President Trump will meet Tuesday with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, one of six Senate Republican holdouts on the GOP bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, according to a White House official.
Mr. Trump is aggressively pushing to get the Senate bill across the finish line this week.
The meeting with Mr. Paul follows a series of phone calls over the weekend to at least four of the Senate Republicans who have balked at the bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, plans to put to a vote by the end of the week.
Getting the Senate health care bill passed and a final bill to approval before Congress’s August recess is a top priority for Mr. Trump and Republicans. But the effort was complicated by a Congressional Budget Office analysis that projected 22 million people would lose health insurance as a result of the Senate bill.
Senate Republicans can suffer two defections and still pass the bill. No Democrats are expected to vote for it.
The other GOP holdouts that Mr. Trump called over the weekend included Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
The president, who reportedly said the House version of the bill was “mean,” was impressed with the work done by the Senate, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday.
“He’s very pleased with the developments,” he said, repeating Mr. Trump’s remark that he wants a bill that has “heart.”
“He wants a bill that does what it is supposed to do. If you look at what happened with Obamacare, he wants to make sure we think through this,” said Mr. Spicer. “He will continue to support ways to make the bill stronger.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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