A day after US president Donald Trump threatened to walk away from the negotiating table if the House of Representatives failed to vote on the health care reform bill he backed, he has made good on his promise.
Trump gave a press conference in the oval office late on Friday, announcing he was moving on to tackle tax reform.
All blame for the failure to amass enough votes lay solely with the Democratic party, said Trump, not mentioning the lack of support among many Republicans for what they saw as failure to abolish the most odious component of Obama's law: the individual mandate to purchase insurance.
However, Trump did appear to obliquely appear to place some blame GOP's "freedom caucus," saying he'd learned a lot about loyalty."The losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, because now they own Obama care. They own it, 100%."
Donald Trump got elected to office on his pledge to be a "dealmaker." In his first big test, Trump, despite the assistance of experienced congressional veterans Pence and Priebus, appears to have failed."It certainly was an interesting period of time. We all learned a lot. We learned a lot about loyalty, we learned a lot about the vote-getting process."
Yet, the president claims that by walking away from the table, one can obtain a better deal later on. In fact, as a businessman, he has long held it to be the key element of a successful negotiation.
Will the tactic work with members of congress? The jury is still out.
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