President Donald Trump is working on a way to make health care reform a reality. Although he has been pushing publicly for more spending in the Senate version of health care reform, he sees the opportunity to bring hard-line conservative lawmakers over to his side.
Josh Dawsey wrote in a Politico report on Friday that Trump was courting Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) to come around on legislation being pushed by he and Senate GOP leadership. Both legislators have signed onto an effort spearheaded by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to stop the current iteration of health care reform. Trump sees Paul as the ultimate prize to win over as a “yes” vote for his health care plan.
According to a White House official, Trump ‘sees it as a personal mission’ to win Rand Paul’s support. Because of the personal relationship that has been cultivated between the two men in recent months, Trump believes that he has the competitive edge to ease Paul’s concerns regarding the health care bill and get him to sign on to it.
However, if Paul’s recent rhetoric is any indicator, Trump will need to bring every ounce of his savvy and charisma that he can muster to possibly win over the conservative firebrand.
“My main concern is I promised voters that I would repeal—vote to repeal Obamacare. And everything I hear sounds like Obamacare-lite,” Paul said to The Washington Post.
The dealmaker-in-chief will need to move away from his support of bigger spending if he wants to win over Paul. Johnson and Cruz stand to be more probable targets to jump ship and vote in favor of Trump’s health care plan.
“This current draft doesn’t get the job done, but I believe we can get to yes, I believe we can get this done,” Cruz said in an apparent indicator that he can be won over by the President.
“We have four very good people,” Trump said in a FOX News Channel interview. “It’s not that they’re opposed, it’s that they’d like to get certain changes. And I’ll see if we can take care of that.”
Ha. Put that in the column of things I don’t like about him.
Thanks so much for that<3
Repeal don’t replace.
LoL
Planets biggest Constitution fan right here