President Donald Trump is blaming Senate Democrats after the chamber’s second version of a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare was killed by Republicans.
“The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017
But Senate Democrats had nothing to do with the fact that the bill, which Republicans could’ve passed with a party-line vote in the Senate, never made it to the floor.
The GOP was trying to pass the bill via reconciliation, which meant the bill would go to the floor for debate with a simple majority (there are 52 Republican senators). Shortly after the bill was released, two senators, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rand Paul (R-KY) said they would vote against the motion to proceed.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) could lose only one more vote before losing the simple majority needed to bring the bill to the floor, and then, on Monday night, Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) announced simultaneously that they would vote against the motion to proceed.
With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2017
“With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes!” the president tweeted Tuesday morning.
But it was Collins, Paul, Lee, and Moran’s opposition — the votes of four Republican senators — that ultimately killed the Senate’s second version of repeal and replace, not Democratic obstructionism.
On the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump promised premiums would go down when Trumpcare became law and that his plan would provide coverage for everyone. But the bill that ultimately passed the House and the proposals that have failed in the Senate break every promise Trump has made about his health care plan and would’ve stripped coverage from tens of millions.
Trump’s Tuesday morning tweet storm is further evidence the president never understood the health care proposal in the first place. He tweeted often about the bill but avoided talking about its substance, choosing to instead deal in platitudes.
“I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!” he tweeted last week.
In the vital days leading up to the planned vote on the bill, instead of whipping votes, Trump visited Paris for a parade and posed for pictures in a fire truck.
Trump has said he would be “very angry” if the health care bill doesn’t pass, but, hey, who knew health care could be so complicated?
UPDATE (1:30 p.m.): Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have all announced they will vote against the motion to proceed, effectively killing the Senate’s third attempt to repeal Obamacare.
For the second time in two days, Trump blamed Democrats for the failure.
“But if you really think about it, you look at it, and we have 52 people,” Trump said after it became clear the bill would not proceed. “We had no Democrat support, which is really, you know, something that should be said. We should have had Democrats vote. It was a great plan for a lot of people. We had no Democrats aboard. We are 52 people. We had four noes.”
https://twitter.com/ZackFord/status/887359214598926336/video/1
Trump went on to say that they had a vote of 48 to four among Republicans, which he described as “impressive by any standard.”