Columnist AB Stoddard: Trump Not Wedded To Health Care Principles
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Political columnist AB Stoddard, from Real Clear Politics, reacted to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delaying a vote on a health care bill after failing to get the required number of Republican votes needed to pass the legislation, telling Chris Stigall on 1210 WPHT that Donald Trump is not invested in the process and the GOP risks him turning on them regardless of the outcome.
"He is not actually wedded to any health care policy principles. He wasn't all along. If he was, he would be making a passionate argument for those principles. Right now, he's been willing to go for bills and sign bills that, really, arguably, in the end, will affect his coalition of former Obama voters, or lapsed voters, who, in the rust belt, haven't voted in four or five or six cycles who came out for him who are dependent on these programs."
She said he's not engaged in crafting the plan that will be one of the signature legislative pieces of his presidency, despite making so many promises during his run for the White House.
"He's not actually making the argument for a super moderate bill that some Democrats would support with keeping most of the Medicaid expansion, keeping essential health benefits. Sure, your premiums will be lower, but you'll be paying for more out-of-pocket. If you have diabetes, if you have a bunch of surgeries, you need more and you're 66 years old and you're living in a rural area, you have few choices, your out-of-pocket cost is rising all the time, is he really making a case? No, he actually so wants to win, he's willing to sign bills that he later calls mean."
Stoddard expects that Trump could abandon Republicans ahead of next year's election in popular opinion is unkind to the finished product of their health care reform efforts.
"People don't trust that he's really sitting somewhere on the ideological spectrum and really holding gear to certain principles, so when there's a backlash in coal country to this bill, next year, even after he signs it and it becomes law, if that ends up happening, there's a really good chance he just throws these guys overboard as they go to the midterm elections."