Mick Mulvaney Takes Aim At Obamacare. Media Takes Aim At Mick Mulvaney.

Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is determined to knock out Obamacare once and for all — which would allow President Trump to finally realize at least one of the ambitions of the original Tea Party movement.

No wonder, then, that he is the subject of multiple hit pieces within hours of each other Wednesday morning in different left-wing outlets. One Mulvaney hit talks about how he’s allegedly splitting the Trump administration on his anti-Obamacare push. The other hit is just headlined “Is Mick Mulvaney terrible at his job?”

Fortunately, President Trump seems to be in step:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1110586787808903168

Here’s Talking Points Memo explaining the machinations behind Wednesday’s Politico hit on Mulvaney:

“President Donald Trump’s Cabinet is not united behind the decision to go after Obamacare, with HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General William Barr — who now has to lead the charge — staunchly against the abrupt policy move.

According to a Tuesday Politico report, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is one of the primary driving forces behind the push to repeal it.

Azar reportedly thinks that the lack of Republican replacement plan makes the move fruitless, while Mulvaney thinks it will goad Congress into action.

TPM passage ends

Now here’s “The Week” ranting about Mulvaney being “terrible at his job”:

Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney may still be “acting” for a good reason.

Mulvaney started his possibly temporary job on a low note, persuading President Trump to hold out on ending what turned out to be the longest government shutdown of all time. Now, he’s apparently leading Trump’s out-of-the-blue push to repeal ObamaCare — a move that doesn’t look too promising either, Politicoreports.

Mulvaney took over for Chief of Staff John Kelly in mid-December, and just a week later, the government was already in crisis mode. From his first days in office, Mulvaney had reportedly pushed Trump to refuse any budget deal that didn’t include border funding. Yet the subsequent shutdown dragged on, and when Mulvaney finally tried to convince Trump to make amends, Trump reportedly snapped, saying “You just f–ked it all up, Mick.”

Now, it seems Mulvaney is putting himself in another tricky spot. Channeling one of his biggest goals from his days as a South Carolina GOP congressmember, Mulvaney is reportedly behind Trump’s renewed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Attorney General William Barr and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar are against the idea, three sources tell Politico.

Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are just confused. They couldn’t repeal the law with a unified Congress in 2017, and now, with a Democratic-held House, it looks even less likely. Still, Mulvaney is reportedly convinced that a “bold stance would force Congress” to take action, Politico says. Read more about Mulvaney’s likely blunder at Politico. Kathryn Krawczyk

The Week’s rant ends

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