Congressional Republicans leaders outlined an aggressive agenda Thursday for the first 200 days of their partnership with President Trump, pledging to overhaul the U.S. health care and tax systems while looking for up to $15 billion to pay for Mr. Trump’s border wall with Mexico.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said their troops are huddling at a Philadelphia retreat with an eye on fulfilling each of the pledges they made to voters ahead of the November election.
The president and Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to address their Capitol Hill partners later in the day.
“We are on the same page as the White House,” Mr. Ryan said in a press conference. “We’ve been working with the administration on a daily basis to map out and plan a very bold and aggressive agenda to make good on our campaign promises.”
Still, Mr. Trump is striking out on unusual tangents in the early days of his presidency. He disputed reports about the size of his Inauguration Day crowds and suggested up to 5 million illegal votes cost him the popular-vote race against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump won the Electoral College.
Mr. Trump’s sparred with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto over who will pay for his southern border wall, and suggested he’s open to using enhanced interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists that many equate with torture, forcing GOP leaders to respond.
“Torture’s not legal, and we agree with it not being legal,” Mr. Ryan said.
Mr. Ryan said the border wall will likely cost $12 billion to $15 billion, though he wouldn’t say whether Congress planned to tack the cost onto the deficit or offset the cost through budget cuts elsewhere.
“I’m not going to get ahead of a policy in a bill that has not been written yet,” Mr. Ryan said, referring to Mr. Trump’s supplemental request to finance the project.
Republicans will also meet Thursday with British Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss a bilateral trade agreement, as the U.S. ally strikes out on its own after its vote to “Brexit” from the European Union.
On health care, the party is banking on a three-pronged strategy. It plans to gut the law by late February or early March by using a fast-track budget process that allows it to avoid a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, while replacing as much of the law as it can on that bill.
Rep. Diane Black, Tennessee Republican, said they might use the process, known as “reconciliation,” to promote tax-advantaged savings accounts that allow Americans to save up for medical care and prescription drugs.
Republicans will then rely on the Trump administration to lift some of Obamacare mandates and rules during the transition to piece-by-piece replacement bills, although that legislation will require votes from Senate Democrats.
Mr. Trump’s has signaled he will submit his own health plan once his pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, Rep. Tom Price, is in place, while several Republicans have floated their own plans.
That’s left Republicans to sift through the various strands and coalesce around a unified strategy to fulfill their campaign promise to repeal and replace President Obama’s signature law. They say the 2010 overhaul is hurting American families right now, through soaring premiums and dwindling choices on its web-based insurance exchanges, so relief is needed.
“We will unleash something that’s gonna be terrific,” Mr. Trump told ABC’s David Muir late Wednesday.
On tax reform, Mr. Ryan said the process will be complicated, but ultimately they will make U.S. rates more competitive with other countries’.
“Most people agree that this is the right approach,” he said.
Mr. McConnell also said he would like to return to the normal spending process in the coming months, despite Congress’ jam-packed agenda, after years of relying on stopgap funding bills. The leader made the same vow last year, though intra-GOP bickering and Democratic opposition stalled appropriations bills.
“We hope we can have some semblance of a regular order, even with all of this,” Mr. McConnell said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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