Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Saturday ripped President Donald Trump for threatening to cut off key payments to insurance companies, challenging him to "stop playing politics with people's lives" and "start acting presidential."
The New York Democrat took to Twitter:
Hours earlier, Trump threatened to end the cost-sharing reduction payments – "bailouts" – to insurance companies under "imploding Obamacare," as well as employer contributions to congressional healthcare plans, if Republicans do not pass healthcare reform.
President Trump's posts followed Friday's dramatic defeat of Republican efforts to pass a bare-bones repeal of the Affordable Care Act – on a 49-51 vote, with the decisive vote cast about 1:30 a.m. by Arizona Sen. John McCain.
The six-term Republican, 80, had returned to Washington this week to participate in the healthcare debate after brain cancer surgery.
Also voting against the "skinny" repeal were Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
In addition, former presidential adviser David Axelrod slammed Trump's tweets on Saturday:
Axelrod, who served under former President Barack Obama, also hit Trump on the failure of the partial repeal:
Axelrod's "less votes" comment refers to Democrat Hillary Clinton beating Trump in the popular vote, by nearly 2.9 million, in the November election – though the Republican won the Electoral College.
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