Tom Cole: GOP Needs to 'Sit Down' With Dems on Healthcare

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Friday that congressional Republicans must reach across the aisle to find a solution to their inability to repeal Obamacare.

"Now I think it's really incumbent on our friends on the other side of the aisle to keep going," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday, after the GOP's "skinny" bill failed in the Senate.

"There's a lot of problems with Obamacare, we need to fix it, not repeal it," Cole added, saying that the party should turn to Democrats and say, "'OK, let's see what your fixes are.' I think we should sit down with an open mind and listen to them."

He also said that despite the setback, the GOP cannot give up in its efforts to repeal, noting that his state has only one Obamacare insurance provider remaining.

"This is not a system that's succeeding," he said.

Cole spoke out against the increasingly popular Democratic idea of publicly funded healthcare, saying, "I'm not for a public option, that's buying into a failing system."

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