After meeting GOP senators, Trump predicts ‘phenomenal’ health care bill will pass

President Donald Trump predicted Tuesday that Senate Republicans will pass “a phenomenal” health care bill for Americans but slammed their Democratic counterparts for obstruction.

Trump met with 15 GOP senators on Tuesday at the White House to discuss “the urgent need to repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare,” he told reporters.


“It was just announced yesterday that 2 million people have dropped out of Obamacare,” Trump said. “Two million additional. They are leaving fast.”

His rhetoric mirrored a Tuesday morning tweet in which the president urged people to resist “obstructionist Democrats” after news broke that the number of Americans insured under Obamacare fell by 2 million between Jan. 31 and mid-March.

“2 million more people just dropped out of ObamaCare,” the president tweeted. “It is in a death spiral. Obstructionist Democrats gave up, have no answer = resist!”

Trump told reporters later Tuesday that “Obamacare has been broken, and it’s been a broken promise.” He cited premium increases in North Carolina, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Alaska and said Americans were lied to when they were told they could keep their doctors and that their premiums would come down.

“The House has passed a bill and now the Senate is working very, very hard, and specifically the folks in this room — and I really appreciate what you’re doing to come out with a bill that’s going to be a phenomenal bill for the people of our country,” Trump said. “Generous, kind, with heart. That’s what I’m saying. And that may be adding additional money into it.”

Republicans, the president continued, are “gonna come out with a real bill, not Obamacare. And the results are going to be fantastic, and hopefully it will be announced at the appropriate time and everyone’s gonna be happy.”

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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that under the House plan, 23 million more Americans would be uninsured over a decade. And while Republican senators have started from scratch on their own bill, they have come under fire for privately advancing legislation through the chamber without public hearings. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted Tuesday that Senate Republicans “are trying to hide their monstrous #Trumpcare bill,” and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused his Senate colleagues of “trying to sneak a major bill through Congress.”

Trump, however, saw differently. “By contrast, Republicans in Congress, as hard as they’re working, you have the Democrats on the other side who truly have become obstructionists,” he said.

Trump added that the Democrats’ mantra in the Trump era — resist — is “a pretty accurate motto.” “Every time I see it I say: ‘That’s right. That does represent the Democrats,’” he quipped. “And it’s very unfortunate.”

Much like he did in public remarks on Monday, Trump lamented that “if we came up with the greatest health care or tax cut ever in our country’s history, we wouldn’t get one Democrat vote.”