It stands to reason that after their humiliating defeat in Congress over the attempted repeal of Obamacare, that Donald Trump and Paul Ryan have guaranteed a Democratic Congress in 2018. Considering that the repeal of Obamacare was the signature issue of both the Trump campaign and the GOP-led Congress in the 2016 election, it appears that the the defeat of the GOP healthcare bill that would have deprived 24 million Americans of their healthcare, will ensure a Democratic Party Congressional victory in 2018. It would appear that at best, the GOP House, and possibly the Senate too, is on life support, and Trump and Ryan are the triage nurses.
The victor and the spoils
The presumption will be that a president who cannot even get his agenda through Congress in the first few weeks of his presidency does not deserve to have a Congress of his own party in power. The mean reality in politics is that, as the old saying goes, "to the victor goes the spoils." And a president who cannot get his agenda through Congress at the beginning of his presidency, is not a victor.
The President who gave up easily
When former President Barack Obama introduced Obamacare to Congress, he held a summit meeting at Blair House, spoke to a joint session of Congress, visited members of the House and Senate on Capitol HIll, and spoke to the American People about the need for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) on a regular basis.
Altogether, President Obama lobbied his health care act for a year and a half before it finally was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law.
President Trump, on the other hand, has been in office for eight weeks. He signed an Executive Order of intent to repeal Obamacare on his first day of office, immediately after his inaugural parade.
Trump and Ryan have been lobbying for the passage of their bill repealing Obamacare and replacing it with the new GOP healthcare law throughout the eight weeks of Trump's presidency thus far.
Trump, unlike Obama, gave up when the going got tough. Instead of labeling this week's vote in Congress a "temporary setback," as Obama would have done, Trump put up his arms and gave up.
Besides, Trump, who still is tweeting that Obama wiretapped him, announced that he is going to focus his energies on tax reform, which, he said, he should have done before introducing the healthcare bill. It is highly questionable how effective Trump and Ryan will be at attaining substantive tax cut legislation since such legislation was dependent upon savings from the GOP healthcare act that failed to pass in Congress this week.
Nancy and Chuck get ready
Meanwhile, it appears that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should be getting ready to move into their new offices. Nancy has been there before; the Speaker's office needs new curtains. As for Chuck, the Majority Leader's office has been begging for a Democrat for a long time. Both the House and the Senate are up for grabs and it looks like 2018 may very well be the year, thanks to Donald and Paul.
