You feel a bit like a doctor or even a shrink when you are tasked with doing daily takes on Donald J. trump. We ae never at a loss for new clues. Today we find that the man is actually aware that the House health bill the Senate has dissed royally is the very incarnation of meanness. It would ruin health care for one thing. It would also effectively deny insurance to 23 million Americans.
Where are things?
We are exactly where we were before the Senate started stalling on whether to let the CBO -- Congress' budget watchdogs -- "score" the legislators' handiwork.
The problem is the Senate wants a huge vacation starting July 4. It takes two weeks for the CBO to figure out what is right or wrong with a big complex bill. So each day of delay in the Senate minimizes chances CBO will get the scoring done in time for a vote.
What is in the Senate bill?
That is a problem. The GOP Senate has done all its work in secrecy. Ordinarily, for a monster change in the most intimate thing we face, like our health, you would expect the Senate to take its time and have public hearings. You would certainly expect them to get some serious experts in to reassure the public that all will be well. Forget it. The Senate rushed according to presidential command and hid its work and consulted no one.
So we do not know what is in the Senate bill. We only know it is, as this is written, stalled.
Get rid of the 'mean' stuff
Enter Donald Trump. He weighs in finally. He pronounces in his abbreviated way. He instructs the senators not to come up with a "mean" bill. That is a little bit like ordering the military to stuff bomb casings with cotton.
Cosmetics is what our red-head on the way to becoming gray wants. Don't let on that I am going to renege on Social Security, privatize air safety and give all the Medicaid to the one percent as a tax break. Make the MSM say Trump isn't all that mean.
3. The Trump Show https://t.co/qk7aXacj8L
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) June 14, 2017
Seriously
The prospect of the Senate trying to pass something that will not comport with their House colleagues, who are the very soul of meanness, is doubtless why the delay exists.
The bill may well be headed for the ash heap. But then our AM Axios informer tells us that Donald is less concerned about meanness, being an expert in that, than with the integrity of his Electoral College results. Explicitly:
Allen calls Trump's electoral college anxiety the "topic that most provokes his rage." This will doubtless find its way to the Resistance and the current conflict will continue until it ends, whenever that turns out to be.
