This morning Paul Ryan was on with CBS This Morning to discuss the continuing effort to pass a repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
As I was listening to this short segment, I realized that Trump and Ryan are actually trying to play good cop, bad cop on health care.
Watch:
Did you catch it?
“If this Republican Congress allows the perfect to be the enemy of the good, I worry we’ll push the president into working with Democrats. He’s been suggesting that as much.”
There you have it. Paul Ryan is obviously playing the good cop here, telling members (like the Freedom Caucus) that they have to suck it up and vote for a ‘good’ bill or else Trump, the bad cop, will bring Democrats on board and the Obamacare replacement will go from being patient-run to government-run.
But here’s the thing. It doesn’t sound like Ryan is actually budging much on the bill he’s already put forward.
Watch:
RYAN: Well, it hasn’t survived yet. What happened is we are going through what I would call a very painful growing pain. I’d like to see the growth at the end of that pain, which is we had been an opposition party for 10 years. And I’ve been long saying, if we’re going to be successful, deliver for the American people, improve people’s lives, we’ve got to become a proposition governing party. About 90 percent of our members are for this bill. We’re not going to give up after seven years of dealing with this, after running on a plan all of last year, translating that plan into legislation, which is what this is.
O’DONNELL: So what’s the Plan B?
RYAN: Plan B is we keep talking to each other and figure out how we get to yes, and how we get this bill passed.
O’DONNELL: So you’re not changing the policy, you’re just putting more pressure?
RYAN: No, we’re listening to people. If we can make improvements to this bill, all the better. So if improvements can be made to this legislation that get people to yes, that’s great.
Improvements? The way Ryan says this, it sounds like these improvements would only be nominal changes, that the bill that 90% of the caucus supports will largely stay the same. If that’s true, I don’t see how Republicans get to ‘yes’ on this bill.
And as far as pressure goes, that’s what this whole good cop, bad cop routine is all about. Aside from Trump’s comments about getting Democrats on board, just see what Trump tweeted this morning, telling the Freedom Caucus that the whole Republican agenda will fail if they don’t vote for this bill:
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
Talk about pressure tactics!
I am glad they are still working on fixing the Obamacare replacement, but it doesn’t sound like much has changed from last week. And I really don’t have a good feeling about where this is headed.