Day 63–67: Trump Healthcare Gets Laughed Off the Floor, Tax Plan to Come
With Paul Ryan’s declaration that “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future,” it seems that the Trump administration was dealt a sizable blow.
Far more impactful than the dueling blocked travel bans, Trump’s failure to get his healthcare plan through a Republican-controlled Senate calls into question his ability to lead and unify his own party. You might recall Trump’s confident promise to repeal and replace Obamacare on his first day in office, but the subject of healthcare proved to be far more complicated than the 45th president anticipated.
In truth, healthcare is an extraordinarily complicated issue, and in a diverse and expansive nation like ours, there may not be a right answer. Yet Trump’s plan was undeniably the wrong answer, as it would have nearly doubled the number of uninsured Americans,
Trump was quick to deflect blame (hello Democrats, Paul Ryan), but the fate of Trumpcare ultimately falls on his shoulders. Trump has yet to pass any significant legislation, and people are beginning to realize that his campaign promises might not bring the utopian American that they had romanticized. This failure leaves Trump with little margin for error when it comes to his next piece of proposed legislation: his tax plan.
Trump cannot afford to lose on another piece of legislation, and his tax plan seems to be the next polarizing issue on the docket. And while it may not be as radical as Trump promised (wildly talked about with unfocused buzzwords, while not actually disclosing any information regarding the policy itself), it should be an easy way to get the Republican Party united behind a singular cause. After all what do Republicans love more than tax cuts?!
However, if Trump fails to get his tax plan through, his administration as a whole could be facing some serious uncertainty.
The first 100 days of Trump’s presidency so far have been riddled with follies, from the circus surrounding his cabinet appointments, to the failed travel ban, to a highly controversial budget. His general stupidity, coupled with a seemingly endless litany of blunders, have *shockingly* not materialized into a stable tenure in the White House.
While impeachment is still merely a liberal’s wet dream, Trump’s margin for error is wearing dangerously thin. If he cannot right the ship soon, Washington could be headed for some rocky territory.