Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump, A Self-Avowed Dealmaker, Faces High Stakes In Outcome Of Friday's House Vote
President Trump, the author of 鈥淭he Art of the Deal,鈥 has been projecting his usual bravado in public this week about the prospects of repealing the Affordable Care Act. Privately he is grappling with rare bouts of self-doubt. Mr. Trump has told four people close to him that he regrets going along with Speaker Paul D. Ryan鈥檚 plan to push a health care overhaul before unveiling a tax cut proposal more politically palatable to Republicans. (Thrush and Haberman, 3/23)
The health-care bill now stalled in Congress is proving an early test of whether the deal-making skills that made President Donald Trump rich in the business world will also work in the legislative realm, where lawmakers face competing pressures and require different sorts of incentives to reach agreement. (Nicholas, Lee and Radnofsky, 3/23)
Most Republicans appeared comfortable with the delay, taking the lumps of a single negative news cycle, so long as the legislation eventually passes. But some worried that if Trump can鈥檛 muscle the first major bill he鈥檚 backed through a single chamber in a Republican-controlled Congress, it could devastate his agenda and weaken his authority moving forward. 鈥淭his is a reputational deal,鈥 said Scott Reed, the chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 鈥淲e have a lot riding on this.鈥 (Goldmacher, Dawsey and Palmeri, 3/23)
President Donald Trump regrets throwing his support behind Speaker Paul Ryan鈥檚 healthcare proposal before his administration could propose a tax reform plan that more Republicans would favor, according to聽a聽Thursday聽New York Times report.聽Trump reportedly questioned his decision to several allies, saying he should鈥檝e prioritized tax reform after seeing the immediate Republican fallout from the GOP healthcare proposal. (Beavers, 3/23)