Senator: Health bill to get vote if Trump OKs

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday that he’d be willing to take bipartisan health care legislation to the floor — if President Donald Trump makes clear he supports it.

A proposal by two senators — Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Democrat Patty Murray of Washington — aimed at stabilizing insurance markets would extend for two years federal insurance payments that Trump has blocked. In addition to offsetting out-ofpocket health insurance costs for low-income Americans, the deal would also give states more flexibility in how they regulate health coverage — a conservative goal.

Asked whether he would bring the bill to the floor, McConnell, R-Ky., said on CNN’s State of the Union that he was waiting “to hear from President Trump what kind of health care bill he might sign.”

“If there’s a need for some kind of interim step here to stabilize the market, we need a bill the president will actually sign. And I’m not certain yet what the president is looking for here, but I will be happy to bring a bill to the floor if I know President Trump would sign it,” the Republican said. He added of Trump: “I think he hasn’t made a final decision.”

Trump at first suggested he supported the temporary fix as he continues to hold out hope for repeal-and-replace legislation. But the administration signaled to Senate Republican negotiators on Friday that the president would only sign an interim bill to give individuals and employers retroactive relief from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandate. President Barack Obama’s health care law imposes tax penalties on people who don’t buy coverage and on employers who don’t offer plans to employees.

Senate Democrats have strenuously opposed that proposal, which would effectively repeal the requirement for most Americans to have health insurance — a component they say the law needs for the insurance to work.

The president had personally encouraged Alexander

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on CBS’ Face the Nation that Trump just doesn’t want to back a plan “without also getting something for folks who are being hurt.”

and Murray, who lead the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, before seeming to pull back support.

“I want them to be careful with respect to the insurance companies, insurance companies are extremely good at making money,” Trump said Oct. 19. “I want to take care of our people. I don’t want to take care of our insurance companies.”

Days earlier, Trump had expressed the same concern when he ended subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurers that were designed to keep premiums low.

“We need something that goes a little further to get on board,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Oct. 18 when asked about the Senate proposal. She called the deal a “good step in the right direction.”

“[The president] wants to lower premiums,” Sanders said. “He wants to provide greater flexibility. He wants to drive competition. He likes the idea of block grants to states.”

Alexander has said the bill contains language to make clear there won’t be what Trump has cast as a bailout of health insurers.

SCHUMER WEIGHS IN

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer on Sunday said that although the proposal had more support from Democrats than Republicans, his GOP counterpart needed to bring it up for a vote.

“This is a good compromise,” Schumer said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “It took months to work out. It has a majority. It has 60 senators supporting it. We have all 48 Democrats, 12 Republicans. I would urge Sen. McConnell to put it on the floor immediately, this week. It will pass, and it will pass by a large number of votes.”

NBC host Chuck Todd asked Schumer whether he was willing to negotiate the bill further, and he refused: “We are sticking to the agreement we have. Put it on the floor. See if it fails.”

“You can’t negotiate a deal, shake hands on a deal, and then say, ‘I’ll do it only if you add this,’” Schumer said. “Then the other side says, ‘Well then, add that.’ And the deal collapses. We have one now. And if you’re going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, you won’t accomplish anything.”

After hearing McConnell’s comments, Schumer later said that Trump now “holds the key” to preventing premiums from rising.

“Now that Leader McConnell has made it clear he will put the Murray-Alexander bill on the floor as soon as the president supports it, the president should say that he does,” Schumer said, adding that the bill could pass if given a chance.

The proposal would probably face tougher odds in the House.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on CBS’ Face the Nation that Trump just doesn’t want to back a plan “without also getting something for folks who are being hurt.”

“I think the criticisms you’ve heard this week are like, ‘Look, I’m OK with doing a deal.’ This is the president now. ‘But I’m not getting enough for the folks who are getting hurt. So give me more by way of associated health plans. Give me more of the things that we know we can do for folks back home to actually help them,’” Mulvaney said. “I think there’s actually a pretty good chance to get a deal,” he said. “It’s just Murray-Alexander in its current form probably isn’t far enough yet.”

GETTING THE JOB DONE

McConnell was asked on CNN about Trump’s criticism of lawmakers last week. The president said, “We’re not getting the job done. And I’m not going to blame myself. I will be honest. They are not getting the job done.”

The Senate majority leader said the president is “getting a lot more done than he’s giving everybody credit for.”

“I think his appointments, as I have said earlier, are absolutely changing the country,” McConnell said. “The optimism about the economy is picking up. It’s related to the people he’s put in positions at various key places in the federal government. It’s related to the Supreme Court appointments and all the judges that we’re confirming. All of that, the Senate is directly involved in. So I think the president ought to give himself a little more credit for the changes that he is bringing about that are turning the country in a different direction.”

McConnell also pushed back against former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s efforts to recruit candidates to challenge Republican incumbents who support McConnell’s leadership, arguing that what Republicans need is candidates who can win.

“Look, this is not about personalities. This is about achievement. And in order to make policy, you have to actually win the election,” he said on Fox News. “And some of these folks that you’ve been quoting, as I said are specialists on nominating people who lose.”

McConnell said Trump “needs a Republican Senate and a Republican House to confirm judges, and to pass legislation that are important to him and to the country. And that’s what this is really all about. Trying to change America from the Obama years and take it in a different direction.”