WASHINGTON — President Trump is making healthcare a big campaign issue. Just a week after promising the Republican Party would become the party of health care, the president said the GOP plan to replace Obamacare will have to wait until after the 2020 election.
- President spoke to reporters Tuesday in Oval Office
- Sen. Rick Scott says he's working on prescription drug prices
- Democrats moving to protect Obamacare
The president's decision comes after several Congressional Republicans signaled an unwillingness to reignite the healthcare debate before next November.
"I think we're going to have a great healthcare package," the President said to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
"I know Obamacare hasn't worked," said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) during a press conference on Capitol Hill. "There are a lot of conversations going on in the Senate," he added.
Those conversations taking place on Capitol Hill don't appear to be focused on crafting an alternative plan, despite the president's demands. There has not been any organized effort to draft a replacement, according to Republican congressional aides.
"I talk to the president a lot, I called him last week to talk about a couple of other issues," Scott said. "He brought up the fact that he'd like me to focus on this. I told him what I was working on was prescription drugs prices," he said.
When asked about developing a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Scott did not answer directly. "I'm a business guy. I didn't try to do grand bargains," he said.
Not on the same page
The president's decision to back away from the alternative plan comes after calls from a steady stream of Republican lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. When asked by a reporter if there is distance between him and the President when tackling health care, McConnell emphasized that was no longer the case and they are now on the same page.
"Not any longer, I made it clear to him that we are not going to do that in the Senate," McConnell said. "He would develop a plan and take that to the voters," he added.
Democrats, meanwhile, are moving to protect Obamacare amid renewed attacks from the president after he directed the Department of Justice to back a lawsuit that would completely overturn it.
"The American people will not stand for the president playing cynical games with healthcare and politically by betting with the health of 20, 30, 40 million Americans," said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York), standing with a group of Democrats at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Democrats are backing resolutions in both chambers to urge the Justice Department to reverse course — even though that effort is largely symbolic.
"We are here to condemn what the president did," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Healthcare is expected to be one of the top issues for voters in 2020. The president's decision signals he does not want to have this healthcare fight, at least for now.