“The partisan bickering of the two sides has risen to the point of pure obstructionism, and that is something the American people did not vote for, nor will tolerate.”
President Donald Trump is counting on party cooperation and negotiations to drive his priorities forward following the collapse of the Republican health care bill.
The bill, which party leaders withdrew shortly before a House vote, was doomed to fail. The new law would have stopped tax penalties for not buying insurance, stopped tax increases on high earners and health industry firms, and stopped the expansion of Medicaid for those with low-income. Funding for Planned Parenthood was also a target of the new bill.
Trump blamed the failure on Democrats and conservative lawmakers for the failure of the bill, complaining on Twitter: “Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!”
The Freedom Caucus is a hard-right group of more than 30 GOP House members who were primarily responsible for blocking the bill to undo the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” One Freedom Caucus member, Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA.) said, “Trump got bad advice from some in leadership who said that some of us should not even exist up here. We need to be on a team and get a good product. It could be done in short order.”
Not only was the Republican-controlled House of Representatives divided but there was also division within the ranks of the Freedom Caucus. Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) criticized the contrarian House Freedom Caucus on Monday, a day after resigning from the hard-right group because it helped sink the Republican health care effort. “You can have your principles, and then when it comes to voting, you have to compromise to get something passed. It will continue to be the opposition party in the party. We cannot be effective if we continue to vote no,” Poe said of the caucus, which has roughly three dozen members.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), chairman of the Freedom Caucus, acknowledged he was doing a lot of “self-critiquing” after the health care defeat. He insisted the GOP overhaul effort was not over and that he regretted not spending more time with moderate Republicans and Democrats “to find some consensus.”
Trump aides said the President could seek support from moderate Democrats on upcoming legislative battles ranging from the budget and tax cuts to health care, leaving open the possibility that he could revisit health care legislation.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer offered to find common ground with Trump for repairing Obamacare. Schumer said that Trump must be willing to drop attempts to repeal his predecessor’s signature achievement, warning that Trump was destined to “lose again” on other parts of his agenda if he remained beholden to conservative Republicans.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, suggested that if Trump changes, “he could have a different presidency, but he’s going to have to tell the Freedom Caucus and the hard-right select wealthy interests who are dominating his presidency he can’t work with them, and we’ll certainly look at his proposals.”
Trump faces decisions on how to proceed. He must choose whether to back administrative changes to fix Obama’s health care law or undermine it as prices for insurance plans rise in many markets. Priebus did not answer directly regarding Trump’s choice, saying that fixes to the health law will have to come legislatively, and he wants to ensure “people don’t get left behind.”
“It’s more or less a warning shot that we are willing to talk to anyone. We always have been. I think more so now than ever; it’s time for both parties to come together and get to real reforms in this country,” Priebus said.
As partisan politics shake out, President Trump will have to gather support from both sides. The Republicans shot themselves in the foot with the internal bickering. They will have to be open to working with the Democrats to come up with a bi-partisan bill that passes. Whether trying to fix the problems in Obamacare or attempting new legislation, the President is committed to fixing the problem.
The rates and fees in the current Obamacare bill have been rising at an alarming rate. At the same time, the options people have for carriers is dwindling as more and more insurance companies opt out of Obamacare. Obamacare is slated to cause already enrolled members another increase in rates. Premiums in 31 states are expected to rise by double digits, while two states will see decreases in 2017 from this year. Premiums in one state, Arizona, are estimated to more than double.
Overall, the average premium increase is 25 percent, according to a report from the Department of Health & Human Services.
The Obamacare bill, although critically flawed, is only part of the problem. The main issue is the division of the House. The first big piece of legislation the Republicans tried to put forward failed. Even though they control the House and the Senate; they still could not agree among themselves to get behind a Republican plan. This failure showed a problem with the House leadership much more than it did with the President.
From healthcare, to cabinet appointments, to fighting executive orders, to selections for the Supreme Court, it is time for a new approach that involves both parties. One party deciding not to accept anything on the other side is a recipe for more years of stagnation in the government. The partisan bickering of the two sides has risen to the point of pure obstructionism, and that is something the American people did not vote for, nor will tolerate.
The sooner the House and the Senate understand that; the sooner some meaningful work can be accomplished. What we see now with the partisan fighting is exactly why the American people have such a low opinion of Congress.
President Trump has shown he is not locked into one party or the other. The President is doing what he believes is right for the country as he understands it. His focus on this is evidenced by several of his executive orders. Politics aside, he is making decisions for the country as a whole, not a particular party. Trump was voted in as an agent of change, someone that held no real party affiliation and therefore would not follow party politics. That was his mandate, and he now needs to show the American people that that is precisely who he is.
