The GOP health care plan hangs by a thread, and President Trump appears to be staking out ground where he can blame Congress if the deal doesn’t get done.

In what’s become a familiar refrain, people are making the argument any failure to pass a health care bill rests solely with Congress. “Trump will sign a bill. Why aren’t they getting it done?”

Trump tweeted this morning:

Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017

When you get through the word salad, what he’s doing is putting the onus on the Senate to get things done.

Technically that is true. The President is the executive, and Congress writes legislation. But for people to say the President has no role in helping to shape and shepherd legislation through the process ignores decades of examples of when presidents got heavily involved.

The Great Society programs did not happen with Lyndon Johnson sitting with his feet up in the Oval Office. Ronald Reagan required Democratic support for his tax cut packages that spurred economic growth in the 1980’s. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both worked with Congressional leaders to get important legislative agendas passed.

Donald Trump, in a 2016 GOP debate said the following about his ability to make deals and what has to happen to make great deals:

“With Congress, you have to get everybody in a room, and you have to get them to agree. But you have to get them to agree with what you want. That’s part of being a dealmaker.”

He also took a swipe at President Obama for playing golf instead of sticking around to “make deals.” Perhaps President Trump should heed his advice, and instead of running off to one of his golf resorts on the weekends, he can stick around and help this health care bill get to his desk.