WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Senate Republican health care bill (all times local):
8:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he doesn’t think congressional Republicans are “that far off” on passing a health overhaul to replace “Obamacare.” But some lawmakers have doubts.
Trump tells “Fox and Friends” he believes his majority party is “going to get there.”
That optimism runs counter to the public opposition of five Republican senators so far to the Senate GOP plan that would scuttle much of former President Barack Obama’s health law. And several lawmakers acknowledge that getting majority support will be tough.
Unless those holdouts can be swayed, their numbers are more than enough to torpedo the measure developed in private by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and deliver a bitter defeat for the president.
___
3:45 p.m.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn says passing a health care bill won’t get any easier if Republican leaders delay a Senate vote on the GOP health care plan.
The Senate’s No. 2 Republican said the Senate is on pace to hold a key procedural vote Wednesday. He said he feels “a sense of urgency” to push forward because the health care system is in “full meltdown mode.”
Cornyn made the comments Sunday at a private gathering hosted by the libertarian Koch brothers in Colorado.
He acknowledged the bill has critics: “Some people have been more public about concerns but said they want to get to yes.” He said the vote is “going to be close” and President Donald Trump is “going to be important in the process.”
___
3:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump promised to repeal and replace the health care law Republicans deride as “Obamacare.”
But Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said Sunday the Senate’s current plan to overhaul health care “is not a full repeal or full replace.”
The Republican lawmaker says, “This is largely a Medicaid reform package.”
Senate Republican leaders are scrambling for enough votes to approve their health care legislation as soon as this week.
Sasse said he’s neither finished reading the bill nor taken a position on it.
Sasse addressed health care at a private retreat for top donors to the libertarian Koch brothers’ political network, which favors full repeal. He was the featured luncheon speaker also attended by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
___
11:25 a.m.
President Donald Trump is bemoaning what he calls “the level of hostility” that he says has stymied bipartisanship in Washington.
While discussing the Republican health bill during an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Trump said it would be great if lawmakers from both parties could “come up something that everybody’s happy with.”
Then he criticizes two prominent Democratic senators.
Trump says the Democrats’ “theme is resist” and that “if it was the greatest bill ever proposed in mankind, we wouldn’t get a vote” from them.
Trump said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer criticized the GOP bill before knowing what was in it. And the president called Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren “somebody that’s just got a lot of hatred.” Warren is a leading liberal and defender of the current health law.
___
11:20 a.m.
One of the Republican senators who’s opposing his party’s health care bill as written says the Senate shouldn’t vote on the plan this week.
The lengthy proposal only came out last week, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to begin voting this week.
That’s not sitting well with GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. He says: “I would like to delay the thing. There’s no way we should be voting on this next week. No way.”
He tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he has “a hard time” believing that his constituents or even he “will have enough time to properly evaluate” the measure.
Johnson says he’s made his views clear to the party leadership and the White House.
___
10:45 a.m.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says Senate passage of the Republican bill to replace former President Barack Obama’s health law is too close to call.
He told ABC’s “This Week” the GOP has “at best, a 50-50 chance.”
In the narrowly divided Senate, defections from just three of the 52 Republican senators would doom the legislation.
Schumer says Democrats have made clear they would be willing to work with Republicans to pass a Senate bill if they agree to drop a repeal of the Affordable Care Act and instead work to improve it.
Schumer described the GOP proposal as “devastating” to the middle class and “that’s what’s making it so hard for them to pass it.”
___
10:30 a.m.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she thinks getting the votes needed in the Senate this week to pass a Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act could be very difficult.
The moderate Republican says she has “very serious concerns” about the proposed legislation but hasn’t yet taken a position on it. She cited in part provisions that she believes could cut Medicaid more than the House version.
So far five Republican senators have announced their opposition. Defections from just three of the Senate’s 52 Republicans would doom the legislation.
Collins says another seven to eight senators including herself remain troubled about the possible Medicaid cuts.
She says she intends to wait for a Congressional Budget Office analysis before making a decision.
Collins spoke on ABC’s “This Week.”
___
9 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he doesn’t think congressional Republicans are “that far off” on passing a health overhaul to replace what he’s calling “the dead carcass of Obamacare.”
Trump says he believes his majority party is “going to get there.”
But that optimism runs counter to the public opposition of five Republican senators so far to the Senate GOP plan that would scuttle much of former President Barack Obama’s health law.
Unless those holdouts can be swayed, their numbers are more than enough to torpedo the measure developed in private by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and deliver a bitter defeat for the president.
Trump tells “Fox and Friends” that “we’ve a very good plan.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.