and now everybody is watching steve bannon threaten primary challenges left and right and reezing, oh, voting for this deal could be problematic. could be problematic but less problematic than the chaos beyond the republican base that might result if these subsidies are abruptly stopped. now, clearly some of the insurance companies have already priced in their anticipation these will be stops, and there might not be chaos. the person who probably had his attention seized by mr. bannon, the president himself, who was told, i don t think he thinks far down the road on these matters and i think someone said, you know, this is going to be spun as you saved obamacare. there it is. you saved obamacare. does donald trump want to be the guy that saves obamacare? he doesn t but ultimately will be. the great irony here. does donald trump want to be the guy that inflicts pain on his voters? because the people who are going
connation. i commend patty for what she did. i understand the impacts of people losing these subsidies, but this isn t about making things easier for the republican party. in the end this is about getting control of the congress back, saving obamacare and going beyond it. in a lot of ways, what we engaged in last night is an enormous long-term problem. if we re going to make their outrageous tax reform, which isn t reform at all, it s a giveaway. if we re going to make their reform of obamacare, which is not a reform, it s taking away health care in america. it s creating a two-year bridge, right? to get them through an election. the problem with my party is we are plagued with responsibility. that s one of the things i love about the democratic party, but in this instance our sense of responsibility is doing nothing but saving the republican party from the reality of the giveaway with what they re doing on tax reform and this abuse of the american people by repealing obamacare. th
for conservatives to get them across the finish line. president trump could be very helpful in that regard but there s been somewhat confused or mixed messaging because this is tough. they have to thread the needle between trying to achieve some kind of balance in the marketplaces while still being able to argue in favor of repeal and replacement of the law. the question will be does this take the pressure off legislators to act next year more broadly on obamacare. those will be the questions we are going to have to ask to see if this agreement can get across the finish line. kate, we have already heard from house and senate republicans, they re not going to get on board. does this have a chance? i think it s really hard to predict. i read all the major paper coverage of this this morning. i noticed that the washington post was leading with uncertainty. they took a similar tone to what garrett took, looking at trump s initial comments of support and then following up what he said
issue having to do with the obamacare markets could explode, if the payments aren t made. many insurance companies warned of this. others are worrying about this. you have the doaca issue. expiration of protections in there. the budget itself. the debt limit. what s going to get lost? what are you concerned about that is going to not make it through by the end of the year that causes problems going into 2018? i suspect what will give or weaken for senators, that s okay. if we have to work through weekends to get through this work load, i m all for it. you re not going home without daca and this obamacare issue resolved? you re not going home for christmas until those two are resolved, or not? i am all for resolving those, and if it requires celebrating christmas in d.c., i won t like it. i prefer to be in louisiana, but if that s what it takes i m all for it. is it going to be that difficult? is this going to be easier to have in one big pileup type of thing the end of the year
system and they wanted a coming together. couldn t this be a massive win for president trump to say let s just solve things for actually the american people? it could, steph, but here s the problem. and it was the problem with the obamacare repeal too. you ve seen it in brilliant detail demonstrated in the past 24 hours, which is that he there s a big question about whether he actually understands the substance of what s being put forth. there s not a question. he hasn t spent the time to learn anything. it s not a matter of can he understand it. he hasn t spent the time to do the work on you. you and i both talk to people inside the white house. whether we re talking health care or tax reform, he hasn t opened up a single briefing doc. he s conflating two very different bills. what alexander and murray are doing, which is to shore up the market and what graham/cassidy are doing which is to completely tear it up and go with this different approach of like block grants. he was c