
Rep. Justin Amash said Thursday that President Trump was trying to bully the Freedom Caucus of conservative Republicans. Image Source: YouTube.
President Trump appears to be putting the blame of the failure of the American Health Care Act that he backed on the Freedom Caucus, and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) is pushing back. Amash told reporters that the president acted like a fifth-grade child Thursday.
Most people dont take too well to being bullied, he told reporters, laughing.
Do you think this is an actual negotiating tactic by the president, a reporter asked, though, or do you think, is this a constructive way to do it?
I mean its constructive in fifth grade, Amash answered after carefully considering the question. It may allow a child to get his way, but thats not how our government works.
Amash was responding to recent tweets by the president attacking the Freedom Caucus as being the culprit behind the failure of the health care bill that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) developed to fulfill campaign promises to repeal and replace an ailing Obamacare.
Trump took to Twitter to blame the group and make what appeared to be a threat to unseat them in the 2018 midterm elections. Some Trump allies, like Newt Gingrich, blamed the GOP leadership and especially Ryan for presenting a weak bill and not allowing enough input from dissenting voices.
Amash responded earlier by tweet as well, saying, It didnt take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment.
It didn't take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment. https://t.co/9bDo8yzH7I
Justin Amash (@justinamash) March 30, 2017
Meanwhile Speaker Ryan said that he could understand why Trump is frustrated, but warned against working with Democrats as that would result in legislation where health care is controlled by the government instead of the patient and doctors.
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The bill failed after the Freedom Caucus opposed it for being too accommodating to the legislation it was supposed to be replacing, former President Obamas signature accomplishment. Supporters of the bill postponed the vote for one day to change the bill, but after finding that it was losing support from moderate Republicans, they abandoned the effort altogether.
Trump has said his new strategy was to let Obamacare collapse and explode on its own in anticipation of Democrats coming to him for a deal to escape the political backlash.
Amash has been a critic of Trump before this latest altercation, most notably when he called on Trump to drain the swamp of his own foreign entanglements.
#1: Gatlin To: All, A K A Stone (#0)
Of course, it was Amashs sterling reputation as a strict libertarian
that made his talk a bit of a disappointment.
Amash is a total disappointment in everything he does.
He is an obstructionist that needs to be voted out of office in 2018.
Go after him, Donald - Drain the Swamp.
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-31 01:34:09 Reply Private Reply
#2: Hondo68 To: Gatlin (#0)
Hondo68 posted on 2017-03-31 01:48:48 Reply Private Reply
#3: Gatlin To: hondo68 (#2)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-31 14:39:57 Reply Private Reply
#4: Tooconservative To: Gatlin (#1)
Amash, like Ron Paul and even Rand Paul, is not a strict libertarian and never has been. They generally consider themselves "libertarian Republicans" but Republicans foremost. They see the two as intertwined. They define themselves this way as opposed to statist Republicans who like Big Government solutions to everything, served up with a lot of pork for patronage.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-03-31 19:21:11 Reply Private Reply
#5: A K A Stone To: Tooconservative (#4)
A K A Stone posted on 2017-04-01 07:32:55 Reply Private Reply