At a breakfast interview with Politico on Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked whether he believes Mexico will “pay for” President Trump’s proposed border wall.
“Uh, no,” was McConnell’s answer, eliciting a hearty chorus of laughter from the Beltway-dwelling audience.
McConnell also predicted tax reform would “take longer” to complete than the time available between now and the August recess.
Later that same day, however, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer took a different stance, reaffirming the administration’s position that tax reform will be completed “on schedule” before the recess.
For his part, the president has also repeatedly maintained that Mexico will fund the border wall.
Discord between Congressional Republicans and the White House was even more pronounced earlier in the week when members scrambled to ascertain the president’s approach to health care reform. Though Trump tweeted that the bill proposed by House Republicans was “wonderful,” he also encouraged “review and negotiation,” reportedly catching members who believed the bill was final by surprise.
In a Tuesday interview with the Washington Examiner, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said he was “not yet buying” that it was “Trump’s bill.” But on Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan told radio host Bill Bennett that Trump “helped us write this bill,” saying House Republicans “worked hand in glove” with the president to draft the legislation.
Sources also told the Examiner that Trump caught conservatives off guard in a meeting on Thursday, relaying the possibility a second phase of health care reform could be released as early as next week.
This confusion, compounded with the onslaught of opposition to the bill registered by conservatives such as Rand Paul, made for a sloppy-looking and chaotic week of Republican messaging.
Disagreement over policy is healthy, but the dominant impression of Republicans’ conduct this week is that the party is out of step on important issues. To the public, this raises doubts about the GOP’s ability to provide solutions to the serious problems facing their families.
There are reasonable explanations for this confusion to spill out from both camps, but it’s time to tighten it up.
On Wednesday, Ryan addressed Republican disagreement over health care reform by explaining, “we’re going through the inevitable growing pains of being an opposition party to becoming a governing party.”
That is fair enough, but the American people have little patience for immaturity, even if it is “inevitable.”
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
