The vote for all the marbles

"The GOP has just lost all rights to bitch about how ObamaCare was cobbled together in the dark of night." 

I know - this is said about many different votes on Capitol Hill. But this one might have earned that description. Tomorrow will be probably the vote which will shape the presidency of Donald J. Trump. It is the new and improved (?) health care bill. The one which will replace ObamaCare. It is called the American Health Care Act. However, many are just calling it "ObamaCare Lite".

Even thought the GOP had seven or so years to work on this thing, it seems the talk about "repeal and replace" was a bit of smoke and mirrors. President Trump however, does not operate using smoke and mirrors. He ran on the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare. And that is one of his big ticket items. It is number one out of the gate to be followed by tax reform. The stock market went way up after the election in anticipation of these two very important pieces of legislation passing into law. If either one of them don't materialize - look out below!

About a week ago, Speaker Ryan was counting noses and found he had a problem. He needed to call in the heavy artillery. He asked President Trump to come to the Hill and practice his art of the deal. Once the meeting was over, President Trump held a presser. "We just had a big, beautiful negotiation. Many in the meeting were a 'maybe' or a 'no'. At the end of the meeting, everyone was a 'yes'."

When I first heard that, I had to suppress a chuckle. I have been in over a hundred negotiations, and I have yet to be in one I considered to be "beautiful". Brutal maybe, but never beautiful. In any event, the Freedom Caucus did not see the meeting the same way the President did. They still feel this vote is DOA if the bill comes up as currently written. But who cares? It is full steam ahead anyhow for a vote in the House tomorrow. 

As this is being penned this morning, Congress is acting like the pitiful organization it is. This is sausage making at its worst. Not just ordinary sausage - this is the sausage which Upton Sinclair wrote about in this book The Jungle. What do I mean by that? The GOP has just lost all rights to bitch about how ObamaCare was cobbled together in the dark of night. That nobody knew what was in it until after it was signed. It ObamaCare was Frankenstein's Monster, then the American Health Care Act is the Bride of Frankenstein.

This is high stakes poker folks. Getting it through the House will be a squeaker. That is if it makes it at all. Changes are still being made, and backroom deals are flying around faster than the migration of song birds in the spring. Even if (big if) it does make it through the House, the Senate will be even tougher. Oh yes - there would be an exhaustive reconciliation process in between. And what would come out that process? Your guess is as good as mine.

ObamaCare. The gift which keeps on giving - misery. Even as a corpse, it will continue to haunt us. To quote my good friend Sue - Thanks for nothing Barack!