Republicans blame bill, not Trump, for health care defeat

President Donald Trump’s overall job approval is at 40 percent, underpinned by continuing strong support from Republicans who don’t appear to blame him for the failed health care bill, a new CBS News Poll shows. … Sharp partisan divides mark views on Russia and its interference in the 2016 U.S. […] Read more »

What If the Health-Care Collapse Saves Trump’s Presidency?

… With the failure of the repeal-and-replace effort, Trump—despite his own best efforts—unwittingly rescued himself from the passage of a hugely unpopular bill that would have hurt his own voters most. In a broader sense, Congress’s fractiousness saved Trump from having to follow through on an impossible campaign promise to […] Read more »

Trump Doesn’t Have A Mandate For Paul Ryan’s Agenda

There were so many reasons for the failure of the Republicans’ health care bill — and its failure was so spectacular — that it’s hard to tell which ones mattered most. … But the variety of unforced errors by Ryan, Trump and other Republicans obscures other, more fundamental problems with […] Read more »

G.O.P., Once Unified Against Obama, Struggles for Consensus Under Trump

Whenever a major conservative plan in Washington has collapsed, blame has usually been fairly easy to pin on the Republican hard-liners who insist on purity over practicality. But as Republicans sifted through the detritus of their failed effort to replace the Affordable Care Act, they were finding fault almost everywhere […] Read more »