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Realizing he’s at a standstill on his goal to replace the Affordable Care Act, and perhaps bowing to pressure from Republican leaders, President Trump now says he will wait until after the 2020 presidential election before working on a replacement for the health care law — assuming he is still in office.
In comments to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: “I wanted to put it after the election because we don’t have the House,” according to NPR, but he neglected to mention that the Republican-led Senate does not support his attempt to replace Obamacare either. At least not right now.
READ MORE: DOJ sides with U.S. District Court in ruling Affordable Care Act “unconstitutional”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explained that he “made it clear to [Trump] that we were not going to be doing that in the Senate” before adding that he and Trump are now on the same page, according to NPR.
McConnell and Trump reportedly spoke about the health care law on Monday, which McConnell called a “good conversation.” The Kentucky senator said he shared with Trump that “the Senate Republicans’ view” was not one that would see the Senate working with the House on the legislation at this time.
The news came a week after Trump shocked Republican party leaders after he said he was going to turn Republicans into “the party of health care” and would put amending the Affordable Care Act high on his to-do list.
‘Not so fast’ seemed to be the collective GOP response. In fact, Republicans failed to agree on a replacement even when they had control of both chambers of Congress, which McConnell noted in his talk with the president.
READ MORE: Profiles in petty: Trump admin to shut ObamaCare site during open enrollment stage
Democrats say Trump’s change of mind will now impact the entire country.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump is holding “Americans hostage through 2020” on perhaps the single most important issue impacting all Americans. Schumer said Trump is essentially dangling health care reform over our heads by insisting “he has a magic plan that we can see if only the American people re-elect him,” according to NPR.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is still proceeding with a push for a court ruling that would invalidate the entire ACA. It’s unknown when or if the courts will reverse Obamacare and side with Trump.
READ MORE: 8.8 mil people sign up for Obamacare in 2018 despite GOP’s attempts to kill it
On the other hand, Dems are trying to get Trump to stop his court proceedings. They have introduced a non-binding resolution in the House that would urge Trump to stop challenging the validity of the health care law.