Analysis: Failure to repeal Obamacare ends terrible week for Trump, Republicans
Welcome to Washington.
In a major setback to the first legislative initiative of his administration, President Trump on Friday agreed with House Speaker Paul Ryan to cancel a scheduled-delayed-and-rescheduled vote to overhaul the Affordable Care Act after it became clear Republicans didn't have the votes to pass it.
The repercussions won't be limited to health care.
The unsuccessful scramble for votes, much of it played out in public on cable TV and Twitter, scars House Speaker Paul Ryan in particular and the GOP in general, given that Republicans have spent seven and a half years and four elections promising to undo President Obama's signature domestic initiative. Congressional Republicans had voted more than 50 times to overturn the law when they knew it didn't count because Obama was in the White House to veto it.
"I'm disappointed, because we could have had it," Trump told reporters at the White House after the bill was pulled, blaming the defeat on the refusal of Democrats to support the bill "I'm a little surprised, to be honest with you."
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But Friday's vote — to be precise, the decision to avoid a vote because defeat was assured — was a crucial test for a new president already suffering the rockiest start of any new commander in chief in modern times.
On Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed the FBI was investigating whether Trump associates coordinated with Russians who were trying meddling in the presidential election, a potentially explosive inquiry that will hang over the White House for months or more. Trump's approval rating sank as low as 37% in the Gallup Poll this week, by far the worst of any president at this point in his tenure. Federal judges have blocked two of his executive orders aimed at tightening immigration from a group of predominantly Muslim countries.
Trump had worked the health care issue in traditional presidential style. He rallied supporters at a campaign-style rally in Louisville. He traveled to Capitol Hill to lobby some Republican members and invited others to use the White House bowling alley. He helped negotiate revisions first to win over restive conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus and then to hold uneasy moderates.
"He left it all on the table," a subdued White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters before the vote.
The fact that Trump's all wasn't enough to carry the day raises questions about his political clout and his personal brand as "the closer," the best-selling author of The Art of the Deal who could negotiate compromises that eluded ordinary politicians. It leaves Republicans, finally in unified control of Washington, bitterly divided.
"I will not sugarcoat it," Ryan said at a news conference called to announce he was pulling the bill. "This is a disappointing day for us."
To be sure, Trump and congressional Republicans could regroup over the next few months on health care. The president predicted Democrats would reach out to negotiate a bipartisan bill as problems with the Affordable Care Act worsen. He expressed his readiness to move on to other issues, including a tax overhaul.
However, it's not as though a major rewrite of the tax code will be easy, given the collision of well-funded interest groups it involves. Or Trump's commitment for a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, a proposal that puts him at odds with some of his fellow Republicans. And building that "big, beautiful wall" across the Southern border?
That's not exactly a slam-dunk, either.
To remind: It's just Day 64.
