With a Twitter typo, Hugh Hewitt inadvertently put his thumb on one of the most significant political question facing congressional Republicans. Instead of using Speaker Paul Ryan’s official handle, the radio host accidently tagged a Speaker Trump parody account.
Bravo @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and @SpeakerTrump for holding a vote. We should get to know who stood with @NancyPelosi
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) March 24, 2017
That coincidence could soon prove prescient. The fate of the Obamacare overhaul already seems sealed. Now the real issue is whether the legislation even comes up for a vote. If Ryan puts the bill on the floor, he will be leaning into the Speaker Trump moniker.
President Trump wants a vote that leadership desperately hopes to avoid. After letting healthcare devour the better half of his first 100 days, Trump’s ready to move onto other agenda items even if that means taking a loss. But Ryan knows that any failure would not be final.
Despite Hewitt’s hopes, the vote won’t be a with-us-or-against-us moment for the administration. Should the ship go down, Republicans who were committed to supporting the bill will quickly switch allegiances. If GOP leaders brass advances the bill without the votes to win, as Johnathan Swan of Axios observers, the loss won’t be marginal. It’ll catastrophic.
That’s because moderate Republicans aren’t about to let the American Health Care Act become an electoral millstone. If it’s sinking, they’ll swim as far away as possible. But that’s not an option for Ryan.
To put the bill up for a vote, the speaker first has to tie the legislative millstone around his own neck. Ryan would have to put the priorities of the president above the wellbeing of his own majority. If that happens, Ryan might as well hand over his gavel to Speaker Trump.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
