President-elect Trump urged congressional Republicans Tuesday to move quickly toward a consensus on a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, which the Senate is set to begin the process of repealing on Thursday.
“The replace will be very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter,” Trump told the New York Times. His assertion puts him at odds with the significant number of GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who want to repeal Obamacare quickly through a budget tool and then spend months or years crafting an alternative health care system.
“We have to get to business. Obamacare has been a catastrophic event,” Trump said of the need for a swift repeal of the president’s signature legislative achievement.
Amid a growing sense of anxiety among Republicans about delaying an Obamacare replacement indefinitely, Trump said he would consider a delay “long” if it took more than a few weeks.
“It won’t be repeal and then two years later go in with another plan,” Trump told the Times.
Sen. Rand Paul has emerged as the leading critic of the GOP strategy of repealing Obamacare through the budget reconciliation process and hoping to arrive at a unifying replacement plan down the road. The House Freedom Caucus, a group of the lower chamber’s most conservative members, indicated Monday that they may not back a budget resolution passed by the Senate if it leaves hefty Obamacare taxes in place or omits a replacement proposal.
Senate Republicans will need just 51 votes to approve budget language that strips away much of the Affordable Care Act.
However, replacement legislation would almost certainly require 60 votes, meaning Republicans in the Senate would not only need to be united behind a single replacement plan, but they would also need at least eight of their Democratic colleagues to cooperate.
Trump signaled Tuesday that he would campaign against Democratic senators up for re-election in red states in 2018 if they obstructed the effort to replace Obamacare.
“I won some of those states by numbers that nobody has seen,” Trump said of the places where vulnerable Senate Democrats will face tough campaigns next year. “I will be out there campaigning.”
