Trump, Congress competing to see who is more incompetent.
TRUMP AND CONGRESS ARE COMPETING TO SEE WHO’S MORE INCOMPETENT
The central dilemma in Washington these days is over which unfolding disaster to focus on. There are so many to choose from. The spectacle of an administration so deeply mired in scandal after just half a year in office that actual governing has become an afterthought. A thin-skinned president at war with everyone around him, from his own cabinet appointees to the press, to members of Congress from his own party. The world’s greatest military power and mightiest economy headed by a self-absorbed simpleton who gets his news from watching TV and tries to govern in 140-character outbursts.
But among the abundance of choices, one particularly reflects the starkness of the problem that is central to the disorder: of three key pillars of U. S. governance, two are malfunctioning badly. The judicial branch has yet to be thrown into chaos, but both the executive and the legislative branches seem to be coming apart at the seams. You can’t run a country like the U. S. when no one is in charge, yet neither Congress nor the Trump administration has shown the ability to take on that responsibility.
The manifest inabilities of Donald Trump are already crystal clear. The man simply lacks what it takes to be a capable political leader, much less the world’s most powerful one. None of his key platform aims is anywhere near achievement as promised — the Mexican wall, the immigrant ban, the flood of good jobs, the rebirth of greatness. And only those who resolutely ignore the madness of Washington still hold any illusions that they will be achieved. Trump at the moment is consumed with quarrels, two in particular: one with the press, the other with the growing investigation into ties between his presidential campaign and the Russian government.
His latest salvo against the press was to appoint An- thony Scaramucci, a slick former hedge fund manager, as communications director and chief cheerleader over the head of the hapless Sean Spicer, who quickly stepped down to the dismay of Melissa McCarthy fans everywhere. Scaramucci’s elevation was immediately characterized as an escalation of an increasingly bitter confrontation. A man with no known qualifications for the job, a combination of enormous ego and willingness to feed Trump the daily fawning he craves, and with a distinct air of Ron Burgundy about him, Scaramucci is expected to do for Trump what yes- men always do for their bosses: say anything that’s required to keep the man happy.
The hopelessness of the White House would be worrying enough, if not matched by a Congress that demonstrates an alarming inability to get anything done. Though both houses are controlled by Republicans, it has failed miserably at the one task it pledged for years would be its first order of business: reforming or replacing Obamacare, the health- care system that remains Barack Obama’s most noteworthy achievement.
Seven months after its namesake became a private citizen, Obamacare is still in place and far from disappearing. No one thinks it’s the greatest health system in the world — even Obama has conceded it could do with improvements — but Republican leaders have proved wholly incapable of crafting an alternative. Instead they’ve broken into warring factions so at odds that one proposal consists of simply killing Obamacare now with nothing to replace it, and worrying about the results later.
The scramble has done nothing to burnish the image of a Congress that was already seen as one of the least effective in U.S. history. When Trump pledged to “drain the swamp” in Washington, he wasn’t referring solely to Democrats or the legions of lobbyists, lawyers, spin doctors and other hangers- on who make their living off the billion-dollar, influence-peddling industry. Throughout the Obama years, the gridlock in Congress was viewed as a means of hog- tying a president who conservatives viewed as wrong-headed and dangerously interventionist. Yet, despite the power to pass whatever legislation it chooses, Congress has proven even less capable of useful action under a president who claims to be a member of the same party.
The fight over health care has shown the party to be hopelessly divided between two camps: one is happy to slash away at the benefits Obamacare brought to Americans who would otherwise lack equivalent access, primarily the elderly and low-income groups. The other worries about the political impact of leaving millions of people without coverage.
Myriad proposals have been put forward to try to close the divide, but run aground on the same fear: the vision put forward by hardliners within the party is simply too scary to moderates, who fear they’ll lose their j obs in next year’s mid- t erm elections. The non- partisan Congressional Budget Office calculated the most recent Republican proposal would leave 22 million people without insurance. Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the figure as bogus, arguing it merely reflects the fact many people wouldn’t buy insurance if they weren’t forced to under the Obama rules. Yet members of the most conservative faction are also disgruntled, because the GOP bill would leave in place some of the taxes Obama introduced to pay for his program.
To get around the problem of Americans being left without any coverage at all, one proposal suggested allowing the sale of stripped- down policies that would be kept cheap by providing very few benefits, ignoring forecasts it would further force up the price of those plans that provide better benefits. Young, healthy people would buy the cheap- o plans, leaving those in need of more benefits stuck with higher costs. Unable to reach any sort of consensus, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scheduled a vote Tuesday that would merely agree to keep debating, even without a firm idea what they were debating about. It passed, barely, when Sen. John McCain, recently diagnosed with brain cancer, flew in to provide the tying vote. VicePresident Mike Pence then broke the tie to ensure passage.
Trump called the result a “big step” and praised McCain, who he had previously disparaged as “not a war hero,” despite his courageous war record. Characteristically, the president has proven singularly ineffective in pushing forward the debate. Few believe he has much interest in, or understanding of, the details of the various proposals, fixated as usual on the simple need to achieve a “win” after so many losses to date. Having watched efforts go nowhere, he fired off one of his usual tweets on the weekend, offering no solutions but directing vague threats at legislators: “If Republicans don’t Repeal and Replace the disastrous ObamaCare, the repercussions will be far greater than any of them understand!” Yet, late Tuesday, the Senate voted by a large margin to reject a plan that would do exactly that: repeal Obamacare even with no alternative to replace it.
As usual, Trump sees the entire issue in terms of what it means to his image; another failure would further dent what little expectation remains that he knows how to get things done. Come September, attention will shift to budget issues, taxes and other priorities. Washington is a world of windows — they’re only open for a certain time before everyone moves on — and the healthcare window is closing. Americans elected Trump because they had little faith in Washington and hoped he would end the businessas- usual way it operates. Yet they find themselves saddled with a Congress and White House that can’t even agree on what they agree on.
THE FIGHT OVER HEALTH CARE HAS SHOWN THE PARTY TO BE HOPELESSLY DIVIDED.