Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republican dealmaking would be necessary for Republicans to secure the votes needed to pass their measure to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“There will be buyouts and bailouts and tweaks that will be hailed as fixes on the other side,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “But the truth is the Republicans cannot excise the rotten core at the center of this healthcare bill.”
Democrats justified their own closed-door dealmaking they employed in 2009 to pass Obamacare, which included provisions aimed at bringing on more moderate lawmakers in their party.
Schumer said the difference is that the Democrats were crafting a deal to provide more people with healthcare, not fewer as with the GOP plan.
“Tactics to get a good deed done are a lot different than tactics that hurt people just to help the wealthy,” Schumer said.
Democrats condemned the Better Care Reconciliation Act following an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office that the bill would leave 22 million uninsured as compared with existing law, mostly by lifting the mandate that requires people to purchase health insurance.
Schumer said the GOP bill “has been hanging by a thread, and the CBO shows why.”
Democrats plan to stage oppositional floor speeches as Republicans negotiate behind the scenes to find 50 GOP votes needed to pass the bill.
Democrats said if Republicans can’t find enough support to pass their bill and abandon it, they would be willing to work with the GOP if they pledged to fund Obamacare’s cost-sharing subsidies to the insurance companies, which they said would stabilize the marketplaces and lower costs.
“We are willing to sit down and work with them,” Schumer said. “Nobody said the ACA was perfect. We know it needs changes.”
Schumer said Democrats have asked for a sit-down with the GOP “over and over.”
Earlier this year, Schumer said Democrats would not work with the GOP on a healthcare reform bill unless Republicans abandoned the plan to repeal Obamacare.
