We’ve been actively chronicling the Senate Republican’s embarrassing attempt (or feigned, depending on your thoughts here), to repeal Obamacare.
Whether it’s one big, long con, or a deeply fractured caucus, Sen. Hatch is under the impression that the division in the Republican ranks runs far too deep to find a path forward in the long-promised effort to rid us of Obamacare.
In an interview with Reuters, Sen. Hatch said, “there’s just too much animosity and we’re too divided on healthcare.”
Trump over the weekend urged Republican senators to stick with trying to pass an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, former President Obama’s signature domestic initiative known as Obamacare.Trump made replacing Obamacare a key part of his presidential campaign and Republicans have promised for years to repeal or replace the law. The House of Representatives has passed an overhaul but the Senate has been unable to do so despite having worked on it for months. Three Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting against repealing even part of the law at the end of last week.
Hatch’s statements contradict directives from Trump, who urged the Senate to continue working to find consensus Sunday.
Reuters continued:
The senator said he saw no real desire on the part of Democrats to work together on the healthcare issue “and I have to say some Republicans are at fault there, too.”Hatch said he had not given up on healthcare. “I think we ought to acknowledge that we can come back to healthcare afterwards but we need to move ahead on tax reform,” Hatch said.Asked who would relay the message to the Trump administration, Hatch laughed and said, “I’m going to be one who does that,” adding that he expected Republican leaders of the House and Senate, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, would do so, too.Hatch said lawmakers would need to appropriate the cost-sharing subsidy payments that the administration has been making. Trump has threatened to cut off these subsidies, which help insurers keep deductibles down for low-income people who get health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges.”I’m for helping the poor, always have been. And I don’t think they should be bereft of healthcare,” Hatch said.
The disagreements between Republicans and Democrats on healthcare reform are virtually insurmountable, so there’s little to no chance Republicans will be able to sway Democrats to their side. The best and really only chance Senate Republicans have of rolling back Obamacare is to find a way to work togehter, something they’ve as of yet been unable to do.
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