Senate Majority Whip John Thune Wednesday defended President Donald Trump's comments about waiting until after the 2020 election to overhaul healthcare, saying he agrees that working on the issue now would mean running into the obstacles posed by the Democrat-controlled House.
"He wants to take on healthcare and so do we," the South Dakota Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "The challenge he has right now, he is running into the political obstacle of a Democrat-controlled House, whose idea for healthcare reform is a $36 trillion, one-size-fits-all government-run plan that would take health insurance coverage away from 180 million Americans."
That's why, he continued, Trump has decided the only way to get healthcare reform accomplished would be to "win the election, take the House back, and then we'll go to work on lowering costs for the American people and give them more access."
There is "no question" that campaigning against Democrats' call for a Medicare-fits-all program would be effective, but Republicans can also work with Trump on solutions to drive down costs, said Thune.
"We're working on reducing prescription drug prices," he said. "That's an issue that drives healthcare costs in this country…[there is] a number of other things we think we can do in the meantime. But to get that solution that the president is looking for which will offer Americans more choices, drive costs down, it will take a different composition than people that want a government-run program."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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