Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney helped engineer the move by the Trump administration to try to invalidate Obamacare, Politico is reporting.
Mulvaney, as a congressman from South Carolina, had been one of the Republican Party’s most vocal critics of the healthcare plan, officially known as the Affordable Care Act. Now, as acting chief of staff, he has given his allies a direct line to President Donald Trump, Politico noted.
The Justice Department asked an appeals court on Monday to affirm a lower court ruling that the entire healthcare law is unconstitutional.
The New York Times reported Trump had sided with Mulvaney and others in the push to nullify the health law after a meeting in the Oval Office on Monday. Mulvaney and Joe Grogan, head of the Domestic Policy Council, had argued that Trump’s base of voters would love the move.
Some others at the meeting voiced concern it could prove risky, but Trump sided with Mulvaney and Grogan.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s leadership team was said to be incensed at Mulvaney and others for reigniting the fight over healthcare again, the newspaper reported. They said the move could hurt vulnerable Republican incumbents in 2020.
Rep. Tom Reed R-N.Y., said he also disagreed with the move, The Hill reported.
“I think there’s a mindset there ... let’s then draw the line in the sand, force the debate to occur so that folks can come to some type of legislative solution,” Reed said.
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