NEW YORK — President Trump said on Wednesday that he has confidence that Senate Republicans can rally around a last-ditch proposal to repeal central parts of Obamacare, claiming the current legislation is an improvement over the GOP healthcare bill that failed in the Senate earlier this summer.
“I think there’s tremendous support for it,” Trump said of a bill introduced by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. “I think it’s actually much better than the previous shot, which was sadly let down.”
Speaking to reporters during a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Trump admitted that he thought healthcare reform would be far easier for his party to accomplish than it has been so far.
“I thought that when I won, I would go to the Oval Office, sit down at my desk and there would be a healthcare bill on my desk,” he said, adding that “a lot of Republicans are embarrassed” that the party has struggled so significantly to repeal Obamacare.
But Trump said he remains optimistic about the Graham-Cassidy proposal, which would repeal Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates and shift federal funding for Medicaid to the states.
“I think Graham-Cassidy will do it the right way,” Trump told reporters. “It has tremendous support from Republicans. We’re at 47 or 49 Republicans [who support it] and many are still looking.”
With Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul vehemently opposed to the legislation, it remains unclear whether GOP leaders have enough votes to pass the bill in the upper chamber. Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have been working the phones to drum up support for the bill among Republicans and some moderate Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday he plans to introduce the legislation for a floor vote next week.
