Sen. Majority Leader McConnell on Monday called on Democrats to work with the GOP on a “fresh canvas” to reform the health insurance system and to drop their intense partisan attacks.
“We can work together to finally solve big problems like Obamacare or we can continue to bludgeon each other, election after election,” McConnell, R-Ky., said in a Senate floor speech. “Our Democratic friends can crank the faux outrage machine up to ten, claim Republicans are motivated by some desire to make America sick, and get right back to the Hatfield and McCoy routine.”
Democrats have been hammering the GOP on its plans to repeal the healthcare law, and accuse Republicans of failing to produce a replacement. Their new attack line is that the GOP will “make America sick again,” a play on President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” campaign slogan.
McConnell appealed to Democrats to help them rewrite the troubled law, which has caused premiums and deductibles to skyrocket and healthcare choices to shrink.
“What repeal represents is a fresh canvas where we can start over with durable, lasting reforms that both parties, if they choose to engage, can take credit for,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “I hope our Democratic friends choose to engage.”
McConnell delivered remarks that focused on the hope for bipartisanship in the Senate, where he said he has tried over the past two years to include Minority Democrats and has succeeded in passing major bipartisan bills.
McConnell suggested Democrats can work with President Trump, whom he said, “you can hardly accuse … of being a rigid ideologue.”
Trump, McConnell said, “is interested in healthcare that actually works.”
McConnell also called on Democrats to confirm Trump’s cabinet nominees. Democrats say they will slow-walk many of Trump’s choices because they want more time to debate on the Senate floor.
