Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told moderate Republican senators that they should ignore the sweeping Medicaid cuts included in Trumpcare because those cuts will never actually happen.
It remains to be seen if that comforted any of the so-called moderate Republicans who have the power to kill Trumpcare, but McConnell's pitch may have cost him support among the more unhinged members of his caucus.
Wisconsin senator and Lego Movie conspiracy theorist Ron Johnson spoke to the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce where he said McConnell's message to moderates is a "breach of trust."
"I am concerned about Leader McConnell's comments to apparently some of my Republican colleagues — 'Don't worry about some of the Medicaid reforms, those are scheduled so far in the future they'll never take effect,'" he said. "I've got to confirm those comments ... I think those comments are going to really put the motion to proceed in jeopardy, whether it's on my part or others." [...]
"Many of us, one of the main reasons we are willing to support a bill that doesn't even come close to repealing Obamacare ... was because at least we were devolving the management back to the states, and putting some level of sustainability into an unsustainable entitlement program," he said.
"If our leader is basically saying don't worry about it, we've designed it so that those reforms will never take effect, first of all, that's a pretty significant breach of trust, and why support the bill then?"
At least we're devolving management, he says.
There isn't a single fucking business or institution in America, other than the Republican Congress, where "devolving the management" is said or viewed favorably.
At the end of the day I expect Ron Johnson will vote for the bill, whatever form it takes, because he is a weasel, but this is a pretty clear illustration of where the Republican party is at.
And Mitch McConnell is lying, by the way. If they pass the cuts and Trump signs them into law, it will happen, and it'll happen first in states that pass biennial budgets. Beginning next Spring long before the midterm elections take place, states will have to account for drastically reduced federal contributions to their Medicaid programs that will begin in fiscal 2020 or earlier. The pendulum will swing before Democrats even have a chance to retake control of Congress.