Trump raps McCain on health bill stance

He presses 2 other senators for ‘yes’

Sen. John McCain (left) waits onstage July 27 as fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham talks about health care legislation. McCain “let his best friend [Graham] down” by opposing Graham’s repeal bill, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Saturday.
Sen. John McCain (left) waits onstage July 27 as fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham talks about health care legislation. McCain “let his best friend [Graham] down” by opposing Graham’s repeal bill, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Saturday.

SOMERSET, N.J. -- President Donald Trump on Saturday morning lashed out at Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for breaking with him and opposing Republicans' latest plan to roll back the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, saying the senator had let his state down and had been deceived by Democrats into abandoning a promise.

In a series of angrily worded tweets sent from his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said McCain, who announced Friday that he would not back the health care measure, had knowingly misled members of his own party about where he stood on the legislation.

"John McCain never had any intention of voting for this Bill, which his Governor loves. He campaigned on Repeal & Replace. Let Arizona down!" Trump wrote.

McCain's announcement that he would not vote for the proposal was the second time in three months that he had stood against a Republican health care proposal.

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Unwilling to concede defeat on a bedrock GOP promise, Trump on Saturday sought to sway two Republican holdouts to support the proposal.

He appealed to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a possible "no" vote on the proposal, to swing around for the sake of Alaskans up in arms over high insurance costs, and suggested in a tweet that Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul might reverse his stated opposition "for the good of the Party!"

In a separate tweet, Trump noted the large increases in health care premiums and deductibles experienced in Arizona last year. "Chuck Schumer sold John McCain a bill of goods," the president said, referring to the New York senator and minority leader, who is opposed to the measure.

The president defended the measure's approach, which envisions the federal government sending grants to states for them to administer their own health care systems, and allowing them vast discretion over how to use the money. It would allow them to seek federal waivers to let insurers charge higher premiums to people who have pre-existing medical conditions or to omit certain benefits that they are now required to provide, such as maternity care or mental health care.

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"Better control & management," Trump wrote. "Great for Arizona."

"McCain let his best friend L.G. down!" the president added, referring to McCain's close relationship with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the bill's sponsors.

Trump's latest weekend Twitter fusillade came the morning after McCain surprised the president and his top aides by saying that he could not "in good conscience" support the health care proposal by Graham and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. McCain said it was a partisan plan whose costs and impacts on the health care of millions of Americans were unknown.

McCain voted "no" on an earlier iteration of a health care repeal bill, killing that effort in July. His decision Friday dealt yet another setback to Trump's effort to fulfill his promise to do away with former President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Paul had earlier announced his opposition to the latest health care effort. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is also said to be leaning against the bill. In a Senate split 52-48 between the Republican and Democratic caucuses, GOP leaders can afford to lose only two votes and still pass the measure.

The effort to rally support for the bill took another hit Saturday when the nation's doctors, hospitals and health insurance providers unified against it. In a joint statement, groups such as the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association called on the Senate to reject the bill and said, "Health care is too important to get wrong."

McCain's announcement that he would not vote for it came just hours after the president had warned in a Friday post on Twitter that any Republican who opposed the measure "will forever (future political campaigns) be known as 'the Republican who saved ObamaCare.'"

On Saturday, Trump appeared to be nurturing hopes that the legislative effort could be kept alive. He expressed hope that Paul would rethink his opposition to the Graham-Cassidy measure, without explaining why the Kentucky senator, who had complained that the bill left the Affordable Care Act's essential structure intact, might do so.

"I know Rand Paul and I think he may find a way to get there for the good of the Party!" Trump wrote.

He also indicated that Murkowski, who had wavered publicly about the measure, would support it.

"Alaska had a 200% plus increase in premiums under ObamaCare, worst in the country. Deductibles high, people angry! Lisa M comes through," Trump wrote.

Murkowski was one of three Republican senators who voted against the repeal proposal in July, and she has come under an intense spotlight yet again as Trump and Republican leaders push for passage of the Graham-Cassidy bill. But while Trump hopes she will support the bill, Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska, an independent, opposes it and has said he has communicated his concerns to Murkowski.

White House officials were working to determine whether there was a way to salvage the bill and win over critics and fence-sitters, but a spokesman offered no immediate explanation for Trump's tweet that appeared to suggest Murkowski was already a convert.

A spokesman for Murkowski, Karina Petersen, said Saturday: "Senator Murkowski has seen the president's tweet but is still analyzing the bill and waiting to hear from [the Congressional Budget Office] to determine its potential impacts for Alaskans. She understands that premiums have risen, the toll that is taking on many Alaskans, and the need for health care reform. But she also wants to understand what this proposal means for the people she represents before deciding how she will vote on it."

After the Senate failed in several attempts to pass a health care measure in July, the legislation appeared to be dead. But Cassidy kept at it with his state-focused approach, and the effort caught new life in recent weeks.

Cassidy is to defend the bill before the Senate Finance Committee on Monday.

Republican leaders are pressing forward with a vote this week before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office can complete a full analysis of the Graham-Cassidy legislation. The budget office is expected to provide a preliminary fiscal assessment early in the week, but it indicated that it would not be able to complete an analysis of the bill's effects on health insurance coverage or premiums by Saturday's deadline.

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AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, arrives at the Capitol to join Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for the release of the Republican healthcare bill, the party's long-awaited attempt to scuttle much of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 22, 2017.

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AP Photo/Bryan Woolston

In this Aug. 11, 2017 photo, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks to supporters in Hebron, Ky.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of The New York Times; and Catherine Lucey, Erica Werner, Alan Fram and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/24/2017

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