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So Wait, Ryan Doesn’t Have Any Responsibility Here?
So, I was reading Jonah Goldberg yesterday and he had this:
On Saturday morning, Trump placed the blame squarely on the House Freedom Caucus, the 30-odd members of Congress who reportedly kept changing their demands until it was clear they were never going to support the American Health Care Act. Nor is there a single quote from a member of Congress echoing this sentiment, even from the Freedom Caucus. The people in the room understand that Ryan, who clearly made some mistakes, nonetheless acted in good faith to move the president’s agenda. The Pirro crowd, however, can’t endorse the effort to blame the Freedom Caucus, because it’s the heir of True Conservatism. If Trump found himself in opposition to the group, it must be because he was tricked — by Ryan’s irresistible “swagger.”
The second point: Contrary to what Pirro says, she and the other members of Trump’s amen chorus did expect him to work miracles, or at least they said as much. Indeed, during the campaign, Trump said “it will be so easy” to get rid of Obamacare. Trump and his boosters insisted there was nothing he couldn’t do with his Jedi-like negotiating skills and gift for “winning.” So the only explanation that can rescue them from the agony of cognitive dissonance is to insist that Trump was betrayed. That’s why Hannity’s claim that Trump did “everything in his power” to get the bill passed is an accidental admission against interest. It concedes the falsity of the idea that Trump is a modern-day, omni-competent Cincinnatus who will lay down his golf bag to save the republic.
So my only two choices are to blame Trump or to blame Ryan, and if I am blaming Ryan I am avoiding the agony of cognitive dissonance? I feel rather set up here. Apparently, according to Mr. Goldberg, if I don’t put all the blame at the feet of Trump for the failure of this legislation, I am in thrall somehow to Trump.
I have to say that this is a fine example, a fine example, of what it is like to be spoken down too by my betters for supporting Trump. A caricature is built of a unreasonable person, a few people with extreme positions are picked to be spokespeople, and anyone supporting Trump, or feeling that the GOP in the House shares some blame is only avoiding the negative feelings that his savior is betraying him.
Well.
The GOP has had seven years to come up with a plan. Both houses passed a resolution from Tom Price in 2015 Obama vetoed. I cannot help but notice they did not even try to pass that. Trump did not write this legislation, it came from the House. To lay its failure at Trump’s feet, seems odd, indeed. I am not looking to scapegoat Ryan. I blame the entire GOP in Congress who has had seven years to come up with a solid repeal and replace plan. I blame the entire GOP in Congress for being unwilling to ignore Democrat appointed parlimentarians and make their own rules on reconcilliation. I blame the entire GOP in Congress for passing over a dozen resolutions to repeal Obamacare they knew would not be signed into law, but blanching the moment that progress might be made.
The GOP does not appear to want to rock the boat. They promised us, for (dare I say it) seven years, they would repeal it. “Vote for us to stop Obama! We will undo Obamacare!” Those promises were lies. John Podhoretz castigated anyone who believed them, saying “They all lie.” That was on a Ricochet podcast, where he was dismissing the anger and sense of betrayal loyal voters had at the GOP for “not doing anything.” Oh, one can argue they did “a lot” or “what they could” to block Obama. That was not what Mr. Podhoretz was saying, however. So the GOP got elected on the lie they wanted to repeal and replace Obamacare, as evidenced by the first chance they get, they have nothing ready to go, not even passing one of their old resolutions. And Mr. Goldberg says it is Trump’s fault. Let’s sequence that out:
- GOP has seven years to get something ready.
- They create something horrible that will not get the support of the Freedom Caucus no matter what.
- Trump supports the bill they create, and goes to work spending capital to get it passed.
- The House cannot pass it, delivering Trump a defeat.
- It is Trump’s fault for the failure.
- Blaming Ryan is just a way to avoid the truth about Trump.
- This proves Trump is not conservative
- If he ends up working with Democrats because the GOP refuses to work with him, that is the fault of the people who are in thrall to Trump, not the GOP who refuses to work with the President in their own party.
- We will have less conservative victories.
Here is my formulation, which is a bit different:
- GOP has seven years to get something ready.
- They create something horrible that will not get the support of the Freedom Caucus no matter what.
- Trump supports the bill they create, and goes to work spending capital to get it passed.
- The House cannot pass it, delivering Trump a defeat.
- The GOP in Congress is a fault because they did not create a bill they themselves could pass.
- Ryan is Speaker of the House, and therefore he gets the blame for pushing something the GOP won’t pass.
- This proves the GOP is not interested in advancing the conservative interests of the base.
- If Trump ends up working with Democrats, it will be the fault of the GOP in Congress for not working with the President of their own party.
- We will have less conservative victories.
For the record, I would have liked for Trump to have said “You bozos have had seven years to come up with something, and you send me this crap? Go back to the drawing board and send me something you might even be able to pass!” Maybe next time he will, after this loss.
Published in General
If you limit consideration to just deal making, OK. I was coming at it more from general leadership competence and the lack thereof.
The problem is we keep saying “we”, as in, “we voted for seven years for this…” “we sent them there to get this done”, etc.
There’s isn’t a coherent, unified “we” anymore. That’s the “joy” and the price tag of a coalition of voters big enough to win the White House. Maybe you voted for a Freedom Caucus agenda. I sure wouldn’t. Maybe I voted with moderate conservatives. You sure wouldn’t. Michigan auto workers are not jonesing for slashing benefits. On the other hand, the Heritage Foundation is not lined up behind Trump’s populism.
We’re going to have to negotiate with each other. Bill Kristol saying, “As everyone knows, we’ve long agreed on the necessity of lower wages and more warfare” doesn’t make it happen.
I completely agree with you.
That is why I have been arguing against the process used in this bill. “We” have a lot a variation in our needs/wants from the next Healthcare bill. These differences need to be flushed out and worked through. This is not possible with a bill that is dropped like 2 weeks before the vote with no amendments possible.
You are right. Exactly why it was so surprising to me to see Ryan acting like Pelosi did when they were working the ACA. When there is a diversity of view as exists within the Republican Party this approach does not work. That’s a pattern in the Democrat Party. Ryan must get better and don’t go back to the healthcare issue until we know he has learned this.
This is Obama’s great achievement. Regardless of whether or not his specific legislation survives, he legitimized the concept of government funded universal health care. We now talk in terms of passing another bill rather than simply going back to the state of affairs before Obamacare passed. Conservatives lost the battle.
I think we overestimate how much people loved the system pre-2009. I kept reading things on sites like this about how kindly old Doc Smith charged $5 for childbirth but would take three dozen eggs in exchange…gee, that’s sweet! Or gosh, grandma needs a new hip. Well, mankind made it through millions of years without replacement parts!
Did you love your insurance company? Did you like their rate increases? Did you feel they treated you with respect? I don’t know anyone who did, so the constituency to just return everything to the way it was is weaker than we guessed.
I don’t know. 20%?
Actually, this is one of the instances in which I wish Ryan acted more like Pelosi. Pelosi and Obama spent months getting things in order before holding the final votes; Ryan and Trump rushed things before they were ready (though, again, Ryan should have been ready already).
That is really my big point, and it makes it easy to pin most of the blame on him.
Well, sounds like you weren’t part of the “Trump is completely innocent! It’s all Ryan’s fault!” crowd that Goldberg was writing about.
Yup. This is why I always roll my eyes when the claim gets made that the electorate is essentially center-right. For some strange reason people would rather be forced to pay more and disrespected by their government. Not my cup of tea but I’m clearly in the minority.
That’s a pretty reasonable number. Props for directly answering the question.
Can’t agree more.
Reagan won his first presidential election with a simple question: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
Everyone clamoring for a “clean repeal” of Obamacare is essentially pleading to go back to our pre-2010 healthcare system. So their simplest and strongest argument should be “Is your healthcare better now than it was seven years ago?”.
But how many Republican legislators do you hear asking that question? Answer: Precisely none. What might that tell us?
I’ll join the chorus: The problem isn’t blaming Ryan, it’s blaming only Ryan, (or worse, blaming the Freedom Caucus, who are the only ones involved in this mess who actually did what they said they were going to do.)
No, you are in thrall to Trump if you refuse to place any blame at all at his feet, if your reasons for blaming Ryan are to deflect attention from Trump’s incompetence.
I guess I will be the voice of decent here. I had no problem with my health insurance prior to Obamacare, I was healthy so I guess they treated me with respect. They did exactly what they said they would. The deductibles were lower and the rate hikes were lower and less frequent.
Seconding this.
Even those answering “no” might not be eager to return to the pre-2010 system. The group plans covering us keep getting more expensive, and more of a hassle. That said, no sane person would want the hassles I had before 2010, either.
One of my problems with Trump was/is that he seems to think he’s the CEO of America, and that if Congress doesn’t do what he says, then they’re not doing their jobs. To be fair, this problem is not unique to him, but his overall ignorance of governing (an inescapable tradeoff when electing an outsider) is exacerbating the problem. He doesn’t seem to get that he has to negotiate with Congress as an equal; he seems to be treating the Freedom Caucus like his employees went on strike.
And before anyone says anything: No, the above does not mean I blame only Trump. Trump didn’t write the bill.
I guess I was focused on his behavior of keeping the contents of what he was working with from other Republicans, wasn’t thinking so much about his rushing it. You are correct on that point. And,of course, Ryan was worse than Pelosi on the bill content as well since she only kept it mostly away from Republicans, not her own party.
Head of the government, head of state, chief of the party, the guy who has been promising us an Obamacare repeal for a 18+ months, who oversold people on both his deal making skills and hyper competence, who then couldn’t deliver because he didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t try hard,
Deserves only a fifth of the blame?
@fredcole, you asked a question and got a very straight-forward answer. Before challenging it, maybe put yourself on the record regarding how much blame you think should be assigned around.
Yes, you are describing the differing opinions that manifests themselves in the divisions within the Republican elected officials. We don’t get this with Democrats. Some like the idea of having the freedom to figure out how to manage their lives without so much federal bureaucratic management. It’s kind of like an American tradition to have choices. That’s not to say that others cannot turn their lives over to be manage by others, just don’t let’s make it universal. I know we Republicans wouldn’t stand a chance if we were trying to pass a comprehensive healthcare bill without Democrat votes. But I was hoping, and still have that hope, that we could repeal a few mandates that seem to me, unconstitutional, on their face.
If we’re restricting this to elected officials, I’d put:
I agree with @midge and @mendel that the electorate (which includes me) is to blame as well, but it’s hard to know how to calculate that.
Moderator Note:
All-caps changed to italics to conform with CoC.Gentlemen & Ladies,
Hold the presses!! I have secret footage of the congressional committee that processed RyanCare.
The file name on this was cryptically entitled “The Full Pelosi”. We are still evaluating and authenticating the sources.
Regards,
Jim
Restricting it to just elected officials leaves out the two groups I think hold the lions share of the blame:
So Tom, representing The Powers That Be, admits it’s no more than 30%, whereas Bryan, a proud member of the rabble/rebel alliance, generously conceded 20%. This doesn’t sound like civil war material here…
(Corrected)
Point of order – in no possible way are you Tony Stark.
Yeah, but what are the odds that Bryan is Steve Rogers? ;)
I am far more Tony Stark than Steve Rogers. I even have the right colored facial hair for it.
Let’s just assume the %s are reversed.