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Trumpcare: Dead at age 6 months

By Al Owens 4 min read

 We are gathered here today, to pay our respects to the “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.”

The “Better” has died a slow, but steady death at the hands of the 47, 48, 49 or 50 U.S. Senators who’ve seen no real value in keeping it alive.

You may not know it by its formal name. So, let’s call it was it really was — Trumpcare.

Trumpcare was a jerry-rigged, mish-mashed compendium of tired old rhetoric that had been designed to rid the world of the “scourge” of Obamacare.

And we all know that nothing that starts with the word “Trump” can easily coexist with anything that contains the word “Obama,’ without our current president getting a hissy-fit.

So, for President Trump and his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senator to make good on their campaign promises to cleanse us of the (supposed) devastation of President Obama’s signature achievement, they had to put some stuff on paper.

They did several times.

And each time Trumpcare leaked popularity.

After the federal bean-counters, known as the Congressional Budget Office, warned Republicans that millions of people who benefit from Obamacare, would suffer greatly under the weight of Trumpcare, its approval numbers dropped into the teens.

Ringworm and head lice are now far more popular than Trumpcare.

But that never stopped Trump from beating his chest about how much of a “disaster” Obamacare is, and that its only, realistic cure is Trumpcare.

Trump, though, seems to have forgotten that since Obamacare was signed into law back in March of 2010, there’ve been dozens of failed attempts to repeal, replace or gut all, or parts of it.

None of that worked.

And despite Trump’s bold pledges that Trumpcare would provide less expensive healthcare coverage – and for more people than Obamacare, there still haven’t been enough senators who’ve pledged to support a bill if it would make it to the floor of the Senate.

Here’s where I wax nostalgic.

There was that TV commercial for an antiperspirant called “Dry Idea,” back in 1984.

Don’t remember it?

Well, it had the memorable tagline, “Never let them see you sweat.”

Since Republicans have undertaken the task of replacing Obamacare in both the U.S. House and Senate, we can ALL see them sweat.

Trump sweats a lot, too.

He hides in the Oval Office until it’s obvious any form of Trumpcare is on life-support, and he magically appears to claim that he’d simply allow Obamacare to die a slow death, so that the blame can be placed firmly on the Democrats; or the media; or whomever he can put to the left of a semicolon.

That’s not a profile in courage.

It’s simply a political neophyte, looking to find scapegoats for his, and his party’s political failings.

It’s certainly not the Donald Trump who had simple answers for complex problems back in November of 2013 – when he was probably entertaining a run for the presidency.

He took every opportunity to scold President Obama when he thought he wasn’t shouldering responsibility for his decisions.

“Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible,” he tweeted on November 8th, 2013.

My how things have changed.

After a series of blistering Trumpcare defeats, he’s suddenly run out of broad shoulders.

“We’ll just let Obamacare fail,” he said last week. “We’re not going to own. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own.”

Who’s gonna to own it, then?

The failed plans to gut Obamacare haven’t had anything to do with Democrats or the media.

In fact, nobody seems to be clear about what Trump and his fellow Republicans want to do.

Do they want to “repeal and replace,” Obamacare? Or, do they just want to “repeal” Obamacare?

That seems to change from day-to-day, or even hour-to-hour.

Or, has it just become “wash, rinse and repeat?”

Meanwhile, Obamacare has become more popular with the American public than it’s ever been.

That leaves even less wiggle-room for any form of a Trumpcare “Resurrection.”

But don’t count on it.

Edward A. Owens is a three time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net

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