President Trump keeps flip-flopping on whether he supports a bipartisan bill to stabilize health care markets

President Trump keeps flip-flopping on whether he supports a bipartisan bill to stabilize health care markets. And it has created a weird dichotomy in the Senate: No one's taking his position on the bill very seriously at any given moment, even though it needs his support to pass and become law. Trump has shifted from sounding supportive of Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray's bill, to calling it a "bailout" for insurance companies, and back again, and back again. But Alexander and Murray — and a lot of their colleagues — are simply pushing ahead. And support for their bill seems to be growing, at least in the Senate, irrespective of what Trump says. What they're saying: Axios's Caitlin Owens caught up with a few Republican senators to ask them how much Trump's vacillations are affecting things: "Which one's he on now?" Sen. Johnny Isakson quipped as Caitlin began her question. Even with the president's shifting support of the bill, "I'm moving it ahead to try to get it in a position where if it's signed, it's a good law for Georgia," he said. When asked if Trump changing his mind so much made it hard to predict where he'll land on the bill, Sen. Jeff Flake said, "I think that's rather obvious." "They just need to pass it during the 5 minutes he is supportive," one GOP lobbyist said. Be smart: It's awfully early in the administration for Trump's own party to be so securely on its own, independent trajectory. But Trump's opinion will likely hold more sway in the House — meaning, if he wants to pick a side, he could probably exercise some real leverage over the final product.

http://footprintsstrategies.com