If there's a Republican bill that can get McCain, Collins, Murkowski and Paul while holding on to everyone else, I haven't seen it, heard of it or even imagined what it might be. I don't think anyone has.
And if there is such a bill, what's the point of negotiating with Democrats? All that's going to do is get you a bill that a) locks in the core notions behind ObamaCare; b) moves us further toward single payer; and c) consolidates federal power over health care at the very time when we had a chance to throw much of it back to the states.
Maybe Trump is just spitballing about talking to Democrats, expecting full well that he'll have to come back later and say, no, that didn't produce anything better at all.
Then again, Trump proved with the budget ceiling talks that he's willing to make deals with Democrats if they're the only alternative to a Republican majority that can't get its act together. I wondered then, and still do wonder, if that was Trump's way of telling congressional Republicans that they can't just dither forever without paying a price for it.
But if that's his strategy, it raises another question: Do congressional Republicans care? Most of them seem quite content to claim they tried to pass conservative legislation, only to turn around and # about how much it's hurting the nation that the Democrats' ideas always end up being the ones that become policy, even when we have a Republican president, Republican House and Republican Senate.
To believe that this is Trump's strategy and that it's going to work, you have to believe Republicans actually want to govern.
I think most of them do, but not enough to cobble together a majority on just about anything. And I think all of them are better in the opposition role than they are when they're actually in charge.
