Why We Ask: Our mission and operations are funded 100% by conservatives like you. Please help us continue to extend Liberty to the next generation and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today.

March 24, 2017

The Trump Ultimatum

He’s done negotiating on health care. Will his gamble work?

Donald Trump’s vision for government is not a limited one, and he is not a conservative in any meaningful sense (which doesn’t mean some results aren’t conservative, but stick with us). Paul Ryan’s goal is a government that works efficiently for the best price — he is generally conservative, but technocratically so. Moderate and establishment Republicans want favorable media coverage and to be considered the “serious” ones. Members of the House Freedom Caucus are ideologically committed to limited government.

The necessity of these groups working together to repeal and replace ObamaCare has brought Washington to where it is now: an apparent impasse. A planned Thursday House vote on the GOP’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) was postponed until at least Friday afternoon because Freedom Caucus members still had a list of demands. If more than 22 House Republicans vote against the bill, it will fail in the face of united Democrat opposition. Whether enough palms can be greased in backroom deals remains to be seen.

The Congressional Budget Office didn’t help matters, releasing an updated estimate Thursday night based on changes made to the legislation. The updated bill wouldn’t cut the deficit as much as the first version, while still leaving 24 million more Americans uninsured. There are plenty of problems with the CBO’s analysis, but that doesn’t change the media narrative.

Conservatives generally hate the bill that Trump calls “a great plan!” But Trump issued an ultimatum — straight out of “The Art of the Deal” — to House Republicans to pass the AHCA because he’s done negotiating. If the bill fails, he says he’ll move on to other priorities. As veteran political strategist Dick Morris put it, “Like a rug buyer at a Turkish bazaar, Donald Trump has tired of haggling and is walking away, looking over his shoulder to see if the seller is chasing after him, agreeing to his price.” Just wait for Trump to then blame the Tea Party for saving ObamaCare.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the Freedom Caucus’s longest-serving member of Congress, doesn’t want that narrative to take hold. “You want to score a touchdown, but sometimes, on the fourth down, you kick a field goal,” he said. “The choice is yes or no. I’m not going to vote no and keep ObamaCare. That’d be a stupid damn vote.”

Oh, by the way, the Senate will have something to say about it, so whatever the House does is a long way from any final version.

Perhaps the greatest irony in all of this is that GOP primary voters chose a man to blow up Washington and the Republican Party. And now they’re mad at what’s happening amidst the wreckage.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.