I don’t think some of the people understand the politics of the healthcare bill passing dance. You fall for the words and don’t look at the actions in front of and behind it all.

Here is a recent article that explains the politics of this. What Mitch says is meant to please, it has nothing to do with what he can actually do both legally and politically. What Trump says doesn’t mean anything because he doesn’t know how any of this works. He is so damn sure he is a winner he can’t see how this will hurt him politically.

LA Times - Column Uh-oh, the GOP has no choice but to work with Democrats on healthcare reform

…CUT…

The healthcare debate isn’t over, of course. Obamacare still needs short-term support and long-term fixes, which the president isn’t eager to provide.

Trump said Tuesday he will now revert to a messy solution he has long proposed: standing back and letting the federal health law fail on its own.

“We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us, and they’re going to say, ‘How do we fix it?’”

“I’m not going to own it,” he added. “I can tell you, the Republicans are not going to own it.”

Except he already does, in the eyes of many voters. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll last month found that 59% of Americans think the Trump administration now bears responsibility for making Obamacare work — including 56% of Republicans. Translation: Voters expect the governing party to fix problems whether it wants to or not.

Some Senate Republicans have accepted that burden already. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said he’s getting to work to “stabilize the individual [insurance] market.” John McCain of Arizona, hospitalized in his home state, said it’s time to draft new legislation with “input from members of both parties.”

With the collapse of McConnell’s effort, the GOP appears to have lost its chance to pass a bill in the Senate through reconciliation, the arcane budget process that requires a majority of only 50 votes. Any future healthcare bill will need 60 votes instead of 50 — which requires winning support from at least eight Democrats.

If they want to repeal, replace or merely fix Obamacare, Senate Republicans now have no choice but to try to legislate piecemeal changes the old-fashioned way — with hearings, open debate and even a measure of bipartisanship.

That’s probably too optimistic. But as McConnell warned a few weeks ago, they may have no alternative. They’ve tried everything else and failed.