Trumpcare Bill Pulled. Anothet setback for Trump

Trump Administration is in deep crisis early on

Trump: “I’ve been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we can do politically speaking is to let Obamacare explode…..It is exploding right now.”

Paul Ryan: “We’re going to be living with Obmacare for the foreseeable future”

The vote on the health bill that is supposed to replace Obamacare has been postponed. Trump has informed the media, the “fake media” no less, that the bill has been “pulled.” Trump asked Ryan to pull it and the Republicans headed in to an emergency session. Paul Ryan is supposed to be giving a press conference at 4 pm today.

Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee has stated that the bill is dead. 

This is a huge setback for Trump and his Administration and adds to the thrashing he got from the Wall Street Journal editorial pages three days ago.  The Wall Street Journal is the leading mouthpiece of US capitalism and its comments have to be taken seriously. This is not the gutter press, the mass media that is aimed at the masses, it is the voice of the US ruling class and meant for its members.

The WSJ editorial compared Trump to “…a drunk to an empty gin bottle...” because of his refusal to back of or apologize for his unsubstantiated claims that former president Obama and the British wiretapped Trump Tower.

“If President Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him?”,  the WSJ wrote.  This voice of the US ruling class also took a swipe at Breitbart, the right wing news agency once run by Trumps close advisor Steve Bannon, sometimes referred to as President Bannon.

It is becoming clear that a dominant section of the US bourgeois is losing patience with Trump. His endless double speak, lies and threats normally through Twitter, are a destabilizing factor and a hindrance to profit taking. Capital loathes instability and obstacles to the business of making money. The Journal pointed out in its editorial that Trump’s approach, his “false claims” survived the campaign as his supporters treated them as “mere hyperbole”.  This may have been true in the sense that some people may have thought Trump was just mouthing off but the fear he has instilled in people, women, blacks and immigrants especially is real as a whole section of Trump supporters took him seriously and welcomed his racist, misogynistic and nationalist tone. There was no hyperbole as far as they were concerned and the increase in racial violence and killings by white nationalists and Nazi elements are a product of Trump’s rhetoric, hyperbole or not.

But the majority of the bourgeois are nearing the end of the road as far as Trump is concerned. Their candidate, Hillary Clinton lost the election and they admit that she was not a popular alternative but, as the WSJ adds, “…. now he’s President, and he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything”

The collapse of the health care bill is another nail in the coffin. The problem is what to do?

US capitalism is in such a deep crisis that it has been almost impossible to predict what will happen.  But it is beginning to appear like Trump will be, as some have predicted, the shortest serving president in US history.  I for one, cant’ say with certainty that he will be gone before too long but they won’t put up with him for much longer.  There are huge divisions with in the Trump Administration and the Republican Party is slipping back in to a fractious melee after a brief period of euphoria after the Trump win.

If it seems likely that Trump is incapable of showing a real sense of class solidarity and loyalty by building coalitions and reaching out to Democrats as some like McCain have said there are other options. There is still the claim by the ex British spy that the Russians have something on Trump that happened during his visit there. There are ongoing investigations by the FBI in to his and members of his cabinet’s dealings 2ith Russia that could be used as a reason to remove him. 

The US ruling class in no stranger to assassination and if they had to they would resort to that although it is highly unlikely as it would increase the already volatile and unstable environment in the US. Trump is at war with the second branch of the US government’s three branches, the Judiciary. His attacks on judges as individuals and the Judiciary as an important aspect of the state apparatus are dangerous as they undermine the credibility of the system, of class rule, what we know as Bourgeois Democracy. This concerned them all when Trump suggested he might not accept the election result if he lost.  If he could do that, so could we.

As is usually the case, the silence from the heads of organized labor is deafening.  The building trades leaders, as we are all aware by now, met with him and spent some time kissing his ass in the hope of getting a few jobs out of an infrastructure program that may well head down the same road as the health care bill. Their dream of increased revenue to keep their part of the “union business” going and their obscene salaries safe is fading along with Trump’s popularity.  Their colleagues atop the public sector unions have been whining, hoping things will change in 2020.

Things are happening so rapidly this commentary will be almost ancient news by the time it’s posted on this blog but as we remind ourselves in our weekly phone conferences, we are closer to another severe recession or deep slump. This will add fuel to the fire and give rise to more social unrest and build upon the developments we have seen with the women’s marches, the airport protests against attacks on racial and religious minorities and other developments.

Some of us, I am one of them, are grateful to Trump for giving confidence to those normally silent racists to come out in to the open. It’s better that we can see them and deal with them openly.

One last point I want to make is that I do not think we should support the state, security forces investigating or interfering with a media outlet as they are with Breitbart and others I understand from reports. It sets a dangerous precedent. Please feel free to share your views about this; we are in interesting times. There will be increased attacks on workers up ahead and, as we have said before, it is the “whip of the counter evolution” that will drive the movement from below as workers, women, people of color and all those who are savaged by the market are forced to fight back and begin to unite along class lines.   

At present, the developing movement is hugely influenced by the petite bourgeois and middle class elements. The failure of the heads of organized labor to mobilize their 14 million members contributes to this, but capitalist crisis which includes the costs of foreign wars in defense of corporate profits, will soon change this dynamic.