A week before his historic upset, Donald Trump stood before a rally and promised to hold a special session of Congress after he won the presidency to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare.
Now less than a month into his tenure, his administration is answering criticisms about why the effort hasn’t happened as soon as supporters hoped it would.
“I think it is hardly stalling,” press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday. “I think it is a mammoth thing to repeal and replace,” referring to the Affordable Care Act.
Spicer was asked about comments from influential conservative blogger Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, who tweeted Wednesday that he should sue Republicans for fraud for having no discussion of tax cuts. “Just lots of crazy,” he tweeted.
Drudge later tweeted there has been no “Obamacare repeal, tax cuts! But Republicans vote to shut down Warren?” That was a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shutting down Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s condemnation of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., nomination to serve as attorney general Tuesday night.
Trump said during a Nov. 1 rally that he would call a special session after he wins on Nov. 8 to “immediately” repeal and replace the law. However, after his unexpected victory, the language shifted slightly.
On Jan. 3, Vice President Mike Pence said that on Day One Trump would start “unwinding Obamacare” through executive orders.
Trump did issue an executive order several hours after his inauguration that would reduce the financial burden of the law. However, he has since demurred on the timeline. Trump told Bill O’Reilly on Fox News that he believes that repealing and replacing the law will stretch into next year.
That forced House Speaker Paul Ryan to say this week that the House plans to end legislating on the Affordable Care Act this year. Ryan has said that an effort to draft repeal legislation would be ready by the end of March or possibly April, although he said Tuesday that the question “is how long it takes to effectuate this change.”
Congress has passed a budget resolution that starts the repeal process by directing four panels in House and Senate to craft repeal legislation. The panels are aiming to create legislation that includes some replacement provisions to help ease doubts among some Republicans about repealing the law without an immediate replacement.
Published reports say that provisions include tax credits and health savings accounts. It is not clear which measures will be included in the final reconciliation package, though, which Republicans aim to get approved in the Senate via a 51-vote majority through a process called reconciliation.
Reconciliation can be used only on bills that address spending levels and the Senate parliamentarian approves any bill that wants to use reconciliation.
