infrastructure. so the idea that it never gets done is peculiar. it s unfortunate that it s become this punch line because it s hugely important. it is going to become increasingly more important as the u.s. infrastructure becomes older, becomes more decrepit and becomes unattended to. it s so fascinating to me to your point, chuck schumer when the president was first elected during the transition when steve bannon was talking about working on a trillion dollar infrastructure deal, chuck schumer was worried that they were going to come out of the gate wanting to do an infrastructure bill, he thought it was going to put the democrats in a no win situation, they would have to go along with it and the president was going to have this huge sort of popular working class accomplishment and instead he went for a tax bill at first. and that has actually he went for healthcare first, then he went for a tax bill. that has basically told the story of the president s legislative successes or
the president of the united states. when he comes to office, a few democrats say fix welfare first. but bill clinton and hillary clinton really wanted to do healthcare first. you can say that the search for healthcare reform was the great democratic holy grail. for 60 years this country has tried to reform healthcare. president roosevelt tried. president truman tried. president nixon to tried. president carter tried. every time the special interests were powerful enough to defeat them, but not this time. it was a masterful performance. and i think the president has re-engaged the congress and the american public on the issue of healthcare and probably will have some success with it. if we do not guarantee health insurance to every american, then we have failed all americans. hillary clinton was given enormous responsibility by her husband to do this very hard thing, to reform healthcare. in a hostile political environment, you don t come up with something this complicated a
julie: president trump predicting democrats and republicans will eventually come together on a new healthcare plan after the tax reform measure he signed into law friday eliminates obamacare s individual mandate that requires everyone buy health insurance or pay a penalty. the president tweeting quote, based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular individual mandate has been terminated as part of our tax cut bill which essentially repeals over time obamacare, the democrats and republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new healthcare plan. let s bring in our panel, we have a former republican member of the missouri state senate and a member of the dnc. all right, so originally republicans were supposed to tackle healthcare first. that flopped so then they went to tax reform second. it was supposed to be the other
here, dan, one is, i think that healthcare choice that they made to go with healthcare first has just proven to be a lot harder than they thought, first in the house it took longer. now it is approaching a moment of truth in the senate. but also democrats have really just done everything they can to slow the senate down, particularly on nominations. how bad is it? well, it is very bad on nominations. i mean, there are many many important seats in the government that have not been fulfilled. i came in with a little bit of a list. they are just about to start moving the u.s. ambassador to japan, bill haggerty, the solicitor general, noel francisco, many secretaries and deputy secretaries, the chairman of the council of the economic advisors, undersecretary for international finance, these are very important positions that have not been fulfilled for seven months. but chuck schumer s response would be well they got so far behind, the trump administration in nominating them, what do yo
here, dan, one is, i think that healthcare choice that they made to go with healthcare first has just proven to be a lot harder than they thought, first in the house it took longer. now it is approaching a moment of truth in the senate. but also democrats have really just done everything they can to slow the senate down, particularly on nominations. how bad is it? well, it is very bad on nominations. i mean, there are many many important seats in the government that have not been fulfilled. i came in with a little bit of a list. they are just about to start moving the u.s. ambassador to japan, bill haggerty, the solicitor general, noel francisco, many secretaries and deputy secretaries, the chairman of the council of the economic advisors, undersecretary for international finance, these are very important positions that have not been fulfilled for seven months. but chuck schumer s response would be well they got so far behind, the trump administration in nominating them, what do yo