Who’s to blame for the failure-beyond-failure that was Trump/Ryancare and the inability to even get the bill to the floor of the House for a vote? Well, there’s much blame to go around. Donald Trump first blamed the Democrats, then took a shot at Paul Ryan and finally, briefly, tried out the Freedom Caucus. The New York Times notes how Trump was entangled by the long-running GOP civil war. The National Review says Trump had no idea what exactly he was trying to sell. And Politico put it on the Freedom Caucus’s secret pact. And that’s just the beginning.
If there’s one thing to read on Trump and Ryan and their twin defeat and what it means for Trump’s chances of getting his agenda through the GOP Congress, it’s Robert Draper’s long read in The New York Times magazine. In brief, it’s not going to get any easier.
Following the Trump/Ryancare disaster, Trump says he is moving on to one of his other big promises — tax reform. One problem. The experts say it will be just as hard, and maybe even harder, to pass real tax reform as it was to repeal Obamacare, and for many of the same reasons. Via Forbes.
Trump is prepared to put Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, in charge of fixing the government, bureaucracy and all, using business principles. Two possible problems: Kushner has no government experience. And his main business success has come in inheriting his wealth. Via The Washington Post.
Did Trump really hand Angela Merkel a bill for $300 billion for Germany’s shortfall in defense spending per NATO agreement? He did, if you can believe The Sunday Times of London. Or maybe they do fake news in Britain, too.
In trying to shield Trump, David Nunes may have made it possible for Trump critics to get their wish of a bipartisan select committee to do the kind of job that Nunes’s intelligence committee clearly doesn’t want to do. Via Vox.
Meet Indivisible, the young progressive group that is leading the opposition to Donald Trump. Via The Los Angeles Times.
Jeffrey Toobin: Neil Gorsuch didn’t answer any questions of substance during his confirmation hearing. But he didn’t have to. Gorsuch’s ample record shows he’d be at least as conservative as Samuel Alito. Via The New Yorker.
Democrats have a point about Republicans being hypocritical on Merrick Garland vs. Neil Gorsuch. But, Carl Cannon asks in the Orange County Register, how far back does the hypocrisy go?
Who killed the Iceman? Clues are beginning to emerge from the coldest of cold cases — this one dating back to somewhere around 3300 BC. Via The New York Times.
Image by J E Theriot via Flickr:Creative Commons
Will Democrats ever regain political power. Not as long as they’re the abortion party. Via The New York
Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/to-win-again-democrats-must-stop-being-the-abortion-party.html?ref=opinion&_r=1
Republicans clearly lost last week’s battle to repeal-and-replace Obamacare but the war is far from over. Via The Daily Beast.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/27/yes-democrats-won-a-big-health-care-battle-but-the-health-care-war-is-far-from-over.html
Is there a new McCarthyism in Hollywood? Does Hollywood have its own loyalty test? Stephen Galloway thinks so. Via The Hollywood Reporter.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/a-new-mccarthyism-hollywood-987245
Some of America’s illegal immigrants are self-deporting to Canada and 50 percent of Canadians want them out. Via Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-immigration-poll-exclusive-idUSKBN16R0SK?il=0
Hungary has opened a military base on its southern border for soldiers who are preventing migrants form entering the country. Via The Associated Press
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_MIGRANTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-20-08-43-14
North Korea is flexing its muscles and threatens “merciless” attacks if its sovereignty is infringed on. Via The New York Post