Deja Vu

Eight years ago President Obama and the Democrats were working to reform health care. Now President Trump and the Republicans are doing the same thing. They have radically different aims but seem to be following a similar methodology.

Both ignored polls that showed the public strongly disapproved what they were doing. Neither kept the public well informed. The Republican Senate proposal was done in secret while President Obama repeatedly lied by saying people could keep their insurance. Nancy Pelosi famously said that they had to pass it in order to know what’s in it.  Both manipulated the legislative process (Republicans are trying to do it entirely within the budget proposal). Both cut special deals to attract votes. At least Republicans haven’t done anything as blatant as the Cornhusker Kickback.
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I think both are taking the same approach because they desperately want to pass a bill. Getting it through is the easy part. Trying to administer it and sell it to the people is much more difficult. This was a total disaster for the Democrats. We will have to wait and see what happens to the Republicans. Right now we’re not even sure there will be a bill.
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