This POS bill was a loser, written by the insurance industry.
I agree. It was a POS bill, but at least it was trying to meet in the middle, and give everyone, moderate Republicans and Freedom Caucus Republicans, something.
You see, moderate and establishment Republicans are never going to vote for a full repeal. They've gone down the entitlement health care rabbit hole. They look at taking entitlements from their constituents as political suicide. Far right Republicans are never going to vote for any semblance of health care entitlements. That leaves the entire party in a stalemate, without the votes to pass any bill.
Yes, I know, Obamacare is going to eventually fail, then when it does, we'll be right back to where we started Friday with the far right refusing to vote for entitlement health care, and the moderates and establishment refusing to vote for a full repeal, leaving Trump with very few options.
If both sides, moderates/establishment and Freedom Caucus/far right, don't get their heads out of there asses and meet in the middle, going forward it's looking like the only way a health care bill gets passed is with support from Democrats, which puts them in a position of power, and the only way they'll give support is if the new bill is to their liking, a fix for Obamacare that leaves it fully intact.
get someone in there who will actually advance the agenda (actual repeal of Ocare)
Sounds good, and I agree, but there's one very big problem, they don't have the votes for a full repeal. Rand Paul's bill was a full repeal of Obamacare and it got less support among Republicans than Ryan's bill because "it went too far".
Trump can't make the moderates and establishment vote for a full repeal, just like he couldn't make the Freedom Caucus vote for a half assed, middle of the road repeal. Only way this happens is if both sides sacrifice, work together, and give some things up. As shitty as Ryan's bill was, that's exactly what it was trying to do.