Counting their chickens a little too soon.

One of my guilty pleasures  in life is EPL soccer. I spend too much time on Sunday mornings watching the match of the day from across the pond.

Anyway, I was just watching the Manchester City Middlesbrough match, and right before halftime Middlesbrough scored to take a one to nothing lead. They celebrated, to be sure, but they knew there was a half to go, so they couldn't rest on their laurels. Invariably, the better side ended up scoring to equalize things, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw.

Which brings me to my post.  Today I watched Donald trump and his band of merry -winngut- men declare victory because the house narrowly passed a bill to replace the ACA. Trump was chirping on the White House lawn about what a victory he had won, and he gloated, once again, that he is the president.

You read that right. There was a Rose Garden ceremony for a bill that passed only one chamber.  But that is so trump. Spiking the ball before he gets in the end zone.

The bill still has to pass the senate, and chances are zero to nothing that it will pass in its present form, if it passes at all. To stay with my soccer analogy, Mr. Orange Hair and his gang are celebrating as if they won the match and it's only halftime. They still have an entire half to go.

These clowns were so desperate for a political win that they rushed through the bill without some of their members reading it, and before it was scored and analyzed by the CBO.

But let's see where this goes from here, and what will happen to some of these GOP politricksters in swing districts when it's time to send them back to Washington.

If you listen to trump and his friends tell it, premiums will go down, coverage will go up, and all will be hunky dory in trumpland. We. Will. See.

"Appearing on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer Thursday, Congressman Chris Collins (R-NY) conceded that he hadn’t even examined the document.

“I will fully admit, Wolf, I did not,” Collins said, saying that he relied on his staff to read the bill and brief him.

Collins was not alone. In the very next segment, Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) likewise said that he was briefed by his staff.

 

Blitzer was taken aback by this. He pressed Collins on whether he had a responsibility to actually read the legislation which stands to impact so many.

“This legislation affects a fifth of the U.S. economy and millions and millions of Americans,” Blitzer said. “Don’t you think it was important to actually sit down and read — read the language of this bill?”'

“You know, I have to rely on my staff,” Collins said. “And I can probably tell you that I read every word, and I wouldn’t be telling you the truth, nor would any other member. We rely on our staff, and we rely on our committees, and I’m comfortable that I understand this bill in its entirety, Wolf, without poring through every word.”'

   

Learning the hard way that governing is tough.

   Let's be honest, there is no way that republicans will let trumpcare go down tomorrow. They have way too much invested in getting rid of the healthcare plan named after the black man.

Still, the fact that they are having such a hard time getting the votes to support this dreadful plan (a plan it took them seven years to perfect) says all you need to know about the dysfunction among these right-wingnuts in Washington.

In one corner you have the real conservatives, and in the other corner you have the moderates. In the middle you have Paul Ryan and the trump White House, whose concern is not for the health of the American people, but rather the political optics of their dreadful trumpcare rollout.

Trump and Ryan just want a win at this point. Any win. Why? Because in case you have been living on another planet, these first 60 days or so have been absolutely horrible for team trump and the republicans.

And what's scary is this: As Chris Hayes stated earlier, the White House does not know what's in the health care plan and he does not care. He just wants a win. Details be damned. Details, by the way, which are serious, and which have serious consequences for the lives of real people.

"Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie said Thursday that the Trump administration had not convinced him to change his vote on the bill to replace Obamacare, and said that he hoped it would sink in the House.

“I am still very much opposed to the bill,” Massie said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday. “I think it’s worse than Obamacare.” [Source]

Mr. Massie has changed his vote from No to HELL NO!

It's going to be a long night.

*Pic from abcnews.go.com