July 18, 2017

Just before this photo opportunity in the Oval Office where Trump ranted at his own party's failure to repeal and replace the ACA, Mitch McConnell's diabolical plan to repeal and delay replacement for two years came to an end when Senators Murkowski, Capito and Collins said they would oppose that, too.

That means that for today, and for the foreseeable future, the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare is dead, though zombies may rise in the future. Always be wary.

However, for today, the deadness of the effort was enough to enrage Trump before he settled himself down with ridiculous arguments again, and the object of his rage was the Republican Party, which he distanced himself from.

After ranting about how all he's heard for seven years is the "repeal and replace mantra" and now they've failed at it, Trump listed the litany of problems with the ACA. To be sure, some of those problems are real in places that went heavily for Trump, but some of them are the product of the administration's own actions.

Trump never wastes an opportunity for horn-blowing, though. "And I think you'll also agree that I've been saying for a long time let Obamacare fail and then everybody's going to have to come together and fix it and come up with a new plan and a plan that's really good for the people with much lower premiums, much lower costs, and much better protection," Trump said.

This is where I remind everyone he's promising a fantasy, but the very best hope of coming close to his goal would be Medicare for All.

But what the man-baby in the Oval Office really wants everyone to know? It's not his responsibility. Nothing is EVER his responsibility, and this is no exception.

"Let Obamacare fail. It will be a lot easier," he said, unironically. "I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let Obamacare fail."

He insisted, "We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats will come to us and say how do we fix it, how do we fix it, or how do we come up with a new plan."

But now, as in 2013, Republicans do own it. Lock. Stock. And Barrel.

Right now, today, Democrats would be more than happy to put ideas for how to make it better on the table. Right now. Today. Bernie Sanders has a Medicare buy-in option for people over 55 and a public option proposal ready to roll. Claire McCaskill has proposed that anyone living in counties where insurers have pulled out should have subsidized access to the same policies as Congress.

Those are just a couple of the ideas. The administration has an obligation to stabilize the markets by guaranteeing that cost sharing reductions (CSRs) are funded for those people above Medicaid eligibility levels but just barely.

Intentional sabotage should be greeted with lawsuits galore by Democrats.

The one thing Democrats are not going to sit down for is repealing it. But they're here right now for improving it.

Then, like a child settling himself down from a temper tantrum, he found the silver lining.

"But if you really think about it, you look at it, and we have 52 people," Trump said, speaking of the slim Senate majority. "We had no Democrat support (DUH), which is really, you know, something that should be said. We should have had democrats vote."

Trump kept soothing himself, chanting, "It was a great plan for a lot of people. We had no Democrats aboard."

As a final parting gift he rationalized, "We are 52 people. We had four noes. We might have had another one somewhere in there but eventually the vote would have been pretty close to, you look at it, 48-4. That's a pretty impressive vote by any standard. And yet off vote of 48-4 or something like that and you need more. It's pretty tough."

He and the rest of them just cannot accept the fact that when you serve a shit sandwich to people, they'll either walk away or hate you for making you eat it.

Make him eat it. He DOES own this. Now and forevermore.

Update: Just one of the many similar reactions to his rant:

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