Trump pushed hard for a bill which failed in a way that made him look weak; sometimes mistakes aren’t evidence of a deeper plan, just regular incompetence.
I don’t disagree, but I can believe that Trump believes what he told Robert Costa when he pulled the bill:
“As you know, I’ve been saying for years that the best thing is to let Obamacare explode and then go make a deal with the Democrats and have one unified deal. And they will come to us; we won’t have to come to them,” he said. “After Obamacare explodes.”
“The beauty,” Trump continued, “is that they own Obamacare. So when it explodes, they come to us, and we make one beautiful deal for the people.”
It’s easier to walk away when you believe you can hold the Democrats hostage to their own failure. If the health exchanges fall apart, the Republicans have more leverage. They probably won’t happen – and its wrong to expect that the Republicans won’t take any blame if it does – but it’s not an outlandish belief. Paul Ryan might believe it.
That said, I hope everyone understands now that Donald Trump and Paul Ryan don’t care about health care, don’t care about Americans’ coverage, premiums, or deductibles, can’t deliver the Obamacare repeal and replace they’ve promised, and endorsed a plan that would have ended coverage for 24 million Americans and raised premiums in exchange for tax cuts on health insurers, medical device manufacturers, and the rich.
Americans will just have to wait until Obamacare explodes to see Trump and Ryan’s next beautiful deal.
[incoherent noises about healthcare vouchers]