While it would be easy to be ironic about the events in Congress last week, the defeat of House Leader Paul Ryan’s proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act will continue to distract a White House that should be concentrating on its programme rather than on recrimination for a stinging defeat that negated the Republican joy for the November election victories.
Republican wars
The fact that the proposed bill was withdrawn twice on consecutive days was the official recognition of a defeat that would have been unthinkable on November 9th when the GOP dreamed of remaking America in its image.
The fractures within the #Republican party have now made it obvious to all that it does not know what it truly represents. Worse still, when a proposal finally makes it through the House the one seat Republican majority in the Senate will face more severe tests on the controversial issues that it will soon address.
At the moment of writing the conjecture is whether or not Paul Ryan will pay price for the failure after President Donald Trump’s tweet to followers to watch a TV programme Saturday where the first item was a call for Ryan to be removed as Speaker of the House.
This tweet will only ensure that the Republican infighting this week will be even more bitter and acrimonious and that Party unity will be put under increasing strain.
Proposed budget and ?
With the failure of the ACA replacement on Friday the White House this week will need to concentrate at its relations with the Republicans in both Houses as it cannot afford to take another public stumble. And with this situation all the campaign doubts about Donald Trump’s lack of political experience are coming back to the fore.
In the swathe of interviews and whispers that inevitably follow any defeat, many Republicans have told journalists that the President has two major personal difficulties that need to be overcome if he wants to achieve even a small part of his objectives.
The first of these is the lack of knowledge about the running of the legislative machine and the second his obvious lack of detailed knowledge of policy making and the requirements for any piece of legislation.
These will not be easy hurdles to overcome,
Amendments
Since the premise of the proposed budget presented last week was the assured victory of ACA replacement bill, it will now need to be amended and urgently to allow for the inevitable effects of the failure of Ryan’s bill.
If the oval office has not yet begun them, this will lead to a long series of meetings between Republicans to ensure that the factional splits will not prove disastrous to the Budget as well.
The obvious answer to that conundrum would be to approach the Democrats to start ensuring that their support for at least some of the less controversial items of the budget. Given his public complaint of the lack of cooperation from the opposition for the repeal of the ACA, which had never been approached by the Oval Office at any stage, this seems unlikely.
In all likelihood the next week will once again be subject to distractions that will make governing the country even more difficult.
Supreme Court
In addition, the Administration still has too many places to fill which will only continue to put pressure on a select few in the White House. Up till now the scarcity of results gives the public little hope of seeing definitive decisions reached for at least this week.
At the same time the Supreme Court will also attract attention. Firstly regarding the fate of the proposed new Justice Neil Gorsuch, the GOP will now want to rush through his confirmation as soon as possible in order to give supporters some belated good news.
But the second reason is even more important for the White House.
The Moslem Ban orders are inevitably moving towards the Supreme Court for final decisions on their constitutionality and eventual application. If the Oval Office loses this challenge President Donald Trump will find it difficult to recover.
Let the week begin.
