Trump: GOP senators ‘look like fools’ on health care
President calls for end to filibusters
USA TODAY
After his party’s stinging defeat over health care legislation, President Trump tweeted Saturday that the Republicans in the Senate “look like fools” and should do away with the filibuster, even though scrapping a 60vote requirement would not have saved the doomed bill.
The president’s tweetstorm comes after Senate Republicans could muster only 48 votes for a “skinny” bill to repeal key parts of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona joined Democrats in voting “no.”
On Saturday, Trump charged that eight Democrats “totally control the U.S. Senate” and that many great Republican bills would fail under the current rules.
“Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don’t go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time,” the president wrote.
Later, he hammered away at the same theme: “The very outdated filibuster rule must go. Budget reconciliation is killing R’s in Senate. Mitch M, go to 51 Votes NOW and WIN. IT’S TIME!”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, while scrapping the filibuster for judicial appointments and the Supreme Court, has made it clear that he does not support doing away with the filibuster for most legislation.
Trump’s current views on the filibuster are in sharp contrast to a tweet from 2013, when he blasted then-Majority Leader Harry Reid for scrapping the filibuster for presidential appointments below the Supreme Court level.
Saturday afternoon, Trump was back on Twitter with dire messages aimed at congressional Republicans.
“After seven years of “talking” Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!” he wrote.
“If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!”
In the last tweet, Trump appeared to be threatening to eliminate cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which reimburse insurers for covering out-ofpocket costs such as deductibles and co-pays for low-income exchange enrollees.
Trump’s twitter attack on the subsidies brought a quick retort from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.
“If the president refuses to make cost-sharing reduction payments, every expert agrees that premiums will go up and health care will be more expensive for millions of Americans,” the New York Democrat said in a statement.