On a 21 day vacation in New Jersey, US President Donald Trump unleashed a series of tweets today blasting his party and especially Senate leader Mitch McConnell for failing to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. McConnell had stated earlier this week that the President had “unrealistic expectations” about how things were done on Capitol Hill.”Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and, I think, had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” McConnell told a Rotary Group in northern Kentucky on Monday.
Congress has taken a five-week recess after repeatedly failing to pass a repeal and replace bill for healthcare, with former presidential candidate and Senator John McCain flying giving a thumbs-down to the skinny repeal bill at the last moment dash Trump and GOP hopes of delivering on their electoral promise of health care reform.
Not one to take the jibe lying down, it was the White House social media director who came after McConnell first, saying that McConnell’s remarks are mere excuses as the GOP enjoys a majority in both houses of Congress, and should be able to come up with a reform bill after trying to repeal Obamacare for 7 years of the President Obama’s term. Trump himself responded on Twitter this morning, tweeting:
Senator Mitch McConnell said I had "excessive expectations," but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017
If that wasn’t enough for commentators to sit and take notice, he also tweeted this 17 hours later:
Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2017
The in-fighting in the Republican party has reached a head with conservative and moderate Republicans at each other’s throats over sections of the proposed health care act. The CBO numbers saying the new piece of legislation would throw tens of millions of poor Americans off health insurance has spooked moderate Republicans who fear backlash from their constituents in the upcoming mid-term elections, and the repeated failures have made Trump desperate, as he still has nothing to show legislative victories in his eight-month old presidency.
