Ryan: Trump and I working to ‘stick the landing’ on healthcare plan

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday he had talked with President Trump about ensuring Republicans can “stick the landing” on their ObamaCare repeal-and-replacement proposal, the American Health Care Act.

“We basically just talked about how we are executing, getting this done. We talked about dividing up labor, who does what and how do we make sure we just basically stick the landing and get it done,” Ryan told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum of his Tuesday call with Trump.

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“We were making sure about details about the kind of changes we are looking at, details about just the legislative process, our timeline, our deadlines. It was basically just a status check,” Ryan added.

The Wisconsin lawmaker stressed how frequently he communicates with the president.

“It was the second time I talked to him today. We talk pretty darn often, almost every day,” Ryan said.

Ryan also indicated that he is open to feedback and to making changes to the health plan, but only through the formal committee process.

“So senators have an issue, senators have a problem? They have their own process to go with over there, so I would suggest senators should just amend the bill when it comes over there. This is the legislative process,” Ryan said.

“Of course, we want to listen to our members and make improvements to the bill, so long as those improvements don’t make a bill harder to pass,” Ryan added. 

Republicans from both the House and Senate have criticized the healthcare proposal. Some House Republicans have pushed leadership to go further in their efforts to repeal ObamaCare, though some Senate Republicans have pushed back on certain changes affecting ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said earlier in the day Tuesday that the administration is working with House leadership on a manager’s amendment to make changes to the legislation aimed at bringing conservatives on board. GOP leadership offices declined to discuss those changes.