Opinion: Trump lacks the temperament and the attention span to win legislative battles

To the editor: Doyle McManus was only partially correct about President Trump blowing the deal on healthcare. The president has more problems. (“It turns out Donald Trump is not an Artist of the Deal,” Opinion, March 24)

First, his attention span is too short for him to study any complicated issue. He has acknowledged that healthcare is complicated, but he has refused to or cannot learn the details.

Second, he does not like to read. As he has said, he goes by his instincts, but in the complicated world of government, just as in sales, he must know his product. Instead, he spends a lot of time watching TV, which does not provide enough detailed information for the president to make decisions.

Third, in politics, he does not have his favorite business tool: the threat of a lawsuit. Now, he truly must negotiate, and as he has revealed, he does not know how to do that.

Gary M. Barnbaum, Woodland Hills

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To the editor: Fortunately, Trumpcare died in utero, because had it survived it would have done more harm than good.

We now have the opportunity to look at our healthcare system and ask what should be done next. The Affordable Care Act has done some good things but also has a variety of serious problems. Many items that should have been enacted were left out of the law for political reasons.

What we now need is an independent panel, modeled after the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, that is composed of outside experts in the various aspects of healthcare delivery, financing and education, among others, to fashion a bill that would correct the problems that exist. The strength of the military commission was that Congress could hold hearings on its report but not amend it. We need to repeat that process with healthcare.

Winston Churchill is said to have observed that Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have tried everything else first. We have tried everything else on healthcare; now is the time for us to do the right thing.

Richard F. Corlin, MD, Santa Monica

The writer is a past president of the American Medical Assn.

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To the editor: McManus’ critique of Trump’s role in the Obamacare destruction effort was textbook accurate.

But McManus overlooks the fact that this apparently delusional man — who has claimed that he won election by a historic margin, that Hillary Clinton’s 2.9-million popular-vote margin was due to fraud, and that President Obama had him wiretapped — simply has no business being president.

Trump’s failure aside, the bill was a horrible monstrosity that did nothing but lower taxes on the wealthy while raising the healthcare costs of millions with marginal incomes.

David Perel, Los Angeles

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