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President Donald Trump speaks about healthcare in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2017.
(Associated Press)
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Looking to break the logjam in Washington on
repealing and replacing ObamaCare, President Donald Trump said Saturday
evening that he was willing to pursue “a temporary deal” to get a new
health care plan in place.
In remarks on the South Lawn of the
White House before leaving for a fundraising trip to North Carolina, the
president referred to a popular GOP proposal that would have the
federal government turn over money for health care directly to states in
the form of block grants.
“If we could do a one-year deal or a two-year deal as a
temporary measure, you'll have block granting ultimately to the states,
which is what the Republicans want,” he said. “That really is a repeal
and replace.”
Meanwhile, in an interview taped earlier this week and
aired Saturday night on Trinity Broadcasting Network, the president
assured host Mike Huckabee that “We'll have health care before the
election.”
Earlier Saturday, Trump said he had spoken with the
Senate's Democratic leader on Friday to gauge whether the minority party
was interested in helping pass "great" health legislation.
Democrats said they willing to hear his ideas, but were
not willing to scrap the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as
ObamaCare.
Trump's latest overture to Democrats followed GOP
failures so far to fulfill the party's years-long promise to repeal and
replace the ACA, despite controlling the White House and Congress since
January.
The president tweeted that he called Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday to discuss the ACA, which Trump
said was “badly broken, big premiums. Who knows!”
Trump said he wanted “to see if the Dems want to do a great HealthCare Bill.”
Schumer said through a spokesman Saturday that Trump
"wanted to make another run at repeal and replace and I told the
president that's off the table." Schumer said if Trump "wants to work
together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are
open to his suggestions."
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House
in Washington, to board the Marine One helicopter, Oct. 7, 2017
(Associated Press)
Trump has suggested before that he would be open to
negotiating with Democrats on health care, but there have been no clear
signs of a compromise between the two parties.
Schumer said a starting point could be negotiations led
by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., who have
been discussing a limited bipartisan deal to stabilize state-level
markets for individual health insurance policies. People covered under
the health law represent about half of those who purchase individual
policies.
Trump irritated GOP leaders in Congress when he reached
a deal with Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
on a spending bill and the debt ceiling. The president has referred to
those two Democrats as "Chuck and Nancy."
But the Trump administration announced Friday that it
would allow more employers to opt out of no-cost birth control to women
by claiming religious or moral objections. The move was one more attempt
to roll back Obama's health overhaul, prompting Democrats to question
whether Trump is committed to avoiding sabotaging the law.
Trump floated the potential talks as he approved an
emergency declaration for a large part of Louisiana and ordered federal
assistance for the state as Hurricane Nate approached the central Gulf
of Mexico.
The president headlined a fundraiser on Saturday night
in Greensboro, N.C., to benefit his Trump Victory joint fundraising
committee with the Republican National Committee. The event was expected
to raise $2 million, with donors paying up to $35,000 per couple to
serve as co-hosts.