WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he is deeply “disappointed” by the collapse of the GOP effort to rewrite former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
Trump told reporters during a lunch with service members Tuesday that Republicans have been talking for years about repealing and replacing “Obamacare,” and is disappointed they couldn’t deliver.
Trump says it’s time to “Let Obamacare fail,” and says that “I’m not going to own it.”
He says letting Obamacare fail will encourage Democrats to come to the table and negotiate.
Trump also says he does not blame Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the decision by two more Republican senators to come out against the legislation, effectively killing the bill.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence says Congress needs to “step up” and “do their job” in the aftermath of the Republican health care plan’s failure to win consensus in the Senate.
Pence said in a speech to the National Retail Federation on Tuesday that the Senate should vote to repeal the so-called Obamacare law and replace it with a new plan. Or he says it should return to the “carefully crafted” legislation in the House and the Senate.
But Pence says “inaction is not an option” and Congress needs to act to address health care.
Pence spoke shortly after President Donald Trump tweeted late Monday that Republicans should repeal the law and work on a new health care plan “that will start from a clean slate.”
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