Trump Supporter Regrets Vote As Husband Is Deported
Washington Post: “When Helen Beristain told her husband she was voting for Donald Trump last year, he warned her that the Republican nominee planned to ‘get rid of the Mexicans.'”
“Defending her vote, Helen quoted Trump directly, noting that the tough-talking Republican said he would only kick the ‘bad hombres’ out of the country, according to the South Bend Tribune.”
“Months later, Roberto — a successful businessman, respected member of his Indiana town, the father of three American-born children — languishes in a detention facility with hardened criminals as he awaits his deportation back to Mexico, the country he left in 1998 when he entered the United States illegally.”
Quote of the Day
“I’ve been in this job eight years, and I’m wracking my brain to think of one thing our party has done that’s been something positive, that’s been something other than stopping something else from happening. We need to start having victories as a party. And if we can’t, then it’s hard to justify why we should be back here.”
— Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), quoted by The Atlantic.
Tax Reform Is Not Easier Than Health Care
Playbook: “It might be simpler for the New York, Wall Street-centric Trump administration to understand, because many of them have spent time in finance. But, in Washington, it’s actually harder. First of all, Congress has hardly started the tax reform process. There is deep disagreement among Republicans on the Hill, and between the Hill and the administration. For example, the House — particularly Speaker Paul Ryan and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady — are hell bent on a border-adjustment tax to help pay for lower rates. Figures in the Trump administration staunchly disagree.”
“There’s absolutely no consensus plan as of now. And the lobbyists have hardly started pounding the pavement. But when they do, there will be millions in advocacy from every business interest in the United States. In fact, because of arcane rules, Republicans don’t even know how they’ll move the legislation. We’re not saying it won’t get done. But it’s not the walk in the park that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants you to think it is.”
“The Trump administration is chattering about taking the policy lead on tax reform — coming up with a plan, and telling Congress to pass it. According to the aides and lawmakers we’ve spoken to, that would be a mistake. Congress doesn’t take orders well.”
You Can’t Blame the Democrats
A Wall Street Journal editorial rips the Republican leadership:
“House Republicans pulled their health-care bill shortly before a vote on Friday, and for once the media dirge is right about a GOP defeat. This is a major blow to the Trump Presidency, the GOP majority in Congress, and especially to the cause of reforming and limiting government. The damage is all the more acute because it was self-inflicted. President Trump was right to say on Friday that Democrats provided no help, but Democrats were never going to vote to repeal President Obama’s most important legislation. And that’s no excuse. Republicans have campaigned for more than seven years on repealing and replacing Obamacare, and they finally have a President ready to sign it. In the clutch they choked.”
What Trump Didn’t Like About the Health Care Bill
Politico: “For weeks Trump had seemed disinterested and disengaged from the specifics of the health care fight, both behind closed doors with his aides and at public rallies. Trump ‘just wanted to get something he could sign,’ said one adviser who talks to him frequently. ‘He was over it.’ He would often interrupt conversations on the law to talk about other issues, advisers and aides said.”
“In one phone call with Ryan earlier this month, Trump told the House speaker that he had a problem with the bill. It wasn’t over Medicaid expansion, maternity coverage, deductibles or insurance premiums. Rather, it was that he didn’t like the word ‘buckets’ — which Ryan had been using to describe the parts of their plan. ‘I don’t like that word buckets. You throw trash in buckets. I don’t like that word,’ Trump said, according to two people familiar with the call. Trump preferred ‘phases.’ Ryan agreed and adopted the term.”
Ryan Is Still Safe In His Job
Politico: “No one is prepared to challenge Ryan for his job, said GOP lawmakers from across the Republican Conference. While some right-wing media and outside groups are agitating to replace the speaker, and his antagonists on the White House staff needle him anonymously in the press, there is no way he will be ousted. President Donald Trump hasn’t turned on him, either – at least not yet. And Ryan remains popular with his rank-and-file members, who genuinely like him. Critically, Ryan is not a liability for them back home, the ultimate litmus test for any congressional leader.”
Inside the Meltdown
Mike Allen: “When the balky hardliners of the House Freedom Caucus visited the White House earlier this week, this was Steve Bannon’s opening line, according to people in the conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building: ‘Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill.'”
“Bannon’s point was: This is the Republican platform. You’re the conservative wing of the Republican Party. But people in the room were put off by the dictatorial mindset.”
One of the members replied: “You know, the last time someone ordered me to something, I was 18 years old. And it was my daddy. And I didn’t listen to him, either.”
Nunes Vanished Just Before He Made Surveillance Claims
“Hours before the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced his shocking claims about surveillance of the Trump transition team on Wednesday morning, he practically disappeared.”
“Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) was traveling with a senior committee staffer in an Uber on Tuesday evening when he received a communication on his phone, three committee officials and a former national security official with ties to the committee told the Daily Beast. After the message, Nunes left the car abruptly, leaving his own staffer in the dark about his whereabouts.”
“By the next morning, Nunes hastily announced a press conference. His own aides, up to the most senior level, did not know what their boss planned to say next. Nunes’ choice to keep senior staff out of the loop was highly unusual.”
Russia State News Applies for White House Pass
“The Russian state-owned news website Sputnik has applied for a White House hard pass and is seeking membership in the White House Foreign Press Group in order to become a part of pool rotations,” Politico reports.
Nobody Knew Governing Could Be So Complicated
McKay Coppins: “The GOP’s inability to maneuver a health-care bill through the House this week—after seven years of promising to repeal and replace Obamacare—is, indeed, emblematic of a deeper dysfunction that grips his party. But that dysfunction may not be as easy to cure as Ryan and other GOP leaders believe.”
“That’s because it has been nearly a decade since Washington Republicans were in the business of actual governance. Whether you view their actions as a dystopian descent into cynical obstructionism or a heroic crusade against a left-wing menace, the GOP spent the Obama years defining itself—deliberately, and thoroughly—in opposition to the last president. Rather than engage the Obama White House in a more traditional legislative process—trading favors, making deals, seeking out areas where their interests align—conservatives in Congress opted to boycott the bargaining table altogether. Meanwhile, they busied themselves with a high-minded (and largely theoretical) intra-party debate about what 21st-century conservatism should stand for. They spent their time dealing in abstract ideas, articulating lofty principles, reciting memorized quotes from the Founding Fathers.”
“In many ways, the strategy paid off: Republicans took back Congress, slowed the progress of an agenda they genuinely opposed, and ultimately seized control of the White House. But it also came at a cost for the GOP—their lawmakers forgot how to make laws. Indeed, without any real expectation of their bills actually being enacted, the legislative process mutated into a platform for point-scoring, attention-getting, and brand-building.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened — watch.”
— President Trump, quoted by the New York Times, spining the GOP’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The Biggest Broken Promise In Political History
Phillip Klein: “Republicans ran on repealing and replacing Obamacare for seven years, over the course of four election cycles… Republicans were always moving the goal posts on voters.”
“That is, during campaign season, they made boasts about repeal, and then once in office, they talked about procedural complications. In 2010, they campaigned on repeal, but by 2011, they said they needed the Senate. In 2014, they won the Senate, but by 2015 they said as long as Obama was in office, nothing would become law. In 2016, they told conservative voters, even reluctant ones, that if they voted for Trump despite any reservations, they’d finally be able to repeal Obamacare. In November, voters gave them unified control of Washington. And yet after just two months on the job, they have thrown in the towel and said they’re willing to abandon seven years of promises.”
Health Bill Failure May Hurt Tax Overhaul Effort
“Republicans’ spectacular failure to repeal and replace Obamacare threatens to sabotage another cornerstone of their agenda, tax reform — because of simple math,” Politico reports.
“The GOP was counting on wiping out nearly $1 trillion in Obamacare taxes to help finance the sweeping tax cuts they’ve got planned for their next legislative act. And now it’s unclear where all that money will come from.”
The Inside Story of How Trump Failed on Health Care
Washington Post: “For Trump, it was never supposed to be this hard. As a real estate mogul on the rise, he wrote The Art of the Deal, and as a political candidate, he boasted that nobody could make deals as beautifully as he could. Replacing Obamacare, a Republican boogeyman since the day it was enacted seven years ago, was Trump’s first chance to prove that he had the magic touch that he claimed eluded Washington.”
“But Trump’s effort was plagued from the beginning. The bill itself would have violated a number of Trump’s campaign promises, driving up premiums for millions of citizens and throwing millions more off health insurance — including many of the working-class voters who gravitated to his call to “make America great again.” Trump was unsure about the American Health Care Act, though he ultimately dug in for the win, as he put it.”
Republicans Pull the Health Care Bill
President Trump told the Washington Post: “We just pulled it.”
The vote was scheduled to take place at 3:30 pm but Speaker Ryan called Republicans into a conference meeting instead.
It’s a massive defeat for President Trump and the Republican leadership.
Newt Gingrich, Then and Now
“No one should be confused.Obamacare repeal if it passes will be Trump’s triumph. He personally intervened to save bill when it faced defeat.”
— Newt Gingrich, at 7:27 am.
“Why would you schedule a vote on a bill that is at 17 percent approval? Have we forgotten everything Reagan taught us?”
— Gingrich, at 2:36 pm.
Ossoff Holds Small Leads In Special Election Runoff
A new Opinion Savvy survey in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District shows Jon Ossoff (D) easily advancing past the April 18 top two primary, but also competitive against each Republican they tested him against in the June 20 runoff election.
Ossoff actually holds small leads in three of the four match ups.
