President Trump's ninth week in office has been tumultuous. The FBI has confirmed that it is investigating connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a lower-court ruling that would have endangered the rights of schoolchildren with disabilities-a ruling that was set forth by Neil Gorsuch, who is currently being evaluated for a Supreme Court position. Trump's renewed travel ban continues to be blocked by the courts. However, the most pressing news of this week under the Trump administration is the Republican Party's inability to repeal and replace Obamacare.
"Obamacare," as the Affordable Care Act has come to be called, became the law of the land in the United States in 2010. The law was responsible for allowing over 22 million of America's poor access to health care. This was a landmark event, because although inequality persists, prior to the passing of the Affordable Care Act healthcare in the United States was severely unequal and incredibly expensive (despite the US spending far more on healthcare than most other advanced nations). However, far-right activists and conservative funders of the party see the Affordable Care Act as an intolerable intrusion of the federal government into the lives of the nation's citizens. As a result, the Republican Party, in the seven years since the bill's passing, has ceaselessly attempted to repeal the bill. President Trump ran on a slogan of "repeal and replace" with regard to Obamacare. Revoking the law and replacing it with a Republican-constructed alternative was one of the prime objectives of the new administration.
Yet on Friday, President Trump and the Republican Party were forced to acknowledge that their alternative healthcare plan was a failure. The bill failed in large part because Republicans could not get the plan approved by Congress. While "repeal and replace" served as a good slogan, many Republican constituents in reality benefit greatly from the Affordable Care Act, and were not pleased with the Republicans' alternative plan. The failure has damaged Trump's image, which has relied in large part on the idea of his being a businessman that can always close a "deal."
On the international front, President Trump strained the relationship between the US and two of the US's most important alliances: the United Kingdom and Germany. Press Secretary Sean Spicer read a report by a largely discredited judge that claimed that the Obama administration had used British intelligence to spy on Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Although Spicer later apologized, the administration as a whole did not acknowledge the apology. As for the United States' relationship with Germany, Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have never been on amicable terms. While meeting with Merkel this week, Trump joked about America having her under surveillance. After the meeting, the President tweeted about how much money Germany owed the United States for the military defense the US and NATO provide. In summary, President Trump's ninth week in office has been an extremely damaging one for his administration's image-both at home and abroad.
- http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-trump-russia-scotus-20170321-story.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/26/the-guardian-view-on-trump-and-obamacare-a-welcome-failure-for-a-damaging-plan
- https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-awkward-meeting-with-angela-merkel-just-got-more-cringeworthy-853ca0b84ca4
