NEW YORK (AP) – Republicans are expressing embarrassment, fear and frustration as party leaders concede that their years-long promise to erase much of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act is all but dead.
Conservatives blamed establishment Republicans who control Congress. Establishment Republicans blamed President Donald Trump. And Trump blamed “a few Republicans” and Democrats.
The finger-pointing marked a new low for a Republican Party that swept into power in January and has struggled to govern ever since.
Trump signaled Tuesday that his party was largely giving up after seven years of promising to repeal the law.
The development intensified Republican divisions from Georgia to Colorado to Texas as conservatives vowed to punish ineffective Republicans in Congress and GOP operatives warned of dire political consequences for the party in 2018.