TRUMP'S BASE ESCAPES SILVER BULLET

Who would ever have thunk it.  Obamacare was saved by the hard right (Freedom Caucus) of the Republican Party, a group that probably doesn't like any type of healthcare.  By turning down the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the ACA  (Obamacare) lives!

Why was Trump's base saved?  It turns out that counties that favored Trump have a high percentage of people on Medicaid.  Medicaid was cut back to pre-Obama days and the savings would have been given to the wealthiest who now pay a surtax of 3.8 percent on capital gains:  Quotes follow:*

Among those hit the hardest under the current House bill are 60-year-olds with annual incomes of $30,000, particularly in rural areas where healthcare costs are higher and Obamacare subsidies are greater.
In nearly 1,500 counties nationwide, such a person stands to lose more than $6,000 a year in federal insurance subsidies. Ninety percent of those counties backed Trump, the analysis shows.

And 68 of the 70 counties where these consumers would suffer the largest losses supported Trump in November.*

(Click on figure to enlarge)

And the wealthiest would benefit the most from tax cuts:**

The single biggest tax cut included in the bill is the repeal of the 3.8 percent tax the Affordable Care Act applied to capital gains, dividend, and interest income for families with $250,000 or more in income ($125,000 for singles).

Repealing that tax is a change that, by definition, only helps the rich, or at least the affluent. If you’re part of a married couple and, like the vast majority of Americans, make less than $250,000 a year, or earn more than that but have little investment income, it doesn’t affect you at all.
..................................................................
By contrast, members of the top 0.1 percent, who each on average make more than $3.75 million annually, would get an average tax cut of $165,090. 
...................................................................
Then there’s the 0.9 percent Medicare surtax, a hike on wage income in excess of $250,000 a year ($200,000 for unmarried people). The Republican bill would repeal this surtax and, in so doing, give everyone in the bottom 90 percent an average tax cut of $0, per the Tax Policy Center.  The richest of the rich, the top 0.1 percent, would get an average cut of $30,520.**

* http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-trump-supporters-20170312-story.html
** http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/7/14844362/ahca-ryancare-trumpcare-tax-cut-rich