Graham: GOP leaders ‘mistaken’ to think there won’t be ObamaCare repeal in 2018

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that Senate GOP leaders are “sadly mistaken” if they believe that the party will not try to revive its efforts to repeal ObamaCare in 2018.

“To those who believe — including Senate Republican leadership — that in 2018 there will not be another effort to Repeal and Replace Obamacare — well you are sadly mistaken,” Graham wrote on Twitter. 

To those who believe – including Senate Republican leadership – that in 2018 there will not be another effort to Repeal and Replace Obamacare — well you are sadly mistaken. https://t.co/peDYlJx1vo

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 21, 2017

{mosads}

Graham said in a series of tweets that he remained committed to repealing former President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law, and called on Republican leadership in the House and Senate to take on the efforts as enthusiastically as Democrats did when they passed the law in 2010.

“It will be a difficult task but failure is not an option,” he wrote.

It will be a difficult task but failure is not an option.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 21, 2017

Graham’s comments came in response to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) suggestion on Thursday that the Senate would likely seek to move past its efforts to repeal ObamaCare in 2018, telling NPR that the caucus would focus on other issues instead.

McConnell said that by including a repeal of ObamaCare’s mandate that most individuals have health insurance in Republicans’ sweeping rewrite of the tax code, which passed both chambers this week, the GOP had already taken the “heart” out of the health-care law.

President Trump also said this week that repealing the individual mandate meant that Republicans had “essentially repealed ObamaCare.”

But Graham said Thursday that, while the individual mandate repeal may have been a win for the GOP, it did not amount to a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. 

“By eliminating the individual mandate in the tax bill we have pulled one of the pillars of Obamacare out. But by no means has Obamacare been repealed or replaced,” he tweeted.

By eliminating the individual mandate in the tax bill we have pulled one of the pillars of Obamacare out. But by no means has Obamacare been repealed or replaced.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 21, 2017