POLITICO Magazine’s Tim Alberta: ‘Amateurish Process’ Led to GOP Healthcare Failure

What were the major reasons for Trump & Ryan’s Obamacare replacement failing?

The GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is all but dead. The question now is, who’s to blame?

On Friday afternoon members of the House of Representatives debated sweeping changes to Obamacare, changes that struggled to whip up support throughout the week. However, President Donald Trump insisted a vote be held. Late Friday afternoon, the House was called into recess with no further debate and vote. During this time, Trump called a reporter from the Washington Post to tell them the deal was off and Republican leadership would move away from trying to reform health care. 

Now, it appears all key Republicans are pointing fingers at each other — and others — over who is to blame. 

POLITICO Magazine reporter, and Michigan native, Tim Alberta joins Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today to break down what happened Friday afternoon. 

“I think that sort of maybe amateurish process could be sort of looked at in different ways depending on which guy you are talking about,” Alberta says about Trump and Ryan.  

Alberta says Trump made a mistake by removing himself from the process of creating the replacement healthcare bill. Alberta says Trump is more of a big picture person, but as the president he should be more involved.  

He says Speaker Ryan came off as presumptuous, thinking he could just push the bill through. However, it soon became clear that not everyone was on board with the bill. Alberta says Ryan and others understood that when representatives return home for Easter recess, they are going to get an ear full from their community about taking health care away from a number of people.

Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation. 

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  • Detroit Today
    Dynamic and diverse voices. News, politics, community and the issues that define our region. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson, Detroit Today brings you fresh and perceptive views weekdays at 9 am and 7 pm.