Recap

Called it didn't I?

Okay it didn't exactly take an expert to realize the AHCA was doomed, but it is still nice to be right, especially as my last prediction some months ago went so spectacularly wrong.

Anyone else think Paul Ryan maybe doesn't deserve his reputation as a policy wonk? Dude pushed a bill that was too harsh to win moderates, yet not harsh enough to win hardcore conservatives, it's like he sat down with his aides and purposefully attempted to come up with the least popular idea of the year.

He wasn't helped by The Toddler either, if I have to hear one more time how he is such a great deal maker I am gonna slap someone. You want to know why he got that reputation? He is a fucking billionaire, of course people are going to do what he wants, he has the ability to give them enormous sums of money, or to sue them into oblivion. It doesn't take a political mastermind to get people to work with you if you have that resource.

Turns out that doesn't extend to politics though, obviously bribing people doesn't fly, and he has no concept of how to subtly do so. The last week was full of meetings, texts(fucking hell) and phone calls between him and various Republican hold outs, and I don't even need to read about the inevitable leaks from those conversations to know how they went.

T: You should vote for my bill
R: I don't wanna
T: I am president, do what I say
R: Fuck you, no

Repeat until you run out of guys to talk to. Eventually he gave in to some of his aids or something and offered concessions to the Freedom Caucus, but it was far too little and way too late. And now the party seems united in their desire to attempt to forget this ever happened, except for the blame game of course.

President Obama took half of his first term to pass the ACA, he had to negotiate non stop to get it, making concessions, begging, bribing, or blackmailing(metaphorically) the needed votes, even from across the aisle. In doing so he put together something that while it may not be ideal, turns out to be something liked just enough by people on all sides that it has become nearly impossible to get rid of. It was a political masterstroke that really doesn't get enough respect.

And this goober thinks that sixtyish days is enough? What a naive piece of shit. He has no idea what it takes to be president, no idea how to even start putting in the work necessary, and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell aren't able to guide him because they too are gormless morons. The president is officially the largest obstacle the Republican Congress has to getting anything done, because he doesn't know how to do anything and is entirely uninterested in figuring it out.

There are a million articles out there about why the AHCA failed and who is to blame, the reality of it isn't that complicated, The Toddler is incompetent to such a degree that he doesn't even know what he doesn't know. And he now is combined with a GOP that has forgotten how to do anything except throw tantrums and be obstructionist.

There isn't any mystery here.