GOP struggles for way to govern
Voters spare Trump blame
WASHINGTON, March 26, (Agencies): The Republican Party of “no” for Democrat Barack Obama’s eight years is having a hard time getting to “yes” in the early Donald Trump era.
The unmitigated failure of the GOP bill to replace Obamacare underscored that Republicans are a party of upstart firebrands, old-guard conservatives and moderates in Democratic-leaning districts. Despite the GOP monopoly on Washington, they are pitted against one another and struggling for a way to govern.
The divisions cost the party its best chance to fulfill a seven-year promise to undo Obama’s Affordable Care Act and cast doubt on whether the Republicanled Congress can do the monumental — the first overhaul of the nation’s tax system in more than 30 years — as well as the basics — keeping the government open at the end of next month, raising the nation’s borrowing authority later this year and passing the 12 spending bills for federal agencies and departments.
While the anti-establishment bloc that grew out of the tea party’s rise helped the Republicans win majorities in Congress in 2010 and 2014, the internal divide, complicated further by Trump’s independence, threatens the GOP’s ability to deliver on other promises.
Aftermath
“I think we have to do some soulsearching internally to determine whether or not we are even capable as a governing body,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota in the bitter aftermath of the health care debacle.
Meanwhile, House Republicans passed roughly 60 bills over the past six years dismembering president Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Other than minor tweaks, they knew the measures would go nowhere because the Democrat still lived in the White House.
With a bill that counted Friday, they choked. It was an epic, damaging, selfinflicted collapse that smothered the GOP effort.
“We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future,” a flustered Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told reporters after abruptly yanking the legislation off the House floor to avert a certain defeat. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take us to repeal this law.”
Vice-President Mike Pence sounded as though the repeal-and-replace effort would continue unabated, telling a group at a small business in West Virginia on Saturday that “we will end the Obamacare nightmare and give the American people the world-class health care that they deserve.” He acknowledged that “Congress just wasn’t ready . ... We’re back to the drawing board.”
While some parts of the Affordable Care Act have obvious problems, others are working well and have brought the country’s rate of uninsured people to a record low.
The day after the flaming out of US President Donald Trump’s first major legislative initiative, his supporters across America were lashing out — at conservatives, at Democrats, at leaders of his Republican Party in Congress.
Only Trump himself was spared their wrath.
Many voters who elected him appeared largely willing to give him a pass on the collapse of his campaign promise to overhaul the US healthcare system, stressing his short time in office.
“Being a businessman, he’ll not take ‘no’ for an answer,” said Tony Nappi, a 71-year-old from Trinity, Florida, one of the many disappointed Republicans on his weekend softball team. “He’ll get the job done.”