What Trump supporters are calling "the deep state" are the Legislative branch of government and the Judicial branch which includes Trump's sister who is a Federal Court judge and the Civil Service employees who cannot be fired to protect they from a rogue Trump - it's deliberately set up that way.
But the biggest and most powerful of what people are calling a "deep state" are the private American citizens and businesses who interface with various parts of the government, pay taxes and receive benefits.
Something like the Affordable Care Act failed to materialize under President Clinton's wife Hillary because she took a dictatorial approach telling insurance companies, hospitals, medical care providers, pharmaceutical companies, States, patients and taxpayers exactly what they needed to do. The were able to kill the entire attempted enterprise because they objected and let their Congressmembers and Senate members how unhappy they were.
Barrack Obama took a collaborative approach which slowly developed a consensus with States, hospitals, insurance companies, pharma companies, medical providers, and other participants because the new system if implemented made things better for everyone. This was a potent force which resulted in the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Trump wants to change this has has acted dictatorially like Hillary Clinton, apparently thinking he can be a bigger tough ass than Hillary Clinton. But this ran into all the same problems Hillary ran into. Trump needs to cooperation of these healthcare participants - without it, they will tell Congress NO and suddenly there's no change, let along repeal and replacement. They're trying to reinvent the wheel.
Trump and Paul Ryan thought they had some ideas for a plan until he met with healthcare CEOs of hospitals, pharma firms, providers, and Republican Governors. Trump suddenly realized his repeal and replace plan would have so little support among legislators that it's wouldn't even get out of committee. If he wants to replace the Affordable Care Act, he will need to develop something better, which as former Congressional Speaker John Boehner said will be "minor tweaks" wrapped up in "a conservative box" and they'll congratulate themselves. For his part Trump said, "Nobody knew healthcare was so complex." Of course what he meant was everyone knew how complex it was, except for Trump and his closest advisors.
The biggest problem for Republican legislators is very vocal groups of Americans don't want mandatory health care insurance, so Congress is writing a law (in a secret basement room) which will give Americans one chance to buy health insurance - those who choose not to purchase health insurance will only be able to buy healthcare later if they don't have preexisting conditions at that time. Meaning they be largely cut off from any healthcare. This "choice" merely creates increasing problems for the healthcare system every year more of them until it becomes another huge problem because many do not make sound decisions with their life.
The Republican House and Senate leader will not consider any other significant programs from Trump until he agrees on what his changes to the Affordable Healthcare Act will be, because they currently have no idea what healthcare will cost the budget - and if it makes things worse, there's not going to be the votes to implement it.
The problems with global trade and most other thing he's said he wants to address are controlled by similarly powerful groups including consumers who want low prices, and other groups. Trump and his close advisors are largely unacquainted with these subjects as well, so they're going to make virtually no changes, as with healthcare.
To Trump and his close associates, everything seems very easy to fix precisely because they know so little about these topics. Once you know more, the answers don't come so easily.
As a result I don't see many accomplishments in their future, and that's how it should be because they report to us the voters, not a small shadowy board of directors. |
