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Abbreviated pundit roundup: Trump's poll numbers hit new low

By Georgia Logothetis
Tuesday Mar 28, 2017 · 6:40 AM CST



We begin today’s roundup with Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg:
The Cost of Trump's Deepening Unpopularity
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-27/the-cost-of-trump-s-deepening-unpopularity

Gallup's first post-health care presidential approval poll showed President Donald Trump down to 36 percent approval, a new low. He had previously fallen slightly below Barack Obama's low point; he's now one tick lower than either Bill Clinton or Gerald Ford at their worst. [...]

What's clear is that these terrible numbers coincide with what is normally the honeymoon period, and Trump remains far below every other president of the polling era at this point. [...]

Everyone he deals with is going to be less likely to do what he wants. That ranges a lot depending on how their particular constituencies feel about him. Even for those who are most pro-Trump, the low overall approval numbers make it a bit less likely they'll do his bidding. And those who answer to groups which really hate him will be under increasing pressure to find ways to demonstrate their opposition. If that sounds like the unenthusiastic supporters and confident opposition Trump faced during the health-care debacle, that's correct -- so now imagine if he faces his next battles with even lower numbers.

Aaron Blake at The Washington Post explains the damage to Trump’s brand among soft Trump supporters:
Trump’s first 100 days: A big failure, and a new low in the polls
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/03/27/trumps-first-100-days-a-big-failure-and-a-new-low-in-the-polls/?utm_term=.30eb97dc7028

Polls showed that many Republicans who voted for Trump did so despite their reservations about him — including his temperament and his comments about women, minorities and a disabled reporter. The counterarguments were always that they believed he could effect change in Washington and that he could be the dealmaker the federal government needed. The failure of the health-care bill calls both of those things into question.

We’ll await more polling, but for now, the initial and limited polling we have suggests that Trump’s already-damaged brand was further damaged last week. And after one legislative battle, he’s in a uniquely poor position for a new president.

Kate Brannen at Newsweek points out the trouble in covering an administration that lies constantly:
Trump’s Lies Are Round the World Before Truth Puts Its Pants On
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-lies-are-round-world-truth-puts-its-pants-574716

For a candidate who promised voters that “we’re going to win so much, you’re going to get tired of winning,” this can’t be what he had in mind.

What went well for the president? Amid all of this not winning, Trump and his team are actually achieving a lot of success in one area: making the press, and therefore the public, work really hard at keeping track of what’s true and what’s bogus. So far, their hard work is paying off: Trump’s slanderous accusations and wild claims are being debunked, fact-checked and refuted right and left. But that effort is taking up energy, time and resources—in newsrooms, on Capitol Hill and in people’s brains. It’s exhausting, and there are opportunity costs for all of us.

Meanwhile, The New York Times writes about the Trump administration’s war on science:
The Trump Administration’s War on Science
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/the-trump-administrations-war-on-science.html?_r=0

Against those lofty promises, his first budget blueprint is a cramped document that sacrifices American innovation to small-bore politics, shortchanging basic scientific research across the government — from NASA to the Department of Energy to the National Institutes of Health — in ways that can only stifle invention and undercut the nation’s competitiveness. Meanwhile, more than 40 top government science positions, including that of presidential science adviser, remain vacant.

Some research cuts, particularly to the N.I.H., aren’t likely to make it past Congress. But they show Mr. Trump’s lack of understanding of science’s role in national and domestic security, in protecting air and water and other resources and in preventing disease and lowering the cost of health care, which consumes one-quarter of the $3.7 trillion federal budget.

The Baltimore Sun turns to Republican attempts to sabotage the ACA:
'Obamacare is the law of the land'
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-health-care-20170327-story.html

The greatest danger facing the ACA is not that it will implode, explode or enter into a death spiral but that the Trump administration will seek to exacerbate its shortcomings. The administration has already been busy doing just that by reducing marketing and promotion of the program to get fewer people to sign up. Earlier this year, President Trump instructed the IRS not to reject 2016 tax returns that fail to indicate whether the individual has qualifying health insurance coverage, effectively letting people off the hook for the individual mandate. And there are probably dozens of other ways Republicans can sabotage Obamacare through the regulatory process or by simply reducing the Medicaid budget.

At this point, it may be far too Pollyannaish to expect Democrats and Republicans to set aside their differences and come up with corrective legislation, but it shouldn't be too much to ask Republicans not to undermine it. Conservatives hated Social Security from the start as well (it was viewed as "European" socialism, sound familiar?), but aside from the occasional privatization pushes, the GOP isn't actively trying to make it explode or implode. This is what actual governance is about, and Washington's ruling party ought to give it a try. As Speaker Ryan conceded, "Obamacare is the law of the land."

Steve Rattner also writes about sabotaging Obamacare:
Pushing Obamacare Over the Cliff
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/opinion/pushing-obamacare-over-the-cliff.html?_r=0

Republicans may have conceded defeat in their legislative effort to get rid of Obamacare, but their guerrilla war to achieve its demise remains underway. […] While Medicaid expansion can’t collapse the way that the exchanges could, Mr. Price could diminish it by taking steps like allowing states to impose a work requirement on enrollees or to limit lifetime benefits. He could also water down the 10 essential benefits required for all policies by the law, like maternity care and mental health coverage.

We end today’s roundup with Eugene Robinson’s take on Trump’s presidency:
Trump could learn a lot from his mistakes. He won’t.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-could-learn-a-lot-from-his-mistakes-he-wont/2017/03/27/527c32cc-131d-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html?utm_term=.1f1b5bda7d35

During the campaign, Trump was nothing if not headstrong. Yet in office he has let others lead — and is getting nowhere. He could still change course. He could get rid of the sycophantic aides who spend so much time blaming each other. He could focus on parts of his agenda, such as infrastructure, that have popular support, including among Democrats.

But that would mean acknowledging his mistakes thus far. Don’t hold your breath.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/28/1647952/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Trump-s-poll-numbers-hit-new-low