Ryan Warns Republicans On Health Care: Trump Will Go Work With Democrats

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., leaves a closed-door strategy session as he works to get past last week's failure to pass a health care overhaul bill and rebuild unity in the Republican Conference, at the Capitol, i... House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., leaves a closed-door strategy session as he works to get past last week's failure to pass a health care overhaul bill and rebuild unity in the Republican Conference, at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, March 28, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Hyper-partisanship has at least one vocal supporter in the 115th Congress: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

In an interview with “CBS This Morning”’s Norah O’Donnell that aired Thursday, Ryan said that if Republicans don’t work with Trump on health care, “he’ll just go work with Democrats to try and change Obamacare, and that’s hardly a conservative thing.”

Ryan pulled the White House and House leadership’s preferred bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, on Friday after it failed to garner enough Republican support. House leadership has since said they’ll try again to get rid of Obamacare, though there’s no concrete plan to do so.

“What I worry about, Norah, is that if we don’t do this, then he’ll just go work with the Democrats to try and change Obamacare, and that’s hardly a conservative thing,” Ryan said. “This is a can-do President, who’s a businessman, who wants to get things done. And I know that he wants to get things done with the Republican Congress.”

“If this Republican Congress allows the perfect to be the enemy of the good, I worry we’ll push the President into working with the Democrats,” he continued. “He’s been suggesting as much.”

Trump has suggested as much: White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday characterized Trump’s effort to reach a consensus on a health care bill “a balancing act” between various camps in the House, including Democrats. Trump’s bottom line, Spicer said, was reaching a “good deal” that would receive “a majority in the House.”

Some Republicans, including Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), objected to Ryan’s absolutism:

O’Donnell asked Ryan if, like Trump, he wasn’t also willing to work with Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“No, I’m trying to get this bill passed,” he said. “Nancy and I see things very, very differently. I don’t want government running health care.”

“I know he’s been saying that, and I don’t want that to happen, you know why? Because I want a patient-centered system,” he said, referring to Trump’s overtures to Democrats. “I don’t want government running health care.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: