It's Groundhog Day But With Healthcare And Trump Keeps Throwing The Toaster In The Tub

But once Republicans win the House next year, they'll get right on it.

Monday night, Donald Trump offered a new twist on his promise to make the Republican Party the "party of great healthcare" -- oh, never mind, that won't happen until after the 2020 election. And then it's gonna be spectacular, you bet! Then yesterday, the New York Times brought us the inside scoop on how that sudden but predictable retreat on Trump's latest obsession came about.

We honestly almost missed Trump's declaration that he wouldn't unveil a replacement for Obamacare until after he's reelected and again has a fully Republican Congress, since it was sort of buried in the middle of a three-tweet rant that looked like every other stupid thing he's said about healthcare in the last two weeks:

Everybody agrees that ObamaCare doesn’t work. Premiums & deductibles are far too high - Really bad HealthCare! Even… https: //t.co/Tcjaauc3q8

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1554171205.0 

....are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare. In o… https: //t.co/foKO8QSk3O

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1554171835.0 

....back the House. It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America. Also, Republicans will always sup… https: //t.co/kFqgERuCQi

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1554172664.0 

Yes, HealtCare, you snotty elitists. It's called branding. 

The Times piece explains how we got to this slight adjustment of plans. Last week, after Trump decided the Justice Department should go whole hog in support of that really sketchy lawsuit aimed at completely repealing Obamacare, Trump and Mike Pence had a little conference call with RNC chair Ronna notRomney McDaniel and Brad Parscale, the chair of Trump's 2020 campaign.

Both Mr. Parscale and Ms. McDaniel tried to tell the president that they could not understand what he was doing, according to a person familiar with the call.

Mr. Trump replied that if they did nothing, Democrats would continue to own the issue and the other option was being known as the party that could not figure out how to properly draft a health care legislative package, the person said.

Mind you, that's an indirect quote, so you can bet Trump never said anything so intelligible as "properly draft a health care legislative package." He probably said something about oranges instead.

Weirdly enough, it looks like it was Mitch McConnell who sort of saved Republicans from having to actually come up with a real healthcare plan, albeit at the cost of making healthcare a top issue for the 2020 elections. Which it would have been anyway, so maybe McConnell figured that instead of actually having to take a position, it would be easier to simply keep packing the courts with rightwing judges, which is in fact the only thing Trump and Senate Rs are good at. Still, you have to admire McConnell's ability at spinning the big idiot:

In several private conversations since last week, Mr. McConnell told the president that he believed Democrats owned the dysfunction associated with the Affordable Care Act and that Mr. Trump was essentially letting them off the hook by inserting himself into the debate again, according to another person briefed on those discussions.

Gosh, Mr. President, you should really just let the Democrats own how terrible Obamacare is. Nobody likes it, as you know, so just keep talking about Mexicans and you'll be golden. In fact, we don't need to do anything about it until we retake the House in 2020 andI've gotten a new cushy think-tank jobyou're in your second term.

Not surprisingly, Trump then announced his new timeline on Twitter, and immediately denied it was new at all, because he thinks all his thinkerings by himself with his larger-than-average brain:

Mr. Trump denied on Tuesday that Mr. McConnell asked him to back off, saying, "I wanted to delay it myself" because Republicans do not control the House. "So if we get back the House and on the assumption we keep the Senate and we keep the presidency — which I hope are two good assumptions — we're going to have a phenomenal health care," he said.

Trump was at it again this morning, because he ALWAYS wanted to put forward the Republican plan after the election, he just happened to never say anything before Monday, so stop lying and saying he's changed anything, you liars!

I was never planning a vote prior to the 2020 Election on the wonderful HealthCare package that some very talented… https: //t.co/YQ94MTXmSn

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1554298013.0 

...This will be a great campaign issue. I never asked Mitch McConnell for a vote before the Election as has been in… https: //t.co/MZYJVV86HJ

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1554298634.0 

Oh, and if maybe Obamacare is struck down in the courts before the 2020 election and 20 million Americans lose their insurance, not to mention millions more suddenly not being able to afford coverage because they have a preexisting condition, and it's clear the Rs really don't have a plan and never will, well don't you worry, because LOOK! KILLER ILLEGAL ALIENS! BUILD WALL!

[ NYT ]

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