difficult for moderate Republicans to support the bill.  They did not want to approve a bill that was certain to be used against them in the 2018 election.  The Donald tried to woo the Freedom caucus members but he lost more moderate Republicans than he gained from his efforts to win support from the Freedom Caucus.  The Republican House was united in its desire to repeal Obamacare; it passed more than 60 repeal bills that were certain to be defeated in the Senate or vetoed while Obama was in the White House.  They are good at opposing Democratic bills but they are too divided to craft a healthcare bill that could pass the smell test.

The Donald failed on his promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a "great plan" that would insure more Americans and lower their costs.  He attempted to sell an inferior plan that even Republicans could not support.  His reputation as the great deal maker has been badly damaged.  It will be even further damaged by statements that he made following his loss.  He forgot that he is our president and that he responsible for what happens to Americans who depend upon Obamacare for their health insurance.  He said that Obamacare would implode and Democrats would have to take the blame for its failure because they would not vote for a plan that he could not sell to his own party.  President Obama told him that the ACA was not perfect and that it could be improved.  If Trump lets the plan implode it will be his fault. However, he is such a sore loser that he may even try to make it fail.  The IRS enforces the mandate in the plan that makes it possible for insurers to sell to a market that includes healthy as well less healthy customers.  The IRS reports to The Donald.  We will have to see  whether our small handed president is even more small minded than we imagine.