Pelosi, Schumer call on Trump to drop ObamaCare lawsuit ahead of State of the Union

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday called for President Trump to withdraw his administration’s legal position calling for striking down the Affordable Care Act, seeking to pre-empt the president’s health care message in the State of the Union address. 

Speaking at a press conference with House and Senate Democrats, Schumer noted that Trump is likely to tout his administration’s actions on health care in his speech Tuesday night. 

But he and Pelosi argued that the most consequential administration health care action is the GOP lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act that the Trump administration is supporting. 

The press conference is a sign of the political advantage Democrats sense on the issue of health care, which helped them win back the House in 2018, and their desire not to cede the spotlight on the issue to Trump, who is eager to tout health care moves of his own ahead of the 2020 election.

“Mr. President, if you really care about health care, you’ll announce tonight that you’re withdrawing your Texas lawsuit that would remove all protections for pre-existing conditions,” Schumer said. 

Trump cannot withdraw the entire lawsuit, which was brought by Texas and a group of GOP-led states, but he could reverse his Justice Department’s decision to join in the challengers’ call for the law to be struck down. 

Democrats have made highlighting the lawsuit, which is currently making its way through the courts, a key part of their campaigns. 

Trump is expected to call for action to lower drug prices in the speech Tuesday night, possibly including an administrative action to lower the price of insulin. The White House is also supporting a bill from Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that Trump could call for action on. 

But Democratic leaders said Trump is breaking his promises on drug prices by not supporting House Democrats’ bill to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, something that Trump once supported, during the 2016 campaign, saying he wants to “negotiate like crazy.”

“‘Negotiate like crazy’ must mean ‘not negotiate at all,’” Pelosi said Tuesday.