Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he plans to meet with President Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss healthcare, just two days after the Senate halted a bill co-sponsored by Graham to overhaul Obamacare.
Graham told McClatchy he is meeting with Trump “to plot a strategy to move forward.”
The bill was pulled after three Republican senators, Sens. Rand Paul, John McCain, and Susan Collins, announced they were against it — enough GOP opposition to kill the effort when combined with all Democrats, who would have voted against it.
At a tax reform rally in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Trump claimed Republicans have the 50 votes needed for the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill, but cannot do so because a GOP senator who would vote in favor of the legislation is out of town while recovering from an illness. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is recuperating from an illness at his home in Mississippi.
On Friday, Republicans lose the ability to pass a healthcare bill with a simple majority when the window to use a procedural tool known as budget reconciliation closes for the year.
