The Russian asset in the White House apparently finally got the message from congressional Republicans that his latest whim—making Republicans the "party of health care" for the 2020 election—wasn't really what they had in mind. At all. But Trump had let former-Freedom Caucus maniac Mick Mulvaney run amok and tell the courts to demolish the Affordable Care Act. The reaction to that among Republicans has been so horrified that Trump had to find a way out.
His way out was all over Twitter Monday night. "Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win...back the House," he tweeted, tossing in "Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions. The Republican Party will be known as the Party of Great HealtCare. Meantime, the USA is doing better than ever & is respected again!" Yes, HealtCare. Which might be easier accomplished than HealthCare, if we could determine what Healt actually is.
Meanwhile, the guy who may or may not be Trump's "point man" on this in the Senate is Rick Scott. The Florida Republican (who in a previous career was in charge of a company committing the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history) says he's got other things on his agenda for the next year and a half. "I know what I'm going to focus on," he told reporters. "I'm going to focus on drug prices." When pressed by reporters about Trump's edict that there would be a plan ready to go after the 2020 election, Scott passed the buck. "I think you would have to ask the President. […] I'm focused on how you drive down costs for health care." Even newly elected Sen. Josh Hawley—who as a Republican Attorney General in Missouri joined the lawsuit now threatening the ACA—says there isn't any rush to get this done. Asked if Republicans have "a moral responsibility" to have an Obamacare replacement in place, Hawley sidestepped saying that even if it's stricken down, the ACA will remain in effect for "quite some time."
Republicans are going to have two problems trying to keep this up for a year and a half. The first one is that Trump's got this bee in his bonnet and is not going to shut up about the "tremendous" plan the Republicans are going to show the world on November 4, 2020. The other one is that pesky lawsuit Trump's gone all in on. Those two things will keep the issue at the forefront for the duration, and that's not going to be good for Republicans. Also not great for the millions of people relying on the ACA for their health care and, in some cases, their lives.