By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) West Suburban Republican Congressman Peter Roskam was on WLS Wednesday morning to criticize his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate for the failure of the GOP to pass an Obamacare replacement.
Roskam, who voted for the Obamacare replacement plan that passed the house, told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” that Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.
“There’s no excuses in the Senate. There’s nobody that can blame Barack Obama or Chuck Schumer, or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. It’s all within the GOP’s capacity to do this and it’s gonna rise or fall on Republicans following through on core promises that they made to the electorate for the past several years. Running to get rid of Obamacare and replace it with something better.”
When asked by host John Howell how much blame President Trump deserved for the healthcare failure, Roskam responded ”Well look, it would be helpful to have more clarity coming out of the White House,” before quickly pivoting to a criticism of Senate Republicans who helped kill the bill.
On Tuesday Trump said Obamacare will fail, and he’ll make sure he’s not taking the blame.
“We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House in his first public appearance since the Senate bill fell apart. “I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”
CNN reports that some Hill Republicans say Trump didn’t use his bully pulpit to sell the health care bill, and when he did, his comments were in general terms about improving health care, despite the complexities involved in the legislation.
“He was playing with a firetruck and trying on a cowboy hat as the bill was collapsing and he had no clue,” a top Republican told CNN on Tuesday, mocking the President’s “Made in America” week events at the White House on Monday.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News.
