Trump Tweets Health Bill ‘Will Get Even Better’ at Lunch
President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on reluctant Republicans to erase much of Barack Obama’s health care law, tweeting, “They MUST keep their promise to America” and vowing the measure would improve at his White House lunch with senators.
In a last-ditch effort to revive the bill, Trump invited all 52 Republicans to the White House, a day after the GOP’s seven-year quest crashed and burned in a humiliating defeat for the president, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP.
Trump tweeted ahead of the session, “The Republicans never discuss how good their healthcare bill is, & it will get even better at lunchtime. The Dems scream death as OCare dies!” and “I will be having lunch at the White House today with Republican Senators concerning healthcare. They MUST keep their promise to America!”
Trump stayed largely on the sidelines as McConnell struggled unsuccessfully to round up support to make good on the GOP’s years of promises to repeal and replace Obama’s health care law. But with McConnell’s third and final effort — on a repeal-only bill — looking like it, too, had collapsed, Trump urged McConnell to delay a make-or-break vote until early next week.
Trump’s lunch echoes a similar move in June after McConnell fell short on his first health care effort, and it yielded no apparent results. Indeed Trump seated himself between two GOP senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — who announced Tuesday they would oppose McConnell’s efforts to move forward with the latest bill.