GOP/HEALTHCARE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s ability to land his first major legislative achievement, on health care, now rests with a Republican who kept a studied distance from the party’s nominee during the campaign and since: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The Kentuckian didn’t campaign with the president and rarely mentioned him. Shortly before the 2016 election, Mr. McConnell told businesspeople in his state that if they expected him to talk about the presidential race, they ‘might as well go ahead and leave.’ Since the election, his most public engagement with the president has come in his admonitions to lay off Twitter.
Now, Mr. McConnell’s role in steering legislation through the Senate that largely guts the Affordable Care Act will link the fortunes of both men. It will also determine whether Republicans are able to deliver on a seven-year-old campaign promise to repeal the law.
It is a bedeviling assignment, made harder after Mr. Trump recently suggested in a tweet they could repeal the 2010 health law and replace it later. The majority leader can lose only two Republican votes and still drive the GOP health bill through the Senate, and he has threatened to cut a final deal with Democrats if his caucus doesn’t get in line.”
-Siobhan Hughes, “Mitch McConnell Bobs and Weaves Through Health-Care Fight,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 9, 2017 07:00am