Trump, Obama square off over health care bill
Back and forth mirrors lawmakers’ dilemma on proposal
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting around. It’s not going to get any easier.” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas
In addition to disputes over costs and insurance rates for Americans, the health care debate also features the most public duel yet between President Trump and predecessor Barack Obama — including an argument over the use of the word “mean.”
“Well, he (Obama) used my term, ‘ mean,’ ” Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday on
Fox & Friends, adding that “I want to see a (health care) bill with heart.”
Trump essentially confirmed that he previously denounced a House Republican health care as “mean,” but said a Senate proposal on the floor is a better way to replace the existing Obamacare plan that he says is collapsing.
In a Facebook posting, Obama said Republican replacement health care plans “rushed through” the GOP-run House and Senate “would raise costs, reduce coverage, roll back protections, and ruin Medicaid as we know it.”
He added that “small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”
The Republican Senate is pushing for a vote in the coming days on its health care plan. If it passes — some GOP members are balking — it would have to be reconciled with the House bill.
The Trump- Obama debate is mirrored by lawmakers who took to the Sunday shows to discuss the imbroglio, including disputes within the Republican caucus.
Tom Price, Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, told CNN’s State of the Union that “our goal is to decrease premiums,” though even Republicans have questioned whether this will happen under the proposal.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, one of at least five Senate Republicans who have voiced opposition to the bill pending in the chamber, has said “There isn’t anything in this legislation that would lower premiums.”
Gov. John Kasich, R- Ohio, a Republican primary opponent in 2016, also opposes the Senate plan, telling CNN that “the total number of dollars that are going to be dedicated to Medicaid are not enough.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., another Republican who has yet to endorse the Republican plan, told NBC’s Meet The Press that he wants to delay the whole thing: “There’s no way we should be voting on this next week. No way.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said Sunday that Republican leaders remain committed to vote this week on the bill.
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting around,” Cornyn said. “It’s not going to get any easier.”
He said GOP leaders are working with senators to address their concerns, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, who have proposed amendments as a condition of their support.
Cruz and Lee are among the five Republican senators who have announced their opposition to the bill in its current form.
Another Republican, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, said Sunday he was uncommitted on the bill, which he described as “largely a Medicaid reform package” rather than a measure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said on CBS’ Face the Nation that he, too, was undecided on the bill.
As Trump and Obama jousted, the current president disputed the notion of his Fox News interviewer that his predecessor is “leading the resistance” to his administration.
“I don’t think he’s leading it,” Trump said. “He actually just put out a small statement.”
Instead, Trump attacked current lawmakers such as Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as “obstructionists.”