It appears that the Senate repeal of Obamacare being worked on is not a repeal at all, but instead a massive infusion of new taxpayer dollars to prop it up:

There is general agreement among the majority of the conference that a large "stabilization" fund is necessary to help individual insurance markets stay afloat, as well as tossing away House language that allowed people with pre-existing conditions to be charged much more money.

Republicans are still not settled on how precisely to handle future Medicaid spending, but there is growing consensus that the expansion's wind-down will be pushed past the House's 2020 cut-off. All of those moves are likely to require more funding, and the way to get it is to delay repeal of some of Obamacare's tax increases, a strategy that isn't going to fly with conservatives.

In an interview this week, Rand Paul charged that the House bill is bad enough because it keeps "90 percent" of Obamacare, said he opposes the creation of high-risk pools favored by many Republicans, and urged Republicans to abandon attempts to save the individual marketplace with an infusion of cash.

"We promised the voters that we'd repeal Obamacare," Paul said. "Instead, we want to repeal sort of a tiny bit of it and replace it with something that looks a lot like Obamacare."

In light of that, why is President Trump propping Obamacare up?  He is providing subsidies to keep Obamacare going – subsidies not authorized by law, but instead "made up" by Obama.  Not only is there no legal requirement for these subsidies to continue, but these subsidies are the subject of a lawsuit that claims they are illegal.  Not only is Trump continuing these subsidies, but he is being put in the position of defending Obama's illegal subsidies in court.

It would be easy for Trump to unilaterally end these subsidies, but he refuses to, pleasing only Democrats.

Trump administration officials have told Democrats they will continue paying controversial ObamaCare insurer subsidies, easing fears that a fight over the issue could lead to a government shutdown.

"Our major concerns in these negotiations have been about funding for the wall and uncertainty about the CSR payments crucial to the stability of the marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act," Pelosi said. "We've now made progress on both of these fronts."

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) also praised the development as "good news" amid the negotiations.

And yet we need the pressure of a collapsing Obamacare to get a more free-market solution out of the Senate.  Without such pressure, all we will get is more socialized medicine.

Trump has betrayed the voters on "DREAMers," on moving our embassy in Israel, on ripping up the Iran treaty, on defunding sanctuary cities, and now this.  Should we be surprised that he is voluntarily keeping Obamacare going?

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.