The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Brian Richardson, Contributor • March 28, 2024
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Trump lacks presidential responsibility

Trump lacks presidential responsibility

Trump seems to lack a certain responsibility that makes up what one would expect from a president. Now for many of the Democrats out there – this probably is not a new revelation and is certainly a “told you so” moment.

This is exhibited in the GOP’s failure to pass its alternative to Obamacare this past week in Congress.

First, Trump lacked the responsibility and poise to organize his majority government into a coherent plan to improve, repeal, or replace Obamacare. When one does not even have to try to reach across the aisle to pass a bill and only keeps the people on one’s side in line, one would assume that it would be fairly easy to pass whatever you want.

However, perhaps more telling is the lack of responsibility is Trump’s finger-pointing that followed the GOP pulling its bill from the floor.

Trump claimed that “no Democratic support” was a reason for the bill not passing, which is childish for two reasons: first, you cannot expect the Democrats to help you repeal their signature legislation in the past decade and secondly, he should have been able to get the votes on his own if he had a decent plan to pass. He did not need Democratic support.

Then came the spin from Trump via Twitter at 9:37 a.m. on March 25, that this is actually a good thing because “Obamacare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan.”

This tweet is truly ridiculous tweet for several reasons, even more so than his general level of irresponsibility. Why would you let something implode on your own watch if you are sure that it is going to do so? The health of the government is now in Trump’s hands, and he should not be waiting around for something to fail just to say “I told you so” and so that we can go through this whole bill-passing circus again once the situation worsens.

Ultimately, if Obamacare does explode, it will not get the Republicans any political points. At best it comes out as a wash, with the Democrats having passed a bad piece of legislation. At worst, it makes the Republicans irresponsible and ineffective – being unable to fix something that they claimed they knew was going to fail from the beginning.

If he truly is so sure that the healthcare system is going to fail, then he should be setting about work to convince everyone of the issue’s severity and attempt to make a compromise among Republicans – it should not be too much to ask to get one political party to agree amongst itself, which seems to be a problem at the moment.

Now, if one is trying to rationalize Trump, it may be wise to move on for healthcare for now to get some policy victories in other areas which the young administration desperately needs after this failure. However, if he truly does believe Obamacare is sure to implode, then it would be irresponsible for him to go too much longer without addressing the issue – rather than waiting for disaster and finger-pointing as has been the standard behavior up to this point.

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