I remember many years ago reading a book about the Supreme Court called “The Brethren.” It was written from an unsophisticated left-wing perspective, and the question that ran through it (implicitly) was whether the Chief Justice was evil or stupid. It fell fairly heavily on the side of stupid, although there was some evidence for both positions.
Having dealt with government for over 30 years, I can tell you from personal experience that the average official is not particularly malevolent, and is not capable of generating a conspiracy. In the real world, if you’re faced with this question, the default position should be stupid.
It is with this mindset that I considered the issue of whether the GOP leadership deliberately created a bill that is destined to fail in order to avoid paying the political price for it, and to move on to what it really wants–tax cuts.
From a policy perspective, yes, the bill is ridiculous. It maintains most of the structure of Obamacare that is so obnoxious to the hard right, while depriving millions of people of their health insurance. As a result, you might well view it as a “solution” in search of a problem. From a political perspective, however, it gives the GOP exactly what it wants: the destruction of a key part of Obama’s legacy; and a big tax cut for the rich. Furthermore, it is carefully weighted with goodies for both factions: a Planned Parenthood defunding measure here; a tax credit there. Trump and Ryan are both clearly and publicly invested in it, and the bill is moving with remarkable speed in spite of its critics.
And so, it is my opinion that the GOP conspiracy does not exist, and that the leadership does fully intend for this awful piece of legislation to become law.