President Donald Trump on Monday night backed away from his push for a vote on an Obamacare replacent until after the 2020 elections, bowing to the political reality that major health care legislation cannot pass in the current Congress.
Trump's statements come a week after his administration announced that it now agreed with a judge's ruling that the entire Affordable Care Act should be scrapped. The opinion was a dramatic reversal from the administration's previous stance that only portions of the act could not be defended.
Trump's latest move allows him to wait on the issue as legal challenges against the health care law, also known as Obamacare, make their way through the federal court system. If it's ultimately overturned, Trump can claim he made good on a campaign promise in time for his 2020 re-election campaign -- though he would then face the prospect of an estimated 20 million Americans losing their health insurance on his watch, with no Republican replacement in the legislative pipeline. If it's upheld -- as it has been in previous Supreme Court challenges -- he can rail against a "liberal" court system.
"The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare. In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare. Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House. It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America," Trump declared in a series of tweets. "Also, Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions. The Republican Party will be known as the Party of Great HealtCare. Meantime, the USA is doing better than ever & is respected again!"
Trump unsettled Republican lawmakers last week by putting the spotlight back on the thorny issue of repealing and replacing Obamacare, vowing that his party would turn to replacing the health care law as his administration backed a federal court ruling striking down the law in its entirety. Republican congressional leaders quickly sought to distance themselves from Trump's latest drive, mindful that passing such a proposal would be virtually impossible in a divided Congress.
Trump's tweets dialed back expectations that Republicans would be able to pass major health care legislation before the 2020 election, but his promise of a vote that would hinge on a Republican takeback of the House ensures nonetheless that health care will figure prominently in 2020. That is a fight Republicans are wary to have after they suffered huge losses in 2018 congressional races in large part over the issue of health care.
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