Trump issued a gentle and very obscure warning to Republicans on Obamacare yesterday:
Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight – be careful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
It’s not clear what this means exactly, except that Trump is aware of the political risks involved in the current Republican strategy of partial repeal with replace put off until later. Personally, I’d prefer that Trump just go all the way and tweet that Republicans should do as much of repeal and replace together as possible, which would settle the basic strategy although obviously not the policy details. One of the risks that Republicans run here is that they get far down the road of partial repeal, they get a bad score from the CBO that says millions will lose their insurance, and Trump decides he doesn’t want to own that and comes out against it, throwing the effort into chaos. Republicans should definitely “be careful” — and it would help if everyone knew what that meant.