U.S. President Donald trump is still fuming at the failure of the Congress to pass his healthcare plan; It forced him to withdraw the bill at the last hour. To show his anger, the president tweeted over the weekend, blaming the Democrats and conservative groups for failure to kill ObamaCare.
Twitter Sunday
On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted that the Democrats must be smiling in D.C. because the Freedom Causes saved ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood with some help from the Club For Growth and Heritage. On Saturday, the object of his ire apparently was House Speaker Paul Ryan who failed to deliver the votes on the president’s healthcare bill.
While Trump stood by Ryan publicly on Friday, the following day, he asked his 27 million Twitter followers to watch on Saturday evening “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Fox News. When the show began, host Jeanine Pirro called for Ryan to step down as House speaker, New York Post reported.
Fox New backs Trump
However, Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff, insisted that Pirro’s message only coincided with Trump’s tweet who only wanted to help Pirro improve the ratings of her TV show. Priebus insisted that the president thought Ryan worked very hard and Trump is standing by the speaker.
It is not the only Fox show that backed Trump’s healthcare bill. On the March 24 segment of the Fox Business Channel.
Stuart Varney, Fox host, called the Republican Party a disgrace. His explanation was that “At this moment in time, the Republican Party is a disgrace. We elected the Republicans to run the House, the Senate and the White House and the very, very first thing that comes up on the legislative agenda they vote no, they’re split.” Varney said the party could not govern.
ObamaCare to explode under own weight?
After Trump had blamed the Democrats, he tweeted on Saturday that he foresees ObamaCare exploding, while he promised to get together and to piece a great healthcare plan for the people. With the failure of Congress to scrap ObamaCare, penalties of $695 per adult, or 2.5 percent of household income, still apply, MIT Professor Jon Gruber pointed out.
For John Heehery, a Republican strategist, Trump was right in withdrawing his bill at the 11th hour rather than for Trump to be dragged into a long and painful battle since he likely could not triumph. He said that the president and GOP leaders must figure out who their real friends are and how they should build a permanent majority or bi-partisan majority. Heehery noted that Trump attempted but failed to get conservatives from the Freedom Caucus to support his new healthcare policy since it is not substantially different from ObamaCare, The Telegraph reported.
To get legislators to support his healthcare plan, Trump met 120 congressmen and women, treated them to bowling, pizza and lasagna dinners at the White House, and he also called them to seek support. But Trump’s charm offensive failed because the bill he was pushing had a fundamental flaw. Raul Labrador, co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, pointed out the bill lacked a natural constituency.
