The insider and the outsider: McConnell and Trump try for a deal on health care

[corbe]

The insider and the outsider: McConnell and Trump try for a deal on health care
By Sean Sullivan, Abby Phillip and Paul Kane 
May 6 at 3:41 PM  

President Trump’s administration was still in its first hours when Mitch McConnell snagged an open seat next to him for a private chat at his inaugural luncheon. For more than 15 minutes, McConnell did most of the talking. The new president listened keenly.

Eleven days later, McConnell had a front-row seat as Trump announced Neil M. Gorsuch as his pick for the Supreme Court, the culmination of the Senate majority leader’s advice during the campaign on how to handle the court vacancy: Consult the Federalist Society, and make a list of prospects. Trump did that.

For months, McConnell, the consummate political insider, has been dispensing his counsel to Trump, the ultimate outsider, who has been absorbing the Kentuckian’s words. The dynamic has provided a degree of stability in the still-forming relationship between the low-key Senate leader and the loquacious president, who are starkly different types of people.

But cracks have also emerged in their partnership, most notably when Trump has casually suggested that McConnell change the long-standing rules of the Senate and McConnell has bluntly brushed him off.

Their fragile alliance is about to face its biggest challenge yet in the next phase of the Republican effort to overhaul the nation’s health-care laws. The work of revising major parts of the act known as Obamacare is now in the Senate’s hands after the House narrowly passed its own bill following months of destructive Republican infighting.

At stake is the long-term future of the American health-care system and the near-term future of the new Republican-controlled government — which has yet to shepherd any major legislative proposals into law.

“Whether or not they are able to forge a positive, personal and working relationship will be one of the early tests of this,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele.

[Health care is now set to be a defining issue in the next election cycles]

It will be as much a make-or-break moment for McConnell as for Trump. The Senate leader has so far been able to fly below the radar on health care as House Republicans worked through their disagreements before ultimately passing a bill. If he cannot do the same, he is likely to be blamed for the collapse of the effort to fulfill a signature GOP campaign promise.

McConnell is cool and deliberative while Trump is hot and impetuous. But they have privately developed what people close to them say is a respectful relationship.

In the 75-year-old majority leader, Trump, 70, sees a senior player in navigating the ways of Washington, in both age and experience. He views him as someone on his level — or at least more on his level than many other Republicans, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

In some regards, McConnell has become a tutor to Trump. The two men speak regularly, with McConnell initiating some calls to guide the novice president.

“Leader McConnell has been a great resource in giving guidance and counsel on a myriad of issues in the first few months,” said one senior administration official — talking generically about McConnell — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the relationship candidly.

It was McConnell, after all, who helped hand Trump his only major congressional victory during his first 100 days in office: the confirmation of Gorsuch to the high court. In nominating Gorsuch, who won wide praise in conservative circles, Trump also aided McConnell by helping him pay off his gamble to hold the seat open during the presidential campaign.

Those close to McConnell say that his relationship with Trump is rooted in trying to accomplish the things Republicans campaigned on last year — no more, no less.

“The funny thing — everybody used to ask McConnell if he got along with Barack Obama,” said Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff. “And he said it’s irrelevant if he got along. It’s, ‘Can we work together?’ ”

But Holmes said McConnell is “allergic to drama” and “does not see the business of governing as a soap opera. It’s a business that should be handled professionally.” That ideal has been complicated time and again by Trump’s controversial policies and pronouncements.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-insider-and-the-outsider-trump-and-mcconnell-try-for-a-deal-on-health-care/2017/05/06/32b05852-31d5-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.523d2f056205

[Hondo69]

Based on their track record, the McConnell Senate isn't likely to go out on any limbs and do anything out of the ordinary or remarkable.