President Donald Trump is pressuring wavering senators to back a Republican bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law but is holding open a repeal-only…<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is pressuring wavering senators to back a Republican bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law but is holding open a repeal-only option if Republicans can’t reach agreement over the July 4 recess, Trump’s top legislative aide says. Marc Short, the White House’s legislative director, said Trump was making weekend calls and believed senators were \u00ab\u00a0getting close\u00a0\u00bb on passing a bill. But Short maintained that Trump continues to believe that repeal-only legislation should also be considered. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has dismissed the suggestion. McConnell says he intends to proceed with GOP legislation being negotiated during the week-long recess. He has previously said if Republicans don’t reach agreement, he will have to turn to Democrats, who want to fix Obama’s health care law without repealing it. \u00ab\u00a0Our preference is to pass the bill the Senate has right now, \u00a0\u00bb Short said. But he added: \u00ab\u00a0If the replacement part is too difficult for Republicans to get together, then let’s go back and take care of the first step of repeal.\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0That’s an option, \u00a0\u00bb Short emphasized. Trump on Friday tweeted the suggestion to repeal the Obama-era law right away and then replace it later, an approach that GOP leaders and the president himself considered but dismissed months ago as impractical and politically unwise. The tweet came amid continuing signs of GOP disagreement among moderates and conservatives over the bill. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. Just three GOP defections would doom the legislation, because Democrats are united in opposition. Trump’s suggestion had the potential to harden divisions within the GOP as conservatives complain that McConnell’s bill does not go far enough in repealing Obama’s health care law while moderates criticize it as overly harsh in kicking people off insurance rolls, shrinking the Medicaid safety net and increasing premiums for older Americans. \u00ab\u00a0It’s not easy making America great again, is it?\u00a0\u00bb McConnell said late Friday. Short said the White House remained hopeful after Senate Republicans submitted two versions of the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring over the recess. Texas’ Sen. Ted Cruz is pushing a conservative version that aims to aggressively reduce costs by giving states greater flexibility to create separate higher-risk pools. The other seeks to bolster health care subsidies for lower-income people, perhaps by preserving a tax boost on high earners. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said negotiations over the Senate bill were focusing on ways to address the issue of Medicaid coverage so that \u00ab\u00a0nobody falls through the cracks, \u00a0\u00bb combating the opioid crisis, as well as giving families more choice in selecting their insurance plan. \u00ab\u00a0We think that Leader McConnell and his senators within the Senate are working to try to get this piece of legislation on track, \u00a0\u00bb Price said. But conservative Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he didn’t think a repeal-and-replace bill could win 50 votes. Both he and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., have been urging McConnell to consider a repeal-only bill first. \u00ab\u00a0I don’t think we’re getting anywhere with the bill we have. We’re at an impasse, \u00a0\u00bb Paul said. He said Senate leaders were unwisely seeking to win over moderates with multibillion dollar proposals to combat the opioid epidemic and boost tax subsidies to help lower-income people get coverage. \u00ab\u00a0The bill is just being lit up like a Christmas tree full of billion-dollar ornaments, and it’s not repeal, \u00a0\u00bb Paul said. \u00ab\u00a0I think you can get 52 Republicans for clean repeal.\u00a0\u00bb Even before Trump was inaugurated in January, Republicans had debated and ultimately discarded the idea of repealing the overhaul before replacing it, concluding that both must happen simultaneously. Doing otherwise would invite accusations that Republicans were simply tossing people off coverage and roil insurance markets by raising the question of whether, when and how Congress might replace Obama’s law once it was gone. But at least nine GOP senators expressed opposition after a CBO analysis last week found that McConnell’s draft bill would result in 22 million people losing insurance over the next decade, only 1 million fewer than under the House-passed legislation that Trump privately told senators was \u00ab\u00a0mean.\u00a0\u00bb Paul said Senate Republicans can do a repeal-only bill concurrently with a bill \u00ab\u00a0they can call ‘replace.'\u00a0\u00bb Sasse, meanwhile, said he would like to see a bill that would repeal Obamacare \u00ab\u00a0with a delay.\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0If we can do a combined repeal and replace over the next week, that’s great, \u00a0\u00bb Sasse said. \u00ab\u00a0If we can’t, though, then there’s no reason to walk away.\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0I would want a delay, so that we could get straight to work. And then I think the president should call on the Senate to cancel our August\u00a0\u00bb recess, Sasse said. Short and Paul appeared on \u00ab\u00a0Fox News Sunday, \u00a0\u00bb Price was on NBC’s \u00ab\u00a0Meet the Press, \u00a0\u00bb and Sasse spoke on CNN’s \u00ab\u00a0State of the Union.\u00a0\u00bb ___ Associated Press writer Michele Salcedo contributed to this report. Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

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