President Trump campaigned vociferously on the idea of repealing (and to be fair “replacing”) Obamacare. Many of his supporters interpreted this oft repeated promise as a covenant for a complete and full repeal of that very unpopular (and economically damaging) legislation. Now however, under the advisement of establishment leader Paul Ryan (and what looks to be an increasingly corrupted and opportunistic Steve Bannon), president Trump is backing away from those promises in favor of the massively unpopular RyanCare bill (a bill that doesn’t fully repeal Obamacare and leaves much of its more damaging provisions in place). The Donald has even lashed out at the principled conservatives in Congress who are holding him accountable to his promise, Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz, the House Freedom Caucus, Congressman Thomas Massie, and others.
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
Congressman Thomas Massie, who openly supported Trump throughout the campaign against Hillary Clinton, fired back at the president’s tweet; insisting that the president is making a huge mistake by listening to the advice of Paul Ryan (and other native swamp creatures) with regard to this legislation.
Sorry if I let you down. I’m changing my vote on #AHCA pic.twitter.com/JLUotqaO9L
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 22, 2017
.@realDonaldTrump it’s a swamp not a hot tub. We both came here to drain it. #SwampCare polls 17%. Sad! https://t.co/4kjygV2tdS
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 30, 2017
“He’s burning political capital with every tweet that attacks guys who came to Washington, D.C., to drain the swamp” https://t.co/9CRbcitszK
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 31, 2017
Senator Rand Paul, a medical doctor, has long been an adamant opponent of Ryan’s bill; smelling a rat even before it was released to the public, and encouraging conservatives to stand united against the unpopular establishment / lobbyist backed bill in order to implement a full repeal and market-based conservative replacement.
Tonight I joined members of the @freedomcaucus to discuss how to defeat Obamacare Lite. #FullRepeal pic.twitter.com/a7adpmL3zB
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 16, 2017
The House leadership Obamacare Lite plan has many problems. We should be stopping mandates, taxes and entitlements not keeping them.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 7, 2017
The president’s conservative following did not seem to be at all happy with his decision to attack the principled members of congress standing in the way of this, as was epitomized by popular conservative newsman Matt Drudge’s most recent tweet; calling Senator Paul (who could be considered the leader of this GOP opposition to Ryan’s Bill), “America’s best senator.”
So what is the deal? Is president Trump selling out his supporters on this? Was he just trying to push whatever garbage he could get through as fast as possible to claim he made good on his campaign promise? Is he being mislead by the swamp-creatures he went to Washington to get rid of? What do you think? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.
