Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., the two authors of the latest Republicans effort to overhaul Obamacare to collapse in the Senate, met with President Trump on Thursday and afterwards said they look forward to continue the debate over healthcare, even as Congress turns its focus to tax reform.
While the Senate will miss a Sept. 30 deadline to use the reconciliation tool that only requires 51 votes to repeal parts of Obamacare, Republicans are rallying around the idea that it could get another shot next year. In the meantime, Graham and Cassidy say they will reach out for input on healthcare to help ease concerns about rushing legislation through that contributed to dooming the last healthcare reform effort.
“Over the coming weeks and months, we are committed to holding congressional hearings and working with our nations’ governors who believe returning power to states is a vast improvement over Obamacare,” the duo said in a statement after meeting Trump, who was a major proponent of their efforts.
The “Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson” amendment never even got a vote this week, despite Trump’s support, after three Republican senator said they would oppose it, which would be enough to kill the legislation as all the Democrats would also vote against it.
Still, the senators said they have the backing of the president who “remains committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare” and furthermore “the principles brought forward in Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson.”
“While President Trump — and both of us — are moving to focus on tax cuts, the debate about health care reform will continue,” they said.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that Republicans have at least 50 votes to pass the Graham-Cassidy effort in the future, and Graham and Cassidy said that with the White House’s help ” we believe it is just a matter of time until Obamacare is replaced by a state-centric system closer to patients and more focused on positive health care outcomes.”
They also acknowledged Trump’s desire to work with the Democrats and said they “strongly encouraged” him to do so.
“But like us, he shares concerns about simply throwing good money after bad in propping up a structurally unsound Obamacare system which will eventually collapse,” they wrote.
