I assume most of us agree that Paul Ryan's American Health Care Act is a horrible thing. We might disagree on why. Some of us think it doesn't give people enough health care and some think it gives them too much. Some even seem to be furious that it gives them any at all. Trump is now saying he can "negotiate" something that will work for all…but good luck with that.
It was weird yesterday watching Ryan trying to act like the Congressional Budget Office scoring of his bill was some kind of win for him. The estimate was worse than almost anyone imagined but Ryan's response was like watching the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail claiming victory while simultaneously denying his legs had been cut off.
And speaking of having your legs cut out from under you: Even weirder was watching Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price come out and insist that the CBO was insane to say the bill would cost 24 million people their health insurance. Then, a few hours later, someone leaked a White House estimate that it would be 26 million. This would all be fun to watch if it wasn't holding so many human lives over the snake pit of non-insurance.
The big news may be that the G.O.P. has changed goals. Back when they were courting votes last year, and even earlier this year, the promised result of their health plan was that more people would get better insurance at lower prices. Now, the fact that umpteen million would lose care and maybe pay more is a feature of it because that would lower taxes for the rich, lower premiums for a few, and reduce the deficit a bit. Eric Levitz has more about this.