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Rep. Dave Trott (pictured in 2014) shocked a room of GOP lawmakers when he said the president had been unhelpful on health care.

As House Republicans vented about the Senates failure to repeal Obamacare at a private meeting Friday morning, one member suddenly stood up to pin the blame on someone else entirely: President Donald Trump.

Rep. Dave Trott shocked the room when he said the president had been unhelpful on health care, according to sources at the meeting. The second-term Republican from Michigan worried aloud that constant White House infighting was distracting from the Republican agenda and he said he felt the president could have done more to get the bill across the finish line.

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Trott was simply vocalizing whats on many members minds already, even if few say so publicly for fear of retribution. Hill Republicans are increasingly worried that Trumps penchant for drama and the constant bickering in the West Wing is going to crush their agenda.

This week, for instance, Republicans would have preferred to see the president spend more time shepherding the Senates floundering repeal effort rather than knocking Attorney General Jeff Sessions, several told POLITICO. As for Trumps new communication director, Anthony Scaramucci, Hill Republicans were dumbfounded by his comments earlier this week attacking now-former chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

The drama continued into Friday, when Priebus resigned days after Scaramucci called him, in an interview with The New Yorker, a f------ paranoid schizophrenic and accused him of trying to c--- block him in the West Wing. All that came after press secretary Sean Spicers departure, which was also triggered by Scaramuccis arrival and the ongoing war within the White House.

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Theres a level of conversation coming out of the White House of the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, said Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), who seconded Trotts comments during the closed-door GOP conference meeting. And so, as a consequence, not only do you have the normal impediments to legislative change, but youve got additional impediments that are self-created within the White House that impedes the presidents ability to lead.

Of course, Sanford has never been a Trump fan. The president, through budget director Mick Mulvaney, threatened to recruit a primary challenger against him if he voted against the Houses health care bill this spring. Sanford ultimately backed the bill.

But nowadays, Sanford is far from the only Republican criticizing the White Houses dysfunction. Two weeks ago, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) fumed that the White Houses ongoing drip-drip in the Russia scandal was distracting from Republicans message.

Speaking to a gaggle of reporters off the House floor Friday before Priebus' departure was announced, Sanford said he agreed with Trotts comments, though he did not mention Trott by name.

That which is weird is getting weirder at the White House, Sanford continued. The new [communications director] has said things that are bizarre by any standards. And, consequently, they get covered things that have nothing to do with improving peoples lives.

A Trott spokesperson said the congressman is exasperated by the gridlock in Washington.

It feels like every time the House passes substantive legislation to better the lives of the American people it fails to come to fruition, the spokesperson said. Theres plenty of blame to go around, but Rep. Trott is focused on finding consensus and uniting the party so he can deliver real solutions for his constituents.

Some Republicans are frustrated with Trump, not just his staff.

They felt he should have spent more time talking about health care than tweeting about Hillary Clintons email practices. They also believe his comments about the Russia controversy make the matter only more prominent in the headlines.

Rep. Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican who voted against the House repeal bill, said the health care effort was doomed from the start in part because of Trump. The president, he argued, "never really laid out core principles and didnt sell them to the American people.

Usually the executive has to provide a plan and go out and sell it, he said. It was never really sold.

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Republicans complain about White House infighting - Politico

If anyone has a question about the different priorities of our two major political parties, I suggest checking the "Votes in Congress" column in each Monday's Post-Dispatch. Several votes during the week of July 17-21 are proof positive that Republicans value profit at all cost, including the health and safety of American families.

On July 18, the topic was whether states should improve air quality on a schedule laid out in the Clean Air Act. St. Louis-area Republicans in the House all voted to push that question to 2025. We are talking about ground-level ozone or smog, which is well-known to be harmful to our health. Television weather forecasters tell us how bad the "air quality" is each evening, and the Missouri Department of Transportation puts signs on highways telling us to cut back on driving. Is that any way to solve this problem? Is our health less important than the profit for polluters?

When the Democrats in the House tried to add an amendment to that bill that would keep the current standards schedule in place if evidence could be shown that dirty air is harmful to outdoor workers, children and senior citizens, all the St. Louis-area Republicans nixed that amendment. Kudos to Rep. William Lacy Clay for putting the health of area families above corporate greed.

Steve Reed Manchester

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Republicans value profit over the health of American families - STLtoday.com

Republicans inability and unwillingness to pass legislation that benefits working- and middle-class voters may send voters scurrying back to the Democratic Party. At least thats what Democrats hope, and recent polling indicates they have reason for optimism.

According to a Harvard-Harris poll, 52 percent of voters trust Democrats to provide the best way forward on healthcare. Twenty-seven percent said they trust President Trump and only 21 percent said they trust Republicans in Congress, bringing the total GOP figure to 48 percent. Republicans however have made voters realize the positive aspects of Obamacare. (53 percent said they believe ObamaCare is working, rather than failing. Congress as a whole remains unpopular, but 67 percent of the respondents give the GOPa negative rating while only 59 percent disapprove of Democrats.

The extended debate on health care, I would suggest, makes things even more dicey for Republicans. The substance of the bill (e.g., slash Medicaid) certainly has alarmed voters, but additionally, there are at least two possible consequences for Republicans.

First, Republicans continue to chew up the clock, making it that much more difficult to meet deadlines for the budget and debt ceiling. The window of opportunity for tax reform is also closing fast. In short, the Republicans may wind up being tagged as both incompetent and malevolent.

Second, whether or not Republicans pass a bill, we see, on one hand, a unified Democratic Party and, on the other, Republicans attacking Republicans. President Trump lashed out at Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), one of two Republicans who voted against the motion to proceed. Trump claimed Murkowski really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Murkowski shot back: Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here. Thats what Im here for. Moderate Republicans will applaud her push back while bemoaning the cavalier attitude of right-wing Republicans who seem to have no concern for the substance of what they are trying to pass. Right-wing voices in the conservative echo chamber are already excoriating moderates for repelling efforts to slash Medicaid and deliver tax cuts for the rich. In other words, Trump and the health-care debacle are underscoring the divide in the GOP between the anti-government right-wingers and moderate reform-minded Republicans. Candidates in competitive seats will need both in the 2018 midterm elections.

Moreover, Trumps effort to revive the culture wars has further divided the party and runs the risk of cementing the GOPs image as the party of intolerant white men. The Post reports on the votes of two Virginia Republicans on a measure to stop the military from paying for gender transitionsurgery and hormone therapy. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) of Northern Virginiawas among the 24 Republicanswho joined all Democrats in voting against the amendment. . . .Rep. Scott W. Taylor (R), a freshman from Virginia Beach, voted for the amendment, despite a record of supporting LGBT causes through legislation. Comstock may wind up being tarred by the sentiments of others in her party and losing the support of her more conservative constituents. Taylor meanwhile will be lambasted as a pawn of the far right. To be blunt, its a no-win issue for a party whose popularity is already under water.

In sum, the party that holds the White House almost always loses House seats in the first midterm. In the case of Trump Republicans, however, the endless fight over health care, the absence of other legislative achievements and the introduction of lose-lose social issues will make it that much more difficult for the GOP to keep its majority. In the RealClearPolitics average in generic congressional polling Democrats already have a nine-point lead. Republicans should worry that by Election Day 2018 the deficit will be in double digits.

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Who's going to trust Republicans after this fiasco? - Washington Post

Ben Wikler learned the Affordable Care Acts fate from a text message. The Washington director of MoveOn.org, who had led nearly daily rallies outside the Capitol to stop repeal, was five hours into the final protest when a colleague passed him her phone, buzzing with texts.

Pence not in chair, read one text. Wikler read it to the 300 protesters gathered around him, in a circle, who had been taking turns giving speeches. Murkowski is a no. Let me confirm that. Murkowski is a no. Then: McCain is a no.

Wikler read the text out loud. It was like fireworks going off, he said in an interview. Everyone started chanting U-S-A. Strangers were hugging.

One day later, Wikler and a sizable army of activists were still dazed, and a little nervous. The anti-Trump resistance movement, which has repeatedly watched the repeal effort die and be miraculously reborn, looked at the Senate vote as a genuine victory, with lessons about how to keep blocking the Republican agenda.

This is a truly historic victory and a demonstration of constituent power, said Ezra Levin, a former congressional staffer who co-founded the Indivisible project of grass-roots activist groups. We should celebrate ... [but] Trumpcare is not dead. Do not forget that in the House, [Speaker Paul D.] Ryan declared defeat, and then six weeks later they passed it.

Six months earlier, when new and old liberal groups first organized against the Trump administration, it was unclear whether they could cohere and avoid plunging into the infighting that typically follows electoral defeat. President Trump had full command of the news cycle; Republicans, who had passed multiple ACA repeal bills, insisted that they had a plan to scrub the act off the books.

Activists, who on Friday were still surprised by their victory, credited a number of factors for the turnaround. First, to their surprise, the conservative movement that had so effectively toxified the ACA for voters seemed to phone it in during the repeal fight. Pro-repeal organizations such as the Club for Growth ran TV ads to urge House members along, but faded during the Senate battle. The Club for Growths biggest contribution, a team-up with the Tea Party Patriots, was a little-seen website that attacked skeptical Republicans as traitors. In the end, no TV ads were run to support the Senates version of repeal, and no activism or rallies in favor of repeal was seen by any senator.

I never had any of that in my state, a state [Trump] won bigger than any other state in the nation, said Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). Even the people who voted for Trump, they were benefiting from the law. They got a Medicaid expansion. They got subsidies. The people who were harmed by it because they made too much money to get subsidies: I want to help them. They have a right to be upset. But they were not an organized force like the ones who threw it out.

The Republican decision to craft a conservative bill that only needed intraparty support also put the activists on the same side as health insurance groups and AARP, which activated their own networks to oppose repeal.

But the critical mass of opposition came from liberal groups that had never been so threatened or so organized. MoveOn, battle-hardened by the effort to prevent (and then end) the war in Iraq, ran an aggressive protest and media campaign, including tens of thousands of calls to congressional offices and a series of rallies in swing states that featured Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

They were matched by tens of thousands of more calls from a constellation of groups and by protests organized by everything from ADAPT, a disability rights organization, to the Democratic Socialists of America. Planned Parenthood, which was threatened with zeroed-out federal funding if repeal succeeded, organized nationally and hyper-locally, with key states quickly growing their activist networks.

In Maine, whose Republican senator, Susan Collins, became a reliable vote against repeal, Planned Parenthood began working against repeal immediately after the 2016 election. According to Nicole Clegg, vice president for public policy at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the local chapter signed up 300 new activists in the week after Trumps victory.

I dont think we ever took the foot off the pedal, she said.

A similar effort took place in Alaska, where another Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, declared in February that she would oppose defunding of Planned Parenthood. She eventually voted to oppose repeal. Activists in Alaska perfected a model that became universal by July protest after protest in the offices of Republicans who might vote for repeal, but steady phone calls and shows of support for Republicans who might vote no. (On Friday afternoon, Planned Parenthood sent superhero capes to the offices of no-voters.)

Starting Friday morning, all of the activist groups began organizing a next step steady action to assure legislators that any revival of the repeal push would spark a backlash. A national day of health-care action was already planned for Saturday, so little had be changed.

In the meantime, MoveOn and its allies faced an unexpected problem: accusations of being sore winners. Some of the first coverage of the Capitol protest appeared on Fox and Friends, reportedly the presidents favorite show, in a segment shaming Democratic senators for taking selfies at Wiklers rally. (Congratulations, the healthy people are paying for the sick people, said co-host Brian Kilmeade.)

But Democrats, who repeatedly praised activists for making the repeal push untenable, were happy to celebrate the rally. On Friday morning, dozens of Democratic candidates at a training session sponsored by a progressive group watched a video that Sen. Elizabeth Warrens staff had recorded at the protest. It began with the senator speed-walking away from the vote, then marching, in the witching-hour darkness, toward Wikler and his microphone.

The nightmare is over, said Warren (D-Mass.). The 15 million people who were going to lose their health-care coverage can sleep a little better tonight.

On Facebook, Warrens video of the rally was watched nearly 1million times.

Read more at PowerPost

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Wary and weary, progressives celebrate victory over ACA repeal ... - Washington Post

Common Dreams

House Progressives Call on Members of Congress to Sign Single ... Common Dreams Support for a single payer healthcare system has grown in recent years, with 33 percent of Americans supporting the plan last month. (Photo: National Nurses ... and more »

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House Progressives Call on Members of Congress to Sign Single ... - Common Dreams