House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday that House Democrats are content to let Republicans continue their intra-party fight, and predicted House GOP leaders and the House Freedom Caucus would continue to battle over major policy decisions.
“We don’t let them duke it out, they just duke it out,” Hoyer told reporters just days after the split within the GOP doomed their attempt to pass a bill partially repealing and replacing Obamacare. “They don’t need our help apparently to do that.”
“We’re going to be pretty aggressive demanding … first of all, do no harm,” Hoyer said regarding preserving the Affordable Care Act. “They did not replace the Affordable Care Act, it didn’t even get to the Senate. It wouldn’t have gone anywhere in the Senate, in my opinion. So if you don’t have any alternative, do not hurt, do not undermine, do not destroy the process that does exist for making sure that Americans have access to affordable, quality healthcare and insurance. And we’re going to be very vigorous on that.”
“They duke it out pretty well themselves and … we’re going to be very aggressive,” he said on issues coming up in the near future, including healthcare.
Hoyer’s comments came moments after House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters that House Republicans are not giving up in their fight to repeal the ACA.
“We’re going to get this right, and in the meantime, we’re going to do all of our other work that we came here to do,” he said after the GOP conference meeting Tuesday morning.
