A “disappointed” President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to “let Obamacare fail” after the latest Republican attempt to overhaul the U.S. health-care system quickly fizzled out.
“Let Obamacare fail, it’ll be a lot easier,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “And I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll just let Obamacare fail.”
“We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us and they’re going to say, ‘How do we fix it? How do we fix it?’ Or, ‘How do we come up with a new plan?'”
Republicans’ new push to repeal Obamacare without implementing an immediate replacement appeared to stall Tuesday as three GOP senators said they would not vote for it to move forward, for now. It followed the latest bill to replace Obamacare also collapsing on Monday night as four Republicans opposed it.
Trump has lobbied for Congress to pass an Obamacare replacement that he can sign. But he has at times contradicted himself on what he wants and seemed disengaged from the policy specifics.
The GOP’s effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, a Republican campaign promise for most of the last decade, has stalled multiple times this year amid party divisions. The GOP chose to address the health-care overhaul before it took on tax reform, another key campaign plank, and every setback is seen as delaying the party’s broader agenda.
Trump said Tuesday that he does not think a health-care overhaul is “dead.”
“We have to go to a much less expensive plan in terms of premiums, and something will happen and it’ll be very good. It may not be as quick as we had hoped, but it’s going to happen. OK?” Trump said.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.