GOP Presses Ahead on Healthcare; Public Unthrilled

Late last night, Robert Costa and Paige Winfield Cunningham at the Washington Post reported that Republicans are moving closer to a healthcare reform deal on which their caucus can agree:

White House officials and several Republican lawmakers claimed Tuesday they were nearing a deal on health-care legislation with the House Freedom Caucus, with at least three leading figures in the hard-line group ready to support an overhaul after the dramatic collapse of talks last month.

Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Raúl R. Labrador (R-Idaho) — all leaders of the Freedom Caucus and central figures in the latest discussions — signaled Tuesday they are ready to support a new plan, according to two White House officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. A lawmaker close to the Freedom Caucus later confirmed that those members were close to or ready to support the tweaked bill.

...Rep. David Brat, (R-Va.) a Freedom Caucus member who previously opposed the GOP health-care plan, said he is "looking forward" to supporting it with the new changes giving states more options.

"A lot of people like it," Brat told reporters Tuesday night.

A lot of people in the Freedom Caucus like it, perhaps, but the public they represent is decidedly unthrilled with this entire garbage disaster: "In strategy and substance, the American public disagrees with the course that [Donald] Trump and congressional Republicans are pursuing to replace the Affordable Care Act with conservative policies, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. ...[M]any Americans appear leery in general about a major overhaul to the health-care law often called Obamacare, with 61 percent preferring to 'keep and try to improve' it, compared with 37 percent who say they want to 'repeal and replace' it."

Naturally, Republicans don't care what the people who elected them think, and care even less about the people who didn't vote for them. They want a win, and they want to give the horrendous gremlin in the Oval Office a win—while sticking it to the guy who just left said office, by destroying his signature policy.

Imagine being the sort of person who will casually condemn people to death in order to settle a grudge with the guy who saved their lives.