Bait And Switch

Trump is reportedly untroubled by the health care failure. This entire thing was almost certainly a bait-and-switch https://t.co/lznUFtFbkR

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 25, 2017

This is an interesting distillation of yesterday's failure to bring a bill to the floor of the House of Representatives. And it begs the question, what is the switch?

Tracey is implying that Trump got conservatives to vote for him by promising to repeal Obamacare. In this analogy, full repeal was the bait. It's like when you see an ad for a new car, one at this price, at dealer cost, if you come in today. Then when you get to the dealer, that one "was just sold," but can I interest you in this one, it's a real beauty?

The conservative "switch" is thus a healthcare solution that requires even more government. Maybe they will try to lower the age for Medicare to 55, or offer Medicare for all. A government option. At this point, even I can be persuaded along these lines, but only if we stop the immigration invasion. End chain migration, end birthright citizenship, and stop bringing in people with no skills.

If there is one thing this whole thing has taught us, is that you can't take away an entitlement, ever. Conservatives lost this battle a long time ago, when liberals asserted that "health care is a right."

And another thing we have learned, is that Paul Ryan is not qualified to be Speaker of the House. He should quit and do policy papers that nobody reads for the Hoover Institute.

Paul Ryan can't even do basic math. The House Freedom Caucus has thirty-one members. They were never going to vote for anything short of a full repeal. The whole thing was pointless.

Donald Trump already fulfilled part of his campaign promise, as far as I'm concerned. His very first Executive Order was to waive the individual mandate. That was the invasive, freedom-violating part of the law. The question is, who owns healthcare now, then?

The PPACA isn't a healthcare bill. It's an insurance law. It should be called Obamasure. The law mandates coverage levels and needless preventive care that make the premiums too high. And the deductibles are so high that people wait even longer to seek care.

And Trump, being an experienced businessman, knew it was time to cut his losses and move on.