Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said the proposed House Republican health care legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare “is not what any of us promised we would do.”
Gohmert said, “It isn’t going to work. We’re told prices will probably go up 75 percent or so, but maybe in the third year, they may come down 10%. We’re told we should be thrilled we’ll give so much more power to the federal government to Health and Human Services under your bill. And they don’t have an answer for what about when it’s a Democrat in charge and not a Republican? And then, we were told it is based on a false premise. They lied to the president. They misrepresented to us.”
He added, “It is not what any of us promised we would do.”
Why does Trump keep making promises he can’t keep? The secret lies in his past.
the location provided a vivid case study in the dangers Trump will face as time goes on. This early in his presidency, he can still talk about the glittering future he’ll deliver. But at some point, he’ll have to reckon with what his policies have actually done and failed to do.
Trump is applying to governing the same theory that worked quite well for him in his business career. But the rules have already changed for him.
.. the Republican health-care bill will save Americans from the catastrophe of the Affordable Care Act. But it’s an odd thing to say in Kentucky, which may have fared better than any other state under the ACA. The state accepted the law’s expansion of Medicaid and saw an additional 443,000 of its citizens — a full 10 percent of the state’s population — get health coverage at no cost. The state also launched its own ACA exchange, Kynect, which was one of the most successful in the country. According to Gallup, the uninsured rate fell from 20.4 percent in 2013 before the law took effect down to 7.8
.. But hey, who needs Medicaid or subsidized health coverage if you’ve got a great job mining coal, where salaries are high and benefits are comprehensive? Trump repeated that promise, too — that once we get rid of some environmental regulations, all those coal jobs will come back:
.. In his particular corner of the business world, you really can create wealth just by managing public perception — or at least he could. This was the theory of his entire career
.. When he conned someone, like the attendees of Trump University, no matter how unhappy they were he could move on to other marks
.. It was a big world, and there were always other people who might be taken in by the next scam. But in politics, you have to go back to the people you made promises to the first time around, and ask them to put their faith in you again.
.. it’s obvious that Trump looks at his first legislative priority much like one of his buildings: What matters is that people think it’s the tallest one around, even if it isn’t. He doesn’t seem to know or care much about what’s in the GOP’s bill to repeal the ACA or what the effects would be. It’s just about getting a win one way or the other.
.. he met with congressional Republicans not to discuss the content of the bill, but to cajole and threaten them into voting for it. He told Mark Meadows, head of the far-right Freedom Caucus, to stand up while he told him, “I’m gonna come after you, but I know I won’t have to, because I know you’ll vote ‘yes.’ ” (Meadows says he’s still voting no.)
.. So what happens when Trump goes back to Kentucky in three years, and he has taken away voters’ health coverage but didn’t manage to bring back the coal jobs of yesteryear?
The Outlook for Coal: 1000 more job losses in Appalachia
Rob Godby researches energy and public policy at the University of Wyoming.
.. So what President Trump has really promised to do is really enable all fossil fuels in the country. And, in fact, you know, you really can’t enable both natural gas and coal simultaneously because they’re are substitutes. You know, one has to give for the other.
.. So really when you talk about coal, what you’re talking about is more inter-region competition. So Appalachia has had a lot of challenges. It’s competing not only against cheaper natural gas, but also cheap coal from other regions of the country – in particular Wyoming, but also the interior areas of the United States from Illinois all the way south to the Gulf.
.. SHAPIRO: What would be the best-case scenario for the American coal industry at this point?
.. So we’re thinking that there may be about a 5 percent rebound in coal production in the next couple of years. But the way that impacts the areas is really different.
.. So, for example, in Appalachia, you’re still looking at a coal production decline. Most of that production increase is going to occur in the West, and that probably will occur in Wyoming. So you might see about 600 new jobs, maybe more in the West, particularly in Wyoming. And you might see about a thousand more job losses in Appalachia. And the interior might get 150, 200 new jobs if you kind of look at these projections broadly.
Trump promised disruption. That’s exactly what he’s delivering.
The assumption — even after Trump was elected — seems to be that he either a) didn’t really believe many of the things he said on the campaign trail or b) wouldn’t spend the political capital necessary to attempt their implementation.
The first week of the Trump presidency suggests that those assumptions were deeply misguided. Trump meant exactly what he said and appears totally committed to executing on the campaign promises he made in spite of the furor they might cause.
.. My point is only this: Trump is governing almost exactly how he said he would during a campaign that he won. No one should be surprised.