Analysis: Fractious Democrats band together to defend health-care law from Trump’s attack
By Paul Kane Paul Kane Senior congressional correspondent and columnist Email Bio Follow March 30 at 10:31 AM House Democrats have spent several weeks battling over some of the most divisive policies, from support for Israel to combating climate change.
Then came President Trump, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and their decision Monday to push the Justice Department to argue in federal court that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act should be destroyed. In 2017 Underwood, now 32, had never run for office but had served as a policy adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services during the implementation of the law commonly known as Obamacare. Back home in the exurbs outside Chicago, Underwood contemplated running for office and, once her Republican congressman voted to repeal the ACA, she knew her next move.
In a February conference call with donors this year, McCarthy pointed to the May 2017 vote as the moment the majority was basically lost. House conservatives rejected an early version of the repeal bill and negotiated a new plan that removed guaranteed protections for those with preexisting medical conditions and other critical benefits.
Privately, McCarthy had told Trump it was a bad idea. He recognizes that the GOP pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare is the political Holy Grail for Republicans, just always out of reach and ending in spectacular failure in its pursuit. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham spent last weekend with Trump and Mulvaney at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, at a fundraiser for the senator and golfing. He encouraged the president to go big on health care, telling him 2018 was a political bloodbath because Republicans had no counter to Democrats on the issue.
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