President Trump said Tuesday that he will go nuclear on Obamacare, letting the teetering law collapse of its own weight and then waiting for recalcitrant Democrats to come begging for a workable replacement.

On Tuesday he told reporters during an impromptu photo-op at the White House that 'I've been saying for a very long time, "Let Obamacare fail and then everybody is going to have to come together and fix it, and come up with a new plan, and a plan that is really good for the people with much lower premiums, much lower costs, much better protection".'

'I think we're probably in that position where we'll let Obamacare fail,' Trump added. 'We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it.'

'We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us and they are going to say, "How do we fix it? how do we fix it?" or "How do we come up with a new plan?"'

'It will be a lot easier,' he predicted.

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President Donald Trump is regrouping on Obamacare after the U.S. Senate failed to pass a replacement and a repeal-only proposal quickly died, saying the current medical insurance system should be allowed to crumble on its own – which would force lawmakers to design a working substitute

Trump's remarks came in a hastily called meeting with reporters during a lunch with armed service members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House

Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters hours later during an off-camera briefing that 'Democrats' are responsible for America's health insurance crisis.

'They're responsible for passing Obamacare,' she said. 'They're responsible for creating the mess that we're in.'

'They need to own the failure of it,' Sanders added.

Like her boss, she hoped openly that as Obamacare collapses, Democrats will 'be more willing to come to the table and clean up the mess.'

'Inaction is not a workable solution,' she added, speaking of Congress.

But inaction on the White House's part, Sanders suggested, would be sufficient to make the Obamacare system implode.

Still, she promised, 'This is not a "game over" situation.'

Asked if Republicans' effort to repeal and replace the law was dead, she replied: 'I think the thing that's dead here is Obamacare.'

The White House's stunning moves came after three Republican senators came forward in opposition to a Tuesday morning plan calling for a straight repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, paired with a two-year delay so lawmakers could settle on a substitute.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia doomed the new idea, announced Tuesday morning by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Murkowski and Capito voted in favor of a nearly identical measure in December 2015.

Asked if she had a message for them, Sanders said: 'Do your job.'

Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats are 'responsible for passing Obamacare' and 'responsible for creating the mess that we're in'

Off the hook? A poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that nearly 6 in 10 Americans would blame Republicans if Obamacare fails, with only 30 per cent holding Barack Obama and the Democrats to account

A repeal-and-replace package that would have been implemented all at once died a fiery death Monday night after at least eight GOP senators signaled their discontent with the package.

By 8:00 a.m. he was tweeting that the most workable approach will be to allow the status quo to crumble – forcing Congress to work on something new.

'As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!' Trump wrote on Twitter.

The fly in that ointment may be public perception about who deserves the blame if the Obama-era law collapses of its own weight.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, which has tracked that question throughout 2017, found last month that 59 per cent say Republicans are responsible for its stewardship, compared with just 30 per cent who would point a finger at the Democrats who put the plan into motion.

The president hinted in a pair of tweets Tuesday morning that he would return to advocating for a scorched-earth approach, waiting for Obamacare to crumble on its own as a way to force lawmakers to work on a viable substitute

The president has said during both his campaign and his presidency that the national medical insurance scheme left in place by the Affordable Care Act will eventually topple on its own as costs spiral and insurers pull out of marketplaces.

Trump said in March, as House Republicans regrouped following their own failed first attempt at an Obamacare-scrapping law, that 'I've been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we can do politically speaking is let Obamacare explode. It is exploding right now.'

The president argued that an Obamacare-sized vacuum in health care policy would force Democrats to the table – but also would carry a human cost as Americans scrambled to establish coverage in the meantime.

'Perhaps the best thing that could happen is exactly what happened today,' Trump said then, 'because we'll end up with a truly great health care bill in the future after this mess known as Obamacare explodes.'

On Tuesday morning Trump suggested in a second pair of tweets that the Senate has become wracked with inertia because most legislation requires a 60-vote supermajority to move forward.

'With only a very small majority, the Republicans in the House & Senate need more victories next year since Dems totally obstruct, no votes!' he wrote.

'The Senate must go to a 51 vote majority instead of current 60 votes. Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!'

Health care legislation has already been proceeding under an obscure process called 'reconciliation' – which allows a simple 51-vote majority to pass legislation that impacts government spending or taxes.

The president later added two more Twitter posts, advocating for a simple 51-vote majority to move key legislation in the Senate, which would break longstading precedent

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative House Freedom Caucus member, said Tuesday on CNN that a repeal first, replace later approach is identical to what lawmakers passed during the last Congress

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative member of the House Freedom Caucus, defended the idea of a repeal first, replace later approach on Tuesday morning.

'It's a good idea because it's what we told the American people we were going to do, and what they elected us to do,' he said on CNN's 'New Day' program.

'It's the same thing we passed last Congress,' he observed, adding: 'If it was good enough last Congress, why isn't it good enough this Congress when it really counts?'

Jordan emphasized that the bill he favors would have a two-year sunset for the Obamacare law. 'But you've repealed it, and say the effective date is in the future.'

On Monday night a pair of GOP senators announced their opposition to a repeal-and-replace package, leaving Republicans plainly short of the 50 votes they needed to pass it.

Trump, who was blindsided by the defections, pushed a 'clean slate' approach on Twitter.

'More Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!' he predicted.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had hoped to push the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) through the Senate next week.

On Monday night Trump urged Republicans to repeal Obamacare and start afresh with a new healthcare plan

Jerry Moran (left) and Mike Lee (right) have withdrawn their support for the healthcare bill, meaning their party does not have the votes to move it forward

Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mike Lee of Utah both announced their opposition shortly after Trump concluded a White House meeting with other wavering lawmakers.

McConnell said in a statement that the Senate would move to pass a House bill that sets a two-year sunset for Obamacare, giving Congress ample time to design something that would go in its place.

'Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,' McConnell said.

'So, in the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate has already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a stable transition period to a patient-centered healthcare system that gives Americans access to quality, affordable care.'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (pictured on Monday) conceded Monday that he lacks the 50 votes he needs to pass his bill

Politico cited anonymous White House sources who said President Trump was blindsided by the two senators' withdrawals and that he was enjoying a dinner with other lawmakers as the decisions were announced.

'If the Republicans have the House, Senate and the presidency and they can't pass this health care bill they are going to look weak. How can we not do this after promising it for years?' he is reported to have said.

Announcing his decision on Monday, Sen. Moran of Kansas said: 'There are serious problems with Obamacare, and my goal remains what it has been for a long time: to repeal and replace it. This closed-door process has yielded the BCRA, which fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare's rising costs.'

'For the same reasons I could not support this bill, I cannot support this one.

'We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy. Furthermore, if we leave the federal government in control of everyday healthcare decisions, it is more likely that our healthcare system will devolve into a single-payer system, which would require a massive federal spending increase.'

Sen. Lee of Utah said the bill 'doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families.'

'Nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations,' he added.

Johnson's grievance is with McConnell, who he claims assured senior GOP figures last week that Medicaid cuts planned by the legislation would 'never happen' because they were slated to come far in the future.

Protesters have descended on the capitol to fight against the bill. Above, demonstrators outside Leader McConnell's office on Monday

'It's from my standpoint a pretty serious breach of trust, those comments,' Johnson, a conservative re-elected last year, told reporters.

He added, 'Last week I was strongly urging colleagues to vote' to begin debating the measure, a critical vote expected as early as next week. I'm not doing that right now.'

The comments by Johnson came after an expected showdown this week was postponed because Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain was recovering from a Friday procedure to remove a blood clot above his left eye. His office said he'd recuperate in Arizona for a week, and several senators said Monday they expected McCain, 80, to return quickly.

'We hope John McCain gets better very soon,' Trump said. 'Because we miss him. He's a crusty voice in Washington. Plus we need his vote.'

Gearing up for that vote, around a half-dozen GOP senators were meeting with Trump and Pence at the White House late Monday in what the White House billed as a strategy session. All senators attending were supporting the bill, and the group included No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas and No. 3 leader John Thune of South Dakota.

Conservative support for the legislation has hinged in part on the measure's planned $772 billion in 10-year cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, disabled and nursing home patients.

The senate was waiting for the return of Sen. John McCain before it voted. Sen. McCain has been hospitalized following the removal of a blood clot from inside his skull

But only $35 billion of those cuts occur over the next two years; more than half don't take effect until 2024, 2025 and 2026, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

In a written statement, McConnell defended the bill's Medicaid savings but did not deny he'd made the remarks to moderates, which were described last Thursday by The Washington Post. McConnell said capping Medicaid spending 'with a responsible growth rate that is sustainable for taxpayers is the most important long-term reform in the bill. That is why it has been in each draft we have released.'

Much of the savings would come from limiting each state's federal Medicaid payments to a fixed amount per beneficiary, which would then grow annually to reflect a measure of inflation. Since its inception in 1965, the program has automatically paid states for a share of their eligible Medicaid expenses, whatever the total amount.

With the vote postponed, foes from left and right were trying to make the measure as politically toxic as possible for wavering GOP senators to support it. But the postponement also gave McConnell and the White House more time to cut the deals they need to rescue the imperiled measure.

'The only way we'll get there is with continued hard work, and that's just what we intend to do,' McConnell said, signaling that days of bargaining and persuasion with reluctant colleagues lay ahead.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn had been holding meetings with voting Republicans on Monday in anticipation of the vote next week

AARP was continuing TV and radio ads aimed at undecided Republican senators in five states, warning, 'Your family's coverage could be taken away altogether.' Planned Parenthood, labor and liberal groups were holding rallies outside the Capitol. And the conservative Americans for Prosperity was urging members to pressure GOP senators to strengthen a bill that the group's president, Tim Phillips, says doesn't go 'anywhere near far enough' to repeal Obama's health care law.

From the other side, Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said the GOP needs to prove that 'we can tackle tough issues.' The conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition announced its support for a bill that its chairman, Ralph Reed, called 'a giant step forward.'

On balance, the delay seemed to put McConnell in the tougher spot. In Washington, conventional wisdom dictates that a controversial bill awaiting a vote and under attack from opponents resembles a rotten egg sitting in the sun - the longer it sits, the worse things get.

Underscoring that, the AARP ads targeted five moderate, uncommitted Republicans from states that would be hit hard by the GOP bill's cuts in Medicaid.

They were Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Colorado's Cory Gardner, Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Dean Heller of Nevada, perhaps the most vulnerable GOP senator in next year's elections.