I thought we were moving past health care. Is that no longer the plan?
Yes - that should be fairly obvious given what's happening. "Donny said he's not gonna eat that sandwich, but now he's eating it. Does this mean he changed his mind?????" Yes, Trekky. Yes, it does.
We also knew that he changed his mind some weeks ago and the very article you've linked makes this clear in the very first
paragraph sentence:
Since the failure of the GOP health care bill in the House nearly three weeks ago, President Donald Trump has suggested letting Obamacare explode to bring Democrats to the negotiating table.
something like that that the American public likes more than Republican health care plans.
Given the recent clean takeover of all branches of government by the Republicans, this really needs some substantiation.
why not come up with a replacement plan to keep premiums low, like you promised on the campaign trail
He tried that, but then the Freedom Caucus happened.
Blaming the Democrats for this is retarded, granted, but pretending they played no part in this is even worse. The only way he can potentially (and even then it's not likely) pass a healthcare reform without help from the Democrats is by completely reverting things to pre-2009. I dunno about you, but it sounds to me like seeking compromise with the D's is a better idea. And if they need to be forced into a compromise, meh, so be it.
Bottom line: Americans usually don't like being used as hostages. Even the Republicans think this is a bad idea.
Bill Clinton held Americans hostage twice by triggering government shutdowns. Didn't seem to affect his popularity much in the long term. HW Bush did it, but that did kind of kick him in the ass. Obama did it, but it was A-OK. Honestly, it looks like it's just Republicans (I'll stick to a pre-Trump definition of Republicans here) who don't like being held hostage.