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Obama and Democrats Meet to Plan Defense of Affordable Care Act Obama Fights for Health Law as Republicans Stand Firm on Vow to Repeal
(about 1 hour later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama huddled with Democrats on Wednesday morning in a final effort to forge a strategy to salvage the Affordable Care Act — as President-elect Donald J. Trump warned Republicans to let Mr. Obama’s imperiled signature program “fall of its own weight.” WASHINGTON — The bitter divide over the fate of the Affordable Care Act played out at the highest levels on Wednesday as President Obama urged Democrats on Capitol Hill to fight to maintain his signature domestic achievement while President-elect Donald J. Trump warned Republicans to let Mr. Obama’s imperiled program “fall of its own weight.”
Mr. Obama, who will leave office in 16 days, breezed past reporters, offering a “Happy New Year, everybody!” — and ignoring a question about his lack of leverage after the election of Mr. Trump and the re-election of Republican majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. As the Senate began debate over the fate of the law, Republicans made clear, more powerfully and explicitly than before, of their intention to repeal it. Vice President-elect Mike Pence, standing with Speaker Paul D. Ryan in the Capitol, said the repeal would be “the first order of business” for the new administration.
The forecast for the health care law matched the Washington weather that Mr. Obama’s motorcade rumbled through: cloudy and foggy, with glimmers punching through the gloom. Mr. Pence said that Mr. Trump’s transition team was working on a “series of executive orders that will enable that orderly transition to take place.”
But Democrats vowed to strongly resist the repeal efforts, which Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said could be reduced to the slogan “make America sick again.”
Mr. Schumer said Republicans would have to own the health care system. He said Democrats would consider working with Republicans on a replacement only after they presented their own plan.
“If you are repealing, show us what you’ll replace it with, then we’ll look at what you have and see what you can do,” Mr. Schumer said.
Later, Mr. Schumer said of Mr. Trump, “It’s his and their responsibility plain and simple — name calling isn’t going to get anything done,” adding “they really need to calm things down a little.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, said Democrats assured Mr. Obama that they would not back down. Of the Republicans, she said, “to repeal without replacing it is just an act of cowardice.”
Mr. Ryan tried to offer assurance that no change in coverage would be abrupt. “We’ve been saying all along we don’t want to pull the rug out from people while we’re replacing this law,” he said. “The point is, in 2017, we don’t want people to be caught with nothing. We want to make sure that there’s an orderly transition so that the rug is not pulled out from under the families who are currently struggling under Obamacare while we bring relief.”
On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate majority leader, took the first legislative steps that could accomplish his party’s goal of repealing and replacing the measure, which has added 20 million poor and working class Americans to the health insurance rolls.On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate majority leader, took the first legislative steps that could accomplish his party’s goal of repealing and replacing the measure, which has added 20 million poor and working class Americans to the health insurance rolls.
Even as Republicans prepared to seize power, Mr. Trump and his staff were sending mixed signals about their strategy and the pace of the possible rollback. In a series of enigmatic morning Twitter messages, Mr. Trump disparaged Wednesday’s Democratic conclave, which was called by the Democratic leaders in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California. Even as Republicans prepared to seize power, Mr. Trump and his staff were sending mixed signals about their strategy and the pace of the possible rollback. In a series of enigmatic morning Twitter messages, Mr. Trump disparaged Wednesday’s Democratic conclave as “Schumer clowns.”
“Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web,” he wrote — without explaining what strategy he was advocating. As the debate raged, Mr. Obama told Democrats that he accepted some responsibility for not being a better salesman for the law. “He acknowledged the failures in selling the law in its entirety to the American people,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon.
In two other Twitter posts, he seemed to counsel his party against acting too hastily, saying that “massive increases of Obamacare” premiums “will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight — be careful!”
On Tuesday, a crucial adviser to Mr. Trump, Kellyanne Conway, also seemed to signal that the incoming administration planned to proceed with caution.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Ms. Conway, who will serve as Mr. Trump’s counselor, said repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in one sweeping move would be “ideal” but warned that the transition could be gradual. “Some experts,” she said, “say it could take years to complete the process.”
Mrs. Conway added: “We don’t want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance” — and went out of her way to say the law had “done some good things” in a follow-up interview on CNBC.
Mr. Schumer and Mrs. Pelosi hope to maintain a united front among Democrats in resisting major changes to the measure, but there were signs, even before Mr. Obama arrived, that the task might not be easy. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, whose state voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump, told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC early Wednesday that he planned to skip the strategy session.
“I can’t in good conscience, I can’t do it,” he said. “If anyone listened and paid attention to what the American people said when they voted, they want this place to work,” adding, “We haven’t fixed very many things, and anyone who has trust or belief that we will fix it, they’re living in fantasyland.”