House Speaker Paul Ryan is "a brilliant policy guy," but at the end of the day, he and President Donald Trump set up an "artificial deadline to fail" with their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act on its seventh anniversary, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday.
"The congressional leadership still wants to behave as if they are in a pre-Trump world, and Trump trusted them," Gingrich said during a "Fox News Sunday" panel discussion. "They were saying to him, 'we have the votes.'"
The American Health Care Act was Ryan's first big effort to put together a legislative package, continued Gingrich, but in the end, it was difficult for Trump to win an inside game.
"Trump's greatest strength was in the country, as [Ronald] Reagan's greatest strength was in the country," said Gingrich. "It took us until 1996 to pass welfare reform. The second round was equally simple. Start with the country understanding what you are doing, and then try to do it in Washington."
However, the AHCA process was too complicated, and was going to meet with opposition, especially following the "fake score" from the Congressional Budget Office and the "absurdity of the reconciliation bills," said Gingrich.
The bill's proponents were left trying to explain a process that was "hopelessly complicated to the average American, and then saying 'trust us, we will fix it all in the second and third phases.' [It was] profoundly misdesigned."
Related stories:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.