Did the Freedom Caucus just pull the Republican Party back off the ledge, before it jumped to its death? A case can be made for that.<\/p>\n
Before the American Health Care Act, aka “Ryancare,” was pulled off the House floor Friday, it enjoyed the support \u00e2\u20ac\u201d of 17 percent of Americans. Had it passed, it faced an Antietam in the GOP Senate, and probable defeat.<\/p>\n
Had it survived there, to be signed by President Trump, it would have meant 14 million Americans losing their health insurance in 2018.<\/p>\n
First among the losers would have been white working-class folks who delivered the Rust Belt states to President Trump.<\/p>\n
“Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan,” said JFK.<\/p>\n
So, who are the losers here?<\/p>\n
First and foremost, Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republicans who, having voted 50 times over seven years to repeal Obamacare, we learned, had no consensus plan ready to replace it.<\/p>\n
Moreover, they put a bill on the floor many had not read, and for which they did not have the votes.<\/p>\n
More than a defeat, this was a humiliation. For the foreseeable future, a Republican Congress and president will coexist with a health care regime that both loathe but cannot together repeal and replace.<\/p>\n
Moreover, this defeat suggests that, given the ideological divide in the GOP, and the unanimous opposition of congressional Democrats, the most impressive GOP majorities since the 1920s may be impotent to enact any major complicated or complex legislation.<\/p>\n
Friday’s failure appears to be another milestone in the decline and fall of Congress, which the Constitution, in Article I, fairly anoints as our first branch of government.<\/p>\n
Through the last century, Congress has steadily surrendered its powers, with feeble resistance, to presidents, the Supreme Court, the Federal Reserve, the regulatory agencies, even the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n