Trump blasts Congress over failure of health-care bill

U.S. President Donald Trump blasted congressional Democrats and "a few Republicans" Tuesday over the collapse of his party's effort to rewrite the Obama health-care law, and warned, "We will return."

Trump's early morning tweet led off a barrage of Republican criticism of Congress over the party's failure on its flagship legislative priority. For seven years, Republicans have pledged to repeal former president Barack Obama's law.

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"Most Republicans were loyal, terrific & worked really hard," Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. "We were let down by all of the Democrats and a few Republicans."

He added, "As I have always said, letObamaCarefail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!"

This doesn't have to be the end. Senate majority leaderMitchMcConnell

Two senators Utah's Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of Kansas sealed the measure's doom late Monday when they announced they would vote "no" in an initial, critical vote that had been expected as soon as next week. That meant that at least four of the 52 Republican senators were ready to block the measure two more than majority leader Mitch McConnellof Kentuckyhad to spare in the face of unanimous Democratic opposition.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell conceded that the legislation repealing the 2010 law and replacing it with Republican-preferred programs "will not be successful," essentially waving a white flag.

The core of this bill is unworkable. Senate minority leader ChuckSchumer

He said instead, the Senate would vote on legislation dismantling much of Obama's statute that would take effect in two years, which Republicans say would give Congress time to approve replacement legislation. But such legislation seems unlikely to be approved, with many Republicans concerned the two-year gap would roil insurance markets and produce a political backlash.

"This doesn't have to be the end of the story," McConnell said.

But two other Republican senators said on Tuesday they can't vote to repeal the law without a replacement.

West Virginia SenatorShelley Moore Capito said in a statement she "did not come to Washington to hurt people." Her concerns focused on proposed cuts to Medicaid and the impact on treating the opioid epidemic, which has hit her state hard.

Separately, Maine SenatorSusan Collins also said she opposes the repeal and delay approach. Collins said it's not constructive to repeal a law so interwoven within the health-care system and then hope over the next two years to come up with a replacement.

Stinging setback

The retreat was the second stinging setback on the issue in three weeks for McConnell, whose reputation as a legislative mastermind has been marred as he's failed to unite his chamber's Republicans behind a health overhaul package that highlighted jagged divides between conservatives and moderates. In late June, he abandoned an initial package after he lacked enough Republican support to pass.

The episode has also been jarring for Trump, whose intermittent lobbying and nebulous, often contradictory descriptions of what he's wanted have shown he has limited clout with senators. That despite a determination by Trump, McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryanof Wisconsin to demonstrate that a Republican-controlled White House and Congress can govern effectively.

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McConnell's failed bill would have left 22 million uninsured by 2026, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a number that many Republicans found unpalatable.

But the vetoed 2015 measure would be even worse, the budget office said last January, producing 32 million additional uninsured people by 2026 figures that seemed likely to drive a stake into that bill's prospects for passing Congress.

That would seem to leave McConnell with an option he described last month negotiating with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York. That would likely be on a narrower package aimed more at keeping insurers in difficult marketplaces they're either abandoning or imposing rapidly growing premiums.

"The core of this bill is unworkable," Schumer said in a statement. He said Republicans "should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health-care system."

Warring viewpoints

Similar to legislation the House approved in May after its own setbacks, McConnell's bill would repeal Obama's tax penalties on people who don't buy coverage and cut the Medicaid program for the poor, elderly and nursing home residents. It rolled back many of the statute's requirements for the policies insurers can sell and eliminated many tax increases that raised money for Obama's expansion to 20 million more people, though it retained the law's tax boosts on high earners.

SenatorRand Paul, a conservative fromKentucky, has previously declared his opposition to McConnell's bill.

And other moderates were wavering and could have been difficult for McConnell and Trump to win over because of the bill's Medicaid cuts: Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Rob Portman of Ohioand Dean Heller of Nevada, probably the most endangered Senate Republican in next year's elections.

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The range of objections lodged by the dissident senators underscored the warring viewpoints within his own party that McConnell had to try patching over. Lee complained that the bill didn't go far enough in rolling back Obama's robust coverage requirements, while moderates like Collins berated its Medicaid cuts and the millions it would leave without insurance.

McConnell's revised version aimed to satisfy both camps, by incorporating language by SenatorTed Cruz of Texas allowing insurers to sell skimpy plans alongside more robust ones, and by adding tens of billions of dollars to treat opioid addiction and to defray consumer costs. His efforts did not achieve the intended result.