Live from the Orange-Haired Baboon Cage: Jonathan Chait: Mitch McConnell’s Trumpcare Plan Is to Lose Fast: "Mitch McConnell has laid out a wildly aggressive time frame...
...His chamber would essentially xerox the House bill and pass it into law within a few days—no hearings, no negotiations.... I suggested... that McConnell’s plan was not wildly aggressive but actually designed to fail. His latest comments make this scenario seem far more likely.... McConnell told reporters... “We will reach a conclusion on health care next week.... We’ll either pass something that will achieve a goal that we’ve been working on, or not.”
The only possible way a health-care bill could pass the Senate would be a heroic feat of negotiation to bridge the chasm between Republicans who think the House bill provides too much care... and those who think it provides too little.... Georgia’s Johnny Isakson, is out indefinitely while recovering from back surgeries.... If this plan were being pursued by a John Boehner or a Paul Ryan, one might chalk it up to terrible vote-counting or wild optimism. But McConnell isn’t a hopeless optimist.... McConnell has almost certainly sized up his caucus... grasped that Trumpcare stands no chance of resuscitation. A long bleed-out on health care will make Trump and his party even less popular, and chew up precious months.... The plan being pursued by McConnell is that of a man who wants to cut his losses fast.
