A week ago trump said he would reintroduce his disastrous healthcare bill. He made some hair-brained attempts to bribe Democrats onto his side. Then came silence. A week in Trump time is an age. Meanwhile, Steve Bannon is still around. If he ever writes an autobiography it is likely to have "purgatory" in the title. The comer is the former head of Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohn. He has some pluses. He has the same last name as Donald's mentor until he blew him off, Roy Cohn, a veritable prodigy of evil.

Gary Cohn did not give up Goldman to become second fiddle to anyone except maybe Donald.

Gary Cohn is connected to the vast web of folk who run the present economy. He is comfortable in the world of mega-wealth. Where Steve Bannon comes off as a rebellious James Dean wannabe, Cohn is like all those nameless actors who anchor films with happy endings.

The moment of Cohn is arriving

Get this. Axios is warming to Cohn. That is merely amusing. What is delicious to anyone who does not like Paul Ryan is that we are seeing the once heralded border adjustment tax, Ryan's brainchild, kicked to the floor. The new method for raising funds to make Trump's monster tax cut possible is to eliminate the current deduction allowed on state and local taxes.

Read the Axios dispatch to see just how unpopular Mr. Cohn's solution would be.

Take the Ike route

If you want to talk prosperity, hike back to the days if Ike, the fabled fifties, Then taxes on the wealthy were so high that we can hardly mention them today. Oh well, try 91 percent and fortunes were being made. Look.

So which comes first?

Trump is busily tweeting about Japan as we speak and has issued not one word regarding his stated goal of re-introducing Trumpcare and spending a load of time arriving at a probable stalemate when all things are considered.

If Bannon is now in purgatory and Mr. Cohn is sidling up to the president, we might see a revision. It will not be the happy scenario noted in the tweet above. It will be a dismal attempt to rob Peter to pay Paul. It will create more heat than light. It will change nothing.

In other words, it really makes no difference what Trump decides or does not decide. His agenda is reduced to himself and his megaphone. Congress can and will do nothing. Trump will quash anything threatening. There is no energy for anything bipartisan. It is a royal flush and we will learn that all the things the polls indicate Americans really do want are just not in the cards.
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