David Drucker of the Washington Examiner reports on Capitol Hill reaction to President Trump’s pronouncements about the Affordable Care Act’s pending failure.
Republicans in Congress are rejecting President Trump’s call to let Obamacare “implode” after the Senate failed to advance legislation to repeal former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Senate Republicans said hours their failed vote that they should continue to work on health care reform, although they disagreed on a way forward and had no immediate plans to act.
House Republicans, having passed legislation to partially repeal the Affordable Care Act in the spring said flatly that Trump’s off-again, on-again recommendation that he might deliberately let the law crash to put pressure on Congress to respond is unacceptable and wouldn’t be tolerated by their voters.
“I don’t think that letting it fail is the best option, even though it certainly allows additional pressure to happen,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and close ties to the White House. “We can do better than that.”
Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., rebuked Trump more directly. “No,” he said when asked if he agreed with the president. “Clear-cut question — no.”
