GOP senator meeting with White House on new ObamaCare plan

by Jessie Hellmann - 08/15/17 10:16 AM ET

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he’s meeting with the White House and the Trump administration “two or three times per week” on a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Cassidy has teamed up with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on a new proposal that would essentially block-grant ObamaCare funding to the states while repealing the law’s individual and employer mandates.

“I think the president is impatient and the president is kind of jamming the agenda a little bit, rightly so,” Cassidy told The Advocate. “He’s afraid momentum will dissipate.”

“One thing I will guarantee is that I’ll continue to fight to come up with a plan that fulfills President Trump’s campaign pledges and returns power to patients, returns power to states and is both fiscally sustainable for the individual as well as for the taxpayers.”

Graham said on “Fox News Sunday” he thinks there are 50 votes for the plan in the Senate and that he hopes to have 25 Republican governors supporting the bill within the next few weeks.

“I believe there’s 50 votes for this,” he said.

“There will be a tremendous amount of pressure on Republican leadership to take this up. I think Mitch will,” he said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

It appears that Senate leaders have moved on from repeal for now, focusing instead on tax reform and other issues. That has angered Trump, who lashed out repeatedly at McConnell last week.

Tags Bill Cassidy Dean Heller Lindsey Graham Mitch McConnell