Walker calls for Congress to act on health plan

‘Doing nothing would be a big mistake,’ he says

MADISON - Gov. Scott Walker said Monday he believed House Republicans were improving their plan to repeal Obamacare and warned the worst thing they could do is fail to act.

“The last thing they can do is do nothing. Because doing nothing would be a big mistake not just here, but across the country,” the GOP governor told reporters after awarding grants to veterans groups at the state Capitol.

Walker said he thought House Speaker Paul Ryan of Janesville and others would improve the legislation by providing better tax credits to people in their 50s and 60s.

“We’ll look at the total part of it, but I think they’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

He didn’t provide specifics on how he wanted those tax credits to change.

“I don’t know about a magic number. I just want to make it realistic,” he said.

The House is expected to consider amendments this week to Ryan’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. As in the House, Republicans in the Senate are split on what modifications should be made to the proposal.

Also Monday, Walker declined to say whether he believed President Donald Trump should apologize for claiming without evidence that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones.

“I haven’t looked at all the information,” Walker said. “It’s one of those where I’ll leave it up to people that have first-hand knowledge of the information.”