Stick a fork in him, Paul Ryan is done?
Now some 18 hours after the American Health Care Act (AHCA) was pulled from the house floor ending a potential vote I note the following. Both sides of the political aisle and the country have to an extent lost their collective minds.
There is plenty of finger pointing and blame assessment going on as to the why’s and wherefores of the end result in yesterday's action. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the buck stops with the Speaker of the House. That being said, it is likely the case and yet there would appear to be plenty of responsibility to go around for the rest of the supporters of this aborted legislation.
The Republicans have had the past eight years to craft and fine tune a bill and a road map on just how to accomplish their intentions. Eight years and the AHCA is the best that they could put forth? What about the six times between 2009 and 2015 repeal bills were put forth? Were the bills nothing more than tissue-thin veneer window dressing and not a substantive piece of legislation?
It should be noted that the first draft of the AHCA was put up on the web for us all to see and read. The bill, all 126 pages was a short read and certainly remarkably different than the massive ACA that was put forth by the Democrats under the cover of darkness.
What were other considerations as a part of this process? Were Rand Paul and his offering considered? Has the Freedom Caucus put forth all of their specific concerns? Has the Freedom Caucus put forth their own version of AHCA?
The bottom line here is that if you are solely focused this particular incident, you are not paying attention.