“We are in an ugly era of people who do not understand what the legislative branch is even for,” says Andy Karsner, who served as assistant secretary of energy for efficiency and renewable energy in the George W. Bush administration and is now based in California, working with entrepreneurs as managing partner of the Emerson Collective.

The Trump administration and Republican leadership in Congress, Karsner said, “have no skill set, they have no craftsmanship. They have no connection to the time when people passed legislation.”

In the not-so-old days legislation was drawn up, informally debated and edited by Congressional aides, many of them long- term employees with years of experience. The congressman could give them an outline of what was wanted  and they would draft it as a law.  Then came the dire Tea Party and the so- called “Freedom Caucus”, whose objective was/is the dismantling of ” big government” and the distribution of the savings to rich patrons as tax recuctions.  Scores of Congressional aides were fired while the Republicans concentrated on State rights, using templates drawn word- for- word from the corporate- funded organisation ALEC ( American Legislative Exchange Council).   Meanwhile Republican Congressmen themselves have increasingly been recruited by multi- millionaires who promise them lifetime income in return for voting as required.  Apparently poorly educated, but ambitious, these people are not thinking of the United States of America, for sure.

And this is how we get into a situation where no one quite knows how to draft a new health bill and replace Obamacare.  The latest news is that 22 million people will lose their medical coverage if the current bill (which was drafted secretly and which few have actually read) won’t be voted  on until July at the earliest,  as the Republicans bicker about the headline bits of it.  The devil will, of course, be in the detail.