Ky. Sen. joins Trump for golf, health care chat
POTOMAC FALLS, Va. — President Donald Trump brought Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to his Virginia golf course on Sunday to discuss health care with the outspoken critic of the failed plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The outing to Trump National Golf Club came hours after Trump tweeted that talks on replacing the law have been going on and “will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck.”
He added that anyone who thinks the effort is dead “does not know the love and strength in R Party!”
Paul called it a “great day” with the president and said “I continue to be very optimistic that we are getting closer and closer to an agreement on replacing Obamacare.”
Paul came out strongly against the House GOP legislation, and its collapse humiliated Trump.
Trump and aides had argued for a vote in the final hours of negotiations around the bill, but Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan ultimately agreed to pull it rather than face a loss if it had been put to a vote.
In an interview with the Financial Times published online Sunday, Trump said the bill was pulled because “I didn’t want to take a vote. It was my idea.”
Still, Trump said, “one way or the other, I promised the people great health care. We are going to have great health care in this country. Now, it will be in one form or another. It will be a repeal and replace of Obamacare which is the deal that is being negotiated now.”
Since the bill went down, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who contributed to the defeat.
Trump told the Financial Times that “if we don’t get what we want, we will make a deal with the Democrats and we will have in my opinion not as good a form of health care, but we are going to have a very good form of health care and it will be a bipartisan form of health care.”
Trump also told the newspaper that the United States is prepared to act alone if China does not take a tougher stand against North Korea’s nuclear program.