Senate Democrats are willing to work on healthcare reform with Republicans as long as repealing Obamacare is taken off the table.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told MSNBC Thursday morning that Democrats recognize that changes need to be made to the law. However, they’re not willing to participate in any process that involves complete repeal.
“If they can take repeal off the table, Democrats will slide chairs up to the table,” he said.
The House GOP tried, and failed, to pass the American Health Care Act last week, which would have repealed parts of Obamacare and zeroed out some of its spending.
Durbin said that plan was unacceptable to Democrats on the other side of the Capitol. But behind the scenes, there’s movement taking place among senators to figure out a different way forward.
“We are sitting down and talking to Senate Republicans who have taken repeal off the table, to see if there is some common ground,” he said.
Durbin said it’s not clear if the White House would go with such a plan.
President Trump said last week in the wake of the American Health Care Act’s failure that he was going to work with Democrats on finding a new way to reform the healthcare system. He later said his plan was to let Obamacare fail and then blame Democrats for it, but Durbin said White House officials appear to be less fervent in their political strategies.
“Most of the White House operation, including the president, are new to this job,” he said. “They don’t have the seasoned veterans from Capitol Hill who know how these things work, but they’re learning.”
