In Ryan Health-Care Defeat, Lessons for Speaker in Age of Trump
- Fulfilling a campaign pledge wasn’t enough for nervous GOP
- Republicans had less than three weeks to read the bill
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Two weeks ago, Paul Ryan rolled up his shirtsleeves to deliver an energetic PowerPoint presentation of a health-care bill he said conservatives have been “dreaming about.” On Friday, a chastened Ryan stood in the same spot, admitting that Obamacare would remain the law of the land.
Ryan sees himself first and foremost as a policy guy. But this was an attempt at pure power politics: redo the nation’s health-care system only 17 days after first revealing the legislative text to all of his Republican colleagues.