In a series of tweets published early Friday morning from his trip abroad in Paris, President Donald Trump put pressure on Republican senators to pass their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Trump, who has not been heavily involved the the negotiations surrounding the Senate bill, reminded the lawmakers that they promised they would repeal the Affordable Care Act and he said that “must happen.”
Republicans Senators are working hard to get their failed ObamaCare replacement approved. I will be at my desk, pen in hand!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017
So impt Rep Senators, under leadership of @SenateMajLdr McConnell get healthcare plan approved. After 7yrs of O'Care disaster, must happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017
After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017
.@VP Mike Pence is working hard on HealthCare and getting our wonderful Republican Senators to do what is right for the people.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2017
Trump’s tweets came the morning after Senate GOP leadership unveiled a revised version of their bill to repeal Obamacare after the first version failed to earn sufficient support. The new version of the bill also failed to immediately gain enough support from Republican senators to proceed in the Senate.
Two Republicans, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said that they would not vote to move the bill forward in the Senate. Several others said they were not yet sure whether they would vote to proceed with the legislation, and just one more senator opposed to moving forward with the bill would ensure its demise.
The revisions to the legislation did not offer much for the more moderate Republicans in the Senate and those who represent states that expanded Medicaid. Senate leadership met with these moderate holdouts on Thursday afternoon, but it’s not yet clear if any of the hesitant Republicans will come around to back the bill.
