GOP Senator Admits His Colleagues Didn’t Expect To Have To Govern

After six months of controlling Congress and the Presidency, some Republican members are starting to admit they don’t know what to do with their control of government and that’s why their agenda has stalled. The Washington Post reports that Senator Patrick Toomey ( R-Pennsylvania) bluntly said he and his colleagues did not expect to be in this situation. Because of the unexpected results from the 2016 election, they weren’t prepared to undertake huge legislative priorities like fixing our health care system. I liken it to the dog that caught the car. They’ve been chasing it for years, and now that they’ve caught it, they don’t know what to do with it.

“Look, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win, I think most of my colleagues didn’t, so we didn’t expect to be in this situation,” – Senator Patrick Toomey

Senator Patrick Toomey

The honesty from Toomey is refreshing. It follows a Twitter thread from the GOP yesterday casting blame for their failure to repeal Obamacare immediately as they promised for the past few election cycles. According to the national GOP, it is everyone else’s fault they haven’t come up with a better health care plan. It is everyone else’s fault that the GOP House members rushed an unpopular bill through its chamber and then partied at the White House. It is everyone else’s fault some GOP Senate members, under their leader Mitch McConnell, held secret meetings and barred public input. It is everyone else’s fault they voted to repeal Obamacare more than sixty times without a plan of their own. Of course, we learned earlier this year in another moment of honesty from Rep. Kevin Cramer, that those 60 votes to repeal were just “symbolic.”

The truth of the matter is some Democrats have been willing to work on improvements in a bipartisan fashion. One of those Senators is North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp. I wrote about that in ND xPlains last week. Each attempt thus far for bipartisanship has been turned away by the Republicans. They own this situation they are admittedly stunned to be in.

The situation isn’t getting easier for the GOP leadership. Yesterday, Senator John Hoeven publicly said he couldn’t support the health care bill “as it stands.” The wiggle room is to be expected. “As it stands” leaves the very real possibility he may support something not as “mean” as the current legislation. That is why continued communication about concerns and wishes on improvements are important. Hopefully, we can all get to a point where we are working together – bipartisanship – on legislation we can support. I’ve got to give Hoeven credit for listening to his employers while back on recess.

Governing is not easy. It is a hell of a lot harder than being the party of “no.” What Toomey’s honest comments show is the GOP was comfortable being obstructionist and playing politics with empty promises. The empty promises used by a lot of GOP candidates like Kevin Cramer to win elections. It’s time to lead by being willing to work with those from both parties that want to get improvements done.