About eight months before 45 was born in June of 1946, a sign was delivered to President Truman. Truman kept it on his desk throughout his presidency and often referred to it in speeches.

“The President–whoever he is–has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”

That idea, that understanding, obviously was not new then, but President Truman made some tough calls during his time in office. He owned his decisions.

Now, 45 is looking for places to assign blame for the republican’s tax bill (aka the AHCA “health care” bill) not getting enough support in the House. To start, the bill was terrible. It was intended to be the replacement for the ACA (aka “Obamacare”), but it wasn’t a health care bill like the ACA. Paul Ryan’s AHCA  was designed to, among other things, raise the limitation for insurers on how much executive compensation is tax deductible (from $500,000 to $1 million), give tax cuts to the wealthy, and add a work requirement for Medicaid. In the process the AHCA would have booted approximately 24 million people off their insurance. This was the republican’s “health care” replacement.

On the campaign trail, 45 promised of his new plan “insurance for everybody” and that everybody “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better… lower numbers, much lower deductibles.”

So, having made that promise, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, backed the American Health Care Act, a tax bill, as a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

It’s reported that since Friday he asked his advisers repeatedly, “Whose fault was this?”

As president, I’m sure he read the bill (*cough* *cough*) before deciding to back it, but that wouldn’t make sense since it obviously doesn’t come anywhere close to living up to his promise of simpler, less expensive, better, with lower deductibles for everybody. 45 said the AHCA is “great” and “wonderful” and tweeted from the POTUS account, “You were given many lies with #Obamacare! Go with our plan! Call your Rep & let them know you’re behind #AHCA” on Thursday, March 23. He supported it so fully that on that same day, 45 issued an ultimatum to reluctant Republicans to fall in line and support the bill.

Yet now he is trying to assign blame to someone else even after some of his advisers, including his son-in-law (don’t get me started), advised against supporting the bill.

He’s trying to blame democrats as if they are dumb enough to support such a bad bill.

He’s trying to blame republicans as if they are dumb enough to support such a bad bill.

“Whose fault was this?”

Why, Mr. President, it’s your fault. Own it.

(Image from Harry S. Truman Library and Museum is of “The Buck Stops Here” sign that was on President Truman’s desk in his White House office)

Link: “Trump Becomes Ensnared in Fiery G.O.P. Civil War” – By Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman at The New York Times

Link: “AP fact check: Trump’s promises on health care” – by Calvin Woodward, Associated Press, and Jim Drinkard, Associated Press on PBS Newshour

Link: “Trump Tells G.O.P. It’s Now or Never, Demanding House Vote on Health Bill” – by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Robert Pear, and Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times