Health care defeat could mean winless first year

President Donald Trump is now more likely than ever to end his first year in office without a single major legislative accomplishment. His Obamacare repeal collapsed on Tuesday. He won’t even release the broad outlines of his tax overhaul plan until September. The last time Washington did a major tax bill, in 1986, it took more than a year.

A $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion) infrastructure plan is little more than a talking point. Congress ignored his budget proposal. Republicans are as divided on all of these issues as they are on health care. Lawmakers haven’t even given him money to build his border wall.

And between now and the end of the year, Congress still has to approve more than $1 trillion in federal spending, pass a veterans health care bill and navigate a debt-ceiling fight to avoid a potential default, all in the space of about a dozen working weeks. It doesn’t leave much time for legislating, even for a Republican president who came into office with a package of promises and a Republican Senate and a Republican House to boot.

The White House pledges next time will be different — preparing to launch a tax overhaul effort, complete with a coordinated strategy and travel by Trump to key states to promote the plan, something he never did in a concerted way with the Obamacare repeal. The administration is asking corporate chief executives and conservative groups to pitch in with media appearances and town halls and is recruiting governors and local officials to do the same.

That still might not be enough. The failed fight over the Affordable Care Act exposed weaknesses that imperil much of Trump’s agenda: a historically unpopular and inattentive political novice in the Oval Office, an uncompromising hard-right wing on Capitol Hill, and their leadership’s inability to bridge internal philosophical divides.

The White House argues that Trump has been successful outside of legislation. He won confirmation of his nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, and his administration is making steady progress on deregulation.

Congressional Republican leaders and the White House have to now figure out whether they can salvage any of their legislative agenda, particularly the promise of major tax cuts.