President Trump on Tuesday said he was “disappointed” that some “so-called Republicans” were opposing the Senate’s latest effort to repeal ObamaCare.
“We were very disappointed by a couple of senators, Republican senators I must say, we were very disappointed that they would take the attitude that they did,” Trump told reporters. “But we are disappointed in certain so-called Republicans.”
Senate Republican leaders are expected to make a decision Tuesday afternoon on whether to hold a vote on a bill that is almost certain to fail.
{mosads}Three GOP senators have publicly opposed the legislation from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), which is enough to block the bill from passing. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Monday joined Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) as GOP no votes.
“We don’t know why they did it. You can sort of figure that,” Trump said. “But we’ll see what happens. It’s going along, and at some point there will be a repeal and replace. But we’ll see whether that point is now or whether it will be shortly thereafter.”
Republicans have been stymied in their attempts to fulfill their promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
The bill from Graham and Cassidy was their last-ditch attempt to pass an ObamaCare repeal before Sept. 30, when special budget reconciliation rules that prevent Democrats from launching a filibuster will end.
It’s not clear what the next steps will be.
Some Republicans have floated the idea of combining health care with tax reform in the fiscal year 2018 budget resolution, but others threw cold water on the idea of making an already difficult process even harder.