GOP rep: ObamaCare repeal isn’t ‘something to celebrate’

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) says that House lawmakers should not have partied so publicly after the passage of the GOP’s healthcare overhaul plan.

“I don’t think it’s something to celebrate,” King said Tuesday on 77WABC’s “The Bernie and Sid Show,” as first reported by Politico.

King said there are “still improvements that have to be made” to the American Health Care Act (AHCA), for which he voted.

{mosads}“But I think it’s too serious a topic to be out there having a celebration on it. We can celebrate if we cut peoples’ taxes or win a war. But on the other hand, what’s being done as far as scaring people is absolutely disgraceful,” he said.

“We should try to have an intelligent debate on it [and] find out how we can cover people without undermining the healthcare system.”

House Republicans narrowly passed the AHCA last week, sending the legislation to an uncertain future in the Senate. 

After its passage, President Trump threw a victory-lap reception for GOP lawmakers in the Rose Garden.

The controversial bill is expected to undergo significant changes so that it can pass the upper chamber.

Senate Republicans can only lose two votes on the AHCA and have it still pass, assuming no Senate Democrats support the measure.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday predicted the Senate would pass a healthcare reform bill by the fall.

“The legislation should not take that long,” he said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “Hopefully it takes a month or two to get through the Senate.”