Senate GOP won’t ‘walk the plank’ for Trump on ACA repeal

Senate Republicans are burying former President Trump’s call to take another shot at repealing the Affordable Care Act if Republicans regain control of the White House and Senate next year.

Democrats, who are getting pummeled over border security, are looking to elevate the issue of health care in the 2024 election, and Trump is giving them plenty of ammunition, with the likely GOP presidential nominee and congressional Republicans on different pages on a big issue.

President Biden seized on Trump’s comments and accused Republicans at his State of the Union address of still wanting to repeal of ObamaCare.

Republican senators say while they would support reforms to reduce health care costs, Trump’s call to repeal ObamaCare is tone-deaf.

“People have moved to a different place,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. “If you were to walk into the room and say my No. 1 priority is to repeal and replace ObamaCare, I think you’re going to have half the people say, ‘What? Why? Huh?’

“It is not the rallying cry it once was,” she said. “Let’s not walk that plank again.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) and other senior Senate Republicans are breaking with Trump by declaring the war on ObamaCare to be over.

“It seems to me that’s largely over,” McConnell said when asked about Trump’s comments, noting that he’s not participating in issue development for Trump’s campaign.

Thune, who is running to succeed McConnell as Senate GOP leader, also poured water on making repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act a priority in 2025 if Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

“The Affordable Care Act, at least in a lot of the provisions, is probably, whether we like it or not, here to stay,” he said.

But Thune said Republicans won’t be shying away from health care policy entirely, even though it’s an issue where polls indicate voters trust Democrats more than the GOP to handle it.

“There are things we can do in the health care space that could achieve some savings and make the way we deliver health care in this country more efficient,” he said. “That debate isn’t going away.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), the top-ranking Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care policy, said there simply isn’t enough support for repealing ObamaCare, which Republicans tried to do and failed in 2017, Trump’s first year in office.

“There’s not the votes for it. That’s just reality,” he said when asked about Republican appetite for taking another run at repealing former President Obama’s signature domestic achievement.

A KFF health tracking poll published in December showed that 6 in 10 voters say they trust the Democratic Party more to do a good job handling the Affordable Care Act, leaving only 4 in 10 voters saying they trust Republicans more.

A senior Senate Democratic aide pointed to recent polling showing that the future of the Affordable Care Act resonates strongly with Latino swing voters who backed President Biden in 2020 and now are open to supporting Trump.

A 2020 Election Eve Poll by Latino Decisions found that the cost of health care is a top issue among Latino voters; more than 90 percent of Latinos surveyed on the eve of the last presidential election said the government should ensure that everyone in the country has access to affordable health care.

Democrats plan to shine a spotlight on Trump’s recent declaration that Republicans shouldn’t give up their quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act, part of an effort to help counter an unfavorable Senate battleground map in this year’s election.

“Health care continues to be a challenge for many families. Having access to affordable health care is absolutely critical, and so when you have the former president talking about repealing legislation that has helped hundreds of thousands families all across the country and in my state, it’s something that should be talked about,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Gary Peters (D-Mich.), whose home state is a presidential and Senate battleground.

He said the issue “will help us paint a very clear contrast of where the Biden administration has been and where they will be versus the former president.”

Trump poked a hornet’s nest last year when he called on fellow Republicans to gear up for another push to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“The cost of ObamaCare is out of control, plus, it’s not good HealthCare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” he posted on Truth Social in late November.

“We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!” he declared.

Trump’s attempt to repeal the law fell just short in 2017, when Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Murkowski and the late John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted with Democrats to defeat repeal legislation.

The political makeup of the Senate may be quite different next year, as Democrats are expected to lose the West Virginia seat long held by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D) and face tough races in Montana and Ohio, two states Trump won in 2016 and 2020.

Trump’s statements about what his policy priorities would be if elected are getting more attention and scrutiny now that he has wrapped up the Republican nomination and appears to have a good chance of winning in November.

He is leading Biden in several key states, such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, according to an average of recent public polls.

But political handicappers think Democrats have a good opportunity to win back control of the House, which has been buffeted by turmoil since Republicans won the majority in 2022.

Senate Republicans do not think Trump is helping their political cause by putting repeal of the Affordable Care Act back in the national conversation.

“This is where his advisers probably need to get him down to a different level of precision, because there are clearly artifacts of ObamaCare that need to be improved, but it has become so much a part of the exchange and the individual policy options,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. “If we’re not careful with the words, somebody’s going to say he wants to take away access to health care that has arguably expanded.”

Biden seized on Trump’s comments during his State of the Union speech.

“My predecessor, and many in this chamber, want to take those prescription drugs away by repealing the Affordable Care Act. I’m not going to let that happen,” he declared. “We stopped you 50 times before, and we’ll stop you again.”