Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Health care strain stalls GOP agenda
Russia inquiry, Trump tweets also perpetuate logjam
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump summoned Republican leaders to the White House on Tuesday to discuss his summer legislative agenda, but progress is stalled by the GOP’s inability to fulfill its promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Lacking a consensus over how to gut the Affordable Care Act without leaving millions more Americans uninsured — as the House GOP’s bill would do — Senate Republicans face a legislative logjam that could imperil other priorities, such as tax reform and infrastructure.
This week was expected to be pivotal for the health care overhaul, which lawmakers hope to finish before the July 4 break in order to move to other pressing issues. Among them is raising the debt ceiling to avoid defaulting on the nation’s bills, always a thorny political lift.
But glum senators emerged from a series of closed-door meetings Tuesday no closer to an agreement.
“The areas we have consensus on? Let’s see, Obamacare sucks,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a first-term Republican from Louisiana. “We may be working on this for a while.”
That echoed comments in recent days from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Some have speculated that leaders may be tempted to call a Senate vote on the bill even if they know it will fail, simply to move the issue off their plate for now.
Trump emphasized the importance of a health care vote in a pep talk to House Speaker Paul Ryan, McConnell and other leaders.
“At the core of this agenda is repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare,” said Trump. He praised the House bill as a good first step. “Now the Senate, I’m sure, will follow suit and get a bill across the finish line this summer that will be great health care for Americans.”
But Republicans are staring down a legislative calendar with little to show for their hold on the House, Senate and White House.
Trump’s own shifting policy positions have left Ryan and McConnell struggling to lead restive Republicans in a coherent strategy.
The White House acknowledged that the deepening investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential ties with Russian interference in the 2016 election also has taken its toll.
“There’s no doubt that keeping members focused on investigations detract from our legislative agenda and detracts from what we’re trying to deliver to the American people,” Marc Short, the White House legislative director, said this week.
Trump has not helped matters, lawmakers say, with his unfiltered tweets that often amplify and prolong storylines.
“I’ve said this before, I’m not a fan of the president’s tweets, and that still remains my view,” McConnell said Tuesday before heading to the White House.
Even though Ryan ushered the House GOP’s health care bill to passage in May, Senate Republicans dismissed the measure, in part because it is expected to leave 23 million more Americans without health insurance.
Senate Republicans face series of difficult decisions in crafting the bill they hope to vote on by the end of the month, including how to protect older, sicker and lower-income consumers who would see huge insurance premium hikes under the House bill.
But no issue has proven more challenging than how to approach Medicaid, a pillar of Obamacare’s coverage expansion.
While many Republicans have spent years pledging to cut Medicaid, they are now reluctant to undo the program that provides coverage to more than 70 million low-income Americans.
The House bill would slash more than $800 billion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade, rolling back the expansion and capping future federal aid to states.
But those cuts have made a number of key Republican senators uncomfortable, including lawmakers from states that have expanded Medicaid.
Many states also rely on Medicaid for treatment in the opioid crisis.
Sen. John Barrasso, RWyo., said senators are considering a longer “glide path” to cutting Medicaid than the House bill, pushing off the reductions until after 2020 — and the next presidential election.
On Tuesday, Anthem announced it was pulling out of Ohio’s Obamacare marketplace, leaving thousands without coverage on the private market.
That is becoming a growing political problem for Republican lawmakers, as polls indicate that Americans increasingly hold the GOP responsible for the fate of the nation’s insurance markets.