The GOP health care bill is DOA, and Donald Trump is trying to hang it around Paul Ryan’s neck

| 8:50 pm EDT March 13, 2017
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The Republican health care bill died today. No, there wasn’t a vote. But the Congressional Budget Office released its evaluation of the bill today, and revealed that 24 million Americans who are currently insured would lose access to health insurance. It already lacked sufficient Republican votes in the Senate before today’s bombshell. It’s dead now. And behind the scenes, Donald Trump is already working to hang the albatross around Paul Ryan’s neck. In fact he has been for days.

Trump knew this health care bill was dead a week ago when his White House began insisting that it not be called “TrumpCare.” This is the guy who puts his name on every building he owns, and also put his name on everything from a fake university to a brand of terrible steaks. When he refused to have his name on the health care bill, you knew that he was betting it would die. But there’s more to it, because Trump’s favorite propaganda outlet Breitbart has been doing the same.

A few days ago Breitbart, which is still unofficially controlled by Trump’s Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, put out an op-ed slamming the Republican health care bill. And just to rub it in, today Breitbart published an audio recording of Paul Ryan privately distancing himself from Trump that it had been sitting on for several months (sorry, we don’t link to Breitbart as per editorial policy; you’re welcome to google it). The pattern is clear: Trump knows the GOP health care bill will fail, he’s known it for some time, and he wants Ryan to take the blame for it so he won’t have to. But is it part of a larger strategy?

The Republicans were never going to be able to come up with a superior ObamaCare alternative, or even a tenable one, because health care reform is hard to do well and it’s not in their nature. Ryan knew it. Trump knew it. And once it became clear that the public wouldn’t accept an ObamaCare repeal without an adequate replacement, this was a losing issue for the Republicans. Ryan already married himself years ago to the false promise that he had a great alternative up his sleeve, so he was going to eat dirt on this one way or the other.

But is Donald Trump merely hanging the GOP’s failure to repeal and replace ObamaCare on Paul Ryan because someone had to take the blame, or is this part of a larger strategy? Why is Trump’s mouthpiece Breitbart suddenly trying to scandalize Ryan now, when it could have done so sooner? Is Trump now looking to oust Ryan, in favor of a new Speaker of his choosing? It would allow Trump to fully blame Ryan for the fact that ObamaCare is now likely to be with us for quite awhile. But Trump would also lose his scapegoat, and he would be stuck owning any subsequent GOP House failures. So let’s watch how much or little Trump tries to twist the knife when he hangs this failure on Ryan. Contribute to Palmer Report